VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo called for Catholics to join in prayer and fasting on August 22, a feast of Our Lady, for the intention of peace.
Closing his general audience today at the Vatican, Leo XIV urged all the Catholic faithful to join in a spiritual campaign this Friday for peace in the world. August 22 is the feast of the Queenship of Mary, according to the Novus Ordo liturgical calendar, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the traditional calendar of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
Addressing the crowd, Leo said:
Mary is the Mother of believers here on earth and is also invoked as Queen of Peace. As our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world, I invite all the faithful to live the day of August 22 in fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to dry the tears of those who suffer because of ongoing armed conflicts.
“May Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the way to peace,” he closed.
Pope Leo today urged Catholics to pray & fast for peace on August 22 – feast of Immaculate Heart of Mary:
I invite all faithful to use it as a day of prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace & justice, & to dry the tears of those who suffer because of ongoing armed conflict pic.twitter.com/JDN198Ziqh
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) August 20, 2025
The Pope’s prayer plea comes amid the immediate backdrop of the peace talks hosted by President Donald Trump in Alaska and at the White House. The high-profile meetings – first between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and then with Trump and assembled European leaders along with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky — are the most notable breakthroughs in international relations since the latest outbreak of the conflict in 2022.
Trump has now committed to setting up a direct meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Speaking to the media after his meeting with the European leaders, Trump said about his subsequent phone call with Putin:
I told him that we’re going to set up a meeting with President Zelensky, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting, if everything works out OK, I’ll meet and we’ll wrap it up. It takes, in this case, two to tango. They have to have somewhat of a relationship, otherwise we’re just wasting a lot of time.
Expanding on these comments, Trump added:
I thought I’d first let them meet. They haven’t been exactly best friends.
It only matters if we get things done.
I hope that President Zelensky will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also.
Pope Leo did not make specific reference to the meetings hosted by Trump but did address the meetings when asked by journalists on Tuesday night. “There is hope, but we still need to work hard, pray hard, and truly seek the way forward, to find peace,” he said as he left Castel Gandolfo.
“We pray and try to move forward,” Leo added.
Recently, Bishops Athanasius Schneider and Joseph Strickland added their support to a layman’s appeal to Pope Leo, calling for a prayer vigil for the suffering in the Holy Land and Gaza.
READ: Bishops Schneider, Strickland support appeal to Pope Leo urging prayer vigil for Gaza
Ernest Williams cited the July Israeli strike on Gaza’s Holy Family Church as the final prompt for his endeavor:
The recent bombing of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, killing civilians who had sought sanctuary, cries out for a clear, prophetic response. Your Holiness, we need the voice of Peter to speak not only with compassion, but also with justice.
Williams’ petition directly called upon the Pope to take the following measures:
That the Holy See proclaim a World Day of Prayer and Fasting for Gaza, inviting all dioceses, parishes, religious houses, and Catholic faithful, together with our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Churches, Protestant communities, and all Christian denominations, to gather in solemn vigil before the Lord, for the following intentions:
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To weep with the victims, and hold up the names of the dead before God;
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To pray for justice, peace, and healing in Gaza and the wider Holy Land;
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To cry out against the use of hunger and bombing as weapons, and for those who perpetrate these acts to repent;
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To renew the Church’s voice for the poor and oppressed, as prophets of mercy.
Last fall, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, also issued a call for prayer and fasting on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, seeking an end to the war in the Holy Land. He published a proposed “prayer for peace” found on the Patriarchate website.
Pizzaballa’s prayer request was taken up a few days later by Pope Francis, although the pontiff did not mention the cardinal’s prayer campaign by name.
Respect for the Vatican’s stance in the international diplomatic arena suffered a hit under Pope Francis’ reign. Leo’s quiet first few months have avoided any political polemics, but he has not shied away from regularly voicing his own calls for an end to all conflicts and the implementation of peace accords.
