Pope Leo XIV delivers first Sunday noon blessing, patrons at Chicago church embrace message of Chica

Pope Leo XIV delivered his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, three days after the 69-year-old Chicago-born missionary made history as the first American elected to lead the Catholic Church. Known as the Angelus blessing, Pope Leo — the former Robert Prevost — delivered a prayer, a sermon and a blessing to the estimated 100,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. He called for just and lasting peace in Ukraine and for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying, "I, too, address the world’s great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘never again war.’"