April 11, 2026
A very fraternal greeting, very big to all of you. Thank you for your presence, for wanting to respond to this call, to this invitation to unite us all with our voices, with our hearts, with our lives to pray for peace. We all have peace in our hearts. May peace truly reign throughout the world and may we be the bearers of this message.
God listens to us, God accompanies us! Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is present with them. In these days of the Octave of Easter, we believe deeply in the presence of the risen Jesus among us.
Now, united in the prayer of the Holy Rosary, asking for the intercession of our Mother Mary, we want to tell the whole world that it is possible to build peace, a new peace; that it is possible to live together with all peoples of all religions, of all races; that we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ united as brothers and sisters, all united in a world of peace.
Pray with us! Thank you for your presence! May God accompany you and your loved ones today and always.
I give you my blessing from here, then we pray together from the Basilica and you can follow with the screens. Thank you again for your presence.
[Blessing]
Thank you all, good praying.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
your prayer is an expression of that faith which, according to Jesus' words, moves mountains (cf. Mt 17:20). Thank you for having accepted this invitation, gathering here at the tomb of St Peter and in so many other places in the world to invoke peace. War divides, hope unites. Arrogance tramples, love lifts. Idolatry blinds, the living God enlightens. A little faith, a crumb of faith, dear friends, is enough to face together, as humanity and with humanity, this dramatic hour of history. Prayer, in fact, is not a refuge to shirk our responsibilities, it is not an anesthetic to avoid the pain that unleashes so much injustice. It is instead the most gratuitous, universal and disruptive response to death: we are a people that has already risen! In each of us, in every human being, the inner Master teaches peace, impels us to encounter, inspires invocation. So let's look up! Let's get up from the rubble! Nothing can close us in a destiny already written, not even in this world in which the tombs seem not to be enough, because we continue to crucify, to annihilate life, without right and without mercy.
St. John Paul II, a tireless witness of peace, said with emotion in the context of the Iraqi crisis in 2003: "I belong to that generation that lived through the Second World War and survived. I have the duty to say to all young people, to those younger than me, who have not had this experience: "Never again war!", as Paul VI said on his first visit to the United Nations. We must do everything we can! We know well that peace is not possible at any cost. But we all know how great this responsibility is" (Angelus, 16 March 2003). This evening I make my own his appeal, which is so timely.
Prayer educates us to act. The limited human possibilities are united in prayer to the infinite possibilities of God. Thoughts, words and deeds then break the demonic chain of evil and put themselves at the service of the Kingdom of God: a Kingdom in which there is no sword, no drone, no revenge, no trivialization of evil, no unjust profit, but only dignity, understanding, forgiveness. Here we have a barrier to that delirium of omnipotence that is becoming more and more unpredictable and aggressive around us. The balance in the human family is seriously destabilized. Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is drawn into the discourses of death. A world of brothers and sisters with only one Father in heaven then disappears and, as in a nightmare, reality is populated with enemies. Threats are heard everywhere, instead of calls to listen and meet. Brothers and sisters, those who pray are aware of their own limitations, do not kill and do not threaten death. On the other hand, those who have turned their backs on the living God are enslaved to death, in order to make themselves and their power the mute, blind and deaf idol (cf. Ps 115:4-8), to whom every value is sacrificed and the whole world demands that the whole world bend the knee.
Enough with the idolatry of oneself and money! Enough with the exhibition of force! Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life. Saint John XXIII, with evangelical simplicity, wrote: "Everyone benefits from peace: individuals, families, peoples, the entire human family". And repeating the lapidary words of Pius XII, he added: "Nothing is lost with peace. All can be lost by war" (Encyclical Letter, n. Pacem in Terris, 62).
Let us therefore unite the moral and spiritual energies of millions, billions of men and women, of the elderly and young who today believe in peace, who today choose peace, who heal wounds and repair the damage left by the madness of war. I receive many letters from children from conflict zones: reading them you perceive, with the truth of innocence, all the horror and inhumanity of actions that some adults boast with pride. Let's listen to the voice of children!
Dear brothers and sisters, there are certainly imperative responsibilities of the leaders of nations. To them we shout: stop! It is the time of peace! Sit at the tables of dialogue and mediation, not at the tables where rearmament is planned and actions of death are deliberated! However, there is, no less great, the responsibility of all of us, men and women of many different countries: an immense multitude that repudiates war, with deeds, not just in words. Prayer commits us to convert what remains violent in our hearts and minds: let us convert to a Kingdom of peace that is built day by day, in homes, schools, neighborhoods, civil and religious communities, stealing ground from controversy and resignation with friendship and the culture of encounter. Let's go back to believing in love, moderation, good politics. Let us form ourselves and play in the first person, each responding to his or her own vocation. Everyone has their place in the mosaic of peace!
The Rosary, like other ancient forms of prayer, has united us tonight in its regular rhythm, set on repetition: peace thus makes room, word after word, gesture after gesture, like a rock digs drop after drop, like at the loom the weaving advances movement after movement. These are the long times of life, a sign of God's patience. We need not to be overwhelmed by the acceleration of a world that does not know what it is chasing, to return to serving the rhythm of life, the harmony of creation, and healing its wounds. As Pope Francis has taught us, "there is a need for artisans of peace who are willing to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter with ingenuity and boldness" (Encyclical Letter Evangelii Gaudium, n. Fratelli tutti, 225). There is in fact "an 'architecture' of peace, in which the various institutions of society intervene, each according to its own competence, but there is also a 'craft' of peace that involves us" (ibid., 231).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us return home with this commitment to pray always, without tiring, and of profound conversion of heart. The Church is a great people at the service of reconciliation and peace, which advances without hesitation, even when the rejection of the logic of war can cost her incomprehension and contempt. It proclaims the Gospel of peace and teaches us to obey God rather than men, especially when it is a question of the infinite dignity of other human beings, which is endangered by the continual violations of international law. "All over the world, it is to be hoped that every community will become a 'house of peace', where we learn to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is safeguarded. Today more than ever, in fact, it is necessary to show that peace is not a utopia" (Message for the LIX World Day of Peace, 1 January 2026).
Brothers and sisters of every language, people and nation: we are one family that weeps, that hopes and that rises again. "Never again war, an adventure with no return, never again war, a spiral of mourning and violence" (St. John Paul II, Prayer for Peace, February 2, 1991).
Dear friends, peace be with you all! It is the peace of the Risen Christ, the fruit of his sacrifice of love on the cross. For this reason we address our supplication to Him:
Lord Jesus,
you conquered death without weapons or violence:
you dissolved its power with the power of peace.
Give us your peace,
as to the uncertain women on Easter morning,
as to the hidden and frightened disciples.
Send your Spirit,
a breath that gives life, that reconciles,
that makes adversaries and enemies brothers and sisters.
Inspire us with the trust of Mary, your mother,
who with a broken heart stood under your cross,
firm in the faith that you would rise.
May the madness of war come to an end
and the Earth be cared for and cultivated by those who still
know how to generate, how to protect, how to love life.
Hear us, Lord of life!