Pope Leo XIV called for an end to the “pandemic” of weapons Sunday morning as he prayed for the victims of the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis.
In his weekly Angelus prayer, Leo, the first American pope, prayed for the two children who were killed and the 18 people who were injured by a gunman who opened fire in Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday morning.
“Our prayers to the victims of the tragic shooting during a school mass in the state of Minnesota,” Pope Leo said Sunday. “We include, in our prayers, the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”
The now-deceased gunman had posted a manifesto video online before the shooting that indicated anti-Christian views, with messages such as “Where is your God?” scrawled on the weapons and magazines.
The pope’s address included sweeping prayers for peace around the world, calling again for a ceasefire in Russia’s war with Ukraine and reiterating his “closeness to the Ukrainian people and to all the injured families.”
Leo has consistently urged peace among the two nations, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and calling Russian President Vladimir Putin since beginning his term as the head of the Catholic Church in May 2025. He has also offered to moderate peace talks between the two nations. Leo has also called for peace and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, just this week, beseeching an end to the “forcible mass displacement of civilians” in Gaza.
From his window in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, he called on world leaders to “renounce the logic of weapons and take the path of negotiation and peace.”
FREQUENT VIOLENCE AGAINST CATHOLIC CHURCHES WAS WELL DOCUMENTED BEFORE MINNESOTA SHOOTING
When the Chicago-born Pope gave his address Sunday, he broke from the traditional Angelus-prayer language of Italian to speak in English when addressing the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting. He referenced the Bible verse Isaiah 2:4 to call for people to put down arms.
“May our mother Mary, the queen of peace, help us to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks,’” Pope Leo said.