Vatican News: Pope: Wars are senseless; Russia and Ukraine should sit down to talk

Speaking to journalists on the flight from Metz to Rome at the end of his Apostolic Journey to France, Pope Leo XIV discusses conflicts and the economic interests that sustain them, saying the Church “continues to raise her voice in proclaiming the Gospel. A few are growing rich from the arms industry; these billions could be used to solve problems such as world hunger.”

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(Highlights from Pope Leo’s visit)

As he flew from Metz to Rome on Monday evening, Pope Leo XIV spoke with the 80-odd journalists accompanying him on his Apostolic Journey to France.

The Pope began by offering an overview of his visit to France and answered several questions put to him by the reporters.

Below is a working English transcription and translation of the press conference:

[Pope, in English:] I’ll start by speaking in English. And then if you need translation we can help with that. First of all, once again thank you for the work you’ve done. I think you were kept pretty busy for the past four days and, in a certain sense, it was a very intense program.

The four days were literally filled with many blessings. Almost miracles, I would say, especially the time at Lourdes, walking with, accompanying so many people who are sick and suffering and seeing how the grace of God’s presence manifested in many different ways, touches people’s hearts, transforms their lives, and, to use an expression that I mentioned there, restores dignity to the sick, the elderly, those who in some parts of society are discarded.

So, there were many signs, many expressions, many symbols throughout the four days. And personally, I felt very blessed myself to have the privilege to visit France to encourage especially young people who are obviously searching for something.

It was so apparent at the stadium, the evening with 80,000 young people gathered together from around France and their enthusiasm and their joy and the sense of hope that they offered, but especially I think that they received and will be able to share with others.

So, amongst the many different things that we celebrated and lived during these four days I would say those are some of the highlights, and not to exclude others, but that that were quite significant. I’m very happy to have had you along on this trip, and if you have a few questions.

[Cyriac Zeller, I-Media:] Good evening, Your Holiness. Yesterday, during a press conference, the victims you met told us that you had acknowledged to them the systemic nature of sexual abuse in the church. Is that indeed the case? Could you explain your position on this? Do you consider sexual abuse in the Church to be systemic?

[Pope, in English:] I would say, without wanting to contradict anyone, as I think it is very important, I would first of all like to say that in meeting with those seven victims, I had asked them to also help me to express to other victims the willingness—myself and of the Church—to listen and to walk with them as they look for healing, recognizing the pain that has been caused in their lives because of situations of abuse.

Several of them spoke about systemic abuse. Personally, I prefer to express it in a different way, although I did speak about some organizations within the Church who have, at times, if you will, as a system, been abusive.

But I think it’s important to make the distinction. Sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem. When it happens within the Church, it actually has another whole dimension added to it, because people’s lives of faith are deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed.

There’s a particular responsibility of the Church to walk with them and to help them seek healing. In those terms I spoke with them about how the Church, in certain ways, has been seen as being responsible, but in the same way that the Church, I think, is an important part of helping them to find healing.

[Xavier Le Normand, Le Pèlerin:] Your Holiness, good evening. First of all, I would like to thank you for your Apostolic Journey to France. For four days, our country was swept up in the widespread enthusiasm sparked by your visit—which, in France, is quite a feat. Thank you, Your Holiness. I will continue with my question in English. The motto of your Apostolic Journey was that the world may have life. The topic of end-of-life care came up repeatedly in your speeches. Actually, I think you mentioned it in more than half of your speeches in France. I’m thinking in particular of the one in the Élysée Palace and yesterday in Lourdes when you say that what is legal is not necessarily moral, which was a clear reference to the recent legalisation of euthanasia in France. In France, we also have this principle of “laicité,” which is a separation between religion and politics. Do you think that when it’s important, when the stakes are high, this border, this line should be crossed in the name of the primacy of conscience? And if so, did you cross that line?

[Pope, in English:] Thank you for your question. I would say that the understanding that the Church has of a separation between Church and politics, or Church and State, that I didn’t cross it. And I’d invite you to read or reread Magnifica Humanitas where I speak about the Social Doctrine of the Church in the first section, the first couple of chapters, and say that when the Church speaks about defending life, when it speaks about questions of Social Doctrine, we’re not entering into politics, we’re applying the Gospel to people’s lives.

And they can be politicians, if you will, on the left or on the right, situations where they say “no, religion should only be in the private sphere.” Let people do what they want on their own, but that as a State we have to be separate. By the very fact that when I went to France, I went primarily to preach the Gospel, to preach the Good News, to reaffirm what Jesus Christ Himself says when He says I am the way, the truth, and the life, so to speak the truth that Jesus offers us.

