Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade of aid on Sunday in his first Sunday blessing since being elected pontiff last week.
“I am deeply pained by what is happening [in Gaza,” Leo said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. “Let the fighting cease immediately, let humanitarian aid be provided to the exhausted civilian population, and may all hostages be released.”
The pope also called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying, “I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. Let everything possible be done to achieve genuine, just and lasting peace as soon as possible.”
Leo, the first US-born pontiff, welcomed the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and made an appeal to world leaders for peace and an end to war. “In today’s dramatic context of a third world war fought piecemeal … I too appeal to the powerful of the world by repeating these ever-relevant words: ‘never again war!'” he said.
The pope made the remarks after singing the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) prayer, which is recited throughout the Easter season. He closed his address with a “heartfelt appeal” to Mary Queen of Peace, “so that she may present it to the Lord Jesus and obtain for us the miracle of peace.”
Leo’s comments signal he will continue the late Pope Francis’s emphasis on the issues of war and peace. Francis frequently called for peace in Gaza and was highly critical of Israel’s conduct, suggesting in his last book that there should be an investigation into whether it constitutes genocide.
Francis also kept in close contact with the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, often holding nightly calls with the priest and parishioners. His final call with the church occurred on April 19, just two days before his death.
Francis called for a ceasefire in Gaza in his last public address, which was delivered by an aide the day before his death. “I think of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation,” he said. “I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages, and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace!”
Borrell: Israel is Committing Genocide in Gaza with Weapons Supplied by Europe
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and condemned the EU for failing to use its leverage to stop the atrocities.
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has harshly criticized Israel, stating that its government of committing genocide in Gaza and orchestrating “the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War,” The Guardian reported on Saturday.
Speaking at an award ceremony in Spain, Borrell also criticized Europe’s failure to hold Israel accountable, arguing that the EU has both the means and the responsibility to influence Israel’s conduct.
Borrell made the remarks on Friday as he accepted the prestigious Charles V European Award in Yuste, southwestern Spain. His audience included Spanish King Felipe VI and a host of European dignitaries.
“We’re facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tonnes of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,” Borrell said.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/borrell-israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza-with-weapons-supplied-by-europe/
https://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/israel/diplomatie-defense/artc-l-ancien-chef-de-la-diplomatie-europeenne-josep-borrell-accuse-israel-de-genocide-a-gaza
"Borrell also criticized Europe’s failure to hold Israel accountable, arguing that the EU has both the means and the responsibility to influence Israel’s conduct."
Of course this is critical – w/Norway's trade union action one good step…
Norwegian TUC votes by overwhelming majority to boycott Israel
88% of delegates in union representing a fifth of Norway’s population support immediate boycott, divestment and embargo
On Saturday, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) cast a historic and overwhelming vote for a comprehensive boycott of Israel, with a huge 88% of delegates voting in favour of the motion.
The boycott covers trade, investments, culture, sports and academic ties. The resolution demands:
a complete ban on trade and investment with Israeli companies and entities
a boycott of cultural, sports and academic institutions in, or linked to, Israel
immediate and complete divestment by Norway’s $1.8 trillion ‘Oil Fund’ from any company complicit in Israel’s occupation
But the Norwegian boycott move is not the end of the development: if Israel’s occupation does not end by September this year, LO is demanding that Norway lead a global economic boycott – and remarkably, Norway’s government is complaining about what it describes as a “one-sided boycott”, but saying it will not interfere:
It’s not up to the government to decide what free academic or cultural institutions believe.
Norway seems to have a considerably more genuine democracy than the UK or US.
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/05/11/norwegian-tuc-votes-by-overwhelming-majority-to-boycott-israel/
wait and see…?!
Guaranteed path to the lake of fire. “Whoever blesses Israel, will be blessed. Whoever curses Israel will be cursed.” I smell a bunch of globalist demons in Norway. It’s hard to kill a Norway rat. I have them in my barn by the hundreds.
sophia ponders @sophiaponders
May 10
Oliver Elias – the cousin of Anne Frank- speaks out for #Gaza. No to #GazaGenocide
sophia ponders • @sophiaponders
May 10
Oliver Elias is the son of Buddy Elias, who was Anne Frank's 1st cousin. Buddy Elias was also last surviving close relative of Anne Frank. Oliver, along w/mother Gerti Wiedner&family members, is working to preserve Elias-Frank House, a home w/significant history for the family.
sophia ponders @sophiaponders
May 10
& OH MY GOSH- their house has been under attack with the threat of being sold! I wonder by WHOM?
https://www.eliasfrankhaus.org/en/yesterday
https://x.com/sophiaponders/status/1921195112115077192
You’re a fool. God has destroyed other civilizations before, and will do so again. Chances are if Israel is doing it, it’s legit in God’s eyes. There is a time for war, and a time for peace. You elect fleas, you get fleas. Gaza is still doing it.
You are a bigot, so well named and blocked.
“Chances are if Israel is doing it, it’s legit in God’s eyes.”
The Bible tends to say otherwise, marking out eras in which Israel defied/abandoned that God multiple times and paid a price (exile, enslavement, etc.) for doing so.
I repeat: “Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed.” Israel is God’s chosen people, hands off. Since they are not yet in Christ, they still sin, but in the end God will bring them to repentance. We all must hold out for that hope.
“Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed” implies nothing about whether Israel is right or wrong, or whether Israel will be rewarded or punished by God. It only addresses people who aren’t Israel.
As for religion, the religion taught by Jesus was called “Judaism.”
