“Never again war,” Pope Leo XIV exclaimed during his first Sunday address to an estimated 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The new pontiff called for an “authentic, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Leo, continuing in the advocacy of his predecessor, Pope Francis, advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Palestine and delivered “to the exhausted civilian population,” adding that “all hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza must be freed.
“In today’s dramatic scenario of a third world war being fought piecemeal, as Pope Francis said, I too turn to the world’s leaders with an ever timely appeal: never again war!” Leo—who in the past has critiqued President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on social media—told the crowd.
Leo’s message comes as Trump embarks this week on his first foreign trip of his second administration, with a tour of the Middle East. The president is expected to focus his trip to the region on business deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. While Trump isn’t currently expected to visit Israel, much of his trip is poised to be about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued war in Palestine and the United States’ involvement. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth canceled his trip to Israel, slated for Monday, to join Trump on Air Force One, according to reporting from Axios based on three Israeli and US officials.
A United Nations special committee accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” on Friday and held that it was inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on Palestinians, and warned that the world could be witnessing “another Nakba,” or the expulsion of Palestinians from their land through violent means.
Over a 24-hour period, at least 23 Palestinians were killed and 124 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, according to reporting from Al Jazeera based on numbers from the local Ministry of Health.
Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza come as humanitarian aid and supplies have not entered the area for over nine weeks, per the UN. “This is having a devastating impact on the population,” a UNRWA Situation Report reads, “particularly on vulnerable groups including children, women, and the elderly.” Over 60,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military operations in Palestine since October 2023, and more than 111,000 injured, according to Al Jazeera—though the total number of casualties is expected to be much larger.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu announced an escalation plan to increase Israeli military presence in the already besieged Gaza Strip, furthering an offensive that Amnesty International found to be a “genocide against Palestinians” in December of last year.
In January, before his second inauguration, Trump lauded—and took credit for—the Gaza ceasefire deal reached with former president Joe Biden’s administration, which would be short-lived. Then, in February, Trump posted an AI-generated video of an imagined future Gaza—with skyscrapers, belly-dancers, Teslas driving through the streets, a child holding a gold Trump balloon, a golden Trump statue, and Trump and Netanyahu poolside and topless with cocktails. The president has also used “Palestinian” as an insult multiple times.
In his first term, Trump dropped the US commitment to a two-state solution, saying he would back a single-state solution, relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, cut hundreds of millions of dollars in planned funding toward Palestinian aid programs, and closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Washington.
The Trump administration’s position on Gaza has faced stern backlash from the Vatican and the late Pope Francis, who, in his final year, called the Argentine parish priest at Holy Family Church in Gaza City almost every evening. In February, a top Vatican official rejected Trump’s proposal to remove Palestinians from their home, saying “the Palestinian population must remain on its land.”
“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin reportedly said on the sidelines of an Italy-Vatican meeting.
The new pope followed in Francis’ footsteps on Sunday, telling the faithful that the war in Gaza leaves him “profoundly saddened.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
-
How an Orgasmic Meditation Group Sparked a Troubled Federal Case
-
Deconstructing Trump’s Elaborate Oval Office Makeover
-
Molly Jong-Fast Reflects on Her Mother’s Dementia and the Fleeting Nature of Fame
-
Rita Hayworth’s Heartbreaking Vanishing Act
-
Meet Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the First American Pope
-
Revisit All the Fashion, Outfits, and Looks From the 2025 Met Gala Red Carpet
-
The Dystopian Coming-of-Age Story Stephen King Considered Too “Merciless” to Film
-
Wes Anderson’s Next Breakout Star Just So Happens to Be Kate Winslet’s Daughter
-
All of Quentin Tarantino’s Movies Ranked
-
Elon Musk’s 14 Children and Their Mothers (That We Know Of)
-
From the Archive: Princess Margaret’s Not So Happily-Ever-After
The post Pope Leo Calls For Peace and Aid in Gaza As Trump Sets Off To the Middle East appeared first on Vanity Fair.
