Leon XIV calls for a day of fasting and prayer for peace on August 22

Back from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, the sovereign pontiff took over his general audiences in the Vatican Paul VI room. Leon XIV urged believers to live a day of fasting and prayer for the end of the wars, Friday August 22, during the feast of the Virgin Mary Reine. A symbolic date: this celebration, established in 1954 by Pius XII, is part of a long Christian tradition which recognizes Mary as sovereign, sometimes invoked under the title of “Queen of Peace”, as Léon XIV recalled. By this wish, he particularly referred to Ukraine and the Holy Land, bruised by conflicts.

The Pope from the United States thus prompted the faithful to implore God to “grant peace and justice”, to “wipe the tears of those who suffer because of the armed conflicts in progress” and to guide people to find “the way of peace”, by the intercession of Mary.

This is a first initiative of this type since its election on May 8, although the Church has already experienced similar calls. In 2023, ten days after Hamas’ attacks in Israel, the Catholics of the Holy Land launched a comparable approach, then taken up by Pope Francis on the occasion of the first anniversary of these events.

A Pope of Peace

Almost 100 days after his election, Léon XIV asserts himself as a man of peace. Since his first appearance, peace and unity have been at the heart of his speech. Defender of a “disarmed and disarming” peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, he multiplies symbolic gestures. Again on August 19, he went to the Marial Sanctuary of Mentorella, near Rome, to pray “for peace in the world”. The same evening, he expressed his hope as to an outcome favorable to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.