“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’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.

Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.

At the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Leo urged “reason and responsibility” amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran—just hours before lighting up the jumbotron at Chicago’s Rate Field, calling 30,000 faithful to be “beacons of hope.”

”Catholics across the ideological spectrum have expressed hope that Leo will be able to heal some of the divisions that emerged during the pontificate of his predecessor, Pope Francis.”

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.