Pope prays for ‘year of peace’ in 2026

In his message for the World Day of Peace, Leo said ‘diplomacy and international law are too often undermined when what is needed is the strengthening of supranational institutions’.

Pope Leo called for 2026 to be “a year of peace” in an address on New Year’s Day.

Speaking after the Angelus on 1 January, the Feast of Mary the Mother of God which is also marked as the World Day of Peace, he urged the Church to “begin today to build a year of peace, disarming our hearts and refraining from all violence”.

Recalling his first words from the loggia of St Peter’s after his election in May – “Peace be with you” – Leo said the World Day of Peace instituted by Paul VI called for a peace “that is unarmed and disarming, which comes from God, a gift of his unconditional love, and is entrusted to our responsibility”.

In his Angelus address, the Pope said the changing year was an invitation “to renew our times by finally ushering in an era of peace and friendship among all people”, without which “there would be no point in turning the pages of the calendar and filling our diaries”.

He said the infant Jesus in the Virgin Mary’s womb was “a heartbeat of grace”, beating “for those who are ready to welcome him, like the shepherds, and for those who do not want him, like Herod”.

“His heart is not indifferent to those who have no heart for their neighbour: it beats for the righteous, so that they may persevere in their dedication, as well as for the unrighteous, so that they may change their lives and find peace.”

In his Angelus address the previous Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family, the Pope had prayed for “families suffering because of war”, observing that “the world always has its ‘Herods’, its myths of success at any cost, of unscrupulous power, of empty and superficial well-being, and it often pays the price in the form of loneliness, despair, divisions and conflicts”.

Pope Leo’s message for the World Day of Peace, published on 18 December, reflected on the need to make peace “a reality that is lived, cultivated and protected” rather than a distant ideal, and recalled John XXIII’s advocacy for “integral disarmament” to overcome hostility, but also emphasised “the importance of the political dimension” in fostering peace.

“This is the disarming path of diplomacy, mediation and international law, which is sadly too often undermined by the growing violations of hard-won treaties, at a time when what is needed is the strengthening of supranational institutions, not their delegitimisation,” Leo said.

Speaking in late December, the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine said the Pope is one of the few world leaders to invoke international law.

Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas said Ukrainians “look at Pope Leo with great respect” because he refers to the country’s constitution and emphasises the role of Europe in peace negotiations, even though “it is not possible for the Pope to say anything special [at Christmas] except for prayers and wishes that the birth of Jesus would be a source of spiritual strength and peace for everyone”.

“I would even say that Ukraine currently hears such expressions only from some European leaders and from the Pope,” Kulbokas told Lithuanian National Radio.

He warned that while current negotiations are “serious” it was “difficult to say whether they will yield any results”, reporting the comment of one diplomat from a mediating country: “I am forced to have hope.”

Speaking elsewhere, the nuncio said that the Holy See’s emphasis on international law meant it was unlikely that Russia would be willing to use the Vatican as a venue for negotiations.

Pope Leo sent three lorry-loads of aid supplies to Ukraine as a “small gesture” to mark the Feast of the Holy Family. The papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said the donation would support families who “follow the via dolorosa of exile in search of refuge”.

He said that God, “by being born into such a family, desires to always be where human beings are in danger, where they suffer, where they flee”.

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