Pope Leo XIV to Mideast belligerents: ‘Cease fire!’
Pope Leo XIV renewed his call for immediate ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday, as the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon continued into their third week.
“For two weeks now,” Pope Leo said, the peoples of the Middle East have been suffering the horrific violence of war.”
“Thousands of innocent people have been killed,” the pontiff said, “and countless others have been forced to flee their homes.”
“May paths of dialogue be reopened,” the pope said in remarks to the faithful gathered for the Angelus on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. “Violence,” he said, “can never lead to the justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting.”
Leo renewed his “prayerful closeness to all who have lost loved ones in the attacks, which have struck schools, hospitals and residential areas.”
A strike on an Iranian girls’ school that left at least 175 people – most of them children – has been a particular focus of attention, with results of a preliminary investigation indicating the U.S. was responsible for the attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he believes the Iranians themselves were responsible, but news media reported last week that U.S. investigators found outdated targeting data may have played a role in the deadly February 28 incident.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth – who has been criticized for slashing Pentagon offices tasked with minimizing civilian risk – announced he has ordered a formal probe into the strike.
Pope Leo XIV also decried the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Lebanon, where Israel has been conducting intense operations since Iran-backed Hezbollah militants attacked Israeli targets at the beginning of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.
Israel had been attacking Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon on a fairly regular basis for months, despite a ceasefire agreement nominally in place since November 2024.
As part of the 2024 truce, the Lebanese government undertook to tamp down on Hezbollah activity in the south, but Israel remained frustrated with the Lebanese government’s lack of success in pursuing those undertakings.
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On Saturday, Israeli ground forces stepped up operations in southern Lebanon and intensified artillery fire in support of their operators, as more armor and armored personnel carriers made their way to the Israeli border with Lebanon.
Israeli Defense Forces officials have said they have killed roughly 400 Hezbollah operatives in recent months, about a quarter of them operators the IDF believes to have been part of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighting force.
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“The situation in Lebanon is a cause for great concern,” the pontiff said, adding expression of his “hope that avenues for dialogue will emerge to support the country’s authorities in implementing lasting solutions to the serious crisis currently unfolding, for the common good of all the Lebanese people.”
“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East,” Pope Leo XIV said, “and of all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: cease fire!”