Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, echoed Pope Leo’s calls for peaceful solutions.

Agostino Giovagnoli, a professor of Church history at Milan’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, described the more methodical approach that has emerged from the first month of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.

Every papal diplomat around the world must let people know that the Catholic Church is always on the side of the marginalized and is ready to face everything "out of love," Pope Leo XIV said.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the Vatican’s nuncio to the Baltic states, said the region has been disappointed with the current U.S. administration’s approach to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Pope Leo for offering to mediate the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict but claimed that Kyiv is determined to escalate the war, according to a Kremlin statement released on Wednesday. The two leaders reportedly spoke by phone, though the date of the conversation was not disclosed.

The Chicago-born pope addressed a crowd of 30,000 in a live-streamed message from the Vatican: "Build up community [and] friendship as brothers and sisters."

Pope Leo and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke together by phone today, June 4, for the first time, the Kremlin said.

VATICAN: "The Pontifical Representative is a bearer of the diplomacy of the Gospel," and it is his duty "to commit himself to mediation and dialogue" and to become a sower of peace, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin in an interview with Vatican Media.

In a phone call with Pope Leo XIV, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to favor a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.