Peace Is a Duty That Unites Humanity, Pope Leo Tells Diplomats

Vatican City, December 13, 2025: Pope Leo XIV has called peace a shared duty that binds all humanity, urging diplomats to commit themselves to dialogue and reconciliation rather than conflict.

Addressing Italian diplomats during their Jubilee pilgrimage, the Pope highlighted hope as a defining virtue of diplomacy. He described hope as “the name the will takes on when it firmly strives for the good and the justice it feels as lacking,” stressing that genuine hope sustains efforts towards dialogue even amid tensions and difficulties.

The Pope said only those who truly hope continue to seek and support dialogue between parties, trusting that mutual understanding remains possible despite obstacles. He contrasted authentic diplomacy with approaches driven by self-interest or by fragile balances between rivals who conceal their real differences. True diplomacy, he said, shows itself in the capacity to reach sincere and lasting agreements.

Drawing on the example of Jesus, Pope Leo urged diplomats to embrace reconciliation and peace, describing Christ’s mediation between God and humanity as a source of hope for all peoples. Through this mediation, he said, human beings can experience dialogue as the foundation of their most essential relationships.

The Holy Father underlined honesty as a cornerstone of meaningful dialogue. He stressed the need to keep one’s word and to ensure that actions remain consistent with spoken commitments. Such integrity, he noted, requires educating language “in the school of listening and dialogue.”

“To be authentic Christians and honest citizens,” the Pope said, “means sharing a vocabulary capable of expressing things as they are, without duplicity, cultivating harmony among peoples.” He encouraged diplomats to use language that builds trust and reflects truth, rather than serving manipulation or division.

Recalling Pope Paul VI’s historic appeal to the United Nations sixty years ago, Pope Leo echoed the same urgent plea: “No more war, war never again! Peace, peace must guide the destinies of peoples and of all humanity!”

Peace, he continued, represents a universal responsibility rooted in the common search for justice. It stands, he said, as “the definitive and eternal good that we hope for everyone.”

Concluding his address, Pope Leo called on diplomats to become “men and women of dialogue,” capable of reading the signs of the times with wisdom. He urged them to draw inspiration from Christian humanism, which he described as a foundational element of Italian and European culture, and to place that heritage at the service of peace and unity across the world.

Peace Is a Duty That Unites Humanity, Pope Leo Tells Diplomats

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