Pope Leo wraps up France trip by urging Europe to blunt 'desire for domination' driving today's wars
METZ, France (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Europe on Monday to draw from its Christian roots and tradition of dialogue to blunt the “desire for domination” driving today's wars, as he wrapped up a visit to France by recalling the forces that contributed to the continent's peaceful integration.
Leo traveled to the eastern city of Metz, near the border with Luxembourg and Germany, to honor Robert Schuman, a French Catholic statesman regarded as one of the founding fathers of European unity after World War II.
Leo decided to end his four-day visit to France in Metz, at a conference center named for Schuman, to drive home his appeal. The American pope wants Europe to draw from its Christian foundations and traditions to respond to Russia’s war in Ukraine and other conflicts.
“Over the past 80 years, Europe has amply demonstrated that it is possible to articulate divergent opinions, claims and interests through encounter rather than conflict,” he said.
“We need to commit ourselves to patient dialogue, to show courage in negotiation and to be willing to give up some positions for the greater good of peace,” he said.
Élysée Palace, the French presidential office, had invited all European Union heads of state and the heads of European institutions to attend the conference, but only a handful, from smaller states such as Monaco, Andorra and Luxembourg, joined President Emmanuel Macron.
Leo’s visit to the once staunchly Catholic and officially secular France has been marked by his appeal for Europe to remember its Christian heritage and apply it to today’s ethical and geopolitical challenges.
It has also been marked by huge crowds at nearly every turn — 800,000 attended Leo’s Mass on Paris’ iconic Place de la Concorde — surprising even organizers.
On Monday morning, Leo's Air France charter received a military escort of two French fighter jets for the flight from Lourdes to Metz in a sign of respect. Macron tweeted a photo of Leo's plane taken by one of the jets while in flight, writing “Welcome to Metz, Holy Father.”
Macron joined Leo on stage at the Schuman event, vowing “unfailing” European support for Ukraine and noting that the country is among those aspiring to join the EU and a “space of peace, security, democracy and prosperity.”
“War has come back to our continent and our Europe is rocked by the return of empires,” Macron said. “To guarantee real sovereignty, we must therefore act, act firstly to preserve our security and our values.”
In his final event in France, Leo celebrated Mass in the cathedral of St. Stephen in Metz, a city with a long history of conflict that was part of Nazi Germany during the war.
The cathedral is one of the greatest examples of French Gothic style, with its soaring vaults and stained-glass windows, some of which were designed by Marc Chagall, a 20th-century Jewish artist.
The colored glass has given the cathedral the nickname the “Lanterne du Bon Dieu,” or “The Good Lord’s Lantern.”
As they did in Paris during Saturday's Mass along the Champs-Élysées, priests in Metz set up makeshift confession stands on the streets to accommodate the faithful who packed the squares around the cathedral.
Schuman is best known for the Schuman Declaration of 1950, five years after World War II ended. It proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community to pool production between historic rivals France and Germany.
The idea, as Europe was emerging from the ruins of the war, was guided by the belief that intertwined economic interests would make another conflict between them “not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.”
The coal and steel organization was the first among European institutions that were precursors to what eventually became the European Union.
Schuman, a resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazis, was declared “venerable” in 2021, a step in the Catholic Church's process toward possible sainthood.
Leo praised especially Schuman's respect for international law in pursuing his idea of peaceful integration. It was an indirect reference to how Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as U.S. military incursions in Venezuela and the Iran war, have taken place outside the international legal order.
Leo said international law and multilateralism “constitute the best antidote to the desire for domination, which lies at the root of every conflict.”
He lamented that in its place, relations today between states are becoming “increasingly uncivilized.”
“The value of keeping one’s word is dismissed; instead, people boast of lies and deceit,” he said.
In a separate meeting Monday, Leo urged French religious leaders to preach messages of peace and unity.
He cited Schuman’s example of promoting dialogue even among rivals in saying faith leaders had a shared responsibility to forge friendships across borders in the name of peace.
“Indeed, to invoke God’s name in order to justify violence or oppression is to profane that name,” he said. “Religious discourse must constantly call for the disarmament of hearts and words.”
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John Leicester contributed to this report from Paris.
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