The new elected Pope Leo XIV met with media professionals inside the Vatican who covered the papal election, and urged them to serve truth and promote peace, saying communication helps create a society’s culture.
Only four days have passed since his election to the papacy, and Pope Leo XIV made it a point to hold an audience with the journalists who were in Rome to report on the death of Pope Francis, the conclave, and the first days of his own ministry. Proudly, I have been one of the journalists who has done the coverage of the funeral of Pope Francis and the whole conclave process and the first appearance of the new elected Pope Leone XIV.
He met on Monday with media professionals in the Vatican’s Sala Nervi in Paul VI Hall, and thanked reporters in Italian for their tireless work over these intense few weeks. Pope started his speech with a joke saying that if the journalists clap by the end of the meeting it means the encounter has been interesting.
The main message of the Pope was to foster peace
The newly elected Pope began his remarks with a call for communication to foster peace by caring for how people and events are presented.
He invited media professionals to promote a different kind of communication, one that “does not seek consensus at all costs, does not use aggressive words, does not follow the culture of competition, and never separates the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it.” “We must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images; we must reject the paradigma of war.” His appeal for peace in media was obvious
Support for the persecuted journalists
The Pope reaffirmed the Church’s solidarity with journalists who are imprisoned for reporting the truth and he appealed for their immediate release.
He said their suffering reminds the world of the importance of the freedom of expression and the press and stated that “Only informed people can make free choices.”
Service to the truth
Pope Leo XIV then thanked reporters for their service to the truth, especially their work to present the Church in the “beauty of Christ’s love” during the recent interregnum period. He commended their work to put aside stereotypes and clichés, in order to share with the world “the essence of who we are”.
Our times, he continued, present many issues that are difficult to recount and navigate, noting that they call each of us to overcome mediocrity.
We are the times
“The Church must face the challenges posed by the times,” he said. “In the same way, communication and journalism do not exist outside of time and history. Saint Augustine reminds of this when he said, ‘Let us live well, and the times will be good. We are the times’.” Pope Leo XIV said the modern world can leave us lost in a “confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan.” The media, he said, must take up the challenge to lead the world out of such a “Tower of Babel,” through the words we use and the style we adopt.
“Communication is not only the transmission of information,” he said, “but it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”
The responsibility and discernment of the media
Pointing to the spread of artificial intelligence, the Pope said AI’s “immense potential” requires “responsibility and discernment in order to ensure that it can be used for the good of all, so that it can benefit all of humanity.”
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV repeated Pope Francis’ Message for the 2025 World Day of Social Communication. “Let us disarm words to disarm the minds, to disarm Earth, – he said to the international media present and his message definitely had a positive impact on the news of the world.
By Ekaterina Shevliakova
