By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to join him in praying that members of different religions would work together to make life better for everyone rather than allowing their different beliefs to be used “as weapons or walls.”
Choosing “collaboration between different religious traditions” as his prayer intention for the month of October coincides with the 60th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the Church’s relationship to other religions. The document was promulgated Oct. 28, 1965.
The pope’s monthly video sharing his prayer intention for October was distributed Sept. 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
“Let us pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice, and human fraternity,” he said in the video.
“We live in a world full of beauty but also wounded by deep divisions,” Pope Leo said. “Sometimes, religions, instead of uniting us, become a cause of confrontation.”
The pope prayed that the Lord would purify people’s hearts “so that we may recognize what unites us and, from there, learn again how to listen and collaborate without destroying.”
The video includes footage of St. John Paul II’s 1986 interreligious meeting in Assisi; Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Rome synagogue in 2010; Pope Francis’ signing of the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi in 2019; and Pope Leo’s meetings with various religious leaders.
“May the concrete examples of peace, justice, and fraternity in religions inspire us to believe that it is possible to live and work together, beyond our differences,” Pope Leo prayed in the video.
“May religions not be used as weapons or walls but rather lived as bridges and prophecy: making the dream of the common good credible, accompanying life, sustaining hope, and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world,” he concluded.
Cutline for featured image: Pope Leo XIV greets Buddhist monks who present him with gifts during a meeting with religious leaders at the Vatican May 19, 2025. The leaders were in Rome for the pope’s inauguration Mass. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
