Pope Leo. Credit line: ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
Pope Leo XIV warned on Thursday, January 1, that the world is not saved by sharpening swords, but by forgiveness and understanding, during the first Liturgy of the new year, reports EFE, quoted by Agerpres.
It is the first time that Leo XIV spends a New Year as pope, having been elected in May 2025, after the death of Pope Francis. On Thursday, he celebrated the traditional Liturgy in the Solemnity of Mary, the Most Holy Theotokos, in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
The American Augustinian pontiff invoked St. Augustine to assert that one of God's fundamental characteristics is his unconditional love, as he presents himself as a newborn child, naked and helpless in a manger.
The opening of the new year 2026 is for everyone an opportunity for a new life, marked by the ability to forgive, he said in front of the approximately 5,000 believers listening to him.
For this reason, he recommended that this year – when the Jubilee inaugurated by Francis comes to an end, on January 6 – people should come closer to faith to embrace an idea of peace “disarmed and disarming”, for the special benefit of the humblest.
“Let this be our commitment, our goal for the coming months and for our entire Christian life,” he urged.
The New Year coincides with the World Day of Peace, which reaches its 59th edition, and on December 8 the American pontiff published his first message on this occasion.
In the text entitled “Peace be with you all. Towards a disarmed and disarming peace”, Leo XIV warned first of all that, today, there are not a few who call realistic narratives without hope for life on the planet.
Thus, he showed that, throughout 2024, world military spending increased by 9.4% compared to the previous year, which reveals an enormous economic effort on the part of countries for rearmament, despite the tragedies of the wars of the last century.
“When we treat peace as a distant ideal, we come to stop finding it scandalous that it is denied and even that wars are waged to achieve it. It seems that concrete ideas, well-thought-out statements, the ability to proclaim that peace is at hand, are missing,” he denounced.
Thus, Leo XIV was also expressing his concern that, politically, and beyond the principle of legitimate defense, destabilization at the planetary level is becoming more dramatic and unpredictable every day.
“It is no coincidence that the repeated calls for increased military spending and the decisions that it entails are presented by many rulers with the justification of the danger represented by others.”
