Pope Leo, the first US-born leader of the global Catholic Church, prayed on Sunday that God would stop the pandemic of arms after a mass shooting on August 27 at a Minnesota Catholic school that killed two children.
Our prayers go for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American state of Minnesota, Leo, speaking in English, said in a weekly prayer with crowds in St Peter's Square.
Let us plead with God to stop the pandemic of arms large and small which infects our world, said the pope.