Pope Leo XIV asked the media on Monday to choose “with conscience and courage the path of a communication of peace” and added: “Let’s disarm the words and help disarm the Earth,” in the audience he granted to journalists who have reported on the conclave in which he was elected.

In the first audience he celebrates, as Francis also did at the beginning of his pontificate, the first American pope gathered in the Paul VI classroom of the Vatican several thousand communicators to whom he pointed out that “we live in difficult times to navigate and count, which pose a challenge for all of us and from which we must not escape.”

And, he stressed, that “on the contrary, they ask each of us, in our different roles and services, to never surrender to mediocrity.”

Leo XIV said that “what is needed is not a noisy and muscular communication, but a communication capable of listening, of collecting the voice of the weak who have no voice.”

“Let’s disarm the words and help disarm the Earth. Unarmed and disarming communication allows us to share a different vision of the world and act in a manner consistent with our human dignity,” said the pope, who in his first speech after being elected on May 8 also called for “an unarmed and disarming peace.”

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And he added: “You are on the front line narrating conflicts and hopes for peace, situations of injustice and poverty, and the silent work of many for a better world. For this I ask you to choose with conscience and courage the path of a communication of peace.”

“There can be no communication or journalism outside of time and history,” he said and recalled St. Augustine’s phrase, since he is Augustinian: “Let’s live well and times will be good. We are the times.”

To the journalists, who applauded at various moments of the speech, he explained that today, “one of the most important challenges is to promote a communication capable of helping us escape from the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, from the confusion of loveless languages, often ideological or biased”

And therefore he stressed that “the words they use and the style they adopt, is important.” Communication, in fact, is not only the transmission of information, but the creation of a culture, human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and confrontation,” he added.

And above all, he stressed the technological evolution and artificial intelligence “that with its immense potential, which requires, however, responsibility and discernment to guide the tools to the good of all, so that they can produce benefits for humanity.”

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Leo XIV was greeted at the entrance of the Paul VI classroom with a loud applause by the journalists and joked saying that he hoped that the applause would also come at the end of his speech.

Pope Leo XIV after his message greeted some of them in a relaxed way, confirmed some news such as the trip to Nicea and, in dubious moments of protocol, responded jokingly: “I’m still learning.”

When asked if he wanted to participate in a charity tennis tournament that the Pontifical Mission Societies is preparing, Leo XIV jokingly said that he could participate “as long as you don’t bring (Jannick) Sinner”, about the double meaning both because the Italian is number one in the world and because his English surname means ‘sinner’.

While to others who proposed a double, he confessed: “I’m not that good.”

Leo XIV showed his sense of humor when he wanted a photo taken with a journalist who had dressed in white without “intention of wanting to be a pope,” although she refused to take a ‘selfie’ with another communicator.

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The pope also called for the release of imprisoned journalists and urged to “safeguard the precious good of freedom of expression and press.”

Before several thousand journalists gathered in the Paul VI classroom, in which it is the first audience of his pontificate, the first American pope wanted to “reiterate the solidarity of the Church with the imprisoned journalists for seeking and reporting the truth” and “asking for their release.”

“The Church recognizes in these testimonies – I think of those who tell the war even at the cost of their own lives – the courage of those who defend the dignity, justice and the right of peoples to be informed, because only informed peoples can make free decisions,” said Robert Francis Prevost in his message.

And he added: “The suffering of these imprisoned journalists challenges the conscience of nations and the international community and calls on us all to safeguard the precious good of freedom of expression and of the press.”

In addition, Leo XIV confirmed that the trip that Francis had planned to Nicea, Turkey, at the end of May to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Christian Council is being prepared.

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