Pope Leo XIV issued one of his strongest appeals yet against war and social division during a visit to San Marino and a major Catholic gathering in the Italian city of Rimini on Saturday, urging believers to pursue dialogue and reject the mindset that fuels global conflict.
Speaking to tens of thousands of people in Rimini, Leo warned against a culture that hardens attitudes, language and relations between nations, saying Christians should respond instead with mercy, encounter and a commitment to peace. He called on Catholics to confront the political and economic structures he said underpin poverty, inequality and war, urging believers to reject profit-driven excess and to temper technological development when it becomes destructive.
A significant portion of his address focused on young people, whom the pope described as a source of hope rather than a threat at a time when many fear the future. He encouraged young Catholics to engage actively with the wider world rather than withdraw into closed communities, urging them to commit fully to their faith and reach out to others.
Leo also echoed a theme long associated with his predecessor, Pope Francis, stressing that the church grows through the example of authentic witness and open dialogue rather than through direct efforts to convert others.
Earlier in the day, in the small landlocked republic of San Marino, Leo addressed local authorities and praised the country as a model of freedom and good governance, pointing to its history as one of the world’s oldest surviving republics. He also called for public life everywhere to uphold human dignity “from conception to natural death,” language the Vatican typically uses in the context of its opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
