Pope Leo XIV condemned the global rise in armaments spending during a visit to Rome's Sapienza University on Ascension Thursday.
"Let us not call 'defence' a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, impoverishes investment in education and health, denies trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites that care nothing for the common good," Leo said.
Addressing the students, Leo noted that the world was "disfigured by wars and by words of war" and described this as "a pollution of reason that invades social relationships from the geopolitical level downward."
He cautioned against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, pointing to Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Iran as examples of what he called "the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation."
He called on the students to be "artisans of true peace."
In recent weeks, Leo has drawn the anger of US President Donald Trump after condemning war and calling for peace. Trump has responded by attacking the world's first American pope through his Truth Social platform.
