The pope in a major foreign policy address blasts how countries are using force to assert dominion

Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are increasingly using force to assert their dominion worldwide. He says such warmongering is “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II legal order. Leo didn't name names, but his speech Friday amounted to his most substantial critique of U.S., Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries. The occasion was the pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to the pope’s yearly foreign policy address. Leo delivered the bulk of the speech in English, in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French.