Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting victims and called for an end to the "pandemic of arms, large and small" on Sunday.

What he's saying: "Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American state of Minnesota," said the first U.S. pontiff during a weekly prayer with crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. • "We hold in our prayers the countless children killed and injured every day around the world," added the Chicago-born pope, who was speaking in English. • "Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world."

The big picture: Leo initially avoided weighing into politics in regards to the shooting that killed Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, and injured

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