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Pope Leo XIV on Sun­day re­ject­ed claims that God jus­ti­fies war and prayed es­pe­cial­ly for Chris­tians in the Mid­dle East dur­ing a Palm Sun­day Mass be­fore tens of thou­sands of peo­ple in St. Pe­ter’s Square.

With the U.S.-Is­raeli war on Iran en­ter­ing its sec­ond month and Rus­sia’s on­go­ing cam­paign in Ukraine, Leo ded­i­cat­ed his Palm Sun­day homi­ly to in­sist that God is the “king of peace” who re­jects vi­o­lence and com­forts those who are op­pressed.

“Broth­ers and sis­ters, this is our God: Je­sus, King of Peace, who re­jects war, whom no one can use to jus­ti­fy war,” Leo said. “He does not lis­ten to the prayers of those who wage war, but re­jects them.”