Curator of Pope’s book on peace: The Pope can inspire moral mobilization

By Isabella H. de Carvalho

When Pope Leo XIV was elected on May 8, 2025, his first words as he greeted the world were centered on peace and on his desire that peace resound in people’s hearts, in their families and among nations.

This wish has been a constant theme in the Pope’s speeches, homilies and greetings since then, as many nations around the world continue to be engrossed in conflicts and tensions run high.  

Now the Vatican Publishing House has released a new book by Pope Leo that gathers all his words and thoughts on peace titled “Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift.” The volume is in Italian, but it will soon be available in English and features a previously unpublished introduction written by the Pope.

Vatican Radio spoke to Alessandro Banfi, an Italian journalist and television writer, who was responsible for the curation of the book. He highlighted how the power of the Pope’s message lies in the Gospel and how Christians can bring hope to a turbulent world. 

Alessandro Banfi

Different emphases but the same concern

“The purpose of this book is to offer everyone the opportunity to gain insight into Pope Leo’s teachings on peace,” he explained. He highlighted how the book wants to present the Pope’s key messages on this theme by organizing his words in thematic chapters and including all his addresses from “institutional ones with the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, or his message for the World Day of Peace, to his visits to parishes or his dialogue with young people during the Jubilee for Youth.”

The book “underscores the centrality of this theme in Pope Leo’s reflections. Different situations, different emphases, but a single concern: building dialogue, building bridges and exchanges by breaking free from the friend-enemy framework,” Banfi insisted.

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The strength of the Gospel and the mobilization the Pope can inspire

When asked how the Pope’s words and thoughts can reach those who make the most important decisions for our world, Banfi acknowledges that this is a “difficult question.”

“Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, once asked mockingly, ‘How many military divisions does the Pope have?’ The answer today, just as it was then, is the same: none,” Banfi reflected.

He noted how “the Vatican has a large diplomatic corps, and the Church has missionaries all over the world, but it has no temporal power.”

“The power of the Pope’s message and that of the universal Church lies in the Gospel,” he emphasized. “It is a disarmed and disarming force, seemingly destined to lose in the face of violence and war. Yet the powerful of this world know fully well what moral mobilization the Vicar of Christ can inspire, and for this reason they fear his judgment.”

The conscience of a single person can be worth the entire world

In this regard, in his introduction, Pope Leo underlines how peace is an individual responsibility and begins with every one of us.

He cites a historical episode where a Soviet official, Stanislav Petrov, contributed to avoiding a nuclear disaster in 1983 by not responding to Russian radars that signalled the launch of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles from the United States toward the Soviet Union. The system had in fact malfunctioned, and no missiles had been launched.

The Pope says this episode shows how “the conscience of a single person can be worth the entire world” and Banfi notes that it is exactly “this awareness that gives us hope.”

“It is this trust in the human heart and mind that gives us the right perspective to envision a future of peace. The end of war, hatred and violence begins with me, in my home, among my colleagues and with my neighbours,” Banfi said.

Speaking of hope, for Banfi that is what separates Christians from others, as they ground themselves in God.

He cites, in this respect, St. Augustine’s work De civitate Dei (“City of God”) that speaks of the struggle between the Earthly city and the city of God, noting how these two places are intertwined.

“They grow together, but the difference lies entirely in hope. The people of the Earthly city, says St. Augustine, seek happiness in the possession of things. The people of the city of God find happiness in “spei dei,” in Latin meaning the hope of God, the wonder of God.”

The influence of St. Augustine

Banfi said how throughout the curation process of the Pope’s texts he was very struck by the “influence of St. Augustine’s view of history and also of political power.”

“One of the most interesting addresses was the one delivered to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on January 9th. In this address, the Pope quoted De civitate Dei extensively and said, among other things, that the City of God does not propose a political problem,” Banfi explained.

“Instead, it offers valuable reflection on fundamental issues concerning social and political life, such as the search for a more just and peaceful coexistence among peoples.”

“This quotation enlightens, for me, the vision of St. Augustine and the responsibility of Catholics in the societies in which we live.”

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