May 8, 2025 Leo XIV elected as first American pope
Congratulatory messages continue to pour in for the newly-elected Pope Leo XIV, even as his stance on the conflicts in the Middle East remain unclear.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed his excitement for “enhancing the relationship between Israel and the Holy See” and wishing Leo a pontificate “of building bridges and understanding between all faiths and peoples.”
The Palestinian Authority acknowledged the relationship President Mahmoud Abbas had with the late Pope Francis in a statement that said in part: “[Abbas] expressed his warmest congratulations and best wishes to Pope Leo XIV for success in fulfilling his noble duties, and for going down the path of the late Pope Francis in his efforts to achieve peace, affirming his pride in the historic friendship between the State of Palestine and the Holy See.” This comes after the Palestinian Authority sent an official delegation to attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
The militant group Hamas extended its “warmest congratulations” to the new Pontiff and expressed hope for his pontificate to continue on a path similar to his predecessor’s with regards to expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said the organization is looking forward to pursuing “our dialogue & partnership with the Holy See in promoting the rights of #Palestine Refugees & support our work to assist all those impacted by the war in #Gaza,” according to a post on X.
Leo’s stances on the highly-contentious Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts remain unclear. It’s also unclear whether he will be explicitly calling for a ceasefire of the current Israel-Hamas war, like his predecessor Francis, whose dying wishes included a conversion of a “popemobile” he used in Jerusalem to a mobile clinic to be dispatched to the Gaza strip.
CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman and Eugenia Yosef contributed.
