Despite “certain pessimism” we may fall victims to, “a healthy realism continues to shine a light of hope on our unruly world”. Pope Francis stressed this in his address to the participants in the Vatican Symposium on Disarmament, citing the “historic” recent vote at the United Nations, by which “the majority of the members of the international community determined that nuclear weapons are not only immoral, but must also be considered an illegal means of warfare. This decision filled a significant juridical lacuna, inasmuch as chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-human mines and cluster bombs are all expressly prohibited by international conventions”. “Even more important”, according to Pope Francis, “is the fact that it was mainly the result of a ‘humanitarian initiative’ sponsored by a significant alliance between civil society, states, international organizations, churches, academies and groups of experts”. Along the same lines is also the document delivered to the Pope by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates attending the Symposium, for which Pope Francis expressed his “gratitude and appreciation”. The Pontiff went on to mention the 50th anniversary of the “Populorum Progressio”, a “memorable and still timely document” in which Paul VI set forth the notion of “integral human development”, that is aimed at the “development of each man and of the whole man”.