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Vatican City (Fides Agency) - Three chairs, which soon became two, placed in front of the baptistery in St. Peter's Basilica. Facing each other, Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky - for a quarter of an hour and on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral- engaged in intense dialogue on the possibilities for ending the bloody conflict in Ukraine. It was an image that in its own way recalled the criteria that have inspired the Holy See's contribution to attempts to resolve wars, conflicts, and international crises during the pontificate of Pope Francis. Fragments of what the Argentine pontiff himself had called the “world war in pieces.”
The paths of dialogue, negotiation, and disarmament are those that the last bishop of Rome, with the help of Vatican diplomacy, repeatedly encouraged, describing them as the only viable ways to find solutions for everyone in ongoing conflicts.
Starting with “tormented Syria,” which has always been close to the Argentine Pope's heart. The Pontiff gave voice to refugees and displaced persons fleeing the violence of a war that, as the Pope himself said, has risked turning into “brutal persecution” for those who profess other religions. Appeals for Syria, which have become a constant feature of the Easter Urbi et Orbi blessings, have been made during several Angelus and Regina Coeli prayers, as well as at the end of Wednesday's general audiences. Only a few years later, the same would happen with war-torn Ukraine.
“How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must still be endured before a political solution to the crisis can be found?” the Pope asked repeatedly, always calling for ‘courage’ and ‘determination’ to embark on the path of negotiations. He did so by proclaiming September 7, 2013, a day of prayer and penance for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, because, as he said during the Angelus prayer in which he announced this initiative, “Humanity needs to see gestures of peace and hear words of hope and peace!”
The gestures were followed by further words, including letters to heads of state, and finally by his physical presence: in spring 2016, he told Syrian refugees housed in the Moria camp in Lesbos: “I want to tell you that you are not alone.” When he returned to Rome, he took three Syrian families with him.
And that's not all. During his apostolic journey to the Holy Land in May 2014, the Pope paused to pray in front of the separation wall built by Israel near Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born. A few weeks later, the Pope brought together the then Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican to pray together for peace in the Middle East. On this occasion, an olive tree was planted in the Vatican Gardens in the presence of Patriarch Bartholomew I and a delegation of Christians, Jews, and Muslims from the Holy Land as a symbol of peace.
“Yes to keeping agreements and no to provocation; this requires courage,” said the Bishop of Rome in June 2024 before saying the closing prayer: “Many times and over many years, we have tried to resolve our conflicts with our own strength and even with our weapons; so many moments of hostility and darkness; so much blood shed; so many lives broken; so many hopes buried... But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, help us! Grant us peace, teach us peace, lead us to peace! Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!” ... And may these words—division, hatred, war—be banished from the hearts of every human being! Lord, disarm our tongues and our hands, renew our hearts and minds, so that the word we use to address one another may always be “brother,” and our lives may be expressed in “Shalom, Peace, Salam!” Amen.
Last year, on the tenth anniversary of this historic meeting, Pope Francis wanted to gather the entire diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See around this olive tree, which has since grown, to commemorate the embrace between the two presidents. The ambassadors of Israel and Palestine to the Holy See sat next to the Pope.
“Instead of pretending that war can solve problems and lead to peace, we must therefore be critical and vigilant toward an ideology that unfortunately prevails today, according to which 'conflict, violence, and divisions are part of the normal functioning of society.' It is always about power struggles between different social groups, about particular economic interests and about international political considerations that aim at an apparent peace and run away from the real problems. Instead, in a time marked by tragic conflicts, we need a new commitment to building a peaceful world. To all believers and people of good will, I say: Let us not cease to dream of peace and to build peaceful relationships!” These were the words spoken by the Pope in the early summer of 2024.
