What Pope Leo XIV said in first Sunday message –‘No more war’, ‘lasting peace’, hails India-Pakistan ceasefire

In his first Sunday message to crowds in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope Leo XIV has appealed to the world for "no more war".

He called for an "authentic and lasting peace" in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, and the release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group Hamas.

The new pope, elected on May 8, also welcomed the recent fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and said he was praying to God to grant the world the "miracle of peace."

Tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square and on the Via della Conciliazione broke into applause as the Pope made a call for peace in the world.

Repeating a frequent call of late Pope Francis - "No more war" - Leo also noted the recent 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in which some 60 million people were killed.

Today's world was living through "the dramatic scenario of a Third World War being fought piecemeal," the 69-year-old Chicago-born pope further commented.

Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine to end the three-year war, Leo appealed for negotiations to reach an "authentic, just and lasting peace".

He also said he carries in his heart the "suffering of the beloved people of Ukraine."

“Let everything possible be done to achieve genuine, just and lasting peace as soon as possible.”

Calling for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid restoration and release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas, Pope Leo XIV said he was "profoundly saddened" by the war in Gaza.

Leo further remarked he was glad to hear of the recent India-Pakistan ceasefire and hoped negotiations would lead to a lasting accord between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

"But there are so many other conflicts in the world," he added.

Mother’s Day

Pope Leo XIV also noted that Sunday was Mother’s Day in many countries and wished all mothers, “including those in heaven” a Happy Mother’s Day.

On Sunday, he also celebrated a private Mass near the tomb of St. Peter and prayed at the tombs of several past popes in the grottoes underneath the basilica. Vatican Media filmed him praying before a mix of more progressive and tradition-minded popes: Pope Paul VI, who closed out the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, and Popes Pius XII and Benedict XVI, on the more conservative end of the spectrum.

The pope celebrated the Mass with the head of his Augustinian order and his brother, John, in the pews. In his homily, he recalled that Sunday was also the day that the Catholic Church celebrates religious vocations, and noted that the issue of declining vocations had been raised by cardinals in their pre-conclave discussions before his election.

He was elected 267th pope on Thursday. He has a busy week of audiences before his formal installation Mass next Sunday.

Leo, the former Robert Prevost, spent most of his priestly life as a missionary then bishop in Peru, an experience he recalled on Thursday night in offering a special greeting to his former diocese in Chiclayo in Spanish.