After the angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV expressed his deep concern about the growing tension in the Middle East, with special attention to the situation in Iran. “Alarming news arrives from the Middle East, especially from Iran,” warned the pontiff at the beginning of his message.
Their statements arrive shortly after the first American bombings occur this weekend to several Iranian nuclear facilities, after more than 45 years of containment in the tense relations between Washington and Tehran.
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The attacks have aggravated the conflict between Israel and Iran. In fact, the Pope framed these events within the broadest context of conflicts in the region: “In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the risk of the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and in the other territories, is forgotten, where the urgency of adequate humanitarian support becomes increasingly pressing.”
Leo XIV renewed his call to put an end to the conflict by stressing that “today more than ever, humanity screams and invokes peace.” This clamor, he said, “is a cry that demands responsibility and reason, and should not be suffocated by the rumble of weapons or by rhetorical words that incite the conflict.”
In that context, the Holy Father claimed the active commitment of all international actors: “Each member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of the war before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
Firmly, he recalled that “there are no distant conflicts when human dignity is at stake.” He added: “War does not solve problems, on the contrary, it amplifies them and produces deep injuries in the history of the peoples, which take generations to heal.”
The Pope also evoked the most heartbreaking human consequences of violence: “No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children and the stolen future.”
Finally, he renewed his call to diplomacy and commitment to peace: “That diplomacy silence arms, that nations trace their future with peace works, not with violence and bloody conflicts.”
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.