Themes of Peace, Human Dignity Central to Pope Leo's First Year in Office

When he was elected pope on May 8, 2025, Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, greeted the crowd with Christ’s words to his disciples: “Peace be with you.”

Peace has become a central theme of the pontificate of the first American pope. In recent months, opposing the war in the Middle East, Leo has said that the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.” He led a “Prayer Vigil for Peace” on April 11, 2026, in which he criticized how the name of God has been used to justify war and death. He has also said that “military action will not create space for freedom” because true freedom can come only from patient dialogue.

Combined with his calls for peace is Leo’s equally outspoken emphasis on human dignity. In an age where power is concentrated in the hands of a few, the pope has urged Christians to make a “radical choice in favor of the weakest.” Technological advances, especially the rise of artificial intelligence, also endanger human dignity by threatening to override “human creativity, imagination and intellect,” he has cautioned.

In my view as a scholar of global Catholicism, the themes of peace and human dignity are crucial for understanding Leo’s first year as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church.

Calls for peace

During his speech for the 59th World Day of Peace, on Jan. 1, 2026, Leo echoed remarks he made after his election by saying the world should look to Jesus Christ as “our peace.” He called for “unarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering,” contrasting peace built on military strength versus peace built on love.

In advocating for peace, Leo is echoing his predecessors. Pope Francis invited Presidents Shimon Peres of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority to pray for peace in 2014. Benedict XVI condemned “the useless slaughter of war” when recalling Benedict XV’s condemnation of World War I nearly 100 years earlier. Pope John Paul II also argued that war should be “part of humanity’s tragic past” when he visited Coventry, England, which had been devastated during World War II.

Leo has specifically criticized war in Gaza by rejecting the “collective punishment” and “forced displacement” inflicted on Palestinians after Hamas’ attacks on Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

Although he is repeating condemnations of war made by other popes, Leo has been drawn into an unprecedented conflict with a U.S. president. In criticizing the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, the pope has condemned the loss of life and the failure of negotiations.

In response, President Donald Trump has called the pope “terrible for Foreign Policy.” For his part, Leo has said that he does not look at policy through “the same perspective” as the U.S. president and his words should not be interpreted as a personal attack.

The Catholic Church does have a tradition of “just war theory,” which argues that war can be waged ethically. Vice President JD Vance has stated that the pope is ignoring this tradition. After World War II, however, the Catholic Church has stated its opposition to war clearly and consistently, since modern warfare is so destructive.

Affirming human dignity

In response to ongoing violence between and within nations of the world, Leo has called for dialogue and respect for humanitarian law. His emphasis on human rights affirms the God-given dignity of all people, especially those whom society has cast aside.

Human dignity has been an important theme among the popes who have come before Leo. John Paul II spoke about the dignity of the unborn and the elderly in his 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life. Benedict XVI emphasized how each and every human being has dignity because they are made in the image of God. Francis called attention to “throwaway culture” that ignores the poor.

Leo has reiterated all these themes in various contexts.

Overall, however, Leo is most clearly following the teachings of Francis on human dignity and applying them more specifically to ongoing international crises.

He has spoken about the challenges to human rights and dignity in conflicts in many areas of the world: Ukraine, Venezuela, the Great Lakes region of Africa, the Caribbean Sea and Myanmar. As a missionary, teacher and bishop for over two decades in Peru, Leo’s perspective is shaped by his understanding of issues facing the Global South and how they relate to larger political and economic dynamics.

During his yearlong papacy he has given sustained attention to the challenges faced by migrants and the poor. Following his trip to Africa in April 2026, he stated that migrants and refugees are “treated worse than … house pets or animals.” His focus on migration is also reflected in his appointment of Evelio Menjivar-Ayala – a former undocumented migrant – as bishop of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia.

In his Oct. 4, 2025, apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te – “I Have Loved You” – Leo says that “in every rejected migrant, it is Christ who knocks at the door of the community.” Using the words of Francis, Leo describes the Catholic Church’s mission to migrants as “welcome, protect, promote and integrate.”

Dilexi Te’s main focus is the conditions facing the poor. In criticizing the pursuit of wealth at “all costs,” Leo argues for a cultural change that removes the social and economic aspects of poverty. In making this argument, Leo identifies Jesus as the “Poor Messiah” who has a special love for those rejected by the world. The poor have dignity, the pope observes, precisely because they show society the face of Jesus.

The challenge of technology

An emerging concern for Leo is how advances in artificial intelligence also relate to peace and human dignity.

The pope has said that he is not against technological progress that aids human development. But, at the same time, he argues that society should be aware how technology can diminish human responsibility and true intimacy between people. For example, Leo has observed how social media algorithms create “bubbles of easy consensus and easy indignation” that prevent authentic dialogue.

For Leo, the struggle for peace and human dignity is not just a matter of war or economic systems. It is also shaped by the way people lead their everyday lives along with increasingly powerful technology.

Mathew Schmalz is a professor of religious studies. This essay originally was published in The Conversation.

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