Pope, U.S. Bishops Ask Faithful to Pray for Peace
By: Our Sunday Visitor
“The heart of the Church is torn apart from the cries that arise from places of war,” the pope said after his general audience on June 18
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The world must resist the allure of modern weapons, which threaten to give conflicts a ferocity surpassing that of previous wars, Pope Leo XIV said.
“The heart of the church is torn apart from the cries that arise from places of war,” he said after his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 18. “In particular from Ukraine, from Iran, from Israel, from Gaza.”
“We must not become accustomed to war,” the pope said. “Rather, we must push against the allure of powerful and sophisticated weapons as a temptation.”
Quoting the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (“Gaudium et Spes”), Pope Leo said that in modern-day warfare “scientific weapons of all kinds are used,” and consequently “its atrocity threatens to lead the combatants to a barbarity far greater than that of past times.”
“Therefore, in the name of human dignity and international law, I repeat to those responsible that which Pope Francis used to say: ‘War is always a defeat,'” the pope said. And, quoting another of his predecessors, Pope Pius XII, he added: “Nothing is lost with peace. All can be lost with war.”
Pope Leo’s message came a few days after he expressed deep concern over the “seriously deteriorating” situation in the Middle East shortly after Israeli airstrikes were carried out on nuclear sites in Iran and retaliatory drone attacks on Israel were launched on June 13.
“No one should ever threaten the existence of another,” the pope had said during an audience with pilgrims in Rome for the Holy Year 2025 on June 14. While it is right to hope for a world “free from the nuclear threat,” he said, “it is the duty of all nations to support the cause of peace, taking paths of reconciliation and promoting solutions that ensure security and dignity for all.”
On Tuesday, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, made a similar plea.
“We urge the United States and the broader international community to exert every effort to renew a multilateral diplomatic engagement for the attainment of a durable peace between Israel and Iran,” he said in a statement.