Pope Leo XIV has called Natural Law “an essential reference point” for international relations.

Speaking to a group of legislators, he said that a shared point of reference in political activity is the natural law, “written not by human hands, but acknowledged as valid in all times and places, and finding its most plausible and convincing argument in nature itself.”

He quoted Cicero’s words on this in De Re Publica: “Natural law is right reason, in accordance with nature, universal, constant and eternal, which with its commands, invites us to do what is right and with its prohibitions deters us from evil”

The Pope added that natural law is universally valid, apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, and it constitutes “the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting, particularly on the delicate and pressing ethical issues that, today more than in the past, regard personal life and privacy.”