On Friday, May 16, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV held an audience with members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. More than one hundred ambassadors from around the globe were present at the event. The pope’s address to the diplomats was relatively brief but nonetheless packed with meaning and hints at things to come.
The Holy Father first offered words of thanks to the diplomatic corps members and their dean, Ambassador George Poulides (Cyprus), for their well-wishes regarding his papal election as well as for their condolences over the passing of Pope Francis. Leo XIV also acknowledged that similar messages were received from countries with whom the Holy See does not have diplomatic relations, which he took as a sign of esteem and “strengthening of mutual relations.”
After those introductory remarks, Leo began the main section of his address by expressing his desire that—in their work alongside and with the Holy See—the diplomats and Vatican officials maintain a “sense of being a family.” To this end, he highlighted what they share in common: joys, sorrows, and values (both human and spiritual).
Pope Leo then described papal diplomacy as “an expression of the very catholicity of the Church,” and connected it with her “pastoral outreach” and “evangelical mission.” The Church’s diplomatic modus operandi is to appeal to consciences, citing Pope Francis’s efforts as an example. Leo explicitly mentioned attention to “the cry of the poor, the needy and the marginalized” alongside “contemporary challenges, ranging from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence.”
With those last two themes, we can see clear continuity with Pope Francis’s concerns about the environment and the potential dangers posed by the rise and rapid development of artificial intelligence. With regard to the environment, see Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, “On Care for Our Common Home.” With respect to AI, see the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2025 document Antiqua et Nova, “Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence.”
“He took the name [Leo] in order to mark a new period where the Church is going to be engaging with these very serious problems.”
Both of these themes have already been raised multiple times during Leo XIV’s nascent reign. Just four days prior to this audience with the diplomatic corps, Leo addressed representatives of the media. Therein, he likewise raised the issue of artificial intelligence, “with its immense potential, which nevertheless requires responsibility and discernment.” In fact, in his meeting with the College of Cardinals following his election, Pope Leo XIV explicitly pointed to AI as akin to the industrial revolution to which his Leonine predecessor (Leo XIII) had to respond. As Christopher Wells reports, “Pope Leo XIV tells us that because of the challenges to humanity today and the challenges to human dignity, in particular the problems of artificial intelligence, he took the name [Leo] in order to mark a new period where the Church is going to be engaging with these very serious problems.”
Pope Leo XIV structured the remainder of his diplomatic corps address around “three essential words” he wants the diplomats to keep ever in mind in their dialogues with the Holy See. The words are peace, justice, and truth.
Following traditional Catholic teaching, he noted that peace is not to be conflated with the mere “absence of war and conflict.” Peace is, first and foremost, “a gift” that makes demands upon us to “work on ourselves.” Peace is not, then, a merely external state of affairs. Rather, “Peace is built in the heart and forms the heart . . . eliminating pride and vindictiveness.” It also involves carefully choosing one’s words, for words “can wound and even kill.” Pope Leo also remarked that “religious freedom in every country” is a requirement for peace as is the “genuine willingness to engage in dialogue.”
The second essential word is justice. He noted that peace requires justice. In particular, Leo expressed concerns about “unworthy working conditions” and “global inequalities—between opulence and destitution—that are carving deep divides between continents, countries and even within individual societies.”
Notably, in the effort to establish justice and peace, Pope Leo insisted that government leaders ought to invest in the family, “founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.” Immediately after these words, he quoted Rerum Novarum: The family is “a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.” Additionally, he highlights the need for “respect for the dignity of every person.” He names the unborn, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed, citizens, and immigrants as examples of people whose dignity is vulnerable to attack.
Here, he made some personal remarks. He recalled that he is a descendant of immigrants as well as one who emigrated to a foreign land. He thus has experience both as a citizen and an immigrant. His core message was that one’s dignity remains, whether one dwells in one’s native place or in a foreign country.
Finally, Pope Leo addressed the theme of truth and its connection to the prior themes. In a way, truth is a necessary precondition of justice and peace. Truth often demands clarity. As he warns: “Where words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations . . . it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking.”
Pope Leo XIV harkens to certain themes that were important to Pope Francis and to other themes that are reminiscent of Pope Benedict XVI.
Fittingly, those remarks of our Augustinian pontiff remind me of St. Augustine’s recognition that authentic dialogue rests on mutual submission to and search for the truth. As then Joseph Ratzinger attested:
Augustine concludes that the community of friends was capable of mutual listening and understanding because all of them together heeded the interior master, the truth. Men are capable of reciprocal comprehension because, far from being wholly separate islands of being, they communicate in the same truth. . . . Dialogue without this interior obedient listening to the truth would be nothing more than a discussion among the deaf.
Because dedication to the truth is necessary for true dialogue aimed at establishing justice and peace, Pope Leo insisted “the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world,” even to the point, he said, of “resorting whenever necessary to blunt language,” even if “that may initially create misunderstanding.” At the same time, Pope Leo noted that “truth can never be separated from charity.” Here, I see a connection to Pope Benedict XVI and his 2009 encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).
I think it is interesting to observe that, in this brief address, Pope Leo XIV harkened to certain themes important to Pope Francis and to others reminiscent of Pope Benedict XVI. To me, this is a welcome sign. In this day and age, we do need to take seriously the challenges posed by immigration and artificial intelligence with an eye to protecting and respecting human dignity. At the same time, there is a fundamental need for doctrinal clarity in the Church’s engagement with the world; true peace and justice must be built upon the truth that comes to us from the Gospel. Ultimately, the Church’s diplomacy must remain true to the divine revelation with which she has been entrusted and to which she has been called to bear witness.