In some of his first public remarks since being elevated to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV denounced the jailing of journalists and the use of the media to pit people against one another. And though the pope didn’t drop names, his remarks offer a clