Pope Leo XIV denounces the global arms race, condemns the use of religion to legitimize war and calls for Pacem in terris
No false hope, just the reminder of the harsh contemporary reality. Disillusioned but determined, Leo XIV paints a dark picture in his first Message for Peacecrossed by global tensions and a widespread return to the logic of force. A text intended, as per tradition, for chancelleries around the world, but which contains a clear, severe warning to that part of Europe increasingly involved in an arms race presented as inevitable. The Pontiff doesn’t mince words, he gets straight to the point: the use of faith to justify wars and military operations is “blasphemy”.
The call to Pacem in terris
It is no coincidence that Leo XIV chose to open his message by quoting the Pacem in terris of John XXIII, written in 1963 when the world was on the brink of nuclear conflict. The Iron Curtain separated Western Europe from Eastern Europe, our free culture from the liberticidal communist one. It was the pinnacle of Cold War. That reference clearly signals how the Pope perceives thecurrent historical phase: a fragile time, marked by unstable balances and a growing inability to rely on international law and supranational institutions.
A world crossed by conflicts
With the (substantial) difference that at the time of the Cold War the world was divided in two, but with very distinct, less opaque factionstwo completely different realities in which one took one side or the other. Now, however, choosing a side is a little more difficult. This is not an era of certainties, in its fragility. It’s still Russia versus the United States, but Europe is guiltily confused and irrelevanthas long been experiencing a profound identity crisis from which she struggles to emerge, and from which perhaps only a catastrophe could awaken her. Meanwhile, China, more cunning, waits, aware that it is not yet the time to take sides. But in the meantime he is preparing.
At the bottom of the message the great geopolitical dossiers flow: the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, the role of Iran, the tensions in Latin America, the violations of human rights in Myanmar, Sudan and Congo. A list that could be even longer and that describes an increasingly polarized planet, in which diplomacy appears to be an arduous and often delegitimized undertaking.
The criticism of religious exploitation
Leo XIV puts on guard against continued increases in military spendingjustified by many governments with the alleged dangerousness of others. Deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is defined as the emblem of an irrational relationship between peoples, based not on trust and law, but on fear and the dominion of force. A logic that, according to the Pope, nourishes an increasingly dramatic and unpredictable planetary destabilization.
One of the harshest passages of the message concerns the instrumental use of religion. Dragging the words of faith into political combat or religiously justifying violence means obscuring the name of God. For this reason the Pope calls believers to an active responsibility: to bear witness with their lives, through prayer, spirituality, ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, that faith is a path to peace and not to conflict. In fact, according to the Pontiff «If you want to attract others to peace, have it first; above all, be firm in peace.”
Disarm the spirits
The numbers on rearmament confirm the gravity of the situation: in 2024, global military spending reached 2,718 billion dollars, 2.5% of global GDP. But the cultural and educational plan is also of concern to the Pontiff: instead of a conscious memory of the tragedies of the twentieth century, a narrative is spreading that normalizes war and reduces security to the sole armed dimension. Also because, as Prevost says, «further technological advancement and the military application of artificial intelligence have radicalized the tragedy of armed conflicts. A process of deresponsibilization of political and military leaders is even emergingdue to the increasing “delegation” of decisions regarding the life and death of human beings to machines.”
Taking it again Pacem in terristherefore, Leo XIV recalls that disarmament cannot be just material. Without a disarmament of spirits, without the dissolution of the “war psychosis”, any reduction of arsenals remains illusory. True peace, the Pope reiterates, can only arise from mutual trust. A difficult but necessary objective, claimed by reason and indispensable for the present and future of humanity.
Don’t get used to war as normality
No false hope, therefore, nor a promise of easy salvation or the illusion of immediate peace. No, in the Pope’s message there is rather the request for a change of outlook and language, even before strategies. In a time that is preparing for war as if it were destiny, the Pope reminds us that peace is not an automatism of history nor a product of force, but a fragile, daily, counter-current choice. Ignoring this call would mean accepting that the logic of weapons becomes the only possible horizon. Listening to him, however, means recognizing that even in the most unstable era a responsibility remains open: that of not getting used to war as normality.
