Pope Leo XIV has asked journalists to be peacemakers by shunning prejudice and anger in their reporting and called for the release of journalists imprisoned for their work. Source: OSV News.
“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,” the Pope said yesterday.
Not counting his meeting on Saturday with the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo’s first special audience was reserved for members of the media who covered his election and the death of Pope Francis.
“Thank you for the work you have done and continue to do in these days, which is truly a time of grace for the Church,” he told the media representatives and staff of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.
After giving his speech and his apostolic blessing, the Pope personally greeted dozens of journalists. When one asked if he would be travelling home to the United States soon, the Pope responded, “I don’t think so”.
Asked about the May 13 feast of Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Leo, referring to himself, said, “Cardinal Prevost had planned to go, but the plans changed.”
Another reporter asked the Pope if he planned to fulfil Pope Francis’s promise of going to Türkiye this year to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The council was held in 325 in what is now Iznik.
“We are preparing for it,” the Pope responded. But he did not say when the trip would be.
In his formal talk, Pope Leo focused on how the media could promote division and discord or peace.
The words and style journalists use are “crucial,” he said, because communication is not only about transmitting information; it should create a culture and “human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”
“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,” he said.
“Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world,” he said. “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.”
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Pope Leo XIV thanks media, urges them to be peacemakers (By Cindy Wooden, OSV News)
