{"id":4726,"date":"2026-05-16T17:49:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/fr\/pope-leo-xiv-the-pope-of-peace\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:36:55","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-the-pope-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/pope-leo-xiv-the-pope-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV: the Pope of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the very first moments of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV made clear that peace would stand at the heart of his mission as Successor of Peter. Speaking to the world from the balcony of Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica following his election, the Holy Father immediately placed the theme of peace before the faithful and the nations of the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo all people wherever they may be, to all nations, to the whole earth: peace be with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For many Catholics listening across the globe, those first words resonated deeply at a moment marked by war, instability, and growing international tensions. Throughout the first year of his pontificate, Pope Leo has consistently returned to the theme of peace, making it one of the defining characteristics of his papacy.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"From the First Words of Pax Vobis: Pope Leo&#039;s Mission of Peace\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B_Q5tfIsux8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Peace as the Leitmotif of Pope Leo\u2019s Pontificate<\/p>\n<p>According to Prof. Giulio Alfano, deputy director of the Peace Sciences program at the Pontifical Lateran University, the pope\u2019s message has become a guiding thread throughout his pastoral ministry and international outreach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat phrase, \u2018peace be with you,\u2019 has become something of the leitmotif of this journey, of these visits. He is a Pope who wants to bring not only the message of peace, but also the path that the Church offers for making peace a reality, at an extraordinarily difficult moment, because we are living through a time of profound crisis. Peace seems almost impossible to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pontifical Lateran University, the only pontifical university offering a specialized degree in Peace Sciences, has become one of the intellectual centers reflecting the Church\u2019s commitment to promoting peace in the modern world. Established by Pope Francis in 2018 through the letter The Desire for Peace, the program reflects the Holy See\u2019s longstanding diplomatic and pastoral mission to encourage justice, reconciliation, and dialogue among nations.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Alfano explained that the Church occupies a unique place on the global stage because the Holy Father not only proclaims peace spiritually, but also advances it through the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and the Holy See\u2019s diplomatic engagement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Church has a great mission and at the same time a great challenge, because in today\u2019s world the Holy Father is the only one who not only carries the message of peace, but does so on the basis of a social doctrine, the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, rooted in the principle of subsidiarity, and through the relationships the Holy See maintains with all different nations, even in the most delicate, fragile, and difficult contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Holy See\u2019s Mission of Dialogue and Reconciliation<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo XIV emphasized from the beginning of his pontificate that the Holy See remains committed to serving as a bridge between peoples and nations in conflict. During his earliest audiences and diplomatic meetings, the pope repeatedly stressed the Vatican\u2019s willingness to facilitate dialogue and reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will make every effort so that this peace may prevail. The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The word \u201cpeace\u201d has appeared more than 400 times in the Holy Father\u2019s addresses during the first year of his pontificate, underscoring how central the theme has become to his ministry.<\/p>\n<p>That message has also shaped Pope Leo\u2019s apostolic journeys abroad, including visits to Turkey, Lebanon, and Africa, where appeals for reconciliation, justice, and fraternity consistently emerged as the defining focus of his speeches and encounters with the faithful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am here to proclaim peace!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo\u2019s Easter Appeal to the World<\/p>\n<p>The pope also made peace the centerpiece of his first Easter message, issuing a powerful appeal to world leaders and nations engaged in war and violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the past year, Pope Leo has met with numerous international leaders, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, using these encounters to encourage ceasefires, dialogue, and humanitarian solutions to ongoing conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the pope has repeatedly emphasized that peace is not simply the absence of war, but rather something that must be intentionally built through solidarity, cooperation, and mutual understanding.<\/p>\n<p>An \u201cUnarmed and Disarming\u201d Peace<\/p>\n<p>In his message for the 59th World Day of Peace, Pope Leo XIV presented his vision for what he described as an \u201cunarmed and disarming\u201d peace \u2014 an approach rooted not in political ideology, but in the Gospel itself.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Vincenzo Buonomo, scientific director of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, said the pope has already articulated a distinct \u201cmethod for peace\u201d during the early months of his pontificate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom Pope Leo, we have, so to speak, identified a method for peace: on the one hand, the humanization of politics \u2013 an expression he himself uses \u2013 and on the other, what he calls a \u2018diplomacy of fraternity.\u2019 When he said, from the very beginning of his pontificate, the famous phrase \u2018a disarmed and disarming peace,\u2019 he made us understand that there are two poles that must be placed around the theme of peace: cooperation on the one hand, and openness or availability on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As rector of the Pontifical Urban University and head of the institution responsible for training Vatican diplomats, Buonomo emphasized that the Church\u2019s pursuit of peace is fundamentally evangelical rather than political.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Church is the bearer of a message that is foundational: on the one hand, through grace and the sacraments, it is directed toward the salvation of souls; on the other, it is rooted in a particular commandment \u2013 one not found in the Decalogue \u2013 when Christ says: \u2018Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to all peoples,\u2019 I believe this is precisely the idea of peace: the Good News itself as peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Call for Every Christian to Build Peace<\/p>\n<p>Beyond diplomatic initiatives and appeals to world leaders, Pope Leo XIV has consistently reminded Catholics that the responsibility for peace belongs to every person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wish to tell the whole world that it is possible to build peace, a new peace; that it is possible to live together with all peoples of every religion and every race; that we wish to be disciples of Jesus Christ, united as brothers and sisters, all united in a world of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Pope Leo XIV continues the first year of his pontificate, his repeated appeals for reconciliation, fraternity, and dialogue are increasingly shaping the identity of his papacy \u2014 a pontificate rooted in the conviction that the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains the world\u2019s truest path to peace.<\/p>\n<p>Adapted by Jacob Stein<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/ewtnvatican.com\/articles\/pope-leo-xiv-the-pope-of-peace\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/ewtnvatican.com\/articles\/pope-leo-xiv-the-pope-of-peace<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the very first moments of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV made clear that peace would stand at the heart of his mission as Successor of Peter. Speaking to the world from the balcony of Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica following his election, the Holy Father immediately placed the theme of peace before the faithful and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":4725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vatican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4758,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions\/4758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewtnafrique.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}