Pope Leo XIV on Friday reiterated his
predecessor Francis's call for an end to the arms race in an
audience with diplomats accredited to the Vatican on Friday.
"There must also be a resolve to halt the production of
instruments of destruction and death, since, as Pope Francis
noted in his last Urbi et Orbi message: No peace is 'possible
without true disarmament [and] the requirement that every people
provide for its own defence must not turn into a race to
rearmament'," the American pontiff said.
He also stressed the importance of justice in bringing about
peace.
"Working for peace requires acting justly," Leo said, calling on
leaders to "work to build harmonious and peaceful civil
societies.
"This can be achieved above all by investing in the family,
founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, 'a
small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.'
"In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect
for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and
vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the
unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.
"My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of
immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate.
"All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves
healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native
land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains
unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by
God...
"It is a time of conversion and renewal and, above all, an
opportunity to leave conflicts behind and embark on a new path,
confident that, by working together, each of us in accordance
with his or her own sensibilities and responsibilities, can
build a world in which everyone can lead an authentically human
life in truth, justice and peace.
"It is my hope that this will be the case everywhere, starting
with those places that suffer most grievously, like Ukraine and
the Holy Land".
Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, meanwhile, said a
face-to-face meeting between the pope and US Secretary of State
J.D.Vance on the sidelines of Leo's inauguration on Sunday was a
possibility, while stressing that "the problem is that there are
so many delegations, the timing is very tight and so it will be
a matter of seeing if there is space".
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