Abstract
Conflicts remain widespread with devastating consequences, making peacekeeping and peacebuilding all the more necessary. International speeches play a crucial role in peacebuilding by raising awareness, promoting dialogue and understanding, calling for action, and setting a tone for peace through the emphasis on dialogue, compromise, and reconciliation. In this paper, we focus on the role of the Pope's speeches on conflict in Africa since 1997 and examine to what extent a speech from the Vatican explicitly mentioning the conflict situation in a country can affect the dynamics of violence. Specifically, using data on conflict events across all African countries from 1997 to 2021 at a spatial resolution of 0.5*0.5 latitude and longitude, we observe a reduction in violence in cells with Catholic places of worship in the weeks following the speech. This effect is primarily driven by countries with Catholic political leaders and predominantly relates to events of violence against civilians and low-intensity events. We also find that violence increases in cells with other places of worship, but only when the actors involved are the state or political militias. While the Pope's speeches appear to reduce the occurrence and intensity of conflicts, the spatial heterogeneity we detect underscores the complexity of how peace messages are perceived by communities.