The defence of life is something that as you all know the Church teaches, believes very deeply. And so, on the one hand obviously knowing that in France the law was recently approved, in other countries in Europe as well, as other parts of the world there is a lot of debating going on about the questions of end-of-life issues.

But being in a place especially like Lourdes where people are searching for something much deeper and understanding that their lives, even in the midst of sickness or disability or pain of different kinds, that their life has meaning. The Church, because of Jesus Himself, wants to be close to those people and to affirm the values that life itself I think holds for all of us.

So, I would say, if that’s politics, I did that, but it was not to get involved in French politics. It was to teach what the Church really believes.

[Íñigo Domínguez, El País:] Thank you, Holy Father, for sharing this moment with us. You have spoken many times, including during this journey, about the throwaway culture that surrounds us, about the marginalization of those who are not considered productive, including the elderly and people with disabilities. In Spain these days, we have a case that represents something of all this and has caused great indignation throughout the country: the case of Mari Carmen, an 87-year-old woman with a disability who was evicted from the home where she lived in Madrid because she could not afford the rent. They increased it fivefold in one go. I do not know whether you are familiar with this case, Mari Carmen’s case. But in any event, what do you think about the housing problem that exists throughout Europe and around the world, where property speculation drives residents out of cities and young people cannot afford a home? What do you think about this whole problem?

[Pope, in Spanish:] I think this is a good example of where the Church as a community—or we as human beings, as a community, even those who have no faith—must seek fairer solutions so that cases like this do not happen.

I am not familiar with the case you mention. But it seems to me that this would be a case where the neighbours, the community, the parish, the diocese or the State should step in and say: how is it possible for something like this to happen? What is wrong with the system that allows an elderly woman, who also has a disability or some other difficulty, to be thrown out of her home, so to speak?

The Church speaks a great deal about the throwaway culture, and it also speaks about justice. It invites, encourages and seeks, let us say, to awaken in everyone the capacity to respond with a greater sense of humanity, to be truly sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.

The housing problem that exists in many countries today is a problem that a parish alone, a diocese alone or the Church itself cannot solve. But I believe that there is a major challenge here, and that perhaps we must also demand that political leaders and the authorities seek a solution.

Because it is clearly getting worse, and we often react only when there is an emergency. But we really need to examine the systemic cause of this problem and how we can help.

[Manuela Tulli, ANSA:] Good evening, Your Holiness. Today, and indeed throughout this journey, you have emphasized the need for dialogue. In addressing Europe, you also spoke of the illusion of rearmament, but at the same time you said that we should have the courage to make concessions and sacrifices for the greater good of peace. The conflict in Europe is the one between Russia and Ukraine. What did you mean when you spoke of these sacrifices? And you believe in negotiations, since you have your envoys—Archbishop Gallagher went first, and Cardinal Zuppi is there now—but how can you talk with a State that attacks, bombs and threatens not only Ukraine but other European States as well? Thank you.

[Pope, in Spanish:] Thank you. The first thing would be to underline the principles of the Church’s social teaching, through which we seek not to promote violence, hatred, weapons and the dangers present in today’s world, including those posed by some national leaders who are once again beginning to speak of nuclear weapons, of wars that are becoming increasingly destructive, above all in terms of human life.

There is this continued arming and spending on that enormous military industry, which has continued to promote military spending for many decades now—last year, five years ago. A small number of people are becoming immensely wealthy from an industry that promotes war. Yet these billions upon billions of euros or dollars could be used to solve problems such as world hunger, housing, unemployment and so on.

Everyone is looking for a voice that can offer another way, one that does not say, “Let us spend more on weapons”, which only increases tensions that could lead to the outbreak of another war, another conflict.

And we see how violence, how these powers that always seek to impose their will through force instead of engaging in dialogue and promoting negotiations over the differences that can naturally exist, bring us ever closer to a war, or several wars, conflicts such as those we see in the world today.

I do not know about others, and it is not a matter of being political or not political, but a voice that seeks to promote the values of human dignity, the importance of life, the possibility of perhaps spending more on health and education and less on weapons—I believe the Church has a responsibility to promote those values, continually inviting leaders such as those of Russia and Ukraine, and other countries, to come, to sit down, to engage in dialogue, to seek ways of resolving problems without continuing these wars that no longer make sense.

So, in this sense, the Church continues to raise her voice. We cannot force anyone. At times it may seem futile, but we will keep speaking, we will keep inviting, we will keep proclaiming the Gospel.

