In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
“I am deeply pained by what is happening,” Leo said in his first Sunday blessing as pontiff
Pope Leo XIV delivers the Regina Caeli prayer from the main central loggia of St Peter’s basilica on on May 11, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Pope Leo XIV spoke directly about Gaza in his first Sunday address since being elected on Thursday, marking his first public comments as pope about the 19-month-old war between Israel and Hamas there.
“I am deeply pained by what is happening in the Gaza strip,” he said, according to translations of the speech, delivered in Italian at the Vatican. “May a ceasefire immediately come into effect. May humanitarian aid be allowed into the civilian population and may all hostages be freed.”
He also decried the war in Ukraine and praised the ceasefire, announced Saturday, in a conflict between India and Pakistan.
The speech — in which Leo proclaimed, “Never again war!” — and other moves by the new pope are being closely watched by supporters of Israel, many of whom felt alienated by Pope Francis’ response to the war in Gaza.
Francis also called for the release of the hostages, whom Hamas abducted from Israel, in his frequent calls for a ceasefire. But he also suggested that Israel could be guilty of “genocide” in Gaza and attended the inauguration of a nativity scene at the Vatican that positioned baby Jesus on a keffiyeh, or Palestinian scarf; last week, the Vatican announced that he had willed his popemobile to the children of Gaza.
On Thursday, after Leo called for peace in his first public address as pope without mentioning Gaza, Rabbi Noam Marans, the American Jewish Committee’s director of interreligious and intergroup relations, emphasized that such calls are standard fare from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. “All popes want peace,” he said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
