Warning of “the increasingly concrete threat of a world war,” Pope Francis called for “the diplomacy of hope” in his address to the ambassadors of the 184 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, when he greeted them for the New Year on Jan. 9, in the Vatican’s Hall of Benedictions.
“A diplomacy of hope is also a diplomacy of forgiveness, capable, at a time full of open or latent conflicts, of mending relationships torn by hatred and violence, and thus caring for the broken hearts of their all too numerous victims,” the 88-year-old pontiff said in a lengthy speech that he asked a Vatican official, Msgr. Filippo Ciampanelli, to read because he was suffering from a cold.
His annual address to the diplomatic corps is considered the pope’s most important of the year in terms of world politics. The United States was represented by its chargés d’affaires, Laura H. Hochla, this year because Ambassador Joe Donnelly retired last summer and returned to the United States. Notable absentees included the People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and North Korea, which do not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
In his talk, Francis spoke about the mutual esteem between the countries represented and the Holy See and thanked the “more than 30 heads of state or government” that visited him at the Vatican last year. (Pope Francis visited seven countries in 2024, in Asia, Oceania and Europe.) He especially thanked the Italian state and the city of Rome for their great efforts to ensure that pilgrims are welcomed during this Jubilee Year 2025.
“Sadly, we begin this year as the world finds itself rent by numerous conflicts, large and small, more or less known,” he said, “but also by the resumption of heinous acts of terror, such as those that recently occurred in Magdeburg in Germany and in New Orleans in the United States.”
Pope Francis decried the polarization, distrust and fake news that “generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people’s sense of security and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations.” He identified as “tragic examples of this, the attacks on the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic and the president-elect of the United States of America.”
In this context, Pope Francis said he hoped that the Jubilee year, which he inaugurated on Christmas Eve with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, “may represent for everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, an opportunity also to rethink the relationships that bind us to one another, as human beings and political communities.”
Turning to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the pope renewed his call for an end to both conflicts and gave special attention to the need for respect of international humanitarian law. Israel has been widely criticized for disregarding international law in Gaza and for creating what the United Nations has classified as a major humanitarian crisis in an enclave where 47 percent of the population is under the age of 18. Russia, too, has been heavily criticized for its targeted bombing of energy sources and civilian centers in Ukraine.
Referring to Ukraine, Francis said he hoped “that the entire international community will work above all to end the conflict,” which “has taken an enormous toll of lives, including those of many civilians.” While acknowledging “some encouraging signs that have appeared on the horizon,” Francis said that “much work must still be done to create the conditions for a just and lasting peace and to heal the wounds inflicted by the aggression.”
He appealed yet again “for a ceasefire and the release of the [around 100] Israeli hostages in Gaza, where there is a very serious and shameful humanitarian situation” and asked “that the Palestinian population receive all the aid it needs.”
He told the ambassadors, “My prayerful hope is that Israelis and Palestinians can rebuild the bridges of dialogue and mutual trust, starting with the smallest, so that future generations can live side by side in the two states, in peace and security, and that Jerusalem can be the ‘city of encounter,’ where Christians, Jews and Muslims live together in harmony and respect.”
He recalled the prayer meeting in the Vatican Gardens in 2014 with the president of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, along with Patriarch Bartholomew I. “That meeting bore witness to the fact that dialogue is always possible and that we cannot give in to the idea that enmity and hatred between peoples will have the upper hand,” the pope said.
Pope Francis again drew attention to the fact that “war is fuelled by the continued proliferation of ever more sophisticated and destructive weapons” and renewed his appeal that “with the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, let us establish a global fund that can finally put an end to hunger and favor development in the most impoverished countries.”
Repeating his claim that war is “always a failure,” the pope added that “the involvement of civilians, especially children, and the destruction of infrastructures is not only a disaster but essentially means that between the two sides, only evil emerges the winner.”
“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians or the attacking of infrastructures necessary for their survival,” the pope said. “We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”
In his talk, Francis also referred to other conflicts. In Africa, he mentioned Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and the Horn of Africa. He drew attention in Asia to Myanmar and to the situation in the still-divided Korean Peninsula. Turning to his home continent, he spoke about the situation in Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras, Bolivia and Colombia.
Francis affirmed yet again the importance of religious freedom. He denounced “the numerous persecutions against various Christian communities in Africa and Asia,” and “discreet forms of restrictions of religious freedom” in Europe. He also strongly denounced “the growing expressions of anti-Semitism in the world.”
“Christians are able and desire actively to contribute to the building up of the societies in which they live,” the pope said. “Even where they are not a majority in society, they are citizens in their own right, especially in those lands where they have lived from time immemorial.”
In this context, he spoke about Syria, which, he said, “after years of war and devastation, seems to be pursuing a path of stability.” He expressed his wish that Syria might become “a land of peaceful coexistence where all Syrians, including the Christian community, can feel themselves to be full citizens and share in the common good of that beloved nation.”
Turning to Lebanon, he said he hoped that this country, “with the decisive help of its Christian community, can possess the necessary institutional stability needed to address the grave economic and social situation, to rebuild the south of the country affected by war.” He prayed that Lebanon “may remain a country and a message of coexistence and peace.”
Finally, he called again for the abolition of the death penalty, and asked wealthier nations “to forgive the debts of poor countries that cannot repay them.”
At the end of his speech, Pope Francis individually greeted the ambassadors and their spouses, as well as Vatican officials from the Secretariat of State.
