ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV On Tuesday, he denounced any religious justification for the wars raging around the world, saying that “holy war does not exist.”
“Only peace is holy,” Leo said in a video message to a gathering of religious leaders in the hilltop Italian city of Assisi.
The American pope was supposed to chair the meeting in person, but had to cancel his participation as he recovers from his October 13 operation for lung cancer.
Instead, Leo sent a video message that was played to delegates, who included Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as Muslim, Buddhist and Christian leaders.
They were in Assisi, the birthplace of peace-loving St. Francis, to mark the 40th anniversary of a historic interfaith peace meeting called by St. John Paul II. This meeting, controversial at the time because it featured leaders of different faiths praying together, gave rise to a movement of interfaith appeals and rallies for peace.
In his message, the American pope denounced the “troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics” and its religious justifications by leaders.
“It is precisely in these times marked by a culture of power that it is necessary to cultivate the spirit of Assisi,” he said. “War can never be fought in the name of God,” he said. “We must rebuild peace everywhere, not prepare for new wars. »
Leaders use religion to justify war
The Russian Orthodox Church justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by calling it “holy war” against a Western world that he considers to have fallen into evil.
Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions. American officials, in particular Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, invoked their Christian faith to portray the war as a Christian nation trying to defeat its enemies with military might.
Leo has systematically rejected such justifications as a perversion of religion itself, most clearly in his first encyclical “Magnificent Humanity” in which he says that fighting in the name of religion “means attacking religion itself.”
Vatican provides new aid to Ukraine
The Assisi rally took place as the Vatican accelerates its humanitarian efforts for Ukraine following the entry into force of a localized ceasefire in the devastated town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine. The pope’s top alms donor, Monsignor Luis Marín de San Martín, began a three-day visit to Ukraine on Tuesday and brought several truckloads of winter clothes, blankets and food to kyiv for distribution.
Marín de San Martín planned to travel to kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Fastiv, Vatican News reported.
“We want to understand the needs directly and meet the local population, real people, real faces,” he told Vatican News. “Above all, we want to convey to them the concern and tender attention of the Holy Father. In their suffering, they are not alone.”
Leo had called for a ceasefire and the delivery of food and medicine to Oleshky, as well as the safe and voluntary evacuation of its population during a Telephone call of October 16 with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the pontiff initiated from the hospital where he was recovering from surgery.
Leo followed up three days later, back in the Vatican, by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the Vatican, Leo noted his call for a ceasefire to Putin and “expressed the hope that cooperation between the two sides will allow the delivery of food and medical aid, as well as the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population.”
The moves came after Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, papal envoy for the Ukraine-Russia war, completed his third mission to Moscow on September 30 and the first under Leo’s pontificate.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives AP support collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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