Meeting members of the Diplomatic Corps, Pope Leo XIV warns that human rights and freedoms are under strain as diplomacy gives way to the logic of power and war.<\/p>\n
Vatican News<\/b>\n <\/p>\n
Warning that \u201cwar is back in vogue\u201d and that peace is increasingly sought through force rather than justice, Pope Leo XIV issued a strong appeal for humility, dialogue, and a renewed commitment to multilateralism in his address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Friday, 9 January, during the traditional exchange of New Year greetings, the Pope cautioned that the foundations of international coexistence are being steadily undermined, as diplomacy based on dialogue gives way to the logic of power and deterrence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined,\u201d he said, warning that such a mindset gravely threatens the rule of law itself.<\/p>\n
A defining moment in the Vatican\u2019s diplomatic year <\/p>\n
The annual meeting between the Pope and Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See is considered one of the most significant moments in the Vatican\u2019s diplomatic calendar.<\/p>\n
Often dubbed the “State of the World” Address, the Pope’s discourses in these occasions tend to offer a moral reading of international life – an appeal not to interests, but to conscience – offered at the beginning of a new year as a call to responsibility, restraint, and renewal.<\/p>\n
For Pope Leo XIV, who said the occasion is \u201ca new experience,\u201d having been called only months ago to \u201cshepherd Christ\u2019s flock,\u201d the address also served to articulate the moral horizon within which the Holy See understands diplomacy: a patient work of encounter, a defence of the vulnerable, and a commitment to peace rooted in truth.<\/p>\n
Borders, law, and the return of \u201cpeace through weapons\u201d <\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV lamented the weakening of the principle established after the Second World War, by which nations pledged not to use force to violate the borders of others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principle\u2026 has been completely undermined,\u201d he said, warning that peace is increasingly sought \u201cthrough weapons as a condition for asserting one\u2019s own dominion,\u201d a mentality that \u201cgravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pope turned repeatedly to Saint Augustine to support his points, especially to De Civitate Dei (The City of God), in which Augustine reflects on pride, power, and the illusion of security.<\/p>\n
Even those who wage war, the Pope recalled, ultimately desire peace – yet not peace as a shared good, but peace as possession. Citing Augustine, he said, \u201cThey do not, therefore, wish to have no peace, but only the peace that they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was precisely this distortion, the Pope implied, that led humanity into catastrophe in the twentieth century. From that tragedy, he noted, the United Nations emerged, established eighty years ago as a centre of multilateral cooperation \u201cfor safeguarding peace, defending fundamental human rights and promoting sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humanitarian law \u201cmust always prevail\u201d <\/p>\n
From the principles of law, Pope Leo XIV moved to the concrete cost of war – especially when civilians become targets, and when essential infrastructure is destroyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to draw particular attention to the importance of international humanitarian law,\u201d he said. Compliance cannot depend on \u201cmere circumstances and military or strategic interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather, he said, humanitarian law \u201cis a commitment that States have made,\u201d and \u201cmust always prevail over the ambitions of belligerents.\u201d<\/p>\n
He underscored that attacks on \u201chospitals, energy infrastructure, homes and places essential to daily life\u201d constitute serious violations, and reiterated the Holy See\u2019s condemnation of \u201cany form of involvement of civilians in military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moral measure, he insisted, is not advantage but dignity: \u201cthe protection of the principle of the inviolability of human dignity and the sanctity of life always counts for more than any mere national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naming conflicts, appealing for peace <\/p>\n
The Pope then applied this moral framework to specific crises across the world.<\/p>\n
He spoke of the \u201congoing war in Ukraine\u201d and the suffering of civilians, reiterating \u201cthe pressing need for an immediate ceasefire,\u201d and calling for dialogue \u201cmotivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
He appealed to the international community not to waver, and reiterated the Holy See\u2019s willingness \u201cto support any initiative that promotes peace and harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Holy Land, he noted that despite a truce announced in October, civilians continue to endure \u201ca serious humanitarian crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reaffirmed attention to initiatives aimed at guaranteeing Palestinians in Gaza \u201ca future of lasting peace and justice,\u201d and reiterated that the two-State solution remains the institutional perspective for meeting the aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis. He also lamented increased violence in the West Bank against Palestinian civilians, who have \u201cthe right to live in peace in [their] own land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV also expressed concern about \u201cescalating tensions in the Caribbean Sea and along the American Pacific coast,\u201d renewing an appeal for peaceful political solutions.<\/p>\n
