Pope Leo XIV was and is as clear as Pope John XXIII with "Pacem in terris" or as Paul VI with "Populorum progressio" and just like John Paul II who raised his voice against the war in Iraq, like Pope Benedict and Pope Francis who spoke out against the building of walls and a war where everyone loses.
Leo could not be different from his predecessors and certainly could not go against the Gospel of the Resurrection where the first word of the risen Christ is "Shalom, Salam, Peace".
Of course, the words of Pope Prevost cannot be acceptable to everyone, especially to those who think that peace comes only through war. Si vis pacem para bellum (if you want peace, prepare for war) is an always losing logic for humanity. Si vis pacem para pacem (if you want peace, prepare for peace): this is the winning logic, although the most difficult, but the safest.
Pope Leo's words, from the first minutes of his pontificate on May 8 of last year, have been for a "disarmed and disarming peace." It could not be otherwise in the current context of an absurd war, just as absurd as the one in Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and many other countries. Just as every war is absurd.
Pope Leo speaks in the name of the Gospel and in the name of the victims and peoples who suffer the consequences of an obesity of the ego of the powerful of this world. He says it without fear or shame, because he believes and has this mission.
Anyone who sees in Pope Leo a "weakling," a voice against the logic of war, is right. He does not speak with the force of arms, but with the fragility of the Word, because the Word is disarming, but sharper than a two-edged sword.
And the world today needs this universal moral and spiritual voice even when it is against the powerful of the world. He, and all of us with him, must not stop demanding the cessation of war and the respect of international law. Just as Pope Leo XIV said, we ask all leaders of the peoples, including those in Albania, to be factors of peace in the world and in the region. With war we all lose, with peace we all win.
