Pope Leo XIV, during Saturday’s prayer vigil for peace in the world, appealed: “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!” In St. Peter’s Basilica, he called for the moral and spiritual forces of billions of people who choose peace to be united. He also recalled the Polish Pope, St. John Paul II.
“War divides, hope unites. Violence tramples, love raises up. Idolatry blinds,” said Leo XIV.
“Let us lift up our gaze! Let us rise from the ruins! Nothing can confine us to a fate supposedly already decided, not even in this world, where it seems there are no longer enough graves, because life continues to be crucified and destroyed, without law and without mercy,” he stated.
Leo XIV, calling St. John Paul II an “untiring witness of peace,” recalled his words from March 2003: “I belong to the generation that lived through the Second World War and experienced it. I have the duty to say to all young people, younger than myself, who have not had this experience: never again war. (…) We must do everything in our power! We know well that peace cannot exist at any price. But we all know how great this responsibility is.”
“This evening, I take his appeal as my own, how timely it is,” declared Leo XIV.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and of money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is revealed in service to life. Let us therefore unite the moral and spiritual forces of millions, billions of men and women, the elderly and the young, who today believe in peace, who today choose peace, who care for wounds and repair the damage left by the madness of war,”
said Pope Leo XIV.