A similar initiative was launched in spring 2019, when the Pope invited the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of South Sudan to a two-day spiritual retreat in the Vatican. Contrary to protocol, Pope Francis knelt before them and kissed the shoes of the South Sudanese leaders:
“I implore that the fire of war may be extinguished once and for all.” Peace, according to the Bishop of Rome,“is the first gift that the Lord has given us, and it is the first duty that the leaders of nations must fulfill: peace is the fundamental condition for the respect of the rights of every human being and for the integral development of all peoples.” “Dear brothers and sisters, let us not forget that God has entrusted us, the political and religious leaders, with the task of guiding his people: he has entrusted much to us, and for this very reason he will demand all the more from us! He will ask us to give an account of our service and our office, of our commitment to peace and to the good we have done for the members of our communities, especially the poorest and most marginalised. In other words, he will ask us to give an account of our lives, but also of the lives of others.”
“Peace is possible,” it is ‘a great gift from God,’ but it also requires a commitment from people “in dialogue, in negotiation, and in forgiveness.” After his words to the Sudanese leadership, Pope Francis said something similar in an interview regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine: “Stronger is the one who thinks of the people, who has the courage to raise the white flag,” and “when you see that things are not going well, you must have the courage to negotiate,” which does not mean surrender, “negotiating is never surrender.” In Gaza, too, he added on that occasion, there is a conflict that “is involves two, not one. The irresponsible ones are these two who are waging war. Today, with the help of the international powers, we can negotiate. The word negotiate is courageous. We need not be ashamed to negotiate before the situation gets worse.”
Parallel to the path of dialogue runs the path of disarmament, from the demand for a ban on nuclear weapons to the condemnation of the arms race, the words of Pope Francis are in perfect continuity with those of his predecessors, from Benedict XV to Benedict XVI. The latter also advocated an end to the arms trade: “I would also say that the importation of arms must finally cease, because without the importation of arms, war could not continue. Instead of importing weapons, which is a grave sin, we should import ideas of peace and creativity; seek solutions that accept everyone in their otherness. We must therefore make visible in the world respect for religions, respect for human beings as creatures of God, and charity as fundamental to all religions.”
Pope Francis took up this concept again in 2019 when he received participants at a meeting of relief organizations of the Eastern Churches and said: “Those who have nothing to eat, who have no medical care, who have no school, the orphans, the wounded and the widows raise their voices to heaven. Even if people's hearts are insensitive, this is certainly not true of God's heart, which is wounded by the hatred and violence that can erupt among his creatures, and which is always touched and concerned with the tenderness and strength of a protective and guiding father. But sometimes I also think of the wrath of God that will be unleashed on those responsible in countries that talk about peace and sell weapons to wage these wars. This hypocrisy is a sin.”
Back in 2014, the Argentine pope had already said in his apostolic letter Evangelii gaudium: “There are economic systems that need to wage war to survive.” He repeated several times that the most profitable investments today are made in arms factories. On several occasions, especially in his Urbi et Orbi messages at Christmas and Easter, he called for weapons to be silenced and proposed the establishment of a world fund against hunger, to be financed with the money earmarked for arms. During the pandemic, while praying the Rosary in St. Peter's Basilica, he proposed the creation of another fund, this time for research and studies: “Holy Mary, stir consciences so that the enormous sums spent on increasing and perfecting weapons may instead be used to promote adequate studies to prevent similar disasters in the future.”
According to the latest figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for 2023, global military spending will reach a record high of $2.44 trillion, representing an increase of 6.8% over the previous year.
The US spent the most on weapons: $880 billion, followed by China ($309 billion) and Russia ($126 billion). If the military budget is divided by the number of inhabitants, the US spent an average of $2,694 per inhabitant. By comparison, Israel spent $29 billion in 2023, but achieved the highest per capita expenditure in the world: $2,997 per inhabitant.
Pope Francis' words on this subject are illuminating: “Certain decisions are not neutral: spending a large part of the budget on weapons means taking it away from something else, once again taking it away from those who lack the necessities. And that is a scandal. How much is spent on weapons is terrible. We must raise awareness that continuing to spend on weapons defiles the soul, the heart, humanity. What good is it if we all solemnly commit ourselves at the international level to campaigns against poverty, against hunger, against the destruction of the planet, if we then fall back into the old vice of war, into the old strategy of the power of arms, which sets everything and everyone back? War always leads to regression, always. We are going backwards.” (FB) (Fides Agency 29/4/2025)
