‘Never again war!' Pope Leo calls for peace in Ukraine and Gaza in first Vatican address since his election
Pope Leo XIV stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to thunderous applause and an electric atmosphere, to deliver his first Sunday blessing and an address calling for peace in Ukraine and Gaza.
The last time he stood on the same velvet-draped ledge, the fragrant scent of white smoke was still hanging in the air and looks of shock permeated the crowd. Just days ago, the election of a US-born pope seemed almost impossible.
But those gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday knew exactly what to expect – a pontiff who was born in Chicago, shaped in Peru and well-experienced in Vatican leadership.
'Let us take up the invitation that Pope Francis left us in his Message for today: the invitation to welcome and accompany young people,' Leo said Sunday from the balcony, speaking in fluent Italian. 'And let us ask our heavenly Father to assist us in living in service to one another.'
'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!,' he said.
Pope Leo called for an 'authentic and lasting peace' in Ukraine, as well as a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. He also called for humanitarian aid to be provided 'to the exhausted population' in Gaza.
'I welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and I hope that through negotiations we can reach a lasting agreement,' he added.
He told the crowd he was there to deliver a 'message of peace' and led the faithful in the Regina Caeli ('Queen of Heaven') prayer for the first time, surprising those gathered by singing the prayer.
The prayer is one of four Marian antiphons, or prayers to the Virgin Mary, which is said throughout the Easter season.
The city of Rome said 150,000 people were expected to gather in St. Peter's Square for the prayer and significant law enforcement resources are deployed, but an official estimate of the crowd has yet to be announced.
The square was booming with music ahead of Leo's address, as hundreds of musicians from around the world marched into St. Peter's Square for a Jubilee of Bands, playing classic songs from their home countries and even pop songs like Village People's 1978 hit 'YMCA.'
As he finished his address, loud shouts of 'viva il papa,' or 'long live the pope,' were heard among the tens of thousands of people. Flags from across the globe, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, dotted the crowd.
Pope Leo is indicated on Saturday that his papacy will follow closely in the footsteps of the late Pope Francis, setting out a vision for a church led be a missionary focus, courageous dialogue with the contemporary world and 'loving care for the least and the rejected.'
Leo is expected to lean in a more progressive way on social issues like migration and poverty but fall more in line with moderates on moral issues of Catholic doctrine.
In his first meeting with cardinals on Saturday, the new pontiff said that he chose his papal name to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed 'the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.' Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903, had a strong emphasis on workers' rights and Catholic social doctrine.
Leo XIV also used his first weekend as pontiff to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, where he prayed at the tomb of Francis.
He also traveled to an Augustinian sanctuary just outside Rome, the Madonna del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel), in Genazzano, Italy.
Leo is the first pontiff from the Augustinian order, which places an emphasis on service work and building community. He spent more than a decade leading the Augustinians as the prior general, giving him experience of heading an order spread across the world.
Even larger crowds are expected to fill St. Peter's Square during Pope Leo's installation Mass, which will take place on Sunday, May 18.
CNN's Sharon Braithwaite and Christopher Lamb contributed to this report.
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How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. 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Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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Despite aid entering the strip, Basheer says that prices are still rising, with people paying up to $20 for a kilo of flour. 'There is not enough coming in to replace what we are buying, people are dying to get a bag of flour,' he says. Read more: $25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza He also described that people who successfully get into the aid hubs can take as much as they want, with aid not distributed equally among those waiting. 'From where I am, you have to walk 20 kilometers there and back, carrying food. Just the strongest and fastest can get there,' he explains. Jehad Miri, a journalist from Tel al-Hawa in Gaza City who has been displaced over a dozen times, says that despite having not eaten properly for weeks, he has not gone to the GHF aid sites. 'Going to those aid centers feels like walking into death,' he told TIME from Deir al-Balah. 'Just two days ago, a close friend of mine was killed. 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But Miri explains: 'In Gaza, Eid doesn't feel like Eid anymore.' Basheer agrees, saying: 'It was a custom to get new clothes, new food before Eid. Now you cannot find anything. There is no joy, there is no celebration for this Eid. Every day there is lots of killing, you don't know if you will be alive.' Contact us at letters@
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How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
