OPINION — On January 1, 2026, in his deliberate first message for the 59th World Day of Peace, Pope Leo XIV will mirror on peace, justice, and world concord.
On December 18, 2025, Pope Leo revealed his first main peace message themed “Peace be with you,” in preparation for his and the Catholic Church’s annual January 1st exhortation on World Peace. Pope Leo’s December message urged the trustworthy to not give up to the concept worry and darkness are regular, however to see peace as not solely potential however needed. “After we deal with peace as a distant perfect, we stop to be scandalized when it’s denied, and even when warfare is waged in its identify… and to justify violence and armed wrestle within the identify of faith.” Pope Leo referred to as on believers of all religions to protect towards the temptation to weaponize phrases and faith to commit violence in its identify. He ended with two searing eyewitness accounts of European horrors: the Bosnian warfare and the home terrorism that tormented Italy within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
The World Day of Peace is an annual Catholic observance celebrated every January 1. Established in 1968 by Pope Paul VI, it is a chance for every pope to write down a peace message and to mirror on peace, justice, and world concord. The messages supply ethical steering to the Church and the world on the way to pursue peace in a up to date context.
For his first message for the 59th World of Peace, Pope Leo selected the theme “Peace be with you” as a name not solely to want peace, however to make it a lived actuality. Certainly, peace isn’t just the absence of warfare, however rooted in justice, belief, dialogue, forgiveness, and shared humanity.
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In search of peace in a world in disarray
The annual Preventive Priorities Survey, produced by the Council on Overseas Relations (CFR) and the greater than 600 American overseas coverage specialists who contributed to the survey, was simply revealed and considered 5 conflict-related situations as extremely more likely to emerge or escalate and to have excessive influence on U.S. pursuits in 2026.
The specialists have been most involved about conflict-related dangers within the Center East and japanese Europe, together with the potential for elevated clashes between Israeli safety forces and Palestinians within the West Financial institution, renewed combating within the Gaza Strip, and intensified assaults within the Russia-Ukraine warfare. Additionally, the potential for direct U.S. navy strikes in Venezuela and of a rise in political violence and standard unrest in america are equally worrying situations.
Renewed armed battle between Iran and Israel, synthetic intelligence-enabled cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and a cross-strait disaster between China and Taiwan are regarding. And North Korea was elevated to a Tier 1 concern for 2026 – a top-priority world menace resulting from its nuclear weapons, ballistic missile applications and potential to destabilize Northeast Asia.
“The world continues to develop extra violent and disorderly. Final yr’s unprecedented degree of tension amongst specialists in regards to the rising threat of battle stays undiminished, in accordance with the director of the CFR survey.
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Pope Leo, the primary American pope, has a possibility to place phrases into motion, within the pursuit of peace. Since his election in Might 2025, “peace be with you all” has been the inspiration for his peace mission. In October 2025, at an interreligious assembly in Rome, Pope Leo declared: “Peace is holy, not warfare”, urging spiritual leaders to behave as “moms” who encourage folks to deal with one another as household. And in December 2025 throughout a visit to Lebanon he met with Muslim and Druze leaders, stating that genuine unity and friendship are the one methods to “put apart the arms of warfare.”
Pope Leo might and will convene a gathering of interreligious leaders to draft a method to convey peace to a troubled world. This, clearly, could be a monumental process, seemingly past the attain of any particular person, nation, alliance, and faith. However a frontrunner that has the respect of friends and the general public may very well be the catalyst for such a “peace motion.”
Pope Leo has my vote.
This column by Cipher Transient Knowledgeable Ambassador Joseph DeTrani was first revealed in The Washington Occasions
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