Dear brothers and sisters,

With great joy and a heart filled with hope, I address you for the first time on the occasion of the World Day of Human Fraternity and the 7^th anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb.  On this occasion, you celebrate what is most precious and universal in our humanity: our fraternity, that unbreakable bond which unites every human being, created in the image of God.

Today, the need for this fraternity is not a distant ideal but an urgent necessity.  We cannot ignore the fact that too many of our brothers and sisters are currently suffering the horrors of violence and war.  We must remember that “the first victim of every war is the human family’s innate vocation to fraternity” (Francis, Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, 3 October 2020, 26). At a time when the dream of building peace together is often dismissed as an “outdated utopia” (ibid., 30), we must proclaim with conviction that human fraternity is a lived reality, stronger than all conflicts, differences and tensions.  It is a potential that must be realized through a daily, concrete commitment to respect, sharing and compassion.

In this regard, as I recently emphasized to the members of the Zayed Award Committee, “words are not enough” (11 December 2025). Our deepest convictions require constant cultivation through tangible effort.  Indeed, “remaining in the realm of ideas and theories, while failing to give them expression through frequent and practical acts of charity, will eventually cause even our most cherished hopes and aspirations to weaken and fade away” (Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, 4 October 2025, 119).  As brothers and sisters, we are all called to move beyond the periphery and converge in a greater sense of mutual belonging (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 95).

Through the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, we pay tribute today to those who have translated these values into “authentic testimonies of human kindness and charity” (Address to Members of the Zayed Award Committee for Human Fraternity 2026, 11 December 2025). Our laureates – His Excellency Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Ms. Zarqa Yaftali and Palestinian organization Taawon – are sowers of hope in a world that too often builds walls instead of bridges.  By choosing the demanding path of solidarity over the easy path of indifference, they have demonstrated that even the most deep-seated divisions can be healed through concrete action.  Their work bears witness to the conviction that the light of fraternity can prevail over the darkness of fratricide.

Finally, I express my gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, for his steadfast support of this initiative, as well as the Zayed Committee for its vision and moral conviction. Let us continue to work together so that the dynamic of fraternal love may become the common path of all, and that the “other” may no longer be seen as a stranger or a threat, but recognized as a brother or a sister.

May God, our Father of all, bless each one of you, and may he bless all humanity.

From the Vatican, 22 January 2026

LEO PP. XIV