Pope Leo XIV on Politics

Address of the Holy Father

Distinguished Authorities,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank Her Excellency Mrs Cindy McCain for her kind invitation to address this annual meeting of the Executive Board of the United Nations World Food Programme. I greet in particular Mr Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, and Her Excellency Mrs Carla Barroso Carneiro, President of this important assembly. I extend my greetings to the Representatives of the Member States, the distinguished guests at this meeting and the staff of this intergovernmental institution, dedicated to saving lives in emergency situations and providing food assistance amid conflicts and natural disasters. Your institution’s commitment resonates profoundly with the Catholic Church’s mission to uphold human dignity and to foster fraternity, rooted in the Gospel’s call to love our neighbor (cf. Mk 12:31). Together, we share the urgent task of confronting hunger and malnutrition, while also tackling the underlying structural causes that sustain them. To meet this task effectively, we must examine the challenges before us, their underlying causes and the paths toward lasting solutions.

Today, crises have evolved from isolated events into persistent realities, marked by prolonged conflicts, chronic food insecurity, economic volatility and growing climate vulnerabilities. This raises a fundamental question: what configuration of the global order is capable of producing, reproducing and, at times, normalizing such conditions? The issue is no longer limited to how to intervene; rather, it extends to understanding why the system constantly produces the very problems it is then forced to correct.

The international order has become increasingly fragmented, arising in part from the crisis of the multilateral system. As I noted recently in the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas: “the institutions established to safeguard the concept of a common future for all peoples and a global common good appear to have been weakened” (201). In the absence of a shared ethical horizon capable of sustaining genuine cooperation, the international system has shifted from multilateralism toward “a disorderly and conflict-ridden multipolarism with a prevailing sense of mistrust” (ibid.). Consequently, States have increasingly allocated their resources towards national security, economic growth and domestic stability, disregarding the close link between these issues and multilateral cooperation.

This trend reveals a striking paradox: unprecedented global productive capacity exists alongside expanding zones of extreme vulnerability. The same forces that drive economic growth often exacerbate exclusion and marginalization. Although alleviating human suffering is widely recognized as essential in principle, humanitarian concerns increasingly risk being relegated to a secondary place among international priorities.

It is precisely within the gap between acknowledgement in principle and prioritization in practice that we witness the progressive bureaucratization of solidarity alongside the quiet commodification of human life. On one hand, humanitarian action is increasingly burdened by bureaucratic procedures that can delay assistance to those in need. On the other hand, access to essential goods, including food, is too often influenced by economic or strategic considerations. As a result, those who do not generate quantifiable value risk becoming invisible.

This twofold dynamic creates a serious ethical challenge: the human person is no longer consistently placed at the center of international action. In this context, it is important to acknowledge that “whereas forms of aid and development projects are obstructed by involved and incomprehensible political decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers, weaponry is not” (Francis, Address to the Executive Board of the World Food Programme, 13 June 2016). In effect, conflicts are “fed” more readily than people are nourished. This reality reflects not only operational shortcomings but also a fundamental imbalance in political and moral priorities.

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I thank the President for her kind words, as well as for the invitation the Apostolic See received on the occasion of my visit to this country. I am also grateful for the courtesy of welcoming me to this historic Palace of the Congress of Deputies, a prominent center of the institutional, legal and democratic life of the Kingdom of Spain. I come before you as the Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Catholic Church, aware that the mission entrusted to the Successor of the Apostle Peter, as the principle and foundation of the unity of the Bishops and the faithful (cf. Lumen Gentium, 23), places the Holy See, in a special way, in dialogue with peoples and with States.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I am pleased to welcome you this morning, the President and members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, as well as those of you who took part in the 2026 General Assembly and International Conference. Your presence here is motivated by your continued dedication to the study and implementation of the Social Doctrine of the Church in today’s society. It is no secret that this is a topic that is particularly close to my own heart, not to mention that it is an essential part of the Church’s mission in this world. Your annual meeting has coincided with the recent publication of Magnifica Humanitas, and I believe that this Encyclical can provide guidelines to develop and assess the many topics that you have been exploring during the Conference and the preparation that preceded it.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you.

Good morning everyone and welcome!

I am pleased to welcome the Members of the European Parliament’s Demography Intergroup, together with the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, the Italian Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities, and the OSCE Special Representative on Demographic Change and Security, on the occasion of your Conference on the family and demographics.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.

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Your Eminence,
Your Excellencies.
Dear Superiors and Students of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy

I am pleased to make my first visit as the Roman Pontiff at this ancient and noble Institution, on the occasion of the Jubilee for the 325^th anniversary of its founding. ...

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Peace be with you,

Distinguished Parliamentarians,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I warmly welcome all of you to this gathering. In a particular way, I greet your Chairman, Mr Manfred Weber and Mrs Mairead McGuinness, the European Union Special Envoy responsible for promoting freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union.

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This morning, in the Hall of Blessings, the Holy Father Leo XIV presided over the inauguration ceremony of the Judicial Year of Vatican City State Tribunal, in the presence of the President of the Tribunal, the Officials, the lawyers, the collaborators and representatives of the judicial bodies of the Italian State.

The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present:

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Preserving Human Voices and Faces

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our faces and voices are unique, distinctive features of every person; they reveal a person’s own unrepeatable identity and are the defining elements of every encounter with others. The ancients understood this well. To define the human person, the ancient Greeks used the word “face” (prósōpon), because it expresses etymologically what is before one’s gaze, the place of presence and relationship. The Latin term “person” (from per-sonare), on the other hand, evokes the idea of sound: not just any sound, but the unmistakable sound of someone’s voice.

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