Pope Leo calls for news media to shun divisive language

VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo XIV used his first audience with news outlets Monday to appeal to journalists to help cool the heated language of today’s media landscape.

The comments once again echoed some of the themes highlighted by his predecessor, Pope Francis, as Leo backed a free press to enable informed decisions and renewed his calls for a more peaceful world.

“Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression,” Leo told more than 1,000 journalists, including the Vatican press corps, who were gathered in an auditorium. “We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening,” he added, delivering his address in Italian.

In comments that were likely to win him points with his audience, Leo spoke of the need for people to be informed in order to make sound decisions and of “the precious gift of free speech and of the press.”

Leo took the stage to a rapturous ovation from members of the news media, some of whom will report on his papacy and others who were in Rome to cover the death and funeral of Francis as well as the conclave that elected the new pope.

Leo’s address to news media, a papal tradition, was frequently interrupted by applause. He began with an impromptu joke in English, thanking journalists for their applause but saying he hoped they would not fall asleep during his remarks.

The last five popes have held audiences with the media early in their papacies. Leo, the first American to lead the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion faithful, has spent his first days as pope pledging to align himself with “ordinary people” and decrying aggression and conflict.

In the pope’s remarks, which lasted around 10 minutes, Leo called for the release of journalists who had been imprisoned for their work. At least 550 journalists were being held across the world as of December, according to Reporters Without Borders, a nonpartisan organization that works to protect journalists.

Leo said that the church viewed imprisoned journalists as 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,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.