The Vatican Publishing House has released a new book by Pope Leo XIV titled Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift. Edited by Alessandro Banfi, the volume gathers the Pope’s addresses and reflections on peace since his election on 8 May 2025. The collection, released first in Italian with an English edition to follow, opens with a previously unpublished text by the Pope.
“Peace be with you” was the Risen Jesus’ first greeting to his apostles. This was also the first gift the risen Christ offered to his friends and to the whole world: peace. That gift, however, did not come “cheap”: the glorious body of the Master of Nazareth showed the wounds of the Passion. “Peace is the great desire that stirs many hearts, but it is also often threatened, trampled upon and derided,” Pope Leo writes. He notes that today 103 States are involved in some way in a war on Earth.
Weapons are killing in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, Congo and many other places. Like his predecessor Pope Francis, he describes this as a “third world war fought piecemeal.”“Above all, peace is a responsibility,” the Pope emphasizes. If our first instinct is to judge, accuse and condemn, then indifference and hatred will grow. “Peace instead, begins with me. It begins with us.” Citing Saint Augustine, he adds: “Live good lives, and you will change the times by living good lives.” We cannot ask world leaders for peace if we do not live it first in our families, homes, cities, and workplaces. Peace is built with small daily gestures: “the gift of a smile, an injury pardoned, a kind word.”
Peace is also built with truth. “No one has the audacity to declare that they want war for the sake of war,” the Pope observes. Recalling Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he echoes Saint John Paul II in calling war an “adventure with no return.” He also repeats Saint Paul VI’s appeal to the United Nations: “never again war, never again war! It is peace, peace, that has to guide the destiny of the nations.”“Above all in the atomic era, the affirmation of the truth must push through: it is not atomic weapons that generate peace, but disarmament.” The Pope warns that the truth once clear during decades of nuclear de-escalation has been obscured by a new race to armament that “today frightens and terrifies.” Citing Bob Dylan, he writes: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned an’ man-handled.” He then asks a stark question: “Must the human species continue to inhabit the Earth?” The combination of the cyber domain and global rearmament, he says, makes us seriously ask this.
“Peace seeks witnesses.” The book highlights figures like Blessed Floribert Bwana Chui, Giorgio La Pira and Dorothy Day, along with many “little-known protagonists” who fostered peace by overcoming corruption, helping the poor, and supporting diplomacy.Pope Leo recalls 26 September 1983, when Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov disobeyed orders after radar falsely signaled a U.S. missile attack. “It was a decision that was made with the conscience of someone who knew that that simple gesture could have caused millions of deaths. The conscience of a single person can be worth the entire world.”
“Lastly, peace requires hope.” The Church, the Pope says, will continue to preach charity to all. “If there is one thing the world is seeking today, I believe it to be a message of peace for the future. Let us look to the future with hope, having found Jesus’ message as the only source.”To those tempted to despair before so many wars, he offers the invitation of Pope Pius XI: “Let us thank God that He makes us live among the present problems. It is no longer permitted to anyone to be mediocre.”“May God guide us on paths of non-violence. May believers and people of good will never stop working as builders of peace. May every person make peace his or her life’s cause.”