ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Monday denounced the “antisemitic violence” behind the Sydney Hanukkah massacre as he prayed for the victims and the “gift of peace and fraternity” this holiday season.
Leo also issued a strong anti-abortion message during an audience with the donors of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations, which he said were a sign of “faith and hope.”
Click to Gallery
Pope Leo XIV, center, shakes hands with Sister Raffaella Petrini, President of the Vatican City State at the end of an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Sister Raffaella Petrini, left, President of the Vatican City State walks at the end of an audience with Pope Leo XIV with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV hugs a child at the end of an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV prays in front of Nacimiento Gaudium, a nativity scene set in the Paul VI Hall adorned with 28,000 ribbons representing lives saved from abortion according to Catholic organizations, during an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and of the nativity scenes, at the Vatican Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ribbons representing lives saved from abortion according to Catholic organizations are seen on Nacimiento Gaudium, a nativity scene set in the Paul VI Hall during an audience led by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
“We pray for those who suffer from war and violence, in particular today I want to entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist attack in Syndey against the Jewish community.
“Enough of these forms of antisemitic violence!” he said. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.”
At least 15 people died in the attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where hundreds had gathered for a “Chanukah by the Sea ” event celebrating the start of the Jewish festival. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism.
Leo echoed his prayers in an official telegram of condolence sent to the archbishop of Sydney, Most. Rev. Anthony Fisher.
He prayed “with renewed hope that those tempted to violence will undergo conversion and seek the path of peace and solidarity," said the telegram signed by the Vatican secretary of state.
In his remarks at the Vatican, Leo said the evergreen fir trees that were donated by various Italian regions “are a sign of life and recall the hope that isn’t lacking even in the winter cold.”
Another sign of life, he said, was reflected in the Nativity scene in the Vatican’s audience hall, which was donated by Costa Rica. The creche featured 28,000 ribbons representing embryos that weren’t aborted.
“Each of these 28,000 colored ribbons that decorate the scene represent a life saved from abortion thanks to the prayer and support provided by Catholic organizations to many mothers in need,” Leo said.
He thanked the artist for the message urging that “life is protected from conception.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV, center, shakes hands with Sister Raffaella Petrini, President of the Vatican City State at the end of an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Sister Raffaella Petrini, left, President of the Vatican City State walks at the end of an audience with Pope Leo XIV with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV hugs a child at the end of an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and nativity scene set up in St. Peter's Square, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV prays in front of Nacimiento Gaudium, a nativity scene set in the Paul VI Hall adorned with 28,000 ribbons representing lives saved from abortion according to Catholic organizations, during an audience with donors of the Christmas tree and of the nativity scenes, at the Vatican Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ribbons representing lives saved from abortion according to Catholic organizations are seen on Nacimiento Gaudium, a nativity scene set in the Paul VI Hall during an audience led by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Three patients with suspected hantavirus infections were being evacuated from a cruise ship to the Netherlands on Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said, as the vessel at the center of a deadly outbreak remained off Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board waiting to head to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear heading to the ship for the evacuation that included the ship's British doctor, who Spain's health ministry said had been in “serious condition” but has improved. An air ambulance later departed.
Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Eight cases have been recorded in all, three of them confirmed by laboratory testing. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though the WHO calls that rare.
Contact tracing had begun on two continents, Europe and Africa, in search of infections around people who earlier left the ship, which departed over a month ago from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.
Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities previously said Ushuaia and surrounding Tierra del Fuego province had never recorded a hantavirus case.
The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a 65-year-old German national who would be "immediately transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe.” A Dutch hospital confirmed it would take one. German authorities were preparing for a second.
Two remain in "serious condition," Dutch ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius ship on May 2.
Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship are without symptoms; the WHO said passengers represent 23 nationalities. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said, adding that the arrival “won´t represent any risk for the public."
Meanwhile, authorities said testing in Switzerland, South Africa and Senegal had shown positive for the Andes strain of the virus. The WHO says the species of hantavirus is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile, and can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact.
The World Health Organization’s top epidemic expert told The Associated Press the risk to the public is low, and the Andes variant is known even if WHO has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.
“This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease,” Maria Van Kerkhove said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
For those on the ship, access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she said.
The ship left Argentina on April 1. The WHO has said the itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.
The ship is now in the Atlantic off West Africa's island nation of Cape Verde. The WHO said passengers were isolating in their cabins.
Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van Kerkhove said.
Spain’s health ministry said it would receive the ship in the Canary Islands after a request from the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The Canary Islands regional president , Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger was being treated at a Zurich hospital after testing positive for the Andes strain. South African authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there tested positive for the strain. One, a British man, was in intensive care and the other collapsed and died in South Africa.
Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when or how he traveled to Switzerland.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, a statement by the office said.
“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public," the office said, while looking into whether the patient had come into contact with others.
At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and died.
Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.
The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or other locations.
The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested negative for hantavirus.
But 20 people still need to be traced, including five people who may have been on flights to South Africa with some of the passengers as well as flight crew members.
Some may have now traveled overseas, the ministry said.
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires and Keaten from Geneva. Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria. Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; Renata Brito and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
This version corrects to say the evacuated doctor is British.
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
The MV Hondius cruise ship is anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A night view of the MV Hondius cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