He worked within the system for a while but Jesus was clearly dismantling Judaism. After he tore into their traditions and actual practices, there was nothing left of Judaism. HE replaced their sacrificial system with Himself, along with their priests.
Paul replaced their sacrificial system with a paganized Greco-Roman version of Jesus.
Right up to the point where He eliminated the Animal sacrifices and replaced them with His own, then split the Holy of HOlies curtain to allow direct access to God by all, and not through priests, basically nuking Judaism.
When God tells me to bless Israel, I tend to listen. Can’t tell where you stand on anything. Godless chatter to us.
Animal sacrifices continued for another 37 years or so after Jesus’ death. That would be the same Jesus who said that not one jot or tittle of the law would be changed until heaven and earth end.
The sources for the claim that the temple curtain was rent are the gospels, written decades after his death. The Jewish history of the period mentions no such event.
You sound like you were there. Is this Lucifer? I”m not allowed to talk to demons. Nor are you allowed to speak to the Redeemed. It would have never worked between us anyway. You know, you being all pompous and arrogant and frankly, the horns are a turn off.
If I’m not allowed to speek to the “Redeemed,” you’re clearly not among the “Redeemed,” because I’m speaking to you. Which, according to your belief system, answers the question as to whether I’m Lucifer.
I don’t have to be a demon to notice that you’re a pagan.
It's sure is a good start for the new Pope Leo…!
A good start would be for the Pope to visit Gaza now. Isn't that what Christ would do?
Wait, he just got elected. He worked among the poor in Peru in the midst of floods and poverty.
As a side note, I love how some Right-wing pundits refer to this Pope as "woke" – when the Vatican electing ANOTHER White Male as Pope is anything but.
I personally hoped they'd go with a black woman as pontiff – and she'd take the name "Pope Joan II".
While I don’t have strong opinions on the qualifications for pope (I’m not a Catholic, after all), I do find it odd that they can’t seem to throw in one from Africa every once in a while. They’ve got nearly 300 million Catholics there. Of course, they only just last time got around to Latin America, with more than 400 million. The US only has 60 million.
Trump threatened them with things they had never seen before. Or something like that.
The RCCult is apostate and doe not represent Christianity.
https://www.born-again-christian.info/roman-catholics.htm
God maintains His Kingdom with certain foundational principles. NO WOMEN in power over a man (see the Holy Bible) and
abortion is murder. So far the RCCult has been kept in check on these issues, but it won’t last as they continue to choose globalism over individual rights.
Well, Pope is not immortal…! Who's going to guaranty his life in Gaza…?! US…? The butcher of Gaza is notorious to eliminate leaders…!
Christ has nothing to do with the apostate RCCult.
MAGA is already having fits about the new pope. The comments on Newsmax were cruel, hateful and totally ignorant.
When MAGA starts attacking White American Men, you know their mental state has declined even further.
Particularly when J.D. Vance (Vance Refrigeration) is said to be affiliated with a Catholic subsect that believes The Vatican should once again have authority over the governments of other countries – the USA included.
…
More likely it is MAGA's Southern Baptist / Evangelical base railing against perceived potential power gains by the Roman Catholic Church in American politics. A goodly number on "Fundagelical" Christian sects in the Bible Belt openly view Catholicism as (at best) a cult and (at worst) an evil "Satanic" Mary-worshipping institution bent on destroying True Christianity©.
It doesn’t surprise me to see evangelical/Protestant/non-religious MAGA types railing against the new pope, the previous pope, or any pope.
What always surprises me, though it shouldn’t, is supposed Catholics on both left and right who immediately go berserk every time a pope they don’t like gets chosen. It’s like “screw apostolic succession and papal primacy if I’m not getting my away … but you should still pretend I’m a Catholic.”
I know folks caught up in the evangelical/charismatic stuff. Pretty weird. Pretty conservative. Pretty much in line with Trumpism.
That’s what I was brought up in, and very conservative versions at that (Pentecostal Church of God, later Assemblies of God). When I was a kid, women I went to church with wore long dresses and no makeup. That started to change when I was a teenager (I think maybe Tammie Faye Bakker had something to do with it). The churches were “pro-Israel,” anti-abortion, etc.
BUT! “Evangelical” doesn’t peg a church’s politics. All it refers to is the divine command to “spread the gospel,” i.e. seek converts. There are “left-wing” evangelical churches and evangelical churches that kinda sorta avoid politics as much as they can.
But then that’s one way in which evangelical Christianity differs from catholicism. There’s not really any central authority, pope, etc. In catholicism, papal primacy and apostolic succession are doctrine. If you don’t believe the pope is the authoritative successor to Peter, who was given the keys to heaven and earth (and the authority to bequeath them to others) by Jesus himself, you seem to me to be missing the point of that particular church’s claim.
Historically, Popes that wanted the indigenous population of Palestine exterminated just called a Crusade and words turned to action. A dozen or so times.
Would be amazing if this Pope called a Modern Crusade and demanded Catholics load up boats and planes with food and medicine and AGAIN invaded the Holy Land (this time to HELP Palestinians) and AGAIN with the Papal promise that any Crusader who dies is IMMEDIATELY going straight to their Heaven, all "sins" absolved (as promised with the old murder-happy Crusades of the Middle Ages).
If just 0.5% of the planet's Catholics answer the call, that's an Aid Army of FIVE MILLION swamping Gaza's shores and airspace with relief supplies.
The Diocese has the $$$$$ to pull it off.
Same demon, new pope. Francis’ demon just jumped ship when he died to this new imposter. Bring on the Rapture and Tribulation. Pray for Catholics to be saved through the Bible, not the RCCult’s apostate writings.
Come Lord Jesus.