Vatican City, Sep 21, 2025 / 10:34 am (CNA).
Those who really love the people living on the Gaza Strip will work to achieve peace in the Holy Land, Pope Leo XIV said on Sunday in his Angelus message.
The pontiff expressed his closeness to all those “suffering in that tormented land,” after leading the Marian prayer from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square Sept. 21.
Leo also thanked the Catholic associations who are helping the people of the Gaza Strip: “Together with you and with the pastors of the Churches in the Holy Land, I repeat: there is no future based on violence, forced exile, or revenge. The people need peace; those who truly love them work for peace,” he said.
Sunday Angelus
In his message before the Angelus, which he leads weekly on Sundays, Pope Leo reflected on the use of material goods, and “how we administer the most previous good of all, our very life.”
In a parable in the Gospel of Luke, a steward who has only sought his own profit must give a report to his master of how he has managed his master’s property.
The Holy Father explained that, like the steward in the parable, “we are not the masters of our lives or of the goods we enjoy; everything has been given to us as a gift by the Lord, who has entrusted this to our care, our freedom, and our responsibility.”
“One day,” he continued, “we will be called to give an account of how we have managed ourselves, our possessions and the earth’s resources — before both God and humankind, before society, and especially before those who will come after us.”
In the parable, the steward realizes his mistake, so before he loses his job, he renounces the part of people’s debts that would go to him — giving up the profit, but gaining friendships instead.
“The parable invites us to ask ourselves: how are we managing the material goods, the resources of the earth and our very lives that God has entrusted to us?” Leo said.
We can choose selfishness, putting wealth and ourselves before all else, becoming isolated and spreading “the poison of competition,” he said, or “we can recognize everything we have as a gift from God, to be managed and used as an instrument for sharing — to create networks of friendship and solidarity, to work for the common good, and to build a world that is more just, equitable and fraternal.”
Mass at the Parish Church of St. Anne in the Vatican
In the morning, Pope Leo celebrated a Mass at the Parish Church of St. Anne in the Vatican, which, he pointed out in his homily, is in a special location “on the border” of the Vatican.
“Almost all those entering and leaving Vatican City pass by St. Anne’s,” he said. “Some pass for work, some as guests or pilgrims, some in a hurry, some with trepidation or serenity. May everyone experience that here are doors and hearts open to prayer, to listening, and to charity.”
He pointed out that the Gospel of the Day challenges us to examine our relationship with the Lord and with others.
“Jesus presents a stark alternative between God and wealth, asking us to take a clear and consistent position,” he said, because, “’No servant can serve two masters,’ therefore ‘you cannot serve both God and wealth.’”
“This is not a contingent choice,” Leo underlined. “We need to decide on a true lifestyle. It’s about choosing where to place our heart, clarifying whom we sincerely love, whom we serve with dedication, and what is truly our good.”
The pope also spoke about nations and wealth, and said, “the Church prays that leaders of nations may be freed from the temptation to use wealth against humanity, transforming it into weapons that destroy peoples and monopolies that humiliate workers.”
“Those who serve God become free from wealth, but those who serve wealth remain its slaves,” the Holy Father emphasized. “Those who seek justice transform wealth into the common good; those who seek domination transform the common good into the prey of their own greed.
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“Those who really love the people living on the Gaza Strip will work to achieve peace in the Holy Land, Pope Leo XIV said on Sunday in his Angelus message.”
Wrong. Those who truly love them will work to convert them to Christ.
One need not exclude the other: both and.
Converting folks to Christ brings the peace that is so richly desired. It is doubtful peace can be obtained any other way.
So how is honoring the Gospel “exclusive” rather than the precise opposite?
Peace comes when Hamas surrenders. If every Palestinian laid down their arms and vowed never to fight again, there would be lasting peace immediately. If every Israeli laid down their arms and vowed never to fight again, the nation of Israel would be overrun tomorrow and the Jewish people would be gone in a decade. The reason there is no peace is because the Palestinian people do not want peace. They are happy to sacrifice the lives of their fellows to cultivate international opprobrium um for Israel. So while calling for peace, Holiness, direct your entreaty first to the people of Gaza.
Yes, Mr. Ryder. We are waiting for this Pope to speak in favor of the Christians oppressed in Egypt, China, India, and so many other countries and actually do something for them. Egypt recently took away from the Greek Orthodox Church a monastery that dates back well before the schism with the CC. Silence from the Pope. “In May 2025, an Egyptian court ruled that Saint Catherine’s Monastery, the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery located at the foot of Mount Sinai, lies on state land and the monastery is only entitled to use the land rather than own it.
Built around 550 AD by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the monastery has operated for nearly 1,500 years and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its outstanding universal value.” And let us not forget that, unfortunately, the majority of the Palestinians voted, in a free election, to have Hams as their government, though they knew well what its program was, as it was open knowledge.
