By Pope Leo XIV warned that modern technology is being “put at the service of war.”
“After the tragic experiences of the 20th century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever!” Pope Leo XIV said Monday during an audience with airline executives and staff.
“Instead, as we know, it still exists, and technological development, which is positive in itself, is being put at the service of war. This is not progress, it is regression!” he added.
The pope, speaking to representatives of Italy’s national airline, ITA Airways, along with a delegation from the Lufthansa Group, emphasized that aviation must serve peace rather than conflict.
“Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky,” he said.
Leo XIV also underscored the importance of fostering peace through global travel and cooperation.
“In this context, it becomes even more important to chart courses of peace in the skies,” he said.
The audience highlighted the long-standing relationship between the papacy and Italy’s national airline, dating back to St. Paul VI’s historic 1964 pilgrimage to the Holy Land — the first papal journey by air. Since then, successive popes have continued the tradition of international apostolic travel.
The pope noted that he himself plans to rely on ITA Airways for his upcoming trip to Africa in about 20 days.
Reflecting on papal travel more broadly, Leo XIV described such journeys as a visible expression of the Church’s mission.
“The papal flights are one of the most eloquent symbols of the mission of the successors of Peter in the contemporary age,” he said. “In a particular way, in his apostolic journeys, the pope appears to everyone as a messenger of peace: His routes are what they should always be, namely bridges of dialogue, of encounter, and of brotherhood.”
He also praised airline personnel for their professionalism and spirit of service.
“My predecessors and the collaborators who accompanied them on their international journeys found in the personnel of Alitalia and ITA not only qualified and experienced professionals, but also people capable of creating a serene, I would say almost family-like, atmosphere, where respect goes hand in hand with devotion,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Pope Leo: you are bishop of Rome…primus inter pares. Stay in your own diocese and let each bishop run theirs. The days of peripatetic popes ought to end. I for one do not appreciate these “papal circuses come to town.” If you didn’t want to be Bishop of Rome, you could have refused.
Yes….But under the Socratic method, every answer also leads to another question.
Is strategic precision bombing different from the 20th-century history of carpet bombing and Hiroshima/Nagasaki? Is conventional-warhead bombing today the alternative to nuclear blackmail next year or the year after— an absolute “regression”?
And, then, considering peaceful air travel and Laudato Si, aviation accounts for 2.5 percent of CO2 emissions, arguably contributing to about 4 percent of climate change. If true, not a large share but significant due to its high carbon intensity and its rapid rate of increase (not to mention the added heat entrapment due to high altitude vapor trails).
The 19th-century English Luddites were a bit out of step about new technology in textile mills, but what we have now is a plague of global dilemmas.
During the 14th-century Bubonic Plague, a lot of ordinary folks turned to religion….What should that discussion look like today, and what does insightful Catholic Social Thought really look like in our unprecedented and contaminated economic/political/cultural “environment”?
Oh, for the simple days of the Vatican-outlawed crossbow and trebuchet, and the Truce of God during holy days and seasons. During the Crusades both sides sometimes observed such a pause—as during Lent/Ramadan.
Unfortunately, many bishops including the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, ARE ENDANGERING US, OUR FAMILIES AND OUR CHILDREN. They protect people whose first moral act in the U.S. is to disregard and violate our laws by entering illegally; then lowering wages for Americans, crowding schools, overtaxing health systems (notice how much longer it takes now to get an appointment with your doctor), raising rents and housing costs, WITH nearly 50% OF ILLEGAL ALIEN FAMILIES ON WELFARE, far higher than the average for non illegals (see below the information), not to mention the STEALING OF BILLIOS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS AS IN MINNESOTA AND CALIFORNIA (see information below), or “non-violelnt crimes” such as DWI, fraud, theft, identity theft, drug trafficking, child pornography possession, and some forms of human trafficking and child molestation or the horrible crimes, such as:
THE OFFICE OF THE TENNESSEE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS GENERAL CONFERENCE HAS RELEASED ITS ANNUAL STATE IMMIGRATION REPORT REVEALING THAT IN 2025, ILLEGAL MIGRANTS COMMITTED 2,183 VIOLENT OFFENSES, INCLUDING 41 HOMICIDES, 145 SEXUAL OFFENSES, 11 CHILD RAPES, AND MORE. Tennessee Releases Staggering Stats on Migrant Crime
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/02/02/tennessee-releases-staggering-stats-migrant-crime/
An illegal alien accused of raping and murdering 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez last year in the sanctuary state of California has been hit with additional child rape charges involving two other teen boys.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/12/sanctuary-california-illegal-alien-hit-with-more-child-rape-charges-after-allegedly-murdering-boy/
414 Illegal Alien Child Sex Offenders Arrested in Houston During President Trump’s First Year
ICE: 414 Illegal Alien Child Sex Offenders Arrested in Houston
Illegal Alien Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 14-Year-Old Girl in Swank Utah Ski Town
24-year-old arrested, accused of sexually assaulting Park City High School student
Nearly Half of Immigrant Households in U.S. Are on Welfare
Analysis: Nearly Half of Immigrant Households in U.S. Are on Welfare
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/19/analysis-nearly-half-of-immigrant-households-in-u-s-are-on-welfare/