Pope Leo XIV delivered a stark warning against Europe’s military buildup on Thursday, arguing that rearmament risks making the world more dangerous while draining money away from schools, healthcare, and diplomacy.
Speaking to students and academics at Rome’s Sapienza University of Rome, the pontiff said: “Let us not call ‘defence’ a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, impoverishes investments in education and health, betrays trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good.”
The pope framed his remarks as part of a wider appeal for peace and moral responsibility, warning that the world was being “maimed by wars” and pointing to conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran as signs of an increasingly dangerous global climate.
Leo also warned about the growing role of artificial intelligence in warfare, describing it as “the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation.”
Addressing students directly, he urged young people not to retreat into “ideologies and national borders,” instead calling on them to become “artisans of true peace.”
Much of the speech focused on the pressures facing younger generations, with the pope criticising a culture of relentless competition and performance anxiety that reduces people to “numbers.”
“We are a desire, not an algorithm,” he told the audience.
His intervention comes as military spending across Europe continues to surge amid the Russia-Ukraine war and growing pressure from U.S. president Donald Trump for NATO allies to increase defence spending.Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Pope Leo at the Vatican following recent disagreements over international conflicts and diplomacy.