Very good points Thomas Ryder. As St. Augustine said, peace is not just the absence of war, it is the tranquility of order.
Israel has been under constant rocket attack for years from Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as suicide bombers and gunmen from the West Bank. In the past they have given very short military responses. After the October 7th massacre they decided enough is enough – Hamas must be destroyed. The Hamas leaders said right after the massacre that there would be more October 7th’s, and also that they did not want a two state solution, only a one state solution – Islam river to the sea.
I do not see that the Vatican recognition of a Palestinian state, which does not even have the qualities of a traditional state, and always proposing a two state solution, which as I said the Muslim leaders do not even want, is at all helpful.
In Just War terms, I don’t see how anyone could question that Israeli had just reasons. If the Vatican has any ideas on ways to eliminate Hamas, which would have to be done given Hamas’ own statements on their goal to eliminate Israel, then let’s hear it.
Also, maybe the Vatican could say a word or two about the hostages taken by Hamas. Currently they claim 48 hostages left – 30 of whom are listed as dead. I don’t see how we should believe they died from natural causes.
Thank you Crusader. I’ve made similar points on other Catholic sites and endured lots of insults.
“If you spare the Wolf, you sacrifice the lamb”
How can our Holiness take the side of a people who openly admits that they wanna kill and enslave all non-muslims?
“Loving your neighbour” in no way means helping the thief and murder to commit his evil deeds or to give away your land to an enemy that will kill you, when will Christians in the west understand this?
Not as long as they remain committed to building their self-esteem identity by taking refuge in pretentions of superior enlightenment and compassion. Pride knows no bounds.
I lived among the Arab peoples for eight years, based in Abu Dhabi and working across the GCC and northern Africa. I came to admire their deep commitment to their faith and their practice of charity, and I even studied the Qur’an and the Hadith.
From this experience, I concluded that the safety of non-Muslims in an Islamic nation largely depends on the population’s religious fervor. When the majority are devout, the environment can become unsafe for non-Muslims, as we see in places like Nigeria where violence can result from demands for conversion. However, when the Muslim population is more moderate in its beliefs, peace is more easily maintained. The danger arises when a community falls under the influence of a particularly strict Imam.
When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I recognize that both sides are not without fault. However, having met with Palestinians who display maps on their walls where the state of Israel doesn’t exist, I understand why Israel has lived in a state of war since 1948. They are surrounded by nations that have sought their total destruction. I remain committed to the Holy Land and the state of Israel.
Thank you for sharing that Michael B.
I’m glad that Pope Leo condemned the “forced exile” agenda. This is a good dig at the Trump-Netanyahu plan to deport all Palestinians from Gaza (whether that is through death or displacement makes no difference to them) and turn the entire Gaza strip into some sort of vulgar beach resort/casino for the Israelis and their American sycophants.
It was Israel that granted Gaze as a homeland for Palestinians in the first place. Yet they preferred to become willing accomplices to a government of Islamic terrrorism.
Loving people ought to be a two way street.
Is it really necessary for our pontiffs to continue to stick their nose into war and politics and issues like immigration? I don’t think so, and like many Catholics I am tired of hearing their generally uninformed opinions on these subjects. Is the Pope even remotely aware about what happened to the Jews on October 7th? Murder, rape, kidnapping, and babies burned alive. The folks in Gaza made the decision to aid and abet the monsters who STARTED this war and did those deeds, and used their own people ( schools and hospitals) as shields. Now they reap the fruit of what they have sown. If the Pope wants me to feel sympathy for the Gazans, I suggest he not hold his breath. My support is with the Jewish people.
Someone (I forget who) commented: ‘”Nothing justifies October 7″ – but somehow October 7 justifies everything!’
Of course, that sentence makes no moral sense at all: the first part is true, the second utterly false.
Two wrongs don’t make a right even when the wrongs are equivalent – whereas here the atrocities committed by the Israelis since October 7 dwarf even the genuine (let alone the embroidered) Hamas atrocities of October 7.
Every time Israel wants to bomb another hospital, it spins the same lying tales about terrorists under the beds, but doctors with actual experience on the ground – including doctors volunteering from other countries – have repeatedly told us these tales are untrue. So who are we going to believe: selfless doctors who labour day and night to save Gazan children and other wounded or starving people – or the IDF with a vested interest in covering its own back?
If we have no empathy for Gaza’s desperate, distraught, dying population, brutalised by IDF war crimes recorded on IDF soldiers’ own phones, that says more about us than it does about them. For a British doctor testifying to deliberate sniper wounds to Gazan children, see here https://news.sky.com/story/almost-like-a-game-of-target-practice-british-surgeon-says-idf-shooting-gazans-at-aid-points-13401434.