At the Regina Caeli, the pope also thanked the Canary Islands for welcoming a cruise ship with passengers sick with hantavirus.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed for victims of growing violence in the Sahel, thanked the people of the Canary Islands for welcoming a cruise ship carrying people sick with hantavirus, and offered a special blessing for mothers during his Regina Caeli address in St. Peter’s Square.

Speaking after the Marian prayer May 10, the pope said he had learned “with deep concern of the reports regarding the growing violence in the Sahel region, particularly in Chad and Mali,” which have recently suffered terrorist attacks.

“I offer the assurance of my heartfelt prayers for the victims and my spiritual closeness to all those who are suffering as a result of the tragic events,” he said. “I fervently hope that every form of violence may cease, and I encourage all efforts aimed at fostering peace and development in that beloved land.”

The pope also marked the annual “Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship,” extending “fraternal greetings” to Pope Tawadros II and assuring “the entire beloved Coptic Church” of his “remembrance in prayer.”

“It is my hope that our journey of friendship will lead us to perfect unity in Christ, who has called us ‘friends,’” he said.

In Spanish, Pope Leo XIV thanked the people of the Canary Islands who, “with the hospitality characteristic of them,” welcomed the Hondius cruise ship and the passengers infected with hantavirus.

“I look forward to seeing all of you next month during my visit to the Islands,” he said.

The pope also offered a Mother’s Day greeting, asking Mary, “the Mother of Jesus and our own Mother,” to intercede for all mothers.

“Let us pray with love and gratitude for every mother, particularly those living in very difficult circumstances,” he said. “Thank you! May God bless you!”

Before the Regina Caeli, Pope Leo reflected on the Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, in which Jesus tells his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

The pope said the words of Jesus free Christians from the misconception “that we are loved because we keep the commandments, as if our righteousness were a prerequisite for God’s love.”

“On the contrary, God’s love is the basis for our righteousness,” he said.

Jesus’ words, he said, are “an invitation to enter into a relationship, not a blackmail or a suspicious ultimatum.”

The Lord commands his followers to love one another as he has loved them, Pope Leo said, because “it is Jesus’ love that begets love within us.”

Christ, he said, is “the standard, the measure of true love: the love that is faithful forever, pure and unconditional,” the love that knows no “buts” or “maybes.”

“Because God loved us first, we too can love, and when we truly love God, we truly love one another,” he said.

The pope said the Lord’s commandments are “a way of life that heal us from false loves” and “a spiritual lifestyle that is a path towards salvation.”

Because God loves his people, the pope continued, he “does not leave us alone in life’s trials” but promises the Paraclete, the Advocate, the “Spirit of truth.”

The Holy Spirit, he said, is a gift that “the world cannot receive” as long as it persists in evil, “oppressing the poor, excluding the weak and killing the innocent.” But those who respond to Jesus’ love for all “will find in the Holy Spirit an ally who will never fail.”

Pope Leo said Christians can always bear witness to “God, who is love,” adding that love is “not an idea of the human mind, but the reality of divine life, through which all things were created out of nothing and redeemed from death.”

Jesus, he said, shares with believers his identity as the beloved Son: “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

This “all-encompassing communion of life,” the pope said, refutes the Accuser, the adversary of the Paraclete, who seeks to set humanity against God and people against one another. Jesus does the opposite, he said, “saving us from evil and uniting us as a people of brothers and sisters in the Church.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.