Pope Leo XIV urges an end to selfish nationalism, calling peace a divine gift and human responsibility rooted in compassion and prayer.
Newsroom (25/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) In a powerful new message accompanying the English-language release of Peace Be with You!—a collection of papal texts published by HarperCollins—Pope Leo XIV warns that the rise of “bitter nationalism” is “trampling on the rights of the weakest.” His words, written as an introduction to the volume, are a sober reflection on the moral foundations of peace, which he calls “one of the great issues of our time.”
“We live in a world wounded by too many conflicts and struck by bloody hostilities,” Leo writes, lamenting the fractures that both divide nations and corrode individual compassion. He describes peace as a reality that is both transcendent and human—a “gift from God built by men and women throughout the ages,” yet also “a commitment and responsibility for each one of us.”
Drawing on St. Augustine, the pope portrays peace as a dialogue between divine grace and human goodwill: a gift offered through Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and his greeting to the disciples after the Resurrection. But Leo stresses that peace is never merely theoretical. It must be lived “concretely” in daily life—rooted in small acts of respect and understanding. “Peace means teaching children to respect others and not to bully others when they play,” he writes. “Peace means overcoming our personal pride and making room for the other—in our family, at work, in sports.”
For Leo, this transformation begins within. “Peace is when our heart and our life are inhabited by silence, meditation, and listening to God,” he says. “Because God never blesses violence, he never approves of taking advantage of others, or of the frenzied abuse of the one Earth that is disfiguring creation, a caress of the Creator.”
The pope connects personal conversion to global renewal, warning against what he calls the “globalization of powerlessness.” In response, he urges prayer—not as a retreat from action, but as a disarming force for the good. “Prayer is an ‘unarmed’ power that seeks only the common good, without exclusions,” he writes. “By praying, we disarm our ego and become capable of gratuitousness and sincerity.”
Leo identifies the true battleground for peace not in world capitals or on front lines, but within each individual. “Our heart is the most important battlefield,” he observes. “It is there that we must learn the bloodless but necessary victory over the impulses of death and the tendencies toward domination: Only peaceful hearts can build a world of peace.”
To cultivate this inner peace, Leo proposes “nonviolent workshops” in communities—spaces where “suspicion of others can become an opportunity for encounter.” These, he suggests, allow people to learn “to meet rather than clash with each other, to trust and not mistrust, to listen and understand instead of closing ourselves to others.”
Yet the pope’s call is not addressed only to individuals. He extends it to political and international leaders, whom he urges to embrace the “arts of dialogue and diplomacy” in mediating conflicts. Peace, he insists, demands responsibility from every level of human society: from hearts changed in humility to governments capable of fostering reconciliation.
Pope Leo concludes his reflection with a prayer drawn from St. Augustine, asking that God grant “the blessing grace of a just and lasting peace,” especially for those “most forgotten and who suffer the most.” It is a message that intertwines theology and empathy, echoing an ancient truth newly spoken for an age still divided: peace, in the end, begins in the human heart.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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