The cry of the peoples and the Pope's voice for peace

On 20 August 2025, at the end of the general audience in the Paul VI Hall, Pope Leo XIV delivered to the world an appeal that interprets the prevailing sentiment of humanity: a choral cry asking for peace. "I invite all the faithful to live the day of 22 August in fasting and prayer, beseeching the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to dry the tears of those who suffer because of the ongoing conflicts". With these words, the Pontiff gave voice to a question that is not only spiritual but profoundly human, universal, capable of transcending all religious and cultural boundaries. In his invocation to the Virgin Mary Queen of Peace, the Pope asked that the horror of war be banished from every people and that the minds of those with political and diplomatic responsibilities be enlightened. He recalled that without forgiveness there will never be peace, and that true forgiveness does not wait for repentance but offers itself first. Words that are not rhetoric but a call to the concreteness of life, because forgiveness is not an abstract concept but an act that breaks the spiral of violence and opens up the possibility of the future.

These words resonate in a dramatic context. The war in Gaza continues to claim innocent victims. According to the Ministry of Health in the Strip, as of 17 August 2025, there are at least 61,897 dead, with more than 155,000 injured, and more than 10,000 killed since the resumption of the Israeli offensive in the spring alone. UNICEF has reported that more than 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured, speaking of a 'relentless slaughter' of the youngest. Independent estimates, such as those published in The Lancet, indicate that the real toll could be even higher, exceeding 70,000 victims by autumn. The carnage of children in Gaza is not just a statistic, but the most tragic face of a world that has lost its way. Added to this tragedy is the unstoppable growth of global military spending: in 2024 it reached $2,718 billion, an increase of 9.4 per cent over the previous year, the highest since the end of the Cold War. More than half of this figure is attributable to NATO countries, with over 1.5 trillion. In Europe, spending already stands at 2% of GDP, with plans to increase it to 5% by 2035.

Now, the EU has launched hundreds of billions of euros worth of rearmament plans, while millions of people around the world are denied access to clean water, education, health. It is a disproportion that cries out to heaven: on the one hand the broken lives of innocent children, on the other the blind rush to invest in instruments of death. It is on this imbalance that the Pope's voice becomes even more urgent, because peace is not built with weapons but with care for the person, with social policies that reduce inequalities and suffering, with economic choices capable of generating justice and opportunity. Praying for peace is not a ritual gesture, but a commitment to transform collective priorities: less spending on armaments, more resources for schools, health, dignity of work. Peace, Leo XIV reminds us, is the fruit of forgiveness and justice, and without a fertile soil of solidarity and sharing it will never flourish. Today his voice echoes the cry of the peoples and asks us not to remain indifferent:

True security comes from investing in people, in their dignity, in their future. This is where the Gospel and reason meet. St Augustine recalls: 'Pax omnium rerum tranquillitas ordinis', the peace of all things is the tranquillity of order. Only by ordering our choices to that which promotes life and reduces inequalities can we finally experience the peace we invoke so strongly today.