Pope Leo XIV made an appeal for “one full day of peace throughout the world” in a Christmas address outside Castel Gandolfo in Rome — and criticized Russia for refusing a holiday cease-fire.
“I once again make this appeal to all people of good will: that, at least on the feast of the birth of the Savior, one day of peace may be respected,” the first American pontiff said Tuesday.
The pope then took questions from reporters, many of which centered around ongoing global conflicts including the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Truly, among the things that cause me great sadness in these days is the fact that Russia has apparently refused the request for a Christmas truce,” Leo said within hours of Russia striking several regions in Ukraine.
Leo then remarked on Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa’s recent “beautiful visit” to the Gaza Strip amid a tenuous cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
“They are trying to celebrate the feast in the midst of a situation that remains very precarious. Let us hope that the peace agreement will move forward.”
Leo, born Robert Prevost, was born in Chicago and made history when he became the first American pope last year following the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis.
Asked by reporters about his home state of Illinois recently passing a law that will allow physician-assisted suicide for certain terminal patients, Leo expressed disappointment.
He said he had discussed the bill in a meeting with Dem Gov. JB Pritzker, who signed the bill into law despite the pontiff’s consternation.
“We were very clear about the need to respect the sacredness of life, from beginning to end. And unfortunately … he decided to sign that bill. I am very disappointed by this,” the Pope said.
He encouraged people around the globe to “reflect on the nature of human life, on the value of human life,” during the Christmas season.
“God became human like us in order to show us what it truly means to live human life,” he said, adding that he was hoping and praying that “respect for life may grow once again at every moment of human existence, from conception to natural death.”
Pope Francis, who died of a stroke in April at the age of 88 after a lengthy battle with double pneumonia, offered a similar message during his final Christmas Day blessing from the Vatican last year.
In his address, which took place in a year in which Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration, Francis urged “people of all nations” to “silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions.”
Popes have called for peace during Christmas for hundreds of years, but the tradition was cemented in the modern era by Pope Benedict XV, who in 1914 as World War I raged in Europe, urged a temporary truce to honor the holiday.
An official truce failed to materialize, but that year some soldiers in the trenches on the Western Front took it upon themselves to temporarily stop fighting, even venturing into no man’s land to meet, exchange food and sing Christmas carols.
