Vatican city: Warning that "war is back in vogue" and that peace is increasingly sought through force rather than justice, Pope Leo XIV issued a strong appeal for humility, dialogue, and a renewed commitment to multilateralism in his address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. Speaking on Friday, 9 January, during the traditional exchange of New Year greetings, the Pope cautioned that the foundations of international coexistence are being steadily undermined, as diplomacy based on dialogue gives way to the logic of power and deterrence.

According to National News Agency - Lebanon, the annual meeting between the Pope and Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See is considered one of the most significant moments in the Vatican's diplomatic calendar. Often dubbed the "State of the World" Address, the Pope's discourses on these occasions tend to offer a moral reading of international life - an appeal not to interests, but to conscience - offered at the beginning of a new year as a call to responsibility, restraint, and renewal.

Pope Leo XIV lamented the weakening of the principle established after the Second World War, by which nations pledged not to use force to violate the borders of others. "The principle. has been completely undermined," he said, warning that peace is increasingly sought "through weapons as a condition for asserting one's own dominion," a mentality that "gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence."

The Pope turned repeatedly to Saint Augustine to support his points, especially to De Civitate Dei (The City of God), in which Augustine reflects on pride, power, and the illusion of security. Even those who wage war, the Pope recalled, ultimately desire peace - yet not peace as a shared good, but peace as possession. Citing Augustine, he said, "They do not, therefore, wish to have no peace, but only the peace that they desire."

From the principles of law, Pope Leo XIV moved to the concrete cost of war - especially when civilians become targets, and when essential infrastructure is destroyed. "I would like to draw particular attention to the importance of international humanitarian law," he said. Compliance cannot depend on "mere circumstances and military or strategic interests." Rather, he said, humanitarian law "is a commitment that States have made," and "must always prevail over the ambitions of belligerents."

The Pope then applied this moral framework to specific crises across the world. He spoke of the "ongoing war in Ukraine" and the suffering of civilians, reiterating "the pressing need for an immediate ceasefire," and calling for dialogue "motivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace."

At the root of many of these crises, Pope Leo XIV said, lies the persistent belief that peace is possible only through force and deterrence. Yet peace, he warned, requires continuous construction and vigilance - especially among those with the greatest capacity for destruction. He pointed to the urgency of nuclear arms control, noting the impending expiry of the New START Treaty in February, and warned of a return to an arms race with increasingly sophisticated weapons, including those shaped by artificial intelligence.

The Pope's defence of dignity extended to migrants and prisoners - two groups often treated as problems rather than persons. "Every migrant is a person," he said, and therefore has "inalienable rights that must be respected in every situation." Not all migration is chosen. He explained that many flee "violence, persecution, conflict, and even the effects of climate change."

Another theme of the Pope's address was the warning about language itself: its weakening, its manipulation, and its conversion into an instrument of harm. "Rediscovering the meaning of words is perhaps one of the primary challenges of our time," he said, because when words lose their connection to reality, reality itself becomes "debatable and ultimately incommunicable."

From language, the Pope moved to rights increasingly threatened in contemporary societies: freedom of conscience and religious freedom. He defended conscientious objection as a safeguard for dignity, noting that "Conscientious objection is not rebellion, but an act of fidelity to oneself." It reflects the truth that a free society "does not impose uniformity but protects the diversity of consciences," preventing authoritarian tendencies and fostering ethical dialogue.

Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed that the right to life is the foundation of every other right and warned that the contemporary human rights framework risks losing its vitality when rights become detached from reality and truth. "In the current context, we are seeing an actual 'short circuit' of human rights," he said, as fundamental freedoms - speech, conscience, religion, even life - are restricted "in the name of other so-called new rights," creating space for force and oppression.

Despite the gravity of his diagnosis, Pope Leo XIV insisted that peace remains "a difficult yet realistic good." Quoting Augustine, he called peace "the aim of our good," a foretaste of the City of God even within the earthly city. Peacemaking, he said, requires "humility and courage: the humility to live truthfully and the courage to forgive."