Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer at the Vatican on Sunday. Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Pope Leo XIV expressed “deep concern” about Iran and the wider Middle East, calling for an end to “the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
Speaking to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square after the Vatican’s Sunday Angelus prayer, the pontiff said that “stability and peace cannot be built through mutual threats or weapons, which sow destruction, pain and death, but only through reasonable, authentic and responsible dialogue.”
Pope Leo added that he has appealed to the parties involved to cease the violence, warning of the “possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions.”