Pope: ‘No such thing as holy war’…

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday denounced any religious justification for wars raging around the world, declaring “there is no such thing as a holy war,” AP reports.

“Only peace is holy,” Leo said in a video message to religious leaders gathered in Assisi, Italy, to mark the 40th anniversary of a landmark interfaith peace meeting called by St. John Paul II.

The American pope was originally scheduled to attend in person but cancelled as he recovers from October 13 lung cancer surgery.

In his message, Leo denounced the “troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics,” stressing that “war can never be waged in the name of God.” Leaders, he said, must “rebuild peace everywhere, not prepare for more wars.”

The gathering came as the Vatican accelerates humanitarian aid to Ukraine following a localised ceasefire in Oleshky, with the pope’s chief almsgiver beginning a three-day visit to deliver winter supplies to Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Fastiv.