1343 words, 7 minute read.
To get a closer sense of Pope Leo XIV, I have been following his various activities over the last days and would here like to share some highlights from his homilies and speeches.
First, on Sunday 11th May he said a private mass at the tomb of St. Peter, from which Vatican press office shared the text of his homily, which concludes with the following call to humble listening:
“How important it is to listen! Jesus says: ‘My sheep listen to my voice.’ And I think it’s important that all of us learn more and more to listen, in order to enter into dialogue. First of all with the Lord: always listening to the Word of God. Then also listening to others, knowing how to build bridges, knowing how to listen so as not to judge, not to close doors thinking that we possess the whole truth and no one else can tell us anything. It is very important to listen to the voice of the Lord, to listen to one another in this dialogue, and to see where the Lord is calling us.”
On Monday, Pope Leo then addressed the media, present in Rome to cover the conclave and his election. There he first underlined a close link between peace and communication and the choices that it implies:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9). This is a Beatitude that challenges all of us, but it is particularly relevant to you, calling each one of you to strive for 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. Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say “no” to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.
Then he declared unequivocal support for imprisoned journalists and asked for their release:
Let me, therefore, reiterate today the Church’s solidarity with journalists who are imprisoned for seeking to report the truth, and with these words I also ask for the release of these imprisoned journalists. The Church recognises in these witnesses – I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives – the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices. The suffering of these imprisoned journalists challenges the conscience of nations and the international community, calling on all of us to safeguard the precious gift of free speech and of the press. […] Saint Augustine reminds of this when he said, “Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times” (Discourse 80.8).
Pope Leo then emphasised that communication is not a neutral transmission of facts, but that how it is done creates culture. He also returned to the challenges of AI, which presents opportunities but also calls for responsibility and discernment:
Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote communication that can bring us out of the “Tower of Babel” in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is crucial. As you know, communication is not only the transmission of information, but it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion. In looking at how technology is developing, this mission becomes ever more necessary. I am thinking in particular of artificial intelligence, with its immense potential, which nevertheless 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. This responsibility concerns everyone in proportion to his or her age and role in society.
Finally, he called for a “disarmed and disarming” communication that gives a voice to the voiceless:
We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice. Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world. Disarmed and disarming communication allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.
This morning Pope Leo then addressed representatives of Eastern Churches, present in Rome for the Jubilee. After expressing his profound appreciation for them and the gift that they are for the whole Church, he went on to connect their suffering to a universal desire for peace:
Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence? Who, better than you, who have experienced the horrors of war so closely that Pope Francis referred to you as “martyr Churches” (Address to ROACO, ibid.)? From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see! Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the Pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19, 21, 26). And he adds: “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it” (Jn 14:27). Christ’s peace is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew.
From there Pope Leo expanded his call for peace and decried the futility of war, also connecting it with negating the anti-immigrant trope repeated ad nauseam by Trump and MAGA that identifies foreigners with crime:
For my part, I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail. The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings; not criminals to be hated, but other men and women with whom we can speak. Let us reject the Manichean notions so typical of that mindset of violence that divides the world into those who are good and those who are evil.
The Church will never tire of repeating: let weapons be silenced. I would like to thank God for all those who, in silence, prayer and self-sacrifice, are sowing seeds of peace. I thank God for those Christians – Eastern and Latin alike – who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!
What is becoming crystal clear is the emergence of key themes in Pope Leo XIV’s words of peace, dialogue and a discerning attitude towards AI.
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