What happened
Pope Leo XIV delivered his first Easter Urbi et Orbi blessing and message from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on 5 April, addressing more than 50,000 people gathered in the square below. Elected in 2025, Leo XIV is the first American to hold the papacy.
“Let those who have weapons lay them down,” the pope said. He called on those “who have the power to unleash wars” to “choose peace — not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue.”
Why it matters: the message came five weeks into the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, and the pope’s emphasis on dialogue over force was widely interpreted as directed at the American administration.
The message
Leo XIV addressed what he called the world’s growing indifference to suffering. “We are becoming indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people and to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow,” he said, according to NBC News.
He spoke of “the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.”
The pope announced a special prayer vigil for peace to be held in St Peter’s Square on Saturday, 11 April.
Context
The Vatican has stepped up diplomatic pressure since the Iran conflict began. Leo XIV’s predecessor, Pope Francis, repeatedly called for restraint in the Middle East. As the first American pope, Leo XIV’s words carry particular weight in Washington.
His announcement of a dedicated peace vigil signals an escalation of the Vatican’s public advocacy. The vigil coincides with the period when the US and Iran are engaged in indirect negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz.