Vatican City – Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for the end of the “heartbreaking” cost in his people, while presiding over his first general audience in the Plaza de San Pedro.
The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were present for the audience, which occurred a few days after an estimated 200,000 people attended the inaugural Mass on Sunday for the first American Pope in history.
Leo, former Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago, began the audience with a tour of La Piazza in Popemobile and stopped to bless several babies. When addressing specific greetings to different groups of pilgrims, Leo spoke in his native English, his Spanish fluid and the traditional Italian of the papacy.
“I renew my sincere attraction to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid to Gaza and end the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is being paid by children, the elderly and the sick people,” he said.
Leo did not mention the difficult situation of the hostages taken by Hamas during the assault south of Israel on October 7, 2023, as Pope Francis would normally do.
The general audience on Wednesday is a weekly appointment that the potatoes have maintained for decades to allow the common faithful to have a face to face with the pontiff. It has the Pope who offers a brief reflection on a subject or passage of the Scriptures, with summaries provided by others in different languages and the Pope who directs specific messages to particular groups of faith.
The meeting, which lasts more than an hour, usually ends with a brief current attraction of the Pope on a current subject or next event. Leo began with his mantra now “Peace be with you”.
To that end, Leo reaffirmed on Tuesday the will of the Vatican to organize the next round of high the fire conversations between Russia and Ukraine during a phone call with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said the office of the Italian leader.
Meloni made the call after talking to President Donald Trump and other European leaders, who asked him to verify the offer of the Holy See.
“Upon finding in the Holy Father the confirmation of the will to welcome the next conversations between the parties, the prime minister expressed a deep gratitude for the will of Pope Leo XIV and his incessant commitment in favor of peace,” Meloni’s office said in a statement on Tuesday night.
Trump had referred to the long offer of the Vatican to organize conversations when informing about his phone call on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While low -level conversations could take place in Rome, Italy would be difficult to allow Putin to fly to Rome for a higher level negotiation. Putin is subject to an international arrest warrant against him of the International Criminal Court, of which Italy is a founding member and, therefore, is obliged to execute its orders.
