Pope Leo XIV urges interreligious peace at Assisi 40th anniversary meeting

Pope Leo XIV sent a video message to the Sant'Egidio International Meeting for Peace in Assisi, marking forty years since John Paul II's 1986 interreligious prayer day. He said war can never be waged in the name of God and called religious leaders to reject any religious justification of war. The message places shared interfaith peace-making at the centre of the response to global conflict, a pattern worth watching because it frames religion as a cause of war, while Scripture locates lasting peace in the return of Christ.