Pope Leo XIV, the first American leader of the Catholic Church, previously known as Robert Francis Prevost, gave his first Sunday blessing as pope and called for peace in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and a ceasefire in Gaza.

The new pope, speaking to thousands in St. Peter’s Square, echoed themes that Francis, his predecessor, regularly addressed.

On his first Sunday appearance as pope, Leo XIV made a passionate appeal for peace and an end to the armed conflicts in the world, especially in Ukraine and Gaza, and cried out, “Never again war!”