Vatican Dispatch
by Gerard O’Connell
August 20, 2025
Pope Leo XIV talks to visitors during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Aug. 20, 2025. Credit: CNS photo/Lola Gomez
Deeply concerned at the ongoing wars and killing in the Holy Land and Ukraine and anxious for peace efforts to succeed, Pope Leo XIV has called on believers worldwide to observe this Friday, Aug. 22, the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Peace, as a special day of prayer and fasting for peace in the Holy Land, Ukraine and other regions of the world that are “wounded by wars.”
He issued his appeal at the end of his public audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, Aug. 20, as efforts are underway to bring a ceasefire in Gaza and broker a peace accord between Ukraine and Russia.
Addressing thousands of pilgrims from many countries, including the United States, gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope said that “Mary is the Mother of believers here on earth, and is also invoked as Queen of Peace, while our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world.”
“I invite all the faithful to devote the day of August 22 to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice, and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts. Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace,” the pope said
Earlier during the audience, he appealed to the Polish pilgrims present and those at the Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Góra in Poland “to include in your intentions the prayer for the gift of peace—unarmed and disarming—for the entire world, especially for Ukraine and the Middle East.”
Last Sunday, Aug. 17, following Donald J. Trump’s meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15 and on the eve of the U.S. president’s meeting the following day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, Pope Leo also called for prayers for peace while greeting 3,000 people at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
“Let us pray that efforts to bring wars to an end and to promote peace may bear fruit, and that in negotiations the common good of peoples may always be placed first,” he said without naming either Ukraine or Gaza.
Unlike Francis, who mentioned both Ukraine and Gaza by name in almost every speech, Pope Leo does so sometimes, though it is usually clear which countries or situations he is referring to, even if he does not name them. Significantly, however, since he became pope more than 100 days ago, he has spoken face-to-face with Ukrainian President Zelensky on two occasions and also met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. He has also spoken by phone with President Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; he has yet to speak with President Trump.
Yesterday evening, Aug. 19, before returning to the Vatican after almost a week’s vacation in Castel Gandolfo, journalists aside Leo about the negotiations under way to end the war in Ukraine that began when Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, 2022. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Pope Leo as saying: “There is hope, but we still need to work hard, pray hard and truly seek the way forward, to find peace.” ANSA also reported that he said the first hundred days of his pontificate “have been a blessing from God.”
Earlier on Tuesday morning, Pope Leo traveled 40 miles by car from Castel Gandolfo to the Mother of Grace shrine at Mentorella, south of Rome, and there “lit a candle of peace, imploring peace for the entire world and blessings for all,” according to Adam Dźwigoń, C.R., the Polish custodian of the Mentorella shrine. “His intention was to pray in silence, with gratitude, for peace and for the entire world,” Father Dźwigoń said.
While much of the focus since Aug. 15 has been on Ukraine and President Trump’s efforts to broker a peace accord, Leo has also kept a watchful eye on the efforts brokered by Egypt and Qatar with the help of the United States to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing and shooting and over 200 have died of starvation, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Pope Leo spoke out about this explicitly on May 18, the day of the inauguration of his Petrine ministry.
Before going to Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 13, Pope Leo greeted Hebrew-speaking pilgrims from the Holy Land. “We are 100 percent Israeli and 100 percent Catholics, and we pray for peace,” Abi, one of the pilgrims, told Vatican Media. The pope spoke to them and blessed them.
As the pope spoke today, ANSA reported that 80 Orthodox rabbis have issued “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis.” The call, according to Rabbi David Rosen, one of the signatories, demands that Israel confront the widespread starvation in Gaza and denounce extremist settler violence. ANSA said he sent the letter to the Vatican office responsible for dialogue with Judaism.
The Times of Israel reports that these Orthodox rabbis write, “Hamas’s sins and crimes do not relieve the government of Israel of its obligations to make whatever efforts are necessary to prevent mass starvation.”
It said the rabbis “also lament the ascendance of extremist voices in Israel, the hardening of sentiments about Palestinians, and the explosion of settler violence in the West Bank.” The rabbis add, “The justified anger toward Hamas has dangerously expanded by some extremists into blanket suspicion of the entire population of Gaza—children included—tarnished as future terrorists,” while in the West Bank “extremist settler violence has resulted in the murder of civilians and has forced Palestinian villagers from their homes, further destabilizing the region.”
Among the well-known rabbis who signed the letter are Rabbi Yosef Blau, the spiritual supervisor at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary from 1977 to 2025, and the former president of the Religious Zionists of America. Other signatories include Rabbi Pinchas Giller, and the chief rabbis of Poland, Denmark and Norway, the senior rabbis of prominent Orthodox congregations in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and the former chief rabbi of Ireland, David Rosen.
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