[Editor’s note: The following article was originally published in Spanish in El Heraldo de México on April 13, 2026, and is translated here with the permission of the author. The original can be found at heraldodemexico.com.mx. — ML]
Last Saturday, April 11, a multitude awaited Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square and in the packed Basilica. With only a few days’ notice, the pontiff had called a prayer vigil for peace. At a time when military might asserts itself and the law of the strongest tramples international law, an invitation to pray seems, at the very least, naïve. Solutions based on force give the impression of greater realism and pragmatism. Both the right and the left long ago embraced the identification of truth with action. Nothing stranger, then, than praying the rosary at the Vatican and asking for peace.
And yet, it is worth noting that never before have the great political powers of the world possessed tools like those available today for securing strategic success. In the first place, an enormous economic and military potential. In the second, technological instruments that allow for the optimization of military efforts in unimaginable ways — satellite surveillance, artificial intelligence, weapons of mass destruction, and so on. In the third, communications media of the highest penetration. And yet, the result of all this is shaping up as a great failure. Armed conflicts that were announced as brief seem to drag on. Governments that could be intimidated or easily dissolved are digging in and showing signs of resilience.
It is as if, suddenly, empirically and before everyone’s eyes, it were once again becoming evident that pragmatism is not synonymous with realism, but rather one of its most pernicious ideological abstractions. There always exist non-instrumentalizable aspects of reality that exceed the utilitarian gaze and that, in many cases, are the decisive ones — curiously enough — for “making things happen.”
Legend has it that around 1943, Winston Churchill tried to remind Joseph Stalin that, beyond the maps, the armies, and the money, there also existed a spiritual and moral reality that cannot be ignored in times of armed conflict. Stalin, true to his way of understanding power, replied: “How many divisions does Pope Pius XII have?” In those few words, an entire vision of the world was summed up. History would take it upon itself to show how a poor, orphaned young man, born in a marginal village in Poland, by drawing on other forces, by placing his trust in the dark face of an ancient Marian icon, would shape the course of history in a way that Stalin never imagined.
Leo XIV, knowing that the energies that truly transform the world are those capable of transforming hearts, said last Saturday:
“The Church is a great people at the service of reconciliation and peace. She advances without hesitation, even when rejecting the logic of war may lead to misunderstanding and scorn. She proclaims the Gospel of peace and instills obedience to God rather than any human authority, especially when the inherent dignity of other human beings is threatened by continuous violations of international law. ‘Throughout the world, it is to be hoped that every community become a ‘house of peace,’ where one learns how to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished. Now more than ever, we must show that peace is not a utopia’ (Message for the LIX World Day of Peace, 1 January 2026).”
Image: Vatican Media.
Rodrigo Guerra López is the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Originally from Mexico City, he graduated in philosophy from the Free Popular University of the State of Puebla, Mexico; he was then awarded a higher degree in university humanism from the Ibero-American University, Mexico, and a doctorate in philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy of the Principality of Liechtenstein.
He has held the role of academic coordinator of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute in Mexico City and has served as professor of metaphysics, bioethics, and philosophy of law at the PanAmerican University, Mexico. In 2013 he held the Karol Wojtyla Memorial Lectures at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
From 2004 to 2007 he directed the Observatorio Socio Pastoral of the Latin American Episcopal Council. In 2008 he founded the Centro de Investigación Social Avanzada (CISAV), of which he is professor-researcher of the Division of Philosophy and member of the Consejo de Gobierno.
He is a member of the theological commission of the Latin American Episcopal Council and of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and is the author of numerous publications in the field of anthropology, bioethics, and social philosophy.
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