Overview
- At Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the first American pope condemned an “exclusionary mindset” that separates peoples through closed borders and walls in political nationalisms
- He invoked Pope Francis’s teaching to break down barriers of indifference and hatred across class, race and nation
- Leo XIV prayed for inner peace as the necessary foundation for reconciliation and renewed appeals for a just peace in Ukraine and a ceasefire in Gaza
- Since his May 8 election, former Cardinal Robert Prevost has stressed unity over partisan agendas, including earlier public critiques of President Donald Trump’s immigration stance
- His message directly challenges Christian nationalist ideologies that seek to fuse faith with authoritarian political aims