Pope Leo XIV prayed for China on Sunday, remembering the victims of a deadly explosion in a coal mine and asking believers around the world to join him in praying especially for the Catholic faithful of the country.

The pontiff made his appeal in remarks following the traditional Regina Coeli prayer on Pentecost Sunday, which this year coincided with the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, which Benedict XVI instituted in 2007.

May 24 is the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, “venerated with great devotion in the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai,” as Pope Leo XIV recalled in his remarks.

“Let us join our prayers with those of Chinese Catholics,” the pontiff said, “as a sign of our affection for them and of their communion with the universal Church and with the Successor of Peter.”

“May the intercession of the Queen of Heaven obtain for the believing community in China the grace of unity and grant everyone the strength to bear witness to the Gospel in their daily struggles, to be a seed of hope and peace,” Leo said.

In 2018, during the pontificate of Francis, the Holy See and the Chinese government reached an agreement on the appointment of bishops, which ended decades of schism that resulted when the Communist revolutionary government established a state-sanctioned parallel Church and began persecuting the clergy and lay people who remained faithful to Rome.

The terms of that deal remain nebulous, and the arrangement itself continues to be controversial.

Pope Leo XIV also prayed for victims of a gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province, which killed scores of people on Friday evening.

Official reports said at least 82 people perished in the incident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine, making it China’s deadliest mining accident in years.

More than 120 people were hospitalized as of Saturday evening.

“I invoke eternal peace for the victims of the accident that occurred a few days ago in a mine in northern China,” Leo prayed on Sunday.

The pontiff also invoked the intercession of Our Lady, Help of Christians, for the Christian communities of the Holy Land and the whole Mideast region, sorely tried by war and all the attendant difficulties of conflict.

“To Mary Most Holy, Help of Christians,” he prayed, “we also entrust the Christian communities of the Holy Land, Lebanon, and the entire Middle East, who are suffering because of the war.”

On Sunday morning, Pope Leo XIV offered Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the Solemnity of Pentecost, the fulfilment of the Easter season.

“To highlight the continuity of this salvific event,” Leo said in his homily, “the Gospel takes us back to the ‘first day of the week’ (Jn 20:19), that is, to that new day on which the risen Jesus appeared to the disciples, showing them ‘his hands and his side’.”

“The Lord reveals his glorious body,” Leo said, “specifically his wounds, the marks of the crucifixion.”

“These signs of the Passion, more eloquent than words, are now transfigured,” Leo said, “he who was dead lives forever.”

The pope focused on three aspects of the Gospel and of the event – Pentecost – it recounted: the Spirit of the risen One is the Spirit of peace; the Spirit of the risen One is the Spirit of mission; the Spirit of the risen One is the “Spirit of truth” (as it says in Jn. 14:17).

“Dear friends,” Leo said, “we are truly co-workers of the Gospel: the whole Church is its protagonist, not merely its guardian.”

The pontiff said the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, which is the core of the Christian faith, “through the power of the Spirit,” is replete “with joy and hope, for we — yes, we ourselves — are the newness of the world, the light and the salt of the earth.”

Leo said this is the case “not because of our own merit or privilege, but because of the word of the Lord, who sanctifies the sinner, heals the leper and transforms the one who denied him into an apostle.”

“As we can clearly see,” he said, “there are changes that do not bring new life to the world, but make it grow old through error and violence.”

“Nevertheless,” he said, “the Holy Spirit enlightens minds and instils new vitality in our hearts.”

The pope said God “transfigures history, opening it to salvation, which is the gift that the Lord offers to everyone, and that the Church’s mission bears witness to this, thus “transforming the world’s confusion into communion with God and among ourselves.”

“Dear friends,” Leo said in concluding his remarks, “with fervent hearts, let us pray today that the Spirit of the risen One may save us from the evil of war, which is overcome not by a superpower, but by the omnipotence of love.”

“Let us pray that he free humanity from misery, which is redeemed not by immeasurable wealth,” he said, “but by an inexhaustible gift.”

“Let us pray that he heal us from the scourge of sin through the salvation proclaimed to all peoples in the name of Jesus.” The pontiff said.

“This is the grace that instills courage in the Apostles,” Leo said, “may he similarly instill it in us, today and always, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church.”