Pope Leo: 'There is no such thing as a holy war'

Pope Leo XIV rejected religious justifications for war, declaring “there is no such thing as a holy war.”

“Only peace is holy,” he said in a video message to faith leaders in Assisi, including Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally. He did not attend in person because he is still recovering from his Oct. 13 lung cancer surgery.

He warned of a “troubling revival of war” as a political tool. The remarks cut against Russia’s Orthodox Church, which calls the Ukraine invasion a holy war, and against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has cast the Iran war in Christian terms.