Leo XIV: we need 'a strong and courageous no to war and a yes to peace and fraternity'
Pope Leo XIV gave a speech during the III World Meeting on Human Fraternity, calling for peace and fraternity and recalling the biblical story of Cain and Abel. He thanked the Nobel Peace Laureates present and emphasised the importance of choosing a different direction in life and development.
2' min read
2' min read
This morning Pope Leo XIV received in private audience the organisers of the III World Meeting on Human Fraternity, organised by St Peter's Basilica, the Fratelli tutti Foundation, the Be Human Association and the Saint Peter for Humanity Foundation. The very assorted parterre included a large number of Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Iraqi Nadia Murad, American Jody Williams, Liberian Leymah Gbowee, the Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, the Russian Dimitri Muratov, the Ukrainian Oleksandra V'jačeslavivna Matvijčuk, the Filipina Maria Ressa and the Congolese Denis Mukwege. The Pope personally thanked them in his speech for their presence.
There were also, among others, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Elena Beccalli, Elon Musk's mother, in a black dress, Vincenzo Gesmundo, Secretary General of Coldiretti, Paolo Ruffini, Enrico Giovannini, Ermete Realazzi, President of the Symbola Foundation, Simona Agnes, RAI board member, Father Enzo Fortunato, Father Paolo Benanti, Enzo Cursio, coordinator of the FAO Nobel Alliance for Food Security and Peace, Nicola Monti, managing director of Edison, Orazio Iacono, managing director of Hera, and the director of Sole 24 Ore, Radio 24, Radiocor, Fabio Tamburini.
Leo XIV, in his speech, explained that we need "a strong and courageous 'no' to war and a 'yes' to peace and fraternity. Indeed, as Pope Francis has taught us, war is not the right way out of conflicts'. The Pontiff also quoted the biblical story of Cain and Abel. "That first murder must not lead us to conclude: 'it has always been like this'. However ancient, however widespread, Cain's violence cannot be tolerated as 'normal'. On the contrary, the norm resonates in the divine question addressed to the perpetrator: 'Where is your brother?' It is in this question our vocation, the rule, the canon of justice. God does not take vengeance on Abel with Cain, but asks him a question that accompanies the whole path of history,' emphasised Pope Leo.
New forms of social charity, of alliances between knowledge
It is necessary "to identify paths, local and international, that develop new forms of social charity, of alliances between knowledge and of solidarity between generations," concluded Pope Leo in his audience to the participants at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity. "Let them be popular paths, which also include the poor, not as recipients of aid, but as subjects of discernment and speech". "We need an extended 'alliance of the human', founded not on power, but on care; not on profit, but on gift; not on suspicion, but on trust. Care, gift, trust' are 'pillars of an economy that does not kill'.
