Pope prays for peace

POPE Leo XIV prayed for a peaceful end to the "increasingly deafening violence" of wars around the world as he celebrated a Catholic feast day on the same day as a high-stakes US-Russia summit over the war in Ukraine.

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History's first American pope did not mention the meeting on Friday in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But he has constantly called for dialogue and an end to the conflict, including in conversations with Mr Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Friday the Pope recalled that the August 15 feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary was declared a dogma by Pope Pius XII at the height of the Second World War.

"He (Pius) hoped that human lives would never again be destroyed by wars," the Pope said.