An Appeal to Pope Leo XIV to Convene an Emergency Global Summit for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

• A diverse group of scholars, activists, and former officials has appealed to Pope Leo XIV to convene an emergency international summit to avert the growing risk of nuclear annihilation.
• The petitioners argue that the world is currently at its most fragile moment since WWII, with nuclear powers increasingly preparing for winnable nuclear wars, ignoring decades of established deterrence theory.
• The appeal leverages the Pope’s moral authority to force major nuclear powers to abandon current war-path trajectories and resume diplomatic resolution of global crises.

The Escalating Threat

• Former U.S. DNI Tulsi Gabbard and Russian SVR chief Sergei Naryshkin have both issued public warnings that the world is closer to nuclear catastrophe than ever before.
• The threat has worsened due to the convergence of the Ukraine war, conflicts in Gaza, heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over the Taiwan Strait, and U.S.-Israel hostilities with Iran.
• U.S. military strategy has shifted toward preparing for a three-front nuclear war against Russia, China, and North Korea, while some strategists incorrectly argue that nuclear war can be fought and won.
• The absence of effective nuclear arms control treaties, coupled with emerging nuclear ambitions in Japan, South Korea, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan, has turned the world into a dangerous "nuclear tinderbox."

Precedents and Demands

• The signatories urge the Pope to follow in the footsteps of predecessors like Pope John XXIII, who helped resolve the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Pope Paul VI, who famously urged the UN to end war.
• The appeal highlights the moral and economic irrationality of shifting global resources from essential human needs—such as healthcare, food, and education—toward the modernization of nuclear arsenals that could destroy civilization in minutes.
• Supporters request that the Pope use his influence to gather the leaders of the world's primary nuclear powers to respond to humanity’s plea for a safer, non-nuclear future.