Peace is not only the absence of war, but the fruit of right relationships with God, with one another and with the earth. Integral ecology shows that the wounds of creation and the wounds of humanity have the same roots (domination, greed, indifference), and that peace can only be built by healing them together. Don Tonino Bello said: “Peace is not a word, but a vocabulary.” It is a whole language made of justice, rights, land, water, bread, work, energy, memory, forgiveness and welcome. Pope Leo XIV has recently given this peace two adjectives: “unarmed and disarming”.
WHAT IT MEANS
• Reading peace as a vocabulary: social justice, the environment, human rights, food, energy, migration, memory and reconciliation are not separate “issues”, but words of the same language. Without any one of them, peace remains a slogan.
• Recognizing that peace is more than a pause between conflicts. It is a way of living, “a presence and a journey”, which guides our choices (Leo XIV, Message for the 59th World Day of Peace).
• Seeing the links between war and ecological damage: war harms people, ecosystems and cultural heritage (LS 57). Conversely, conflicts over land, water, minerals and energy feed violence.
• Building an “unarmed” peace, one that does not rest on fear, threats or weapons and rejects deterrence as a lasting guarantee of security. And a “disarming” peace, whose goodness opens hearts, rebuilds trust and resolves conflicts.
• Moving from the logic of domination and “security through force” to nonviolence, dialogue, care and cooperation, which Pope Francis proposed as “a style of politics for peace” (Message for the World Day of Peace 2017).
• Starting with inner and communal disarmament: inner peace is closely related to care for ecology and for the common good (LS 225).
WHY THIS MATTERS
• The number of wars is at a record high. In 2025, UCDP and PRIO counted 65 armed conflicts involving at least one state, the most since 1946. The impacts are tangible and ecological: villages, farms and water systems destroyed, millions displaced, hunger as both weapon and consequence, and land devastated for generations (LS 57). Wars also divert enormous resources: global military spending exceeded USD 2.7 trillion in 2024 (SIPRI).
• The race for fossil fuels, critical minerals, land and water fuels conflicts and violence against communities and peacemakers, and the climate crisis is already driving displacement and new tensions over scarce resources.
• Pope Francis spoke of a “third world war fought piecemeal”, and Pope Leo XIV describes a world in which fear and militarization are deepening instability day by day. Wars and the climate crisis, hunger, displacement and inequality amplify one another.
• Pope Leo XIV denounces the concentration of private economic and financial interests that drives States in the preparation and conduct of wars, and calls for diplomacy, mediation and international law. Pope Francis wrote that war “is the denial of all rights” and that we can no longer think of it as a solution (FT 255–262).
• Paul VI taught that “development is the new name for peace” (Populorum Progressio 76). Integral ecology extends this: there is no peace without integral development, and no integral development without care for the common home.
WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE
• Peace is at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus greets the frightened disciples with “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19), and Leo XIV notes that this peace passes through doors and barriers in the voices and faces of witnesses. Religious are called to be such witnesses.
• The evangelical counsels are a school of disarmament: poverty frees us from the logic of accumulation, chastity from possessiveness, obedience from the will to dominate. Fraternal life among people of different cultures is a daily laboratory of reconciliation.
• Religious communities are often present where violence is felt: conflict zones, refugee camps, mining territories, urban peripheries. Our presence gives us credibility and a duty to bring the voice of victims to the Church and to decision-makers.
• Our institutions can be places where peace is learned: schools, universities, hospitals, parishes and retreat houses can teach nonviolence, mediation and care for creation. Our financial choices matter too, in particular whether our investments finance the arms trade or fossil fuels.
• Consecrated life is a global, multicultural body, and so can offer an alternative to the rhetoric of enemies and borders. Its intercongregational networks can build bridges across divided peoples.
A GOSPEL CALL TODAY
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). Peace is not only given; it is made, patiently, in small gestures and structural choices. Pope Leo XIV invites us to resist the darkness as “sentinels in the night”, keeping alive the memory of those who bore witness to peace, and to trust in a goodness that disarms. As Religious, we are invited to a conversion that touches our prayer, our relationships, our budgets, our apostolates and our advocacy: to learn and speak, one word at a time, the vocabulary of peace, so that our communities become signs of reconciliation among people and with creation.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT
• Which words of the “vocabulary of peace” (justice, land, bread, memory, welcome, forgiveness…) are most absent or wounded in the places where we live and serve? What is asked of us there?
• Where are the conflicts around us connected to the control of land, water, minerals or energy, and who are the victims we are called to accompany?
• What would it mean for our community to become “unarmed and disarming” in our relationships, our language, our use of social media, our institutions and our investments?
• What does our charism, and the witness of our martyrs and peacemakers, suggest for building peace today? With which Congregations, Church bodies and movements can we act together?
REMEMBER:
“Peace is not a word, but a vocabulary.” (Don Tonino Bello)
KEY REFERENCES
= Leo XIV (2026) Peace be with you all: Towards an “unarmed and disarming” peace, Message for the 59th World Day of Peace.
= Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (esp. nos. 57, 92 and 225).
= Francis (2020) Fratelli Tutti (esp. nos. 255–262, “Never again war”).
= Francis (2017) Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace, Message for the 50th World Day of Peace.
= Second Vatican Council (1965) Gaudium et Spes, ch. V, “The Fostering of Peace”.
= Paul VI (1967) Populorum Progressio (esp. no. 76), and John XXIII (1963) Pacem in Terris.
KEY RESOURCES
= Pax Christi International and its Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (paxchristi.net)
= Pax Christi Italia (paxchristi.it)
= Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo (retepacedisarmo.org)
= Laudato Si’ Movement (laudatosimovement.org)
= Iglesias y Minería (iglesiasymineria.org), on communities defending their territories
= VIVAT Eco Life and Action (vivatinternational.org/eco)
ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT
Peace is built in particular contexts, so each community will define its own path. Four attitudes can help:
= Learn the vocabulary. Discover which “words” of peace are most urgent in our context, and link our existing initiatives (justice, ecology, migrants, education) as parts of one language.
= Begin with disarming ourselves. Review our language, our conflicts, our habits of power and our finances before advising others.
= Stand with victims and peacemakers. Listen to those who suffer violence and to local peace builders, and support what they propose.
= Join prayer, study and advocacy. Work with other Congregations and networks: a critical mass is needed for systemic change.
RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE
The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (CNI), promoted by Pax Christi International, was born from a 2016 meeting in Rome that asked the Church to recommit to Gospel nonviolence and to the vision of a just peace. Pax Christi has a special link with this sheet: Don Tonino Bello served as president of its Italian branch. The initiative offers a network of Catholic practitioners, theologians and peace builders, resources for study and prayer, and concrete ways for Congregations to promote nonviolence in their works, advocate for disarmament and walk with communities that resist violence without arms. Congregations can also link it with Leo XIV’s call by organizing a community study of the 2026 Message and joining local Pax Christi or intercongregational JPIC groups. More at paxchristi.net.
