May 17 2025

Your Holiness,

We the undersigned, wholeheartedly welcome your Holiness to your Pontificate in these present extremely turbulent times, and we appreciate the fact that your first words were “Peace be with all of you.”

Not only are regional conflicts raging in many parts of the world, but several of those conflicts have the potential of escalating to nuclear Armageddon, which could end civilization, and would thus be the ultimate sin against God’s creation.

You have offered to facilitate peace talks among countries at war, continuing the mandate of Pope Francis, who had made peace an urgent demand in his last Urbi et Orbi message, and continuously denounced the arms trade, as well as those who profit from war.

We wish to communicate to your Holiness our commitment to try everything in our power, to reach out to all Christians, as well as believers of other religions and world outlooks, to unify in an effort to establish a true peace order in the world, one which eliminates the real causes for war by taking into account the valid security interests of all parties.

But, given the horrendous, satanic genocide going on in Gaza, and the unforgivable silence and inaction on the side of the governments in face of it, we also appeal to you to speak out on this ongoing genocide. We need a moral authority to condemn this genocide, without that, we will lose any moral compass whatsoever.

We also fully support your rejection of the “Manichaean notions“ that divide people into “good and evil,” because such notions deny people the chance to overcome evil through development. But that requires the mobilization of our free will, and it does not mean an automatic acquittal of those who decide to be the instrument of evil.

We support the idea that “the new name for peace is development!“

Signatures:

Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), Founder of the Schiller Institute and co-initiator of the International Peace Coalition (IPC)

Ray McGovern (US), Former CIA analyst, co-founder of  Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Liliana Gorini (Italy), Chairwoman of Movimento Solidarietà (Movisol)

Schiller Institute Releases Names of 85 Prominent Endorsers of Open Letter to Pope Leo XIV Backing Urgent Peace Efforts