Pope Leo on Thursday decried rising European military spending, which grew last year by the highest amount since the end of the Cold War, saying it was a betrayal of diplomacy.

Pope Leo told university students in Rome that they should not refer to such rearmament as defence spending, adding that the world was being "maimed by wars."

"Let us not call 'defence' a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, impoverishes investments in education and health, betrays trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good," the pontiff said.

Military spending across the continent rose 14% in 2025 to $864 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and rearmament by European nations.

'Artisans of true peace'

On Thursday, Pope Leo was addressing students at Rome's Sapienza University.

The pope also warned about the use of artificial intelligence in warfare, citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran as showing "the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation."

Leo urged the some 110,000 students at the university not to "close themselves within ideologies and national borders."

"Together with me and with many brothers and sisters, be artisans of true peace," the pope pleaded.