Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass at Rimini's harbor, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
Pope Leo XIV used a visit to the tiny landlocked San Marino and a major Catholic gathering in the Italian city of Rimini on Aug. 21 to issue one of his strongest appeals yet against war, polarization and social division, urging believers to foster dialogue and friendship in a fractured world.
Speaking to tens of thousands in Rimini, Leo warned against a culture that “rearms minds, words and nations” and argued that Christians must respond with mercy, encounter and a commitment to peace.
Addressing the annual Rimini Meeting, a major Catholic cultural festival organized by the Communion and Liberation movement, Leo urged Catholics to respond to a world marked by war, division and inequality with dialogue, friendship and encounter.
He said peace is built by people “who love to encounter one another and are not afraid to engage with one another,” arguing that human dignity must come before political, social and ideological divisions.
In some of his strongest comments to date on global tensions, he warned against what he described as a growing culture of confrontation and militarization.
Christians should recognize that “there can be no enemies” and that even opponents are “a brother or sister to be looked in the eye and encountered in truth,” Leo added.
He urged Catholics to challenge systems that fuel poverty, inequality and conflict.
“Let us expose unjust structures of power that lie at the root of poverty, inequality, war and environmental disasters,” he said, while urging believers to free “work from the idolatry of profit” and to “disarm technological development whenever it becomes invasive and destructive.”