He also addressed the crisis in Venezuela \u201cin light of recent developments,\u201d calling for respect for the will of the people and for the safeguarding of human and civil rights.<\/p>\n
He invoked the witness of two Venezuelan saints canonised last October – Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Hern\u00e1ndez and Sister Carmen Rendiles – as inspirations for building a society founded on \u201cjustice, truth, freedom, and fraternity.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spoke too of the violence and instabiliy in Haiti, calling for concrete international support. Likewise, he pointed to the Great Lakes region of Africa; Sudan and South Sudan; tensions in East Asia; and Myanmar\u2019s humanitarian crisis, worsened by last March\u2019s earthquake, and called for \u201cpeace and inclusive dialogue\u201d and access to humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n
Nuclear risk and the ethical governance of AI <\/p>\n
At the root of many of these crises, Pope Leo XIV said, lies the persistent belief that peace is possible only through force and deterrence. Yet peace, he warned, requires continuous construction and vigilance – especially among those with the greatest capacity for destruction.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the urgency of nuclear arms control, noting the impending expiry of the New START Treaty in February, and warned of a return to an arms race with increasingly sophisticated weapons, including those shaped by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
AI, he said, \u201crequires appropriate and ethical management,\u201d together with regulatory frameworks that protect freedom and human responsibility.<\/p>\n
Migrants, prisoners, and the Jubilee\u2019s \u201cstructural\u201d spirit <\/p>\n
The Pope\u2019s defence of dignity extended to migrants and prisoners – two groups often treated as problems rather than persons.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery migrant is a person,\u201d he said, and therefore has \u201cinalienable rights that must be respected in every situation.\u201d Not all migration is chosen. He explained that many flee \u201cviolence, persecution, conflict, and even the effects of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Pope warned that efforts against crime and trafficking must not become a pretext \u201cfor undermining the dignity of migrants and refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spoke of prisoners, insisting they \u201ccan never be reduced to the crimes they have committed.\u201d He thanked governments that responded to Pope Francis\u2019 Jubilee appeal for gestures of clemency, and expressed hope that the Jubilee spirit would inspire justice systems \u201cpermanently and structurally,\u201d ensuring humane conditions and proportionate penalties.<\/p>\n
Above all, he stressed, this includes abolishing the death penalty, which the Pope called a measure that \u201cdestroys all hope of forgiveness and renewal.\u201d He did not forget \u201cprisoners held for political reasons in many countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crisis of language and the shrinking of freedom <\/p>\n
Another theme of the Pope’s address was the warning about language itself: its weakening, its manipulation, and its conversion into an instrument of harm.<\/p>\n
\u201cRediscovering the meaning of words is perhaps one of the primary challenges of our time,\u201d he said, because when words lose their connection to reality, reality itself becomes \u201cdebatable and ultimately incommunicable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled how Saint Augustine describes two people forced to remain together without a shared language: \u201cdumb animals\u2026 understand each other more easily than these two individuals,\u201d Augustine writes; indeed, \u201ca man would more readily converse with his dog than with a foreigner!\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, the Pope warned, semantic ambiguity today is not merely accidental. \u201cLanguage is becoming more and more a weapon with which to deceive, or to strike and offend opponents,\u201d he said, calling for words \u201cto express distinct and clear realities unequivocally,\u201d so that authentic dialogue can resume – in families, in politics, in the media, on social media, and in international relations.<\/p>\n
He noted a paradox: this weakening of language is often defended \u201cin the name of freedom of expression,\u201d yet, \u201con closer inspection, the opposite is true,\u201d because freedom is protected precisely when language is anchored in truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is painful to see how, especially in the West, the space for genuine freedom of expression is rapidly shrinking,\u201d he said, warning of \u201ca new Orwellian-style language\u201d which, while seeking to be inclusive, \u201cends up excluding those who do not conform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freedom of conscience and religious freedom <\/p>\n
From language, the Pope moved to rights increasingly threatened in contemporary societies: freedom of conscience and religious freedom.<\/p>\n
He defended conscientious objection as a safeguard for dignity, noting that \u201cConscientious objection is not rebellion, but an act of fidelity to oneself.\u201d It reflects the truth that a free society \u201cdoes not impose uniformity but protects the diversity of consciences,\u201d preventing authoritarian tendencies and fostering ethical dialogue.<\/p>\n
Religious freedom, the Pope said, is also at risk. Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, he recalled it as \u201cthe first of all human rights.\u201d He noted that violations are rising worldwide, with \u201csixty-four percent of the world\u2019s population\u201d suffering serious violations of this right.<\/p>\n
The Holy See, he said, asks full respect for Christians, and \u201cthe same for all other religious communities.\u201d On the sixtieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, he reiterated the \u201ccategorical rejection of all forms of antisemitism,\u201d and stressed the importance of Jewish-Christian dialogue and deeper common roots.<\/p>\n
At the same time, he said, the persecution of Christians remains among the most widespread human rights crises today, affecting \u201cover 380 million believers worldwide,\u201d with high or extreme levels of discrimination and violence.<\/p>\n
He recalled victims of violence in Bangladesh, the Sahel, and Nigeria, and those killed in the terrorist attack last June on the parish of Saint Elias in Damascus, as well as victims of jihadist violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to subtler discrimination against Christians even in majority-Christian societies, including in Europe and the Americas, where Christians may be restricted from proclaiming the Gospel – especially when they defend \u201cthe dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The right to life <\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed that the right to life is the foundation of every other right and warned that the contemporary human rights framework risks losing its vitality when rights become detached from reality and truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the current context, we are seeing an actual \u2018short circuit\u2019 of human rights,\u201d he said, as fundamental freedoms – speech, conscience, religion, even life – are restricted \u201cin the name of other so-called new rights,\u201d creating space for force and oppression.<\/p>\n
The Pope spoke about the family as the privileged place where human beings learn to love and to serve life.<\/p>\n
He described two urgent challenges: the tendency to marginalise the family\u2019s role in the international system, and the painful reality of fragile families afflicted by hardship and domestic violence.<\/p>\n
He reiterated the Church\u2019s categorical rejection of practices that \u201cdeny or exploit the origin of life” as well as projects that assist people in doing so. Public resources, he said, should support mothers and families rather than \u201csuppress life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeds of peace and the courage to forgive <\/p>\n
Despite the gravity of his diagnosis, Pope Leo XIV insisted that peace remains \u201ca difficult yet realistic good.\u201d Quoting Augustine, he called peace \u201cthe aim of our good,\u201d a foretaste of the City of God even within the earthly city.<\/p>\n
Peacemaking, he said, requires \u201chumility and courage: the humility to live truthfully and the courage to forgive.\u201d These virtues, he added, are revealed at Christmas – when Truth becomes humble flesh – and at Easter, when the condemned Righteous One forgives and grants life as the Risen One.<\/p>\n
Bringing his discourse to a close, Pope Leo pointed to signs of hope: the Dayton Accords that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina thirty years ago; the Joint Declaration of Peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan signed last August; and efforts by Vietnamese authorities to improve relations with the Holy See. These are \u201cseeds of peace,\u201d he said, that must be cultivated.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to October\u2019s eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, \u201ca man of peace and dialogue,\u201d the Pope concluded by invoking the saint\u2019s witness of humility and truth, and wishing \u201ca humble and peace-loving heart\u201d for all at the beginning of the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meeting members of the Diplomatic Corps, Pope Leo XIV warns that human rights and freedoms are under strain…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7838,8884,50,36008,3417,32322,131,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-504030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-diplomacy","9":"tag-haiti","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-peace","12":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","13":"tag-venezuela","14":"tag-war","15":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115865915395165937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}