In the first meeting with the Diplomatic Corps, Pope Leo XIV outlines a geopolitical and cultural vision that links Saint Augustine, peace, freedom of conscience, language, human rights and global crises.
In the hours in which Giorgia Meloni was responding to journalists, Pope Leo In front of such a qualified and “global” audience, he delivered a true geopolitical and cultural manifesto, in which he touched on all the hot spots on the world scene. Faithful to his vocation, the Pope starts from Saint Augustine and his City of God, a powerful work conceived in a “change of era” such as that of the end of the Roman Empire, an “earthly city” that the saint of Hippo placed in contact with the “city of God”. Sixteen centuries later, according to the Pontiff, the relevance of a “reading of history that does not intend to contrast the hereafter with the hereafter, the Church with the State, remains: in the Augustinian perspective, the two cities coexist until the end of time. (…) However, the Christian, living in the earthly city, is no stranger to the political world, and seeks to apply Christian ethics, inspired by the Scriptures, to civil government.”
War, peace and language crisis
With what consequences in the present? Leo XIV moves on to current events: «La war has come back into fashion”, he notes, “we are looking for it peace through weapons, as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This seriously compromises it rule of law». And it undermines the «international humanitarian lawthe respect of which cannot depend on circumstances and military and strategic interests”. Then he enters perhaps the most interesting part of his reflection (the full text of which is available here: shorturl.at/kXrLE). «Rediscover the meaning of words», he explains, «is perhaps one of the first challenges of our time. When words lose their adherence to reality and reality itself becomes questionable and ultimately incommunicable, we become like those two, of whom Saint Augustine speaks, who are forced to remain together without either of them knowing the other’s language”. «In our days», he continues, «the meaning of words is increasingly fluid and the concepts they represent are increasingly ambiguous. Language is no longer the privileged means for knowing and meeting, but, in the folds of semantic ambiguity, it increasingly becomes a weapon with which to deceive or hit and offend adversaries. We need words to return to unequivocally expressing certain realities.”
According to Prevost, this weakening of the connection between word and reality paradoxically occurs in the name of freedom of expression. We need the strength to overturn this fallacious dynamic: «Freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed precisely by the certainty of language and by the fact that every term is anchored to truth. It is painful, however, to note how, especially in the West, the spaces for authentic freedom of expression are increasingly being reduced, while a new language, with a Orwellianwhich, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that animate it.”
Conscientious objection and religious freedom
Rarely had such a radical criticism of the heterogenesis of the aims of contemporary mentality been heard from the papal throne. But it is only the beginning: «From this drift others follow which end up compressing the fundamental rights of the person, starting from freedom of conscience». From opposition to abortion to that to euthanasia, Leone defendsconscientious objection – «not rebellion, but an act of loyalty to oneself» – which «seems to be the subject of increased questioning by states, even by those that declare themselves founded on democracy and human rights». And on the topic of the attack on the religious freedom carried out by liberal regimes, by Western democracies, in short at home, is very clear: «Religious freedom risks being compressed, which – as Benedict XVI recalled – is the first of human rights because it expresses the most fundamental reality of the person». In defending it, for Christians “but also for all other religious communities”, he distinguishes two types of aggression: first, obviously, the most explicit one. It says: “The persecution of Christians remains one of the most widespread human rights crises today, affecting more than 380 million believers worldwide, who suffer high or extreme levels of discrimination, violence and oppression because of their faith. The phenomenon affects approximately one in seven Christians globally”, and he also mentions without paraphrasing the “jihadist violence” that kills the faithful of Christ. Then he is equally explicit about the «subtle form of religious discrimination against Christians, which is also spreading in countries where they are numerically in the majority, such as in Europe or the Americas, where they sometimes see the possibility of announcing the evangelical truths limited for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, of the unborn or of refugees and migrants or promote family».
Family, abortion and end of life
And on the family he declines the first of the practical limitations to the Christian conception of existence: «Despite its centrality, the family institution is today faced with two crucial challenges. On the one hand, there is a worrying tendency in the international system to neglect and underestimate its fundamental social role. On the other hand, we cannot hide the growing and painful reality of fragile, disintegrated and suffering families, afflicted by internal difficulties and disturbing phenomena, including domestic violence. The vocation to love and life, which manifests itself eminently in the exclusive and indissoluble union between woman and man, imposes a fundamental ethical imperative: to put families in a position to welcome and take full care of nascent life».
Inevitable in the mouth of a Pope, but particularly decisive, are the attacks onabortion («the Holy See expresses deep concern regarding projects aimed at financing cross-border mobility aimed at accessing the so-called “right to safe abortion” and considers it deplorable that public resources are allocated to the suppression of life»), on surrogate motherhood (which, «by transforming gestation into a negotiable service, violates the dignity of both the child reduced to a “product” and the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process and altering the family’s original relational project») and oneuthanasia (“It is also the task of civil society and States to respond concretely to situations of fragility, offering solutions to human suffering, such as palliative care, and promoting policies of authentic solidarity, rather than encouraging forms of illusory compassion such as euthanasia”).
The short circuit of rights and global scenarios
But it’s on the «short circuit» of rights that Prevost offers perhaps the highest and most dissonant contribution compared to the common way of thinking about the world: «A real “short circuit” of human rights is taking place. The right to freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, religious freedom and even life are subject to limitations in the name of other so-called new rights, with the result that the very system of human rights loses strength, leaving room for force and oppression. This happens when each right becomes self-referential and above all when it loses its connection with the reality of things, their nature and truth.”
In the Pope’s reasoning, with evident anti-relativistic Ratzingerian echoes, God is almost a “secular” outlet for human reason and its search for happiness: “Searching only for immanent goods undermines that “tranquility of order” which for Augustine constitutes the very essence of peace. Lacking a transcendent and objective foundation, only self-love prevails to the point of indifference towards God who governs the earthly city.” However, as Augustine notes, “the senselessness of pride is great in these individuals who place the aim of good in the present life and who think they can make themselves happy.”
Abstraction? Not so much: Leone dives into all the devastated scenarios of the world with journalistic synthesis. Ukraine: «The Holy See decisively reaffirms the urgency of an immediate ceasefire and of a dialogue animated by the sincere search for ways capable of leading to peace». Holy Land: «The Holy See looks with particular attention to every diplomatic initiative that ensures a future of lasting peace and justice for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, as well as for the entire Palestinian people and the entire Israeli people. (…) Unfortunately, we note the increase in violence in the West Bank, perpetrated against the Palestinian civilian population, who has the right to live in peace in their own land”, and here the gaze seems calibrated on the actions of the settlers covered up by the Netanyahu government. And then Venezuelawhere there are no particular regrets for the Trumpian blitz: «Following recent developments, I renew the appeal to respect the will of the Venezuelan people and to commit to the protection of everyone’s human and civil rights and to the building of a future of stability and harmony (…) and thus recover from the serious crisis that has afflicted the country for many years».
The Pope’s manifesto is written.
