The Vatican has announced that Pope Leo XIV’s first message for the World Day of Peace will carry the theme: “Peace be with you all: Towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace.”
The Catholic Church observes the World Day of Peace each year on 1 January. The pope’s annual message is traditionally published in early December and distributed to world leaders through Vatican ambassadors. The document is also presented personally to visiting heads of state throughout the year.
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which helps prepare the message, released the theme on 26 August. It described the call as an invitation “to reject the logic of violence and war, and to embrace an authentic peace based on love and justice.”
The theme echoes Pope Leo’s first public words after his election on 8 May, when he greeted the crowds in St Peter’s Square with the peace of Christ. “It is the peace of the risen Christ,” he said, “a peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”
According to the dicastery, the peace the Church is praying for “must be unarmed, not built on fear, threats or weapons. And it must be disarming, capable of resolving conflicts, opening hearts and generating trust, empathy and hope.”
The announcement also stressed that peace must be lived out daily. “It is not enough to call for peace; we must embody it in a way of life that rejects every form of violence, whether visible or systemic,” the statement said.
On the same day, the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, revealed the release of a new volume collecting Pope Leo’s first speeches. The book, titled “Peace Be With You: Words to the Church and the World,” highlights the pope’s early focus on God’s primacy, unity in the Church, and the pursuit of peace.
The announcement noted that Pope Leo’s election coincided with the liturgical commemoration of the 19 martyrs of Algeria, including the Trappist monks of Tibhirine, who were killed during the country’s civil conflict in the 1990s.
Adapted from UCA News.
