Stop and Think

Cardinal Roberto Repole's May Day message

«Peace cannot be reduced to slogans». On April 15th, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Leo XIV bet on the possibility of the Gospel becoming everyday history. Peace, he said, «must be embodied in a style, both personal and institutional, that rejects every form of violence». Robert Prevost had already maintained this in his Message for World Day of Peace 2026. «Today, more than ever», he wrote, «we need to show that peace is not a utopia, through attentive and generative pastoral creativity». There are those who try publicly with words and concrete actions.

The Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Roberto Repole, offered a particular key to reading for May Day: «We were the city of cars, do we want to become the city of weapons?». «I wish to share with you my distress», the archbishop began, «at the thought that wars sow death in the world and yet here in Turin, in Susa, and in Piedmont they represent an economic advantage for companies producing military supplies and presenting themselves as an engine for restarting employment. Is this okay with us? Do we accept any kind of job, as long as it is work? I ask myself this first before others, because we are co-responsible; our actions and our lifestyles are intertwined: we are the city, all together». «We know that decades of industrial crisis have left pockets of unemployment that need to be resolved», Repole continued.

«No one can expect the unemployed to turn down job opportunities, because they are the most fragile link in the chain. However, we must stop and reflect on whether it is human to exert so much effort to attract and develop weapons factories». The Cardinal invited everyone to banish all forms of hypocrisy. «I know people prefer to speak of the Defense industry, but there is no point beating around the bush: the market of death machines is flourishing and distributing rich profits to shareholders only because weapons are being used in other parts of the world to kill and devastate. I believe we cannot seek life with one hand and take it away with the other; we cannot separate peace and work. Do we want to entrust the hopes of our territory to war? Dear friends, I make my own the words of Leo XIV to the diplomatic corps: talking about peace is not enough, “there must be the willingness to stop producing instruments of destruction and death”».

Finally, the invitation. «Let us stop, dear friends, and let us all reason together – institutions and citizens, entrepreneurs, trade unionists, families – let us ask ourselves what kind of people we want to be, how we want to spend our lives and our community: we were the city of cars, do we want to become the city of weapons? The local Church, with its Labor Ministry, is ready to offer itself as a place of meeting, dialogue, and in-depth reflection». Words that question the conscience of a land, Piedmont, which – according to estimates – counts around 400 companies involved and over 14,000 workers employed in the defense sector. Although the sector currently appears limited in numbers (the latest reliable estimates speak of an overall value of around 2 billion euros, 1% of the regional GDP), it is certainly the most dynamic. «Between January 2024 and August 2025, Leonardo alone hired 766 people in Piedmont, including 395 graduates», announced Luca Rondi, a journalist for Altreconomia, on April 9th at a conference organized by the Sereno Regis Study Center. In this context, through the voice of its archbishop, the Church of Turin asks us to stop and think.

Alberto Chiara
NP May 2026