Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Yemen and condemns church attack in Jordan

Pope Leo XIV devoted his Sunday reflection before the Angelus to the commandment of love, telling the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square that love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. He began with the passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which a scholar of the law asks Jesus which precept is the most important.

To the question "Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?" Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength." In that reply, Leo said, Christ puts love at the very center of our bond with God. It is not enough to acknowledge that God exists, that he is one or that he is all-powerful. What God asks for is a personal relationship. The one true God, the pope said, wants to be our God.

That first commandment cannot be understood on its own, the pope said. Alongside it the Lord adds a second: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Both spring from the same source, and whoever lives them out overcomes selfishness and turns even self-love into charity, pointing his life toward others and making it a gift to those beside him.

Before concluding, the pope turned to St. Therese of the Child Jesus, whom he described as someone who grasped the depth of these two commandments. She said that "only love can make the members of the Church act," and that if that love were ever to die out, the Gospel would no longer be proclaimed. Leo told the faithful that without love, faith would be stripped of its content, good works would come down to mere moralism and hope would be in vain.

The pope ended his reflection with a prayer for the grace of a new heart, able to receive and live the great commandment. He entrusted that request to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, whose immaculate heart, he said, holds nothing but love.

Concern over violence and suffering

Speaking to some 20,000 people in St. Peter's Square, Leo said he was deeply concerned about the situation in Yemen and called for an end to hostilities and for conditions of peace for civilians. He pointed in particular to the city of Taiz, where residents face a severe humanitarian crisis marked by shortages of food, water and medical care.

The pope also referred to the "terrorist attack against the faithful of the Orthodox church of St. George in Hammoud, Jordan," carried out the previous Friday. According to the latest reports, the attack took place on October 23 during a funeral, when gunmen opened fire on those present, killing nine. The attackers later came back to shoot at the wounded before firing on the facade of the church.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the attack as "an abominable, cowardly and bloody act" and described it as "an attack against all of Jordan, against Muslims and Christians alike." The pope continues to pray for all the victims, the dead and the injured. He expressed his closeness to the affected Orthodox Christian community and to the whole Jordanian people, describing Jordan as a country that "is distinguished by peaceful coexistence and respect among the different religions."

Those acts of violence led the pope to renew his appeal for prayer for peace from every corner of the world. He pointed to Assisi as a privileged place for that prayer, on the 40th anniversary of the meeting "Disarmed and disarming peace." Leo will not be able to attend: his recent surgery and his doctors' advice prevent it.

Greetings to pilgrims

The pope then welcomed the faithful in the square and thanked them for coming. Among the groups he greeted were members of the Centro Académico Romano Fundación, from Spain; a group from St. Ciaran's College in Ballygawley, Ireland; and the "St. John Paul II" schools of the Diocese of Opole, Poland.

He also greeted the protocol officials of several Italian ministries and government offices, members of the association "Solidarity in Good Hands" from Castiglion Fiorentino, and a group of pilgrims from Concorezzo who traveled to Rome to mark their 70th birthdays.