CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Pope Leo XIV renewed his call on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, asking the international community to respect international laws and the obligation to protect civilians.

Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, urging international adherence to laws protecting civilians. He condemned the attack on Gaza's sole Catholic church, resulting in casualties and damage.

Pope Leo XIV spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a tank hit the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people.

Pope Leo XIV, who is spending two weeks on summer holiday at the papal estate in Castel Gandolfo, encouraged people in his Sunday homily to embrace the summer season as a time to deepen their relationship with God through silence,

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on Sunday on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid, providing a preliminary toll of at least 44 people killed. The latest deaths came as Pope Leo XIV slammed the "barbarity" of the war in Gaza in his traditional Sunday blessing.

"Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue." Pope Leo XIV holds first 'green mass' with profound message for followers: 'The care of creation' first appeared on The Cool Down.

In a vast hangar near Rome's Fiumicino airport, piles of letters addressed to Pope Leo XIV are being sorted, sent by faithful all over the world to the head of the Catholic Church. "We receive hundreds of letters per day addressed to the pope with peaks of 100 kg per day,

To believe in and follow a loving and compassionate Christ is to allow him to enter one's heart and take on his same feelings, Pope Leo XIV said.