In a July 17 telegram, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.”

On July 7, settlers carried out a daytime arson attack on the Church of St. George and a Byzantine Christian cemetery. The fifth-century church is “one of the oldest and most venerated places of worship for Christians in Palestine.”

“Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel war by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Pope Leo XIV called on world leaders to reject the temptation to use “powerful and sophisticated weapons,” as President Donald J. Trump aired the possibility of using massive bombs to destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant.

In judging the morality of an act of war, an easy ask is always: “Was the belligerent party left with no other recourse?” That does not appear to be true in this case.

With the Gaza death toll rising and entire families obliterated as Israeli forces seek to strike diminishing numbers of Hamas targets, more impassioned appeals for an end to the violence have come from ecclesial and political leaders from around the world.