Pope Leo offers to mediate world conflicts, calls for end to war [Video]

Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the global Catholic Church, pledged on Wednesday to make “every effort” for peace and offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war was “never inevitable.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke to the Pope soon after his election, welcomed the Pontiff’s offer and repeated that Kyiv backed all efforts to end his country’s war with Russia.

Leo, elected last week to succeed the late Pope Francis, has already made repeated calls for peace. His first words to crowds in St. Peter’s Square were “Peace be with all of you.”

He returned to the issue while addressing members of the Eastern Catholic Churches, some of which are based in conflict-ridden places such as Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq …