Pope Leo has released his first papal message for the 59th World Day of Peace, which is held on January 1 each year.
In his message, the Pope turned to data about the different conflicts around the world, as well as to figures illustrating the increase in weapons usage.
POPE LEO XIV
Well, during 2024, global military spending increased by 9.4% compared to the previous year, confirming the trend that has been uninterrupted for ten years and reaching the figure of 2,718 billion dollars, or 2.5% of world GDP.
Pope Leo has repeatedly called for “an unarmed and disarming peace” since the beginning of his papacy in early May.
His message of peace also included critical dimensions—for example, he condemned the use of faith and the name of God to justify violence or armed struggle against others, calling it blasphemy.
POPE LEO XIV
Unfortunately, it is increasingly part of the contemporary panorama to drag the words of faith into the political struggle, to bless nationalism and to religiously justify violence and armed struggle. Believers must actively refute these forms of blasphemy that obscure the Holy Name of God.
Among all the topics he addressed, he also included the potential and dangerous misuse of artificial intelligence among political and military leaders.
POPE LEO XIV
A process of de-responsibility of political and military leaders is even taking shape, due to the increasing "delegation" to machines of decisions concerning the life and death of human persons. It is an unprecedented destructive spiral of the juridical and philosophical humanism on which any civilization rests and is safeguarded.
It was Pope Paul VI who established the World Day of Peace as an initiative of the Church to promote peace among peoples. The world then was in the grip of the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and various political, social, and nuclear tensions between nations.
Despite the overwhelming array of armed conflicts across the globe, Pope Leo nonetheless called for the faithful to foster a living hope born from the graces of the Jubilee Year.
