Pope Leo has starkly warned that World War Three is already being fought and that the future of humanity is at stake. 

In his first overseas speech since he was made the leader of the Catholic world in May, the American pope said that ‘ambitions and choices that trample on justice and peace’ were throwing the world into chaos. 

He told political leaders in Turkey that the world was experiencing ‘a heightened level of conflict on the global level, fuelled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power’.  

‘We must in no way give in to this,’ he pleaded at an event with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan after they held a private meeting, adding: ‘The future of humanity is at stake’.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, conflict has been reported in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

The biggest conflicts include Israel‘s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has seen airstrikes hit targets across the enclave despite a ceasefire being reached in October, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the civil war in Sudan.  

Speaking to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Ankara, Leo said he wanted to use his first overseas trip to urge peace for the world, and to encourage people of different backgrounds to live together in harmony.

‘We hope to… announce, transmit, proclaim how important peace is throughout the world,’ the pope said at the beginning of the three-hour flight. 

He added that he wanted to ‘invite all people to come together, to search for greater unity, greater harmony’. 

Leo, 70 and in good health, has a crowded itinerary during his six-day overseas trip.

In Turkey, he will also visit Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday, in his first visit as pope to a Muslim place of worship, and will celebrate a Catholic Mass at the city’s Volkswagen Arena.

Peace is expected to be a key theme of the pope’s visit to Lebanon, which starts on Sunday.

Lebanon, which has the largest share of Christians in the Middle East, has been rocked by the spillover of the Gaza conflict, as Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.

Leaders in Lebanon, which hosts 1 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees and is also struggling to recover after years of economic crisis, are worried Israel will dramatically escalate its strikes in coming months and hope the papal visit might bring global attention to the country. 

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