A flag from the United States waves in the crowd as Pope Leo XIV appears at the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first Sunday blessing after his election, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
(NewsNation) — In his first Sunday blessing since being elected to the pontificate, Pope Leo XIV called for peace and ceasefires in Gaza and Ukraine.
“I, too, address the world’s great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘never again war,’” Leo said from St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City Sunday.
More than 100,000 people attended.
The new pontiff, born Robert Prevost from Chicago, succeeded Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday.
Pope Leo XIV delivers his blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first Sunday blessing after his election, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)Faithful and well-wishers crowd St. Peter’s Square as Pope Leo XIV appears at the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first Sunday blessing after his election, at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)Pope Leo XIV speaks from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica from where he delivered his first Sunday blessing since his election to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the traditional Regina Caeli prayer at noon, on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)Faithful from Chiclayo, Peru, wave flags and react as Pope Leo XIV appears at the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first Sunday blessing after his election, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)Pope Leo XIV appears at the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first Sunday blessing after his election, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)Notre Dame’s architecture college student Wesley Buonerba, wearing a us flag bandanna, does a watercolor sketch of the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica during Pope Leo XIV first Sunday blessing of faithful gathered in the square for the traditional blessing, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto)
