The 59th World Day of Peace
Antonio Emanuele’s dream and Pope Leo XIV’s vision for an unarmed and disarming peace.
At the beginning of the calendar that measures and describes the journey of human life through time, may peace, with its just and beneficial balance, dominate the course of history to come.
Pope Paul VI
With these words, in 1968, Pope Paul VI established the first World Day of Peace, choosing to entrust the first day of the year not with a simple wish, but with a sense of direction. For almost sixty years now, the Catholic Church has renewed this anniversary: placing peace at the beginning of the new time means recognizing it as a priority and the foundation of every choice, as an essential starting point for imagining and building the future.
Today, January 1, 2026, the World Day of Peace celebrates its 59th edition, at the close of a year marked by conflicts, by violence of ever-increasing intensity spread on a global scale. In the context of what Pope Francis defined as “a third world war in pieces,” placing peace at the center, so that it can truly guide “the course of history to come,” is not just a hope, but a concrete and mandatory urgency. As a Foundation, we feel this commitment as the heart of our mission. For this reason, we want to welcome the invitation of this Day and begin the new year by reflecting on the theme of peace, so that this can truly guide our future in such a complex time.
It is with a reflection on the dramatic nature of our present that the message entitled “Towards an unarmed and disarming peace” opens, written by Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of this World Day. The Holy Father, on this anniversary, firmly criticizes world leaders who cultivate the culture of war. Denouncing with particular emphasis the incessant increase in military spending, which today constitutes 2.5% of global GDP, he recalls the need to build a peace based on dialogue, mutual trust, and the disarmament of the heart and language, alluding to the “growing attempt to transform even thoughts and words into weapons.” Clearly denying the idea that a “just war” can exist, the Pope urges governments around the world to choose different paths to achieve shared well-being: the disarming path of diplomacy and dialogue, mediation, and international law.
In his message, the Pope does not merely describe the growing violence that pervades the world, but identifies its causes in rearmament spending, educational policies, and a culture that considers armed force and violence as the inevitable response to conflicts. It is a clear critique that exposes the illusion of security based on weapons and calls governments to account for their responsibilities. At the same time, however, this denunciation never slips into pessimism or resignation: alongside the harshness of the analysis, the Pope raises a voice of hope, recalling that peace exists and dwells in the world thanks to the commitment of women and men whom he himself defines as “peacemakers”: people who choose dialogue, justice, and mutual care even in contexts most marked by violence. This is the message also relaunched at the Angelus on December 26, the feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr: “everywhere in the world there are those who choose justice even when it costs, who place peace before their own fears, who serve the poor instead of themselves,” Leone states. “In these gestures hope springs forth, and it makes sense to celebrate despite everything.” As a Foundation that has made the promotion of peace its commitment, we cannot help but deeply recognize ourselves in these words and feel called, we too, to become peacemakers, so that our work may also be a small seed of hope in the world.
On this anniversary, so important for us, there were many words in Pope Leo XIV’s message that struck us to the core and many points for reflection that we drew from it. But there is one phrase that, more than all, hit the mark: “throughout the world it is desirable that every community becomes a ‘house of peace’, where one learns to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished.” This has always been the vision that animates our mission. That House of Peace drawn in pencil by a very young Antonio Emanuele today becomes, through the words of the Holy Father, an even more vivid image: peace is not an abstract and distant ideal, but a space to be built together, a safe place in which everyone can feel welcomed and called to do their part, a community in which, as the Pope writes and as Antonio wanted, dialogue, justice, and forgiveness are practiced.
Throughout the world it is desirable that every community becomes a “house of peace“, where one learns to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished.
With the beginning of the new year, we want to renew our wish for peace for all and reiterate our commitment so that this value is the foundation of our every project and our every action. May 2026 be a year in which each of us, in our choices and our gestures, contributes to building bridges of dialogue, to cultivating justice, and to cherishing hope: so that peace is never just an ideal, but the guide for our every step.
