Leo XIV celebrate this friday his first year of pontificate with a visit to the sanctuary of Pompeii and Naples, in southern Italy, where he pleaded for peace and assured that on this day he is the “first blessed”.
“What a beautiful day! How many blessings the Lord has granted us today! I feel like the first person to have the joy of coming to the Sanctuary of Our Lady on the Day of Supplication, on this anniversary. Thank you all for being here!” said the pope in his first act in Pompeii to greet the sick who came to the sanctuary.
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Later at the mass celebrated in the sanctuary, Leo
“The fact of having chosen the name of Leo places me in the footsteps of Leo XIII, who had, among other merits, having developed a broad Magisterium on the Holy Rosary,” he added about the choice of his name as pontiff.
During the mass in the sanctuary, the pope assured that there are two “intentions that remain of urgent relevance: the family, which suffers from the weakening of the marital bond, and peace, threatened by international tensions and an economy that prefers the arms trade to respect for human life.”
He explained that, when Saint John Paul II proclaimed the Year of the Rosary, he wanted to place it especially under the gaze of the Virgin of Pompeii and lamented that “times have not improved since then. The wars that are still being fought in many regions of the world require a renewed commitment, not only economic and political, but also spiritual and religious.”
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost, addresses the crowd from the balcony of the main central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time, in the Vatican, on May 8, 2025. (Tiziana FABI / AFP)
/ TIZIANA FABI
And he recalled that the Polish pope, in October 1986, gathered the leaders of the main religions in Assisi, inviting them all to pray for peace. “On several occasions, including recently, both Pope Francis and I have asked the faithful around the world to pray for this intention,” he added.
“We cannot resign ourselves to the images of death that the news presents to us every day,” he stressed.
And he stated that “mercy, which touches hearts, appeases resentment and fratricidal hatred, and enlightens those who have special responsibilities in government.”
“Brothers and sisters, no earthly power will save the world, but only the divine power of love, which Jesus, the Lord, has given us,” he asserted.
In the afternoon he will travel to Naples where he will walk through several streets of the center and hold an event in the cathedral, where he will meet with the clergy and consecrated persons and will give a speech and then greet nearly 30,000 people in the Plebiscite Square.
On this anniversary, congratulations have come from all over the world, and one of the first was the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who wanted to thank Leo XIV “for his tireless message of faith, hope, peace, dialogue between peoples and closeness to the most vulnerable.”
“In a complex time marked by great uncertainty, his voice represents a global reference, for Christians and for everyone,” Meloni wrote.
