ROME — Pope Leo XIV asked Sunday for prayers for China’s Catholics to be in communion with the Holy See, as he made his first public remarks about one of the thorniest foreign policy issues facing his new pontificate.

History’s first American pope recalled that on Saturday the Catholic Church marked a special feast day to pray for the church in China. Pope Benedict XVI had initiated the feast day as part of his efforts to unify China’s estimated 12 million Catholics who were divided between an official, state-controlled church that didn’t recognize papal authority and an underground church that remained loyal to Rome through decades of persecution.

Leo noted that on the feast day “in the churches and shrines in China and throughout the world, prayers have been raised to God as a sign of the solicitude and affection for Chinese Catholics and their communion with the universal church.”

Leo prayed that Catholics in China and elsewhere “obtain the grace to be strong and joyful witnesses of the Gospel, even in the midst of trials, to always promote peace and harmony.”

— The Associated Press