{"id":124344,"date":"2026-04-06T12:37:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T11:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/?p=124344"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T21:53:59","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-urges-world-leaders-to-lay-down-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/pope-leo-xiv-urges-world-leaders-to-lay-down-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV urges world leaders to lay down weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"PDF<\/span><\/a>\"image_print\"PRINT<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Pope Leo XIV has called on world leaders to lay down their weapons and choose \u201cencounter\u201d over domination.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet those who have weapons lay them down!\u201d, the Pope urged on Easter Sunday in his traditional\u00a0Urbi et Orbi\u00a0<\/em>(\u2018To the City and the World\u2019) message.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo urged “those who have the power to unleash wars” to chose peace.<\/p>\n

This should not be a peace \u201cimposed by force\u201d, he stressed, but one achieved through dialogue \u2013 \u201cnot with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The \u2018globalisation of indifference\u2019<\/strong><\/b><\/p><\/h2><\/div>

Pope Leo warned that the world is \u201cgrowing accustomed to violence\u201d. We are \u201cbecoming indifferent\u201d, he said, not only to the deaths of thousands of people, but to the \u201chatred and division\u201d war causes, as well as its \u201ceconomic and social consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Borrowing a phrase from the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo warned of the \u201cever-increasing \u2018globalisation of indifference\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot continue to be indifferent!\u201d, he urged. \u201cWe cannot resign ourselves to evil!\u201d. For this reason, he said, he would be leading a prayer vigil for peace next Saturday, April 11th, in St Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Nonviolence and ‘true strength’<\/strong><\/b><\/p><\/h2><\/div>

At Easter, the Pope said, Jesus won victory over death, and thereby \u201cdefeated once and for all the ancient adversary, the prince of this world\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Pope Leo stressed, the power with which Christ won this victory is \u201centirely nonviolent\u201d, based on a love which \u201ccreates and generates\u201d, \u201cforgives and redeems\u201d. This spirit of love and forgiveness, he said, is the \u201ctrue strength\u201d that establishes peace, and fosters relationships amongst individuals and societies.<\/p>\n

Bringing his\u00a0Urbi et Orbi\u00a0<\/em>message to a close, the Pope stressed that Easter peace is not merely \u201cthe silence of weapons\u201d but also an inner peace which \u201ctouches and transforms the heart of each one of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us allow ourselves to be transformed by the peace of Christ\u201d, Pope Leo urged, entrusting to the Lord “all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only he can give.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

* Article published in Vatican News. Written by Joseph Tulloch. Photo: Vatican<\/em><\/a> Media.<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":124347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3386,3367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-see","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124354,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124344\/revisions\/124354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}