Pope Leo told Spain's parliament that escalating conflict, deepening polarization and widespread disregard for human rights had pushed the world into a profound crisis, in one of his most expansive political addresses yet on Monday.

Leo, who has adopted a more forceful tone recently against the direction of global leadership, also firmly repeated his opposition to increased European military spending, urging politicians instead to end the wars ravaging the globe and help migrants.

"The world is undergoing a profound spiritual and cultural crisis, which is manifested in multiple forms of violence, polarization, and mutual distrust," the pope said in the address, which came hours after Israel and Iran renewed their attacks on one another in the most serious test of a two-month ceasefire.

"Weapons can impose a temporary silence; but they can never build an authentic and lasting peace," he said.

The pope on Monday also met with six victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and told bishops they must ⁠offer survivors reparations as he sought to address a scandal that has severely damaged the local Church's credibility.

A 2023 report by Spain's human rights ombudsman estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of clerical abuse there over decades.

MIGRATION CHALLENGING WORLD'S ‘ETHICAL FOUNDATION’

Leo's speech, which was delivered in Spanish and was received with a seven-minute standing ovation by lawmakers, was a rare papal address to a national legislature and the first by a pope to Spain's parliament. It is part of a week-long visit to the country in which the pontiff has met with migrants and the homeless, and called on national leaders to stop dividing their electorates.

The pope, whose Spain tour will culminate with the pontiff meeting migrants in the Canary Islands who braved dangerous Atlantic waters to enter Europe, said a lack of help for the world's migrants was challenging "the ethical foundation of the international order".

He said countries must look for solutions that go beyond "the mere management of flows" and should address the causes that force people to leave their countries of origin, including war, poverty and climate change.

The pope told parliament that "the moral greatness of a nation is manifested above all in its capacity to accompany, protect, and love those lives that pass through the greatest ⁠fragility".

More than 3,000 people died in 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, off the western coast of Africa, often in makeshift dinghies, according to NGO Caminando Fronteras.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government has opened a mass amnesty programme, allowing an estimated 500,000 immigrants to apply for legal status.

POPE CALLS EUROPEAN REARMAMENT ‘TROUBLING’

Leo, who issued a fervent manifesto last month urging global governments to slow down the development of AI systems, called on Monday for "rigorous ethical vigilance" over how AI was used in warfare.

He said that rising European military spending, which grew last year by the highest amount since the end of the Cold War amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, was “troubling.”

Spanish Prime ⁠Minister Pedro Sanchez has refused to meet Trump's demands for NATO member countries to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, although the expenditure has tripled since he took office in 2018, rising from around €10 billion ($11.5 billion) to more than €34 billion.

The pope last month called European rearmament a betrayal of diplomacy.

Leo also offered some of his most in-depth remarks yet addressing the balance in the relationship between Church and state. He urged protection of religious freedom, ⁠saying that faith "cannot be relegated to silence as though it were irrelevant to public life".

The pope likewise defended the privacy of the Catholic seal of confession, which obliges a priest not to reveal any information given to him by penitents.

Several countries, including France, have debated whether to compel priests to report sexual abuse disclosed in confessions, following scandals that have shaken the Church internationally.

Protecting the seal, Leo ⁠said, preserves "a sacred space of inner freedom, where the believer can open his or her soul before God".

The Vatican said the abuse victims Leo met for one hour on Monday offered him suggestions for how the Church could respond to such cases, even as some victims said they had been excluded from the meeting and called the Church's response insufficient.

In an earlier meeting with Catholic bishops, Leo said they must listen to survivors of abuse and offer them reparations. 

Source: Reuters

– Agencies