Overview
- Pope Leo XIV closed the Sant’Egidio International Meeting for Peace in Rome on October 28 by addressing a multifaith assembly at the Colosseum.
- He warned against instrumentalizing religion, saying those who practice it without prayer risk misusing it to the point of killing and rejecting efforts to drag God into wars.
- The Pope pressed political leaders to treat ending war as a solemn duty before God, insisting that peace is the priority of politics and that leaders will be held to account.
- He situated the message within the long trajectory of interreligious dialogue inspired by John Paul II’s 1986 Assisi meeting and by the Church’s teaching in Nostra Aetate.
- Religious leaders issued a joint appeal decrying nationalism, racial hatred and the erosion of law, urging a disarmed peace, as Sant’Egidio announced next year’s gathering will return to Assisi.