In his inaugural Easter address from the heart of Vatican City, Pope Leo XIV delivered a urgent, heartfelt plea on Sunday to global leaders holding the power to ignite and escalate armed conflict, urging them to set aside confrontation and choose the path of peace. The pontiff’s call comes as a broad regional war raging across the Middle East, triggered by joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has sent shockwaves across the entire region and disrupted economic stability worldwide, casting a dark shadow over Easter celebrations for more than 1 billion Catholics marking the holiday globally.