Pope Leo XIV is calling Christians to recognize that the devastation caused by war does not end when the fighting stops, warning that armed conflict can leave lasting wounds on families, communities and creation itself.
In his message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, published by the Holy See Press Office and reported by Vatican News, the Holy Father connected the pursuit of peace with care for human life, relationships and the natural world.
“War leaves wounds that extend far beyond the battlefield,” Pope Leo said, according to Vatican News.
The Pope warned that conflict “claims lives, tears families apart and forces millions to flee their homes, thereby deepening fear, injustice and division.” He added that war can leave behind “social and ecological destruction that endures for generations.”
The Catholic Church will observe the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1. This year’s theme draws from Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
Pope Leo used that biblical image to call for a radically different approach to building peace.
“The true tools for building peace are not weapons of destruction; instead, they are truth, dialogue, patience, goodness, justice, mercy, understanding, care and love,” the Pope said, according to Vatican News.
Those virtues, he explained, flow from hearts formed by the Gospel and sustained by the grace of God. The challenge facing humanity, therefore, is not simply political. Pope Leo presented war and the exploitation of creation as symptoms of a deeper moral and spiritual crisis.
“War stands as a counter-witness to the Gospel of peace,” he said.
The Pope also highlighted the relationship between armed conflict and environmental destruction. According to Vatican News, he warned that warfare can destroy ecosystems, contaminate essential resources such as air and water, and undermine food security. Such destruction can intensify poverty and inequality while creating new social tensions capable of contributing to further conflict.
For Pope Leo, responding to these crises requires Christians to examine not only institutions and political structures but also the state of the human heart.
“In order to build a peaceful society, there is the need not only to reform structures but also to renew our hearts,” he said.
The Holy Father identified the desire for domination, pursuit of immediate profit, loss of a sense of limits and failure to recognize the God-given dignity of every person among the deeper causes contributing to conflict and the exploitation of creation.
The answer, he said, involves personal and collective conversion through cooperation with God’s grace.
“Without this inner transformation, peace will remain fragile and short-lived,” Pope Leo warned. “But where hearts are renewed, new possibilities begin to open.”
At the center of the Pope’s message is the peace offered by Jesus Christ. Quoting the Gospel of John, he recalled Christ’s words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
This peace, Pope Leo said, is “neither superficial nor fleeting,” but comes from the enduring love of Christ and His care for every human person.
The Pope urged Christians to allow that peace to transform how they treat one another and the world entrusted to their care. Resources and human efforts once directed toward destruction, he suggested, can instead serve life and human dignity.
“What has been used for destruction can be redirected toward life, toward the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation,” he said.
Despite the scale of war, suffering and environmental degradation throughout the world, Pope Leo’s message ultimately points toward Christian hope rather than despair. God, he stressed, continues to provide humanity with the means for healing and transformation.
“In place of the weapons of war, the God of peace grants us the strength to heal, to reconcile and to build a civilization of love,” Pope Leo said.
The Holy Father concluded with a prayer that the biblical vision chosen for this year’s observance might become a reality in the modern world.
“May the Lord grant us the courage to walk along this path, so that in our time, swords may indeed be beaten into plowshares, and the promise of the Gospel may take deeper root in our world, and the peace of Christ may reign over all of creation.”
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