Pope appeals for dialogue in Tigray region
Pope Leo XIV urged all parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray region to stop fighting and pursue dialogue, warning that armed conflict deepens death, destruction, and resentment. He called on the international community to ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in need as renewed clashes disrupt roads and communications. Fighting has spread across Tigray and neighboring areas; Médecins Sans Frontières reported hundreds of wounded people arriving at hospitals, while casualty figures remain unverified. The Pope also recalled his call to pray the Rosary in October for an end to wars and peace, and entrusted the cause of Christian unity to the intercession of the Greek Catholic martyrs of Pratulin.
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Pope Leo XIV appealed for renewed dialogue as fighting intensified in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and neighboring Afar and Amhara. He warned that armed conflict deepens suffering and urged the international community to help ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in need. 1 2
At the September 30 General Audience, Leo urged all parties to choose dialogue, saying that conflict leaves death, destruction and resentment, while honest engagement can create the basis for lasting peace. He also called for timely international support to deliver humanitarian assistance. 1 2
The Pope said he was following events with deep concern in Tigray and the neighboring regions, where hostilities had resumed. 1 2
Clashes have intensified between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopia’s federal military. The Vatican News account reported fighting along the Tekeze River, in Wolkayt and near Afar, as well as in parts of Amhara; Aleteia described the TPLF and its allies as fighting the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. 1 2
The reported death toll remains unverified. The Ethiopian army said 700 Tigrayan fighters were killed over two days, while Médecins Sans Frontières reported that more than 400 wounded people reached hospitals in Korem and Alamata from September 22 to 25, and another 300 were admitted in Suhul and Shire. 1
Aid delivery has been hampered by closed or cut-off roads, and internet and telephone services in northern areas were reported completely disrupted, complicating coordination by aid workers. 1
The renewed hostilities have undermined the already fragile Pretoria Agreement, the 2022 accord that followed the Tigray war. Aleteia notes that fighting from 2020 to 2022 killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. 2
Ethiopia’s government has accused neighboring Eritrea of supporting the TPLF and other opposition forces; Eritrea denies involvement. The European Union described the situation as rapidly deteriorating and announced diplomatic and humanitarian measures, while observers cited by Aleteia warned that shifting alliances and Sudan’s conflict could increase the risk of wider regional escalation. 1 2*
Catholic moral foundations of dialogue and peacebuilding
Catholic dialogue and peacebuilding rest on a conviction that every person has God-given dignity and belongs to one human family. Dialogue is therefore more than a technique for managing conflict: it is a moral duty, practiced in truth and charity, and ordered toward justice, reconciliation, and the common good. It seeks peace without treating truth as optional or reducing peace to the absence of open conflict.
Because all people are created in God’s image and share a common origin and ultimate end, no one should be excluded from dialogue simply because of religion, culture, or identity. Respect for the person means taking others seriously as bearers of rights and consciences, even amid profound disagreement.
This dignity also gives dialogue its moral limits: people must not be manipulated, stereotyped, or treated merely as obstacles to one’s political or social goals. Catholic teaching connects respect for persons with respect for life and the rights that belong to all, insisting that a society needs an objective moral foundation if its peace is to be stable.
Catholic dialogue is not indifference to truth, nor does it require pretending that every position is equally true or just. The Church’s teaching on reconciliation calls for truth to be presented calmly, with respect for the intelligence and conscience of others; dialogue must not become an excuse to silence the Gospel.
But truth must be expressed in a manner consistent with charity. The US bishops urge Catholics to listen in order to understand, treat those with whom they disagree respectfully, challenge stereotypes, and replace contemptuous speech with constructive conversation.
Pope Paul VI describes sincere dialogue as disinterested and objective: it rejects deceit, rivalry, and pretence, and helps form relationships conducive to an honorable peace.
Peacebuilding cannot be reduced to keeping the conflict quiet or securing an agreement between opposing parties. Catholic teaching grounds peace in just relationships and solidarity, and links it to integral human development—the conditions that enable people and communities to live with dignity and contribute to society.
This gives dialogue a practical purpose: addressing sources of mistrust and division, defending human rights, and working for the needs of the hungry, sick, and poor. Peace efforts should help people build a more just social order, not merely preserve existing arrangements.
Where people have been injured, dialogue should help make reconciliation possible. Reconciliation does not mean denying wrongdoing or bypassing justice; it requires acknowledging harm and seeking truthful ways forward. Catholic teaching also stresses that lasting social renewal depends on conversion of heart, since structures and agreements alone cannot remove selfishness or hostility.
The work belongs to the whole Church and society. Church leaders have responsibilities to promote reconciliation, while lay people are called to engage directly in the political, social, economic, and international settings where conflict arises.
In practice, Catholic peacebuilding therefore calls for patient listening, truthful speech, respect for conscience, courage to confront injustice, and willingness to seek solutions that serve the whole community. Its Christian model is Christ, whom the Church proclaims as peace and reconciliation; the faith also points to the witness of Christians who love their enemies and serve peace even amid conflict.