Pope Leo XIV attends an audience with media representatives in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on May 12, 2025. isabella Bonotto/Anadolu via Getty Images

Pope Leo XIV called free speech and the press a "precious gift" as he asked for the release of imprisoned journalists. He made the comments during an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists from around the world who descended on Rome over the past week to cover his election as the first U.S.-born pontiff.

Leo received a standing ovation as he entered the Vatican auditorium for his first meeting with representatives of the general public.

The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary, who was born in Chicago, called for journalists to use words of peace, to reject war and to give a voice to the voiceless.

"The church recognizes in these witnesses – I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives – the court of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices," Leo 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."

Leo opened the meeting with a few words in English, joking that if the crowd was still awake and applauding at the end, it mattered more than the ovation that greeted him.

Turning to Italian, he thanked the journalists for their work covering the papal transition and urged them to use words of peace.

"Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others," he said. "In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: We must say 'no' to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war."

Journalists who Leo greeted after his brief speech shared some of the few words they exchanged with him, including hints that Vatican plans are going ahead for Leo to travel to Turkey to commemorate an important event in Catholic-Orthodox relations: the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity's first ecumenical council.

In his first Sunday address, Leo called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

"I, too, address the world's great powers by repeating the ever-present call 'never again war,'" Leo said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to an estimated 100,000 people below.

Leo, who was chosen Thursday to become the next pontiff, will be inaugurated at a Mass in St. Peter's Square this coming Sunday.


Pope Leo XIV greets journalists during an audience with media representatives in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on May 12, 2025. isabella Bonotto/Anadolu via Getty Images

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