By 
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday voiced dismay over ongoing conflicts around the world, saying the suffering of innocent victims “hurts all of humanity” and urging an end to hostilities grounded in dialogue and respect for human dignity.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many defenseless people who are victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts all of humanity,” the pope said after praying the Angelus on March 22.
“The death and pain caused by these wars is a scandal for the entire human family and a cry that rises to God,” he continued. “I strongly renew my appeal to persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths to peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person.”
Earlier, in his reflection before the Angelus, the pope focused on the Gospel account of the raising of Lazarus, describing it as a sign of Christ’s victory over death and the promise of eternal life received through baptism.
“The account of the resurrection of Lazarus, then, invites us to listen to this profound need and, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to free our hearts from habits, conditioning, and ways of thinking which, like boulders, shut us away in the tomb of selfishness, materialism, violence, and superficiality,” he said.
“In these places there is no life but only confusion, dissatisfaction, and loneliness.”
Quoting Jesus’ command in the Gospel — “Come out!” — the pope said Christ calls believers to emerge from such “cramped spaces,” renewed by his grace, and to “walk in the light of love, as new women and men, capable of hoping and loving, without calculation and without measure, according to the model of his infinite charity.”
He also warned that the world seems “to constantly search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things — time, energy, values, affections,” as though “fame, material goods, entertainment, and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal.”
“It is a symptom of a longing for the infinite that each of us carries within us, a need that cannot be satisfied by passing things,” he said. “Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God, and we find no peace until we rest in him.”
The pope concluded by entrusting the faithful to the Virgin Mary, praying that the experience of encountering the risen Christ may be renewed in them each day.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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#1. The Pope should be concentrating on how to help Catholics attain eternal life.
#2. The Pope should realize that Islam – led by Iran – DECLARED WAR against the West a long, long time ago. Some of us in the West are just now waking up to that fact. Islam wants to see Westetn Culture, including Christianity, wiped off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, Pachamama Popes can’t see through all the smoke they generate to see this.
How does Iran “lead Islam”? You realize we are defending Islamic countries in this conflict including those that have supported genocide against Christians?
If you’re triggered by popes decrying war, you probably need to log off for a bit. How dare the pope lament a conflict that has already resulted in 100+ schoolgirls get killed by an errant US missile strike
Jesus said that wars “must come.” All leading to deception, false peace. “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” –Catechism 675
Deacon: Didn’t you study Catholic Social Teaching in Deacon School?
Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood – Mahatma Gandhi
As there appears to be no intersection between The Islamic Revolutionary Regime running the police state over the Iranian people, and “the innocent,” it seems Mr. Ghandi’s quote is not apt.
The Islamic Revolutionary Regime agrees, and has reminded the world for some 50 years: “Death to America,” etc.
Please explain that to the Iranian regime, Dr.Coelho. It would save many lives.
Right. This is the same Ghandi whose every “non-violent” protest broke out into mob violence. Hardly a coincidence, and hardly someone who should be held up as an example.
Iran has been the largest instigator of terrorism for the last forty years. Countless diplomats and national leaders have attempted to negotiate with this rogue state to no avail. Terrorism has marched on and nations have wrung their hands in chagrin. Exactly what should the nations of the world do – any nation. Should any nation dare to strongly reprimand Iran? As for me and my house, we will not worry for one instant that any nation will finally attempt to cut the head off of the beast.
We will continue to support the people of Iran. They are loved and supported even as their national leaders murder them in the tens of thousands as they protest for change. May the war continue until the Iranian people are free.
Do I have this right?
The Pontiff Leo, who with his “vice-president” the Eminent Pietro Parolin, persists in maintaining a Secret Accord with the Homicidal Chinese Communist Party Regime, whereby their “co-accordists” decapitate the Body of Christ in China, and substitute Chairman Xi in place of Jesus, is calling on us all, including our “Vatican-betrayed” brethren in China, to “come out of cramped spaces” and “walk in the light of love.”
That’s “rich.”
Yep. You have it right. Except we might make note of the overall entropic moral sloth that currently passes for Catholic witness from Rome. Unless I missed it, I’m still waiting for a prominent prelate, anywhere, just one prelate, to publicly announce to the world that Catholics hold to the truth that raping a child is an intrisically evil thing to do.
At times with the first gush of victory papal admonitions appear the same old same all. That illusion of victory has passed, the U.S. now drawn into an increasing, complex spread of hostilities.
A visibly battered foe, most military assets presumed demolished, except for tenacity and hidden missile sites, retains a crushing grip on our most valuable, private assets. Oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
Netanyahu has played Pres Trump like a fiddle convincing him the decapitation of command would spell defeat for our common enemy. Israel has behaved excessively in Gaza and Lebanon to the detriment of Christians.
Now, perhaps, the usual papal appeals for negotiation and peace do not appear so naive. Our President is struggling for a resolution, a means to avoid a non ending war, the resumption of oil flow, the stability of world economies.
President Trump, his advisors require our prayers and support. If an administration that has achieved so much good loses its balance and falls, the Church and the world will suffer greatly because of it.
“Netanyahu has played Pres Trump like a fiddle convincing him the decapitation of command would spell defeat for our common enemy”
What a lot of CRAP!
Whether one is a fan of Donald Trump or not I think most of us understand that no one plays him like a fiddle.
Well, how about a viola de gamba?
Yes, wholeheartedly, especially to your last comment.
A dire situation today, but one added perspective might be this: how would things look in a few years, instead, if Iran’s cards included nuclear blackmail?
Peter Beaulieu. Although we’re in a difficult bind, unexpected since strategic forecasts: civilian rebellion, collapse of hierarchical structure, complete destruction of delivery systems didn’t occur, the resiliency of the Iranians, the effectiveness of their drones – I certainly hope we eventually meet the objective of at least pushing back, and to continually degrade their nuclear capability.
Since we had already destroyed their major nuclear development sites with the B-2 stealth bombings, there was only an alleged stockpile of uranium that we could have eventually detected and destroyed. The Strait had remained open. At the moment the decision to go all out hoping to topple the government has failed. Iran’s hold of the Strait of Hormuz has to be resolved. A major dilemma.
Given the vast cultural divide, the initial goal of eliminating a nuclear capability, the navy, and ballistic missile program was precise and coherent, before assuming a western style regime change in a non-western context.
About that context, what if what we’re dealing with is not radical Islam, but rather the absorbed Zoroastrian (and Persian) ingredient. Meaning that the world rejects the peace of cosmopolitan Islam because the fallen world is the doings of a second and evil deity, and not a sin “original”, instead, to ourselves (Islam rejects the Redemption because it does not recognize original sin). A small step, then, even in the 21st century to see the outside world and the west as Satan.
A bit of clumsiness for some clericalists and witless journalists to use interchangeably the term interreligious and interfaith.
To oppose this war is to favor the status quo, which is Iran killing many thousands of its own citizens, as it did in January, to continue funding and supplying weapons to terrorists – Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi’s, to issue fatwas against foreign leaders, etc. Just as those who believe that this war fits Just War criteria, and must accept the consequences, those who oppose it should state clearly that they accept the consequences (listed above) of continuing the status quo.
All well and good, but where and how to go from here while people are still dying and suffering?
You must mean the 20,000 Iranians who were murdered by their islamic mullah leaders.
I believe most of “the narratives” and attempts at explanation fail to grasp the fundamental situation.
It appears that the fundamental situation is that The Islamic Revolutionary Regime, an ally of homicidal empire of Red China and homicidal empire of Russia, intends that the world and its own people submit to its conventional terror, until such time as they acquire nuclear weapons, when the world will be told to submit to its nuclear terror.
As the Islamic Revolutionary Regime has been content to have the world and its own captive Iranian people live in terror for 50 years, it is time now to turn the script against them, and provide for the Islamic Revolutionary Regime that they will now themselves live in fear every day, year in and year out, until their power is somehow brought to an end.
If they are unwilling to end this voluntarily, they should live in constant threat of annihilation, because annihilation of others is the only thing they live for.
While the Pope and the bishops continue to endanger us, our families and our children by protecting people whose first evidence of ethical behavior is to disregard and violate our laws by entering illegally.
An illegal alien, released into the United States by the Biden administration, is now charged with murdering 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, a freshman at Loyal University in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/23/illegal-alien-charged-murder-sheridan-gorman/
Feds Charge Azerbaijan Migrant with $90M Healthcare Fraud
Federal prosecutors have charged an Azerbaijani national with perpetrating $90 million in healthcare fraud.
Anar Rustamov, 39, “who appears to have entered the United States illegally,” has been indicted on 14 counts of allegedly orchestrating a scheme to file thousands of false claims for medical equipment with the Medicare Advantage program, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2026/03/23/feds-charge-azerbaijan-migrant-90m-healthcare-fraud/
Pape Leo and non-Muslims to convert to Islam to avoid death by these punishments from God natural disasters floods wildfires strong earthquakes more mag 7 earthquake tsunami volcano meteorites plane crash in Europe in Africa in Asia in Pacific Ocean in North and South America March 24, 2026 and to avoid hell if the world end of the world on March 27, 2026 Surah Al-Imran 85/3.