On May 12, 2025, just four days after his election as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church, Leo XIV met with more than 6,000 journalists in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. During this audience, he thanked media professionals for their work during the conclave and the days following, and stressed the importance of a free press committed to the truth.

“Only Informed Peoples Can Make Free Decisions,” the Pope affirmed, emphasizing that communication must foster peace and disarm words. He urged the media to avoid mediocrity and not fall into the “war of words and images,” promoting a narrative that builds bridges instead of walls.

Leo XIV also called for the release of journalists imprisoned for seeking and telling the truth, recognizing the courage of those who document conflicts, even risking their lives. “Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are fundamental to a just and democratic society,” he noted.

The Church’s “solidarity with journalists imprisoned for seeking and communicating the truth” and the call for their release; the call to “service to the truth”; the challenge of a communication that “is not only the transmission of information, but the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and confrontation”; the “immense potential, which, however, demands responsibility and discernment” of artificial intelligence; a communication “capable of listening, of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice,” with the invitation to disarm words to contribute to “disarming the Earth.”

An “unarmed and disarming communication” that allows us to “share a different vision of the world and act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.” These are the key points of Pope Leo XIV’s speech to journalists who have been following the events surrounding the death of Francis and the conclave that elected Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Roman Pontiff. It was the new Pope’s first public audience, and he also had the opportunity to exchange greetings with members of the Dicastery for Communication and representatives of the Association of Journalists Accredited to the Vatican.

These words revealed some very interesting things. Starting with the fact that, regarding the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, which is celebrated tomorrow, the Pope said, speaking of himself, that “Cardinal Prevost had planned to go, but plans changed…” The Pope also responded to some American journalists who asked him if he would return home: “Not soon.”

There was no shortage of jokes with the Prefect of the Papal Household, Msgr. Sapienza, whom the Pope asked if he should distribute the Rosaries. When he told him they were working on it, Leone joked, “I’m still learning…”

He also revealed that work is already underway on the trip to Nicaea that Francis had planned to make to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council. When asked by other American colleagues what message he had for the United States, the Pope replied, “Many,” while to other journalists who emphasized that “we are not enemies, but allies,” Leone replied, “We are allies because we seek the truth.”

Finally, some gifts: a Peruvian journalist gave Leone a scarf made of alpaca wool from the Peruvian Andes and woven by women from low-income communities, and the Pope told her, “Expect to hear from me in Peru soon,” while an Italian colleague gave him a relic of Blessed John Paul I, a predecessor who embodied St. Augustine’s “sermo humilis.”