ROME — Pope Leo XIV kicked off the Catholic Church’s 40-day Lenten period of reflection by conducting Ash Wednesday services and criticizing what he called the destruction of global legal standards caused by current warfare around the world.
The pontiff brought back the customary prayer procession that his predecessor Pope Francis had mostly assigned to other church officials during his later years in office. Leo XIV led a group of dozens of religious leaders including monks, priests, bishops and cardinals as they walked between Roman churches before he placed ashes on cardinals’ foreheads during the service.
The Ash Wednesday observance marks the start of Lent, a 40-day period focused on fasting, prayer and spiritual preparation leading to Easter celebrations commemorating Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
During his sermon, Leo XIV reflected on humanity’s failures and described how the ashes distributed to worshippers carry the “weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”
“This is also reflected in the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature,” he stated.
The Pope has been vocal in his criticism of how global conflicts have undermined the international legal framework established after World War II, particularly citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. military action in Venezuela aimed at removing that country’s leadership.
Earlier this week, Vatican officials announced they would decline to join the Trump Administration’s proposed Board of Peace for Gaza. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, explained that the United Nations should be the proper organization to oversee the fragile Gaza ceasefire and reconstruction efforts.