[Justin McLellan, National Catholic Reporter:] Thank you. Holy Father, I’ll ask my question in English. In Paris, you spoke on the urgent need for ethical discernment around the development of artificial intelligence and in the wake of multiple cyberattacks committed by rogue AI agents, several tech industry leaders have warned that the technology could destroy the world. How worried are you that AI could pose catastrophic risks to humanity or even wipe it out entirely, and what must nations, especially the United States and China, do to ensure that their technologies are safe for humanity?

[Pope, in English:] Thank you. If someone were to ask me, am I in panic mode? No, I’m not. I sleep at night. I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously.

I don’t think that is fake news, as some have said, to try and cause whether financial or some other kind of benefit. It’s interesting to note that just today I read that the head of NVIDIA claims that he has found some way of inserting into AI certain guardrails, if you will, or limits so that they won’t go outside of their particular units and cause the damage that people are talking about.

He’s the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation, etc. etc. This is a problem that I think we need to sit down and talk about. We need to continue to invite political leaders, the leaders of AI, social organizations, associations to come together and look at what is happening already and what could be down the road.

To simply say, ‘Oh, it’s not going to happen’, and close our eyes to it, I think is probably not the most responsible way to go about that. The Vatican has organized our own commission on artificial intelligence, which on the one hand, if you will, began as a way of coordinating what we ourselves are doing in the Holy See and how we’re using AI and what the risks are and what the benefits are.

But since Magnifica Humanitas was published, we have received many contacts from people in many different areas and fields. And so, we are trying to continue to promote dialogue, study, investigation, to find ways to make sure that AI does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity or remove humanity from the conversation.

I am relatively optimistic that that can happen. I think that there are enough people seriously interested in that and willing to look outside of the questions, once again of power, who gets there first, what happens when AI goes to being what they call General Artificial Intelligence, etc. etc.

But we have to keep working, we can’t sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen.

[Ludwig Ring-Eifel, KNA:] Today we were in Metz very close to the German border, but so far, you have not come to Germany yet. So, my basic question is when can we expect you on the other side of the border and on the background of two developments which are maybe worrying you as well, the steady decline of Catholic Church in Germany and the astonishing rise of extremist parties in Germany who threaten to tear up the consensus for Europe, which you spoke about today in Metz.

[Pope, in English:] Thank you for the question. With all humility I’ll say it’s only been about fifteen months that I’ve been Pope. There are many places I have not yet visited. I do have an invitation. I do hope to go again, I mean I’ve been there before but not as Pope, but I do hope to visit Germany, as I hope to visit many places. But I do not yet have a schedule.

I’m still working on next year, and the only trip definitely planned is World Youth Day in Korea. So, we’re getting there. But thank you for your patience and for the question.

The phrase you said the Church is dying in Germany, or the diminishing numbers. People have said that about France in the past and yet we saw what happened over the past four days. I believe that if we find the true missionary spirit and the right way to go about it, there are still many, many people in Germany who want to live and celebrate their Christian and Catholic faith.

And so, I’m optimistic about that, although I recognize the problems, I recognize the different causes that have hit the Church very hard, but it’s hit the—if you will—the evangelical or Protestant Church very hard as well, and it has hit society in the much the same way.

But I do hope to reach out. I do hope to continue to work with leaders in the Church in Germany and find ways to respond to that. It would be interesting to study, analyze if and how there may be a relationship, for example, between the growth of these groups on the far right and even the far right is being splintered now as you see the one particular group is becoming even much more extreme with other so-called far-right groups.

At the same time with some expression of a combination of these far-right points of view with a certain kind of religion, which in not only my view, but I mean both the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in Germany have spoken out about that’s not an authentic expression of Christianity.

And again, we go back to the values of the Gospel, which are not about hatred and division, but they’re about understanding and compassion and accompanying. I hope deeply, and hopefully the Church can also be a part of this—that we can find ways of reaching out to a majority of people of goodwill who will understand how important that their commitment, even in terms of participating in political processes, will enable them to make clear choices for the common good and not for extremist ideas that perhaps will do much more damage than we are even aware of right now.

So, I think we will all be encouraging in that sense. Again, it on our part as a Church, social doctrine of the Church, to talk about, teach about, preach about what we believe are these life-giving values and not destruction, division, and hatred.

And I want to take the opportunity to thank so many people who are in the background that don’t get the applause that the Pope gets when he goes by, but who are very much a part of putting this trip together: both people in the Holy See, the people in France, the Bishops in France, and many, many lay people who worked on the different activities organizing them.

So, to say a special word of gratitude to all of them and to you. Thank you very much.