Pope Leo XIV, the first ever American pontiff, warned the entire membership of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Vatican that human rights and freedoms are under strain and that "war is back in vogue."
Pope Leo XIV Addressing Ambassadors
4/ The US Navy seized another oil tanker with links to Russia that was attempting to bypass US sanctions against Venezuelan oil. Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Hulyaipole. Russian forces advanced in northern Sumy Oblast and in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area.
-- Institute for the Study of War (@thestudyofwar.bsky.social) Jan 9, 2026 at 9:30 PM
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The annual meeting between the Pope and all of the Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See is considered one of the most significant moments in the Vatican's diplomatic calendar.
Often dubbed the "State of the World" Address, the Pope's discourses in these occasions tend to offer a moral reading of international life - an appeal not to interests, but to conscience - offered at the beginning of a new year as a call to responsibility, restraint, and renewal.
For Pope Leo XIV, who said the occasion is "a new experience," having been called only months ago to "shepherd Christ's flock," the address also served to articulate the moral horizon within which the Holy See understands diplomacy: a patient work of encounter, a defense of the vulnerable, and a commitment to peace rooted in truth.
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The US Ambassador to the Holy See is Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org. While at the University of Dallas in Texas, he was involved with the secretive right-wing Opus Dei organization. Burch, a father of nine children, married into a large Irish-Catholic clan and they all reportedly indoctrinate their children in Opus Dei-run schools.
First Lady Melanoma Trumpf was raised Roman Catholic in her native Slovenia. Watch the expressions on the faces of the incoming Trumpf family and junta while Episcopal Bishop the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde sermonizes them all to have mercy on vulnerable people: "Have Mercy"
Dummkopf Trumpf illegally abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and has threatened to attack Colombia, Greenland, and drug cartel targets inside Mexico, ICC-indicted Vladimir Putin continues his savage war against Ukraine, and the IDF High Command recently issued a warning to be prepared for a three-front war against the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran. Source: Benjamin Netanyahu Itching for More War
The Axis of Evil certainly does have a "zeal for war," don't they?
