Pope Leo: Aerial Bombing Should Have Been Banned Forever After 20th-Century Wars

Pope Leo XIV has said that aerial bombings should have been banned forever after the wars of the 20th century, carving out the strong anti-war stance amid a backdrop of a U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that has received international condemnation for its wanton civilian slaughter.

The pope made his remarks in an address to the staff of Italian carrier ITA Airways on Monday, where he tied papal air travel to the importance of the pope being “to everyone a messenger of peace,” bringing “bridges of dialogue, of encounter, and of brotherhood.”

He went on to say that societal advances like air travel and technological achievements should not be used for combat.

“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,” the pope said, according to a bulletin published by the Holy See press office.

“After the tragic experiences of the twentieth century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever! Instead, as we know, it still exists, and technological development, which is positive in itself, is being put at the service of war,” he went on. “This is not progress, it is regression!”

Aerial bombardments of the 20th century were indeed horrific, including the destruction of Dresden; the firebombing of and dropping of atomic bombs on Japan; the “Blitz” of London; the carpet bombings of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; the fascist bombing of Guernica, Spain; and more.

Israel and the U.S. have carried out countless aerial bombings in the Middle East for decades, from President Barack Obama’s covert drone strike campaign to Israel’s U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza. Most of the U.S. and Israel’s current war on Iran, which has killed over 1,400 civilians so far, has been carried out through air strikes, though the U.S. is also threatening a ground invasion.

The pope, the first ever from the U.S., did not directly call out the Iran war, but he has repeatedly condemned it and called for a ceasefire. The day before his airline remarks, on Sunday, he said at his weekly prayer that the wars in the Middle East, including the current war on Iran, are a “scandal to the whole human family.”

“We cannot remain silent in the face of ‌the ⁠suffering of so many people, the defenseless victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts the ​whole of ​humanity,” he said, calling for peace.

And on Tuesday, the pope lamented that the “violence is getting worse and worse.” “There are more than a million displaced people and many dead,” he said, potentially referring to estimates of up to 1 million Iranian households displaced by the war, as the UN refugee agency reported earlier this month.

Pope Leo’s outspoken opposition to the war and pleas for it to end are without precedent in modern times, some commentators say, with previous popes preaching more generally about peace.

President Donald Trump has rejected the pope’s calls. When asked last week about Pope Leo’s calls for a ceasefire, he said, “I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”