Pope Leo XIV speech to ambassadors before the Holy See

Pope Leo XIV received the accredited ambassadors before the Holy See, whom he asked to develop diplomacy at the service of truth, justice and peace.

Next, the speech of Pope Leo XIV this May 16:

Excellent,

Ladies and gentlemen:

I thank you Mr. George Poulides, ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus and dean of the diplomatic corps, for the cordial words that he has addressed in all of you and for his tireless work, which he carries out with the strength, passion and sympathy that characterize him, skills for which he has deserved the esteem of all my predecessors, which he has known in these years of mission in these years, in these years of mission in these years. of the remembered Pope Francis.

I also want to express my gratitude for the numerous congratulations sent after my choice, as well as for the preceding condolences that Pope Francis has reached, even from countries with which the Holy See does not maintain diplomatic relations. It is a significant manifestation of esteem, which encourages mutual relationships to deepen.

In our dialogue, I would like to always predominate the sense of being a family – the diplomatic community represents, in effect, the whole family of the peoples – that shares the joys and pains of life along with the human and spiritual values ​​that encourage it.

Pontifical diplomacy is, in fact, an expression of the same Catholicity of the Church and, in its diplomatic action, the Holy See is animated by a pastoral urgency that drives it not to seek privileges but to intensify its evangelical mission in the service of humanity.

This fights indifference and continually appeals to consciences, as my venerated predecessor has tirelessly, always attentive to the clamor of the poor, those in need and the marginalized, as well as the challenges that characterize our time, from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence.

In addition to being a specific sign of the attention that their countries reserve to the Apostolic Headquarters, its presence today is for me a gift, which allows to renew the aspiration of the Church – and my personal – to reach and embrace each people and every person of this land, eager and needed really, of justice and peace. In a sense, my own life experience, deployed between North America, South America and Europe, shows this aspiration to transfer the confines to meet different people and cultures.

Through the constant and patient work of the Secretary of State, I try to consolidate knowledge and dialogue with you and your countries, many of which I have already had the grace to visit throughout my life, especially when I was a prior general of the Augustinians.

I trust that Divine Providence grants me to have in the future occasion to meet the realities from which you come, allowing me to host the opportunities that arise to confirm in the faith so many brothers and sisters scattered throughout the world and build new bridges with all people of good will.

In our dialogue, I would like us to present the three keywords that constitute the pillars of the missionary action of the Church and the work of the diplomacy of the Holy See.

The first word is peace. Many times we consider it a “negative” word, that is, as a mere absence of war or conflict, because the contrast is part of human nature and always accompanies us, promoting us too many times to live in a constant “state of conflict”; At home, at work, in society.

Peace then looks like a simple truce, a rest break between one discord and another, because, although one strives, the tensions are always present, a little like the embers that burn under the ashes, ready to revive at any time.

In the Christian perspective – as also in that of other religious experiences – peace is first and foremost a gift, the first gift of Christ: “I give them my peace” (Jn 14,27). But it is an active, exciting gift, that affects and compromises each of us, regardless of cultural origin and religious belonging, and that first demands a work on oneself. Peace is built in the heart and starting from the heart, tearing pride and claims, and measuring language, because you can also hurt and kill with words, not only with weapons.

In this optics, I consider the contribution that religions and interreligious dialogue can provide to favor peace contexts. That, naturally, demands full respect for religious freedom in each country, because religious experience is a fundamental dimension of the human person, without which it is difficult – if not impossible – to carry out that purification of the heart necessary to build peace relations.

From this work, which we are all called to carry out, the premises of any conflict and any destructive will to conquer can be removed. This also demands a sincere will to dialogue, animated by the desire to find itself more than confront. In this perspective it is necessary to revitalize multilateral diplomacy and those international institutions that have been loved and thought first to remedy the conflicts that could arise within the international community.

Certainly, it is also necessary the will to stop producing instruments of destruction and death, because, as Pope Francis remembered in his last Urbi et Orbi message, “peace is not possible without a real disarmament (and) the demand that each people have to provide their own defense cannot become a general career when rearma.”

The second word is justice. Attempting peace demands to practice justice. As I have already had a way of pointing out, I have chosen my name thinking mainly in Leo XIII, the Pope of the first major social encyclical, the rerum novarum. In the change of the era we are living, the Holy See can not exempt from making its own voice to the numerous imbalances and the injustices that lead, among other things, to unworthy conditions of work and increasingly fragmented and conflicting societies.

It is also necessary to strive to remedy global inequalities, which draw deep opulence and destitution between continents, countries and even within the same societies.

It is the task of those who have the government’s responsibility to be applied to build harmonic and peaceful civil societies. This can be done above all investing in the family, founded on the stable union between men and women, “very small, it is true, but true society and older than any other.” In addition, no one can exempt from favoring contexts in which the dignity of each person is guarded, especially those most fragile and defenseless, from the child to be born to the old man, from the patient to the unemployed, whether these citizens or immigrants.

My own history is that of a citizen, descendant of immigrants, who in turn has emigrated. Each of us, in the course of life, can be found healthy or sick, busy or unemployed, in their homeland or in foreign land. His dignity, however, is always the same, that of a dear creature and loved by God.

The third word is true. You cannot build truly peaceful relationships, even within the international community, without truth. Where words assume ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its distorted perception of reality, prevails without control; It is difficult to build authentic relationships, because the objective and real communication premises decline.

For its part, the Church can never exempt from telling the truth about man and about the world, resorting to what is necessary, even to a frank language, which can initially raise some misunderstanding.

The truth, however, never separates from charity, which always has the concern for the life and good of each man and woman. On the other hand, in the Christian perspective, the truth is not the affirmation of abstract and unleashed principles, but the encounter with the very person of Christ, who lives in the community of believers. In that way, the truth does not take us away; On the contrary, it allows us to face with greater vigor the challenges of our time, such as migrations, the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the protection of our beloved earth. They are challenges that require everyone’s commitment and collaboration, because no one can think of facing them alone.

Dear Ambassadors:

My ministry begins in the heart of the Jubilee Year, dedicated in particular to hope. It is a time of conversion and renewal, and above all the occasion to leave behind the contests and begin a new path, animated by the hope of being able to build together, each according to their own sensibilities and responsibilities, a world in which each of us can perform one’s humanity in truth, in justice and in peace. I hope this may happen in all contexts, starting with the more who suffer the most, such as Ukraine and Holy Land.

I thank you for all the work they do to build bridges between their countries and the Holy See, and with all my heart I bless you, I bless their families and their peoples.