Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, president of Caritas Internationalis, warned that escalating wars across regions are eroding respect for human life, saying the world is “somehow surviving through war.”
In his homily during the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the archbishop of Tokyo pointed to the latest escalation involving Iran alongside ongoing conflicts in Myanmar, Ukraine, and Gaza, describing a pattern of violence that continues to widen across regions.
“On Saturday, February 28th, the United States and Israel suddenly launched an attack on Iran, and the world remains in a state of great turmoil even now,” he said.
Kikuchi said the series of conflicts shows how “life, a gift from God, is being taken away by the violence of armed force,” warning that war is becoming a persistent condition rather than an exception.
Recalling an appeal made by Pope Francis on the eve of the war in Ukraine, he said:
“I would like to call upon those who bear political responsibility to seriously examine their conscience before God. God is a God of peace, not war. God is the Father of all, and He belongs to no one. What we need are brothers and sisters, not enemies.”
“Despite this appeal, the very next day, violence began, claiming many lives,” Kikuchi said, adding that today’s conflicts are “more cunning, more technologically advanced, more ruthless, and on a far wider scale than ever before.”
He cited Pope Pius XII, who warned on the eve of World War II that “Peace leaves nothing behind, but war can destroy everything,” and said the warning remains relevant.
The cardinal said disputes between nations must not be resolved through force, urging leaders instead to pursue dialogue grounded in “truth, justice, and practical solidarity,” echoing the teaching of Pope John XXIII.
He pointed to the immediate human cost of war.
“We cannot simply accept that there are brothers and sisters who, even at this very moment, are clinging to life in fear, feeling their lives are in danger,” he said.
Turning to the Gospel, Kikuchi warned against ideological blindness, saying societies risk “closing their eyes to facts that fall outside of it” when they remain confined to their own frameworks, leaving little room for dialogue or compromise.
“We want to be humble in the face of the reality unfolding before us,” he said, urging people to “listen to the voice of truth that resonates within it.”
Quoting Pope John Paul II, he described modern society as marked by a “culture of death” and called on the Church to advance a “culture of life.”
“The commandment ‘You shall not murder’ is binding on each individual in a more active sense: to cherish, love, protect, and nurture human life,” he said.
Kikuchi urged the faithful to respond to violence by defending life and dignity, calling on the Church to “be proclaimers of a culture of life” and “those who cherish, love, protect, and nurture life.”
