Pope blasts ‘irrationality’ of military deterrence in first annual peace message

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV insisted Thursday that peace was not only possible but necessary, as he blasted the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and the weaponization of faith in modern political discourse.

Leo made the comments in his first peace message, an annual exhortation that the Vatican prepares ahead of each New Year’s Day, when the Catholic Church marks its world day of peace.

In the short text, which was released at an emotional press conference, Leo reflected back on his first words as pope, uttered on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on May 8: “Peace be with you.”

In the message, Leo urged the faithful to not surrender to the idea that fear and darkness are normal, but to see peace as possible and realistic.

“When we treat peace as a distant ideal, we cease to be scandalized when it is denied, or even when war is waged in its name,” he said.

He blasted how private economic and financial interests were driving countries toward technological military advances, powered also by artificial intelligence, that were fueling the “irrationality” of military deterrence.

He called on believers of all religions to guard against the temptation to weaponize words and religion to commit violence in its name.

“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion,” he wrote.

In addition to the normal eight languages of Vatican texts, the message was also translated in Russian and Ukrainian given Moscow’s war.

To bring home the horror of war and political violence, the Vatican press conference featured two searing eyewitness accounts of some of Europe’s past horrors: the Bosnian war and left-wing domestic terrorism that tormented Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.

Maria Agnese Moro, whose father, the former Italian Premier Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and killed in 1978 by the Red Brigades, described her experience with restorative justice: Fifteen years ago, she met with members of the Red Brigades in a facilitated dialogue that allowed both sides to speak of their pain in a way that humanized them to one another.

“Every word I say hurts them, but it recognizes their humanity,” she said. “Every word they say hurts me, but it recognizes my humanity: You are able to listen to us, to believe in our intentions of good at that time, disfigured by the violence used.”

“True listening is a mutual recognition of humanity,” she said.

The Rev Pero Miličević, a Croatian Catholic priest, told of the day in 1993 when a Muslim unit of the Bosnian army attacked his village, killing 39 people including his father, aunt and several cousins. His widowed mother and seven of her nine children were imprisoned in a war camp for seven months.

His voice trembling at times, Miličević said he and his family never could have survived the pain without their Catholic faith. Once he became a priest and began hearing confessions, he said he understood the need for peace, including interior peace that comes with forgiveness.

“Precisely that education in faith in God helped us to overcome the horrors of what we witnessed,” he said.

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