ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV opened 2026 on Thursday with a plea for peace, singling out in particular countries “bloodied by conflict” and families wounded by violence.
Leo celebrated a New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and then delivered a special noontime prayer from his studio overlooking the piazza, which was full of pilgrims and tourists on the bright, chilly day.
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Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV reads the homily as he celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Leo noted that Jan. 1 marks the church’s World Day of Peace and used the occasion to issue a prayer.
“Let us all pray together for peace: first, among nations bloodied by conflict and suffering, but also within our homes, in families wounded by violence or pain,” he said.
After a busy Christmas season, Leo has a few days of rest before he celebrates the church’s Epiphany holiday on Jan. 6. On that day too, he officially closes out the 2025 Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration that brought millions of pilgrims to Rome.
Immediately thereafter, he is to preside over a two-day meeting of the entire College of Cardinals, the princes of the church who elected him pope, as well as those who are over age 80 and didn't participate in the conclave but still remain part of the college. Leo is resurrecting a tradition largely eschewed by Pope Francis to convene cardinals every so often to seek their counsel on how to govern the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church.
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Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV reads the homily as he celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 100 injured, most of them seriously, following a fire at a bar in a Swiss Alps resort town during a New Year’s celebration, police said Thursday.
“Several tens of people” were killed at the bar, Le Constellation, Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference.
Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families but “that will take time and for the time being it is premature to give you a more precise figure," Gisler said, adding that the community is “devastated.”
Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.
“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims, including some from different countries, officials said.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they were inside when they saw a barman carrying a barmaid on his shoulders. The barmaid was holding a lit candle in a bottle that set fire to the wooden ceiling. The flames quickly spread and collapsed the ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.
Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.
Officials called the blaze an “embrasement généralisé,” a firefighting term describing how a blaze can trigger the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Rénard, head of the regional government.
The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Rénard said.
In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on the local population to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require medical resources that are already overwhelmed.
With high-altitude ski runs at around 3,000 meters (1.86 miles) in the heart of the Swiss Alps, Crans-Montana is one of the winter sports centers of Switzerland’s ski-crazy Valais region, also home to Zermatt, Verbier and other resorts nestled in the snowy peaks and pine forests drawing winter sports enthusiasts from across the planet. The resort is one of the top race venues on the World Cup circuit in Alpine skiing and will host the next world championships over two weeks in February 2027.
In four weeks’ time, the resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers for their last events before going to the Milan Cortina Olympics, which open Feb. 6.
Crans-Montana also is a premium venue in international golf. The Crans-sur-Sierre club stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course with stunning mountains views. Le Constellation bar is about 250 meters (273 yards) down the street from the golf club.
Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people including many children were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
The Swiss blaze on Thursday came 25 years after an inferno in the Dutch fishing town of Volendam on New Year’s Eve, which killed 14 people and injured more than 200 as they celebrated in a cafe.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin said in a social media post that the government’s “thoughts go to the victims, to the injured and their relatives, to whom it addresses its sincere condolences.”
Thursday was Parmelin’s first day in office as the seven members of Switzerland’s government take turns holding the presidency for one year. Out of respect for the families of the victims, he delayed a traditional New Year address to the nation meant to be broadcast Thursday afternoon, Swiss broadcasters SRF and RTS reported.
From left, Mathias Reynard, State Councillor and president of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais, Stephane Ganzer, State Councillor and head of the Department of Security, Institutions and Sport of the Canton of Valais, Frederic Gisler, Commander of the Valais Cantonal Police, Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais and Nicole Bonvin-Clivaz, Vice-President of the Municipal Council of Crans-Montana during a press conference in Lens, following a fire that broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A skier walks in the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A banner stating that fireworks are prohibited due to the risk of fire is pictured near the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
