Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged the United States and Iran to return to talks to end the war Thursday and condemned capital punishment, in a wide-ranging press conference en route home from his trip to Africa.

Leo also asserted that countries have the right to control their borders but mustn’t treat migrants worse than “animals,” and lamented that the church’s morality teaching is often reduced to sexual issues.

After a trip that was dominated by the very public back and forth between Leo and U.S. President Donald Trump over the war, Leo urged the United States and Iran to return to negotiations.

He called for a new “culture of peace” to replace the recourse to violence whenever conflicts arise.

He said the question wasn’t whether the Iran regime should change or not. “The question should be about how to promote the values we believe in without the deaths of so many innocents.”

He revealed that he carries with him the photo of a Muslim Lebanese boy who had been killed in Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah. The boy had been photographed holding a sign welcoming the pope when he visited Lebanon last year.

“As a pastor I cannot be in favor of war,” he told reporters aboard his plane. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”

Asked if he condemned Iran’s recent executions, Leo said he condemned “all actions that are unjust” and included capital punishment in the list.

“I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe human life is to be respected and that all people from conception to natural (death), their lives should be respected and protected.

“So when a regime, when a country takes decisions which take away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned,” he said.

Pope Francis changed the church’s social teaching to declare capital punishment immoral in all cases.