Pope Urges Leaders to Reject War, Citing Predecessors in Peace Appeal

Pope Leo XIV issued a back-to-back plea for peace this week, urging the international community to reject armed conflict and embrace diplomacy amid mounting global tensions.

Speaking Wednesday during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope warned of the moral and humanitarian toll of ongoing wars, naming Ukraine, Iran, Israel, and Gaza among the regions in crisis. “The heart of the Church is rent asunder by the cries rising up from places of war,” he said. “We must never become accustomed to war.”

He condemned the use of modern, technologically advanced weapons, warning they risk dragging humanity into “a barbarism far greater than that of times past.” Echoing Pope Francis, Leo repeated: “War is always a defeat.”

The following day, Thursday, in his first-ever televised interview — broadcast exclusively by Italy’s TG1 following a visit to Vatican Radio’s Santa Maria di Galeria center — Pope Leo reinforced his message. “Let us come together to seek solutions to war,” he said. “Too many innocents are dying. We must do everything possible to avoid the use of weapons and promote peace through diplomacy and dialogue.”

He also invoked the legacy of Pope Pius XII, quoting his historic 1939 appeal delivered on the eve of World War II: “Nothing is lost with peace. All may be lost with war.”

Pope Leo’s two-day peace initiative marked his most direct intervention yet on international conflict since assuming the papacy, signaling a renewed Vatican push for dialogue over division.