“Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world”: Pope Leo XIV’s programme for a new media

Joseph Evans is dazzled by an outstanding call by the new pontiff for a revolution in journalism and social communication.

Pope Leo XIV has chosen to show his high esteem for journalists and other media professionals by making them the beneficiaries of his first ever papal audience.

In an extraordinary survey of the vocation of those dedicated to the media, he called for “a different kind of communication, one that does not seek consensus at all costs, does not use aggressive words, does not follow the culture of competition”.

Quoting Jesus’ words “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9), he told his listeners: “Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. 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.”

It is a powerful message.

War is not just something journalists report on. It is something we can bring about or help avoid by the language we use.

We can ‘wage war’ through the words we choose to employ, a fact seen everyday on social media as different factions fire verbal missiles against each other from their keyboards.

Pope Leo then expressed “the Church’s solidarity with journalists who are imprisoned for seeking to report the truth” and called for their release. He spoke specifically “of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives” and talked of “the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices”.

All those who like to denigrate journalists would do well to remember those words: “only informed individuals can make free choices”. And who would inform us if not dedicated media professionals?

Leo continued: “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.” A gift we all too easily take for granted.

The Pope then thanked the media professionals for the way they had reported on the death of his predecessor Pope Francis, on the conclave and on his own election. People can easily think there is an antagonistic relationship between the Church and the media – and certainly some ecclesiastics and some journalists can view things this way – but actually the Church is profoundly grateful for the honest way so many men and women of the media report on it. Even when a particular report might be negative, if this is telling the truth, this also is a service to the Church.

“Thank you, dear friends”, said Leo, “for your service to the truth. You have been in Rome these past few weeks to report on the Church, its diversity and, at the same time, its unity.” He thanked journalists for their work for the coverage of the death of Pope Francis and the conclave, “during which you worked long and tiring days”.

The Pope then developed the idea that journalists can help or hinder peace by the words they use, saying that media professionals don’t just report on our society, they help to create it.

“We are living in times that are both difficult to navigate and to recount”, he said. “They present a challenge for all of us but it is one that we should not run away from. On the contrary, they demand that each one of us, in our different roles and services, never give in to mediocrity. The Church must face the challenges posed by the times. In the same way, communication and journalism do not exist outside of time and history. Saint Augustine reminds of this when he said, ‘Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times’ (Discourse 80.8).”

“Never give in to mediocrity.” How much bad journalism is due to mediocrity. Those who don’t check their facts but simply parrot another report without asking if it is balanced or informed. Those who fail to realise how little they know about religious questions and are content to scratch at the surface with the most cavalier ignorance.

Let me paraphrase the words of St Augustine quoted by Pope Leo, applying them to media professionals: “Let us report well and the times will be better. We help make the times.”

“Thank you,” said Leo, perhaps optimistically, “for what you have done to move beyond stereotypes and clichés through which we often interpret Christian life and the life of the Church itself”. I say ‘optimistically’ because some reporters are precisely happy to stop short at ‘stereotypes and clichés’ in their reporting on the Church.

”Thank you because you have captured the essence of who we are and conveyed it to the whole world through every form of media possible.” The Pope here is being kind. Thank you, I would say, to those who really try to do this.

And yet in the last month we have seen a remarkable interest in the Church by so many people outside of its visible structures, a remarkable outpouring of affection towards Pope Francis on his death (as I discussed here), a remarkable interest in the conclave, and a heart-warming positivity towards Pope Leo in his early steps.

And all this the media has both reflected and nurtured, with so many journalists genuinely seeking to describe and understand realities outside of their normal experience.

But then we get to some of Leo’s most important words to the gathered journalists: “Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote communication that can bring us out of the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan.”

Yes, even in the same tongue, divisive words – the ‘loveless language’ of ideology – are like a new Tower of Babel, hindering understanding and driving people apart.

And so the Pope continues: “Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is crucial. As you know, communication is not only the transmission of information, but it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”

The media helps create culture, be it one of encounter or of division. In every article we write or programme we record or film, journalists would do well to ask ourselves: what type of culture is this promoting?

Leo then turns his attention to artificial intelligence, a topic he has already touched on in his message to the Cardinals as precisely one of those ‘new things’ which require the Church’s attention, so clearly it matters a lot to him.

While recognising its ‘immense potential’, he said it “nevertheless requires responsibility and discernment in order to ensure that it can be used for the good of all, so that it can benefit all of humanity”.

Will our own inventions help build up our society or lead to its destruction? Hamlet was right: “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”

“Dear friends,” Leo concluded, “we will get to know each other better over time.” How beautiful. It is not just the media people getting to know the Pope. It is him getting to know them. Communication must always be two ways. The Church must listen as much as it must announce.

“We have experienced – we can say together – truly special days. We have shared them through every form of media: TV, radio, internet, and social media. I sincerely hope that each of us can say that these days unveiled a little bit of the mystery of our humanity and left us with a desire for love and peace.”

Isn’t this a marvellous programme for communication, a wonderful description of what, at its best, it can achieve: to ‘unveil a little bit of the mystery of our humanity’ and foster a desire for love and peace? Journalism which doesn’t simply record the negative and basest actions and instincts of men but which looks deeper, works harder, to find positive stories which reflect the greatness of the human person.

Returning to the theme of the media’s relationship with war, Leo pleaded, “let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression.

“We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice. Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world. Disarmed and disarming communication allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.”

In his very first words as pope, about an hour after his election, Leo had described the risen Christ in similar terms to the above: ’disarmed and disarming’. True power is not in military might. It is in its relinquishment. True power is the loving strength to forgive one’s killers. True power is to conquer hatred by love.

‘Disarmed and disarming communication’: journalism which seeks to unite not attack. Words which build bridges not walls.

Surely this is more creative than tired tirades or clichéd invectives. Cynicism is easy to produce but it only knows how to knock down, as Toby Lees put it so well here.

Pope Leo concluded, laying down the most exciting of gauntlets. “You are at the forefront of reporting on conflicts and aspirations for peace, on situations of injustice and poverty, and on the silent work of so many people striving to create a better world. For this reason, I ask you to choose consciously and courageously the path of communication in favour of peace.”

What a challenge, “to choose consciously and courageously the path of communication in favour of peace”. My fellow journalist, my sister, my brother in the media, we have seen how little is achieved through the path of destruction, including destructive words. Isn’t it time that we, as media professionals, chose to unite the world not divide it, to build up our society and not just tear it down?

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