As Moscow and Kyiv continue their three-year struggle, a new city has entered the fray. This week, Vatican City announced its intention to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine to stop the slaughter and is angling to become a major stakeholder.
This foreign policy is one of Pope Leo XIV’s opening gestures as his papacy unfolds. “War is never inevitable,” the Pontiff declared last month. “Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering.”
Emissaries from Russia and Ukraine met in Rome last week, having the first bilateral talks since the three-year contest first began. Though the meeting adjourned without resolution, the United States, Italy, and Ukraine all confirmed their willingness to listen to the Vatican—and they ought to take the new Pope up on his word.
The Vatican holds historical precedent for ending international conflicts, and Pope Leo XIV’s heightened focus on human rights and artificial intelligence (AI) will be crucial for understanding modern war dynamics. Peace between Russia and Ukraine requires a holistic overview, and the Vatican is uniquely equipped to handle such a pressing task.
There is some precedent for the Pope to intervene and moderate a dialogue between warring countries. Take John Paul II’s de-escalation of the conflict between Argentina and Chile, for example.
The South American countries had been engaged in a violent, century-long struggle over rulership of the Picton, Lennox, and Nueva islands, and were on the brink of open warfare until Pope John Paul II initiated the Act of Montevideo in January 1979. The conflict, which was prompted by differing interpretations of the ambiguous Boundary Treaty of 1881, had led to armed escalation by Argentina, with Chile rapidly increasing military spending, exercises, and preparedness throughout the 1970s. In December 1978, Argentina launched Operation Soberanía, an infantry invasion of Chile, due to the Beagle conflict, but withdrew hours into the campaign.
Pope John Paul II recognized war as unhealthy for any state’s survival. When Argentina and Chile accepted the Vatican’s offer for de-escalation, they renounced the use of force and sought a peaceful resolution under papal guidance. With Cardinal Antonio Samoré as the Pope’s envoy, he spearheaded a compromise, sovereignty recognition, and ecosystem management campaign until he died in 1983. What emerged was the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984, marking the maritime boundary at the Strait of Magellan’s eastern end, guaranteeing freedom of navigation for all ships, and promoting economic cooperation in the area. Chile ultimately received ownership of the islands.
In another example in the early 2010s, Pope Francis sought to revive diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba as the two had been estranged for half a century since the Cold War. Pope Francis wrote personal letters to U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, urging them to resolve longstanding humanitarian issues—including the release of prisoners—and to initiate a new phase in bilateral relations. Both sides saw the Vatican under Pope Francis as an “honest broker.” The Holy See channeled that goodwill into secret, back-channel talks between U.S. and Cuban delegations for eighteen months. In December 2014, Obama and Castro announced the normalization of relations between their respective countries with a slate of new travel, diplomatic, and economic initiatives, including lifting parts of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
“I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis,” Obama noted, “whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.”
The Russo-Ukrainian War has striking similarities to these past skirmishes: regional in geography and global in influence. Russia’s assault began with covert operations, use of proxies, (dis)information warfare, and cyberattacks, an approach echoing the U.S.-Cuba model of indirect conflict. Russia’s shift to overt military invasions and massed artillery operations parallels the Beagle Conflict’s brinkmanship and potential for open warfare.
The Vatican recognizes these re-emerging war trends and can apply its previous wisdom to restore the rules-based international order. Vatican diplomats, such as Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, have a significant duty when convincing Russia and Ukraine to keep communication channels open. It isn’t a plea to end the strife, but forces Russia and Ukraine to evaluate if their efforts are truly noble, just, and advance the cause of human rights.
Russian forces have kidnapped approximately 20,000 Ukrainian children since February 2022, putting many of them up for foster care or adoption on Russian federal sites. Russia and Ukraine also swapped 175 prisoners each in March. Amidst the heavy technology utilized in this competition, there is still a deeply humane aspect to the Russo-Ukrainian War. Both sides recognize its value, only infrequently. The Vatican must make that value a constant and prove that equality and human rights principles aren’t situational by promoting more prisoner exchanges, coordinating humanitarian corridors, and related actions.
However, hindsight can’t rectify current injustices. That’s where Pope Leo XIV’s thoughts on AI paint a fuller picture.
The Pontiff deems AI and unchecked technological advancement as “present[ing] new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labor.” Any technical tool must serve the greater welfare and ensure its decisions remain under human and ethical control. It is a continuation of papal policy forged by Pope Francis, who believed in robotics’ power to enhance the human condition but discouraged, as Pope Leo XIV describes, “the war of words and images” and the larger “paradigm of war.” Both Popes’ languages are broad oppositions to all forms of conflict, including cyber warfare, that can sow division and nurture violence.
Recent war exercises give credence to their warnings. The Institute for the Study of War found that Russia uses roughly 150 autonomous, first-person view drones daily for reconnaissance and disrupting Ukrainian vehicles and logistics routes. Ukraine retaliates with electronic warfare, employing jamming and spoofing to disrupt drone operations and communications. Whether used offensively or defensively doesn’t matter—it still deviates from Pope Leo XIV’s call for “discernment and responsibility” of emerging technology.
Now having a stake in AI, the Vatican can advocate for multilateral agreements that ban cyber attacks against civilian infrastructure and critical services during conflicts. The Pope can champion AI for peacebuilding, such as early warning systems for attacks and aid monitoring, that countries can adopt for stability and modernization. These activities alter the conversation from national and strategic objectives to the shared global values that deter combat.
The Vatican teaches us that soft power resonates more than blood and bullets, even in the most protracted battles. Pope Leo XIV’s moral authority, institutional success, and calls for forgiveness and dialogue reinforce the momentum for change. All involved parties must capitalize on this heightened interest to generate the peace conducive to healing Eastern Europe.
Alex Rosado is a political, cultural, and consumer freedom writer for Young Voices and writes in his personal capacity. Follow him on X @Alexprosado.
