The Holy Father presided over the Palm Sunday liturgical celebration in St. Peter’s Square, where he stated in his homily that “our God: Jesus, King of Peace” is “a God who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify it, who does not listen to the prayers of those who wage it.”

  Christ rejects the prayers of the warmongers, saying, “Even if they multiply their supplications, I will not listen to them; their hands are full of blood.” From the cross, he pleads with them, “Have mercy! Lay down your weapons, remember that you are brothers!” the Bishop of Rome stated, according to a press release from the Holy See.

  The homily of the leader of the Catholic Church was a powerful call for peace, highlighted a report published on the Vatican News website. The report notes that during the commemoration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the blessing of olive and palm branches, the Pope delivered deeply moving words.

  After the Gospel reading, silence fell over the forty thousand people gathered in St. Peter’s Square to witness the celebration, which this year takes place amidst a complex international climate marked by an increase in armed conflicts, the publication points out.

  In the wounds of Jesus, as Leo XIV said, “we see “The wounds of so many men and women today,” and “in his final cry to the Father, we hear the cry of the downtrodden, the hopeless, the sick, the lonely, and above all, we hear the cry of pain of all those oppressed by violence and all the victims of war.”

  At the end of Palm Sunday Mass, the Pope turned his thoughts to those who cannot celebrate these rites, as is the case in the Holy Land, given the climate of violence and the restrictions imposed precisely because of the war.

  “While the Church sees the mystery of the Lord’s Passion, we cannot forget those who today truly share in his suffering,” said Pope Leo XIV, and he asked that “we raise our prayers” for “the peoples wounded by war” so that “concrete paths of reconciliation and peace may be opened.”

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