Pope Leo: Journalists should ‘disarm communication’

In his first audience with the press, Pope Leo XIV urged media to be peacemakers

In the first official audience with journalists since his election, Pope Leo XIV called on the media Monday to reject divisive communication styles, embrace the pursuit of truth with charity, and help build a culture of peace in their reporting.

Pope Leo XIV during a May 12 audience with journalists. Credit: Edgar Beltrán/Pillar Media.

Speaking May 12 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, to journalists who gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral and the conclave, the pope said that “Peace begins with each one of us… In the way we look at others, listen to others, and speak about others.”

The newly elected pontiff offered particular thanks for journalists who covered the death of Pope Francis and the subsequent conclave, acknowledging their efforts to convey the Church’s unity during what he called “a time of grace for the Church.”

“You managed to recount the beauty of Christ’s love that unites and makes us one people, guided by the Good Shepherd,” he said.

The pope’s address reflected on the Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers” — applied to journalism.

Leo emphasized the need for communication 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.”

The pontiff also reiterated the Church’s solidarity with imprisoned journalists worldwide, and called for their release to a thunderous applause.

“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,” the pope said.

“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,” he added.

Reflecting on the days surrounding the conclave and the Church’s journey through Easter into a new pontificate, the pope said he hoped those days unveiled “a little bit of the mystery of our humanity and left us with a desire for love and peace.”

One consistent topic in the pope’s statements so far has been artificial intelligence and its dangers.

Pope Leo XIV and a member of the Swiss Guard May 10. Credit: Edgar Beltran/Pillar Media.

In a May 10 address to the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo said he chose his papal name “mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”

“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” Leo said in his address.

In his Monday speech to the press, the pope warned of the risks of AI’s advancement without ethical reflection.

“This mission becomes ever more necessary,” he said, “in particular with artificial intelligence… which nevertheless requires responsibility and discernment in order to ensure that it can be used for the good of all.”

The pope quoted St. Augustine—“Let us live well, and the times will be good. We are the times”—in encouraging journalists not to retreat in the face of societal challenges, but to help shape the times with their mission.

With that quote in mind, Pope Leo XIV wished to encourage journalists to “move beyond stereotypes and clichés through which we often interpret Christian life and the life of the Church itself.”

“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,” he added.

The pope encouraged journalists to adopt a style that bore in mind that “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.”

He concluded his address with a clear appeal for peace, as he did in his first remarks after his election and on Sunday’s Regina Coeli: “Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred.”

“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.”