Pope Leo: we disarm the words and disarm the earth. Phone call with Zelensky

"A disarmed and disarming communication," he added, "allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity. You are on the front line in narrating conflicts and hopes for peace, situations of injustice and poverty, and the silent work of so many for a better world. That is why I ask you to consciously and courageously choose the path of communicating peace'. He spoke amid applause and repeated "Long live the Pope" from the audience.

"Allow me today to reiterate the Church's solidarity with journalists imprisoned for seeking and reporting the truth, and to ask for their release," the Pope said. "The Church recognises in these witnesses - I am thinking of those who recount war even at the cost of their lives - the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of peoples to be informed, because only informed peoples can make free choices.

In the face of the "immense potential" of artificial intelligence, we must have "responsibility and discernment to orient the tools to the good of all, so that they can produce benefits for humanity," the Pontiff said. "And this responsibility," he added, "concerns everyone, in proportion to age and social roles".

He recalled that in the 'Sermon on the Mount' Jesus proclaimed 'blessed are the peacemakers'. "This is a Beatitude that challenges us all and that concerns you closely, calling each of us to the commitment of carrying out a different kind of communication, one that does not seek consensus at all costs, does not clothe itself with aggressive words, does not espouse the model of competition, never separates the search for truth from the love with which we humbly must seek it". He called on journalists to be "peacemakers" urging them to seek the truth "with love" and saying "no" to the "war of words and images". "We must reject the paradigm of war," he said.

His was a rousing start, with a humorous incipit in English to introduce the speech to the media: 'Good morning! And thank you for this wonderful welcome! They say that applauding at the beginning doesn't matter so much.... If you are still awake at the end and still want to clap.... Thank you very much!" He joked with reporters about his passion for tennis. And to those who asked if it was possible to play doubles with him, he replied: 'I'm still learning. I play but not well'. In the Paul VI Hall there were also many children, children of Vaticanists. The youngest, Emma, three months old, was in her mother's arms sleeping the whole time and then taking milk. Little Leo, four years old, drew all the time with pencils and sketchbooks. There were also Anita and Rosa, in the arms of their parents who hoped to have them blessed by the Pope, but it was not possible.