Speaking to 500 senior French officials, religious representatives and dignitaries gathered at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Pope Leo called for a “change of attitude”.
“We cannot remain indifferent to such suffering, which wounds human dignity and cries out to God for justice," he said. "The gravity of these situations must challenge us, calling upon everyone – wherever they may be – to undergo a genuine conversion of the heart and a change of attitude.”
Pope Leo praised French support for educational projects in the region, including seven universities in Lebanon and a university in Bethlehem. “I therefore urge you never to resign yourselves to the prospect of war by regarding it as 'inevitable', but rather to tirelessly promote dialogue and diplomacy,” Pope Leo said.
The first American pope attracted Mr Trump's ire earlier this year after criticising the Iran war.
Pope Leo's visit to France has been met with joy and excitement in France despite some sensitive topics, including the approval in August by Parliament of a law legalising medically assisted dying. Some 600,000 people are expected for an open-air mass in central Paris on Saturday.
The Pope reiterated his warnings on AI, saying there was a risk of “losing our humanity in the middle of the 'paradise of machines' that invade and shape our daily lives”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who welcomed Pope Leo when he landed at the airport in the morning, appeared to converge with the Pope regarding AI. He called for more regulation in a speech delivered alongside the Pope at the presidential palace.
“The digital revolution must propel us forward, not shackle us,” Mr Macron said. “It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that the most powerful models do not end up in the hands of a few who would decide for all of humanity, and that the most exponential advances do not lead us to lose control.”
High points of Pope Leo's whirlwind tour of France will include stops at Notre-Dame Cathedral, the UN's culture and education body Unesco, the famed Catholic shrine at Lourdes in the south-west, and Metz, on the border with Germany.
