Vatican City: Addressing participants of the third World Meeting on Human Fraternity, Pope Leo XIV issued a heartfelt appeal for unity, urging the creation of what he called a “human alliance” founded not on power or profit but on care, generosity, and trust.
Welcoming leaders, thinkers, and activists gathered in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope emphasized that their presence itself was a sign of resistance to division. “You are united by a strong and courageous ‘no’ to war, and a resounding ‘yes’ to peace and fraternity,” he said, framing their commitment as a quiet but powerful force that transcends cultural and religious boundaries.
Drawing from the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Pope Leo reflected on humanity’s earliest fraternal conflict. He cautioned against normalizing violence as an inevitable feature of human history. Instead, he pointed to God’s haunting question to Cain “Where is your brother?” as the foundation of justice and reconciliation.
“This question is not just history,” he explained. “It is asked of each one of us, in every war zone, in every broken family, in every society where loneliness replaces connection.” For the Pope, it is a personal call: to recognize responsibility, to resist indifference, and to embrace reconciliation as a vocation.
The Pope linked this ancient question to today’s realities: young people forced into combat, civilians caught in conflict, and individuals isolated in a hyper-connected but emotionally fragmented world. Silence, he insisted, cannot be the answer.
“You are the answer,” he told participants, praising their commitment to live differently. By choosing paths of growth, compassion, and reconciliation, he said, they embody the courage needed to transform societies fractured by suspicion and fear.
For Pope Leo, fraternity is more than a humanitarian gesture it is spiritual vision. “Fraternity is the most authentic name for closeness,” he said. It allows individuals to see the face of God in every person: the poor, the stranger, the marginalized, and even the enemy.
He warned against reducing relationships to mere self-interest or utilitarian exchange. Instead, he called for bonds inspired by spiritual traditions and ethical reflection, bonds that open pathways of communion beyond bloodlines or ethnic ties.
Turning to the practical mission of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, Pope Leo challenged participants to build bridges across professions, generations, and cultures. He particularly urged them to give the poor an active role, not as passive recipients of aid but as co-creators of dialogue and discernment.
“Continue in this quiet work of sowing seeds,” the Pope encouraged. From these seeds, he said, a participatory process rooted in humanity and fraternity can take root an alliance of peoples and cultures that rejects power struggles and suspicion in favor of generosity and trust.
Concluding his address, Pope Leo invited the assembly to carry the spirit of fraternity into daily life. True peace, he reminded them, begins not in treaties or institutions but in the everyday choice to see in the other the face of a brother, a sister, and ultimately, the face of God.