Overview
- Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural World Day of Peace message calls for an “unarmed and disarming” vision of peace rooted in conversion of hearts and dialogue.
- He condemns the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and warns against using religious language to justify nationalism or violence.
- The text cites 2024 global military outlays rising 9.4% to $2.7 trillion as evidence of a destabilizing turn toward rearmament.
- Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence in battlefield decision-making, are criticized as a betrayal of humanist legal and moral principles.
- The Vatican presented the message at a press conference featuring testimonies from Italy’s Red Brigades era and the Bosnian war, with translations also issued in Russian and Ukrainian.