POPE: NO MORE WAR

First Sunday address calls on 'powerful of world'

- ANDY LINES In the Vatican City

THE Pope made a passionate plea to world leaders for no more war during his first Sunday address at the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV demanded change as tens of thousands of people crammed into St Peter's Square to give him a rapturous welcome.

He called for a lasting peace in the war in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, and praised the agreement to end recent hostilities between India and Pakistan.

He described himself as “deeply hurt” by ongoing events in Gaza.

The second the curtains opened and he stepped on to the balcony at noon he was greeted with a huge roar.

As he waved, there was a massive round of applause from the gathered crowd.

Police officers, paramedics and firefighters rushed forward to take their own photographs of the momentous occasion.