The first public address of Pope Leo

Pope Leo XIV, during his first Regina Coeli, on the Good Shepherd Sunday and the day of prayer for vocations, tells young people: “Do not be afraid” to accept the proposal from the Church!

And days after the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Pope Leo XIV repeats, “No more war!” He called for an authentic, true and lasting peace in Ukraine, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be allowed in and all Israeli hostages freed.

Why be called Leo?

“I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labour…” (Address to Cardinals, May 10, 2025)