Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, released the following open letter on March 9 that she sent to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.
Holy Father,
I am writing to you at this grave hour of mankind, since you may be the only person left who could hopefully avoid a descent into what you yourself called an “irreparable abyss,” an escalation of the unprovoked war against Iran into potentially a global nuclear war, which would end all life on Earth.
In the recent period, the world has entered a radically worse phase, where international law has been declared nonexistent; the so-called “rules-based order” declared as always having been a charade; and the principle of “might makes right” is being elevated to be the privilege of the powerful. As a result, billions of people are already suffering the dramatic worsening of their living conditions, countless people are already paying with their lives. But still worse, if the present course of events is not changed, the ultimate sin may be committed: the annihilation of the human species for the sake of satanic delusions.
Millions of ordinary people are asking in total despair, what can be done to change the course of history, when many governments, especially in the West, are obviously incapable of fulfilling their obligation to avoid damage to the people they are responsible for? Where are the institutions that can bring the remedy at this late hour?
Something that could be a positive, maybe even the decisive step to arouse the consciousness of the world, would be—in the spirit of the Council of Florence and the unity of the church brought about by Nicholas of Cusa, bringing the delegations of the Orthodox Church to the Councils of Florence and Ferrara—that you, your Holiness, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as Patriarch Bartholomäus I of Constantinople, would take the courageous step and call together for all religious leaders of the world, as well as all people of good faith, believers and non-believers alike, to step forward in defense of peace.
On October 25th last year, in your Angelus sermon, you evoked the great philosopher and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa and his notion of the Coincidentia Oppositorum, as the necessary method of thinking to bind things together in the world today. It was the same method of thinking
which underlay his beautiful dialogue “De Pace Fidei,” about “Peace in Faith,” which he wrote in answer to the fall of Constantinople, uplifting the thinking of the people of his time to the highest possible level—including the understanding that there is only one God, and one truth, knowable to believers of all faiths, despite their distinct rites and practices.
At a time when there is the danger of a world war, and when some use the cloak of religion to argue for an early Armageddon, that same voice of reason must be raised, and the same question asked, like the representatives of 17 nations and religions asked God in “De Pace Fidei,” that it cannot be that people kill each other in the name of God.
The bells of all churches should begin to ring, the Adhan of all mosques should be shouted, the Shofar of all synagogues should be blown, in the whole world in this moment of utmost urgency to save mankind from its final tragedy.
If, as a first step, the Churches of the West and the East would unite and campaign actively and daily for world peace, this could affect the majority of people to express their commitment for peace and thus cause a change in world history and fulfill the will of God, who for sure did not create the world and gift humanity with reason, to have it destroyed by the lack of it.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Founder of the Schiller Institute
