Pope Leo XIV Says There Is No Such Thing as a Holy War at Assisi Peace Meeting

Nearly 400 leaders from 53 countries sat in Assisi and heard a Pope who could not be in the room tell them, in a single sentence, that there is no such thing as a holy war. The room was full of people who lead different faiths, and the sentence landed the same way for all of them, because it left no room for any of them to claim God for a war.

Pope Leo XIV sent a video message on 27 October 2026 to religious leaders gathered in Assisi, Italy, for the International Meeting for Peace, organised by the Community of Sant'Egidio under the theme Unarmed and Disarming Peace. The three-day gathering, which concludes on 28 October, marks the 40th anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Peace that St John Paul II convened in Assisi in 1986. Nearly 400 leaders from 53 countries took part, according to CathNews.

Leo had planned to attend in person but cancelled on medical advice, and the Vatican announced the cancellation on 23 October and confirmed he would send a video message instead. He expressed regret at being unable to attend because of his recovery from surgery, after thoracic surgery on 13 October, and the advice included advice against helicopter travel. Leo recieved that advice as part of his recovery, and the video message was how he could still speak to Assisi.

Pope Leo XIV Assisi Message: There Is No Such Thing as a Holy War

Leo said there is no such thing as a holy war, and he added the line that has travelled furthest since: only peace is holy. He also said war can never be waged in the name of God, and he said the leaders gathered in Assisi must rebuild peace everywhere, not prepare for more wars. The three lines together make a single argument, and none of them leaves a gap for a religious exception to war.

There is no such thing as a holy war: only peace is holy.

That line comes from the video message Leo sent to the gathering in Assisi on 27 October, as reported by CathNews and the Korea Times. Quoting his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Leo said that for believers to fight in the name of religion means attacking religion itself. Hearing it in Assisi, on the 40th anniversary, gave it a weight the written page alone could not carry.

Leo thanked the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and Sant'Egidio for continuing the path of his predecessors, and he called for dialogue, mediation and prayer to break the cycle of violence. Those three calls were presented as seperate paths to the same end, asking the leaders to talk, intervene and pray rather than prepare for the next war.

Ukraine Aid and Oleshky Ceasefire Appeal in Pope Leo Message

The Korea Times reported Vatican officials saying Monsignor Luis Marin de San Martin was taking winter clothes, blankets and food to Kyiv for distribution during a three-day Ukraine visit. That detail, attributed to the Korea Times reporting, shows the practical side of the peace message, with warm clothes and food travelling while words were spoken in Assisi.

According to the same Korea Times reporting, Leo had appealed for a ceasefire in Oleshky to enable food and medical aid and the safe, voluntary evacuation of residents. The appeal is specific in a way the general peace message is not, naming a place, naming aid, and naming the people who need to leave safely. It sits alongside the Vatican audience where a Ukrainian church leader handed Pope Leo a list of prisoners of war, which took place days before the Assisi gathering.

According to the Korea Times reporting, Vatican officials said that for now neither Russia nor Ukraine wants the Holy See to take on a greater mediation or facilitation role. That assessment is attributed to the reporting, not presented as an established fact about either government's position, and it makes the Assisi calls for dialogue sound like an offer still waiting for an answer.

Assisi Peace Gathering Marks 40 Years of Prayer for Peace

The gathering marks 40 years since St John Paul II first convened the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986, and Leo thanked those continuing the path of his predecessors. The theme, Unarmed and Disarming Peace, names a peace that puts down weapons rather than picking them up.

Two days before the Assisi message, Leo had already been speaking about peace, as his Angelus message on 25 October said love for God must overflow into love for neighbours. The same week brought his appeal for an end to violence in Yemen and prayer for victims of the church attack in Jordan, and the health update explaining why he would miss Assisi on doctors' advice set out the background before the gathering began.

The gathering concludes on 28 October, and the leaders will go home to 53 countries carrying a sentence about holy war that is easy to repeat and hard to live by. Whether dialogue, mediation and prayer break any cycle of violence is a question no single meeting can answer, and the next test will be in places like Oleshky, where aid still needs a ceasefire. What the leaders do with the message once they leave Assisi is the part of this story that is still unwritten.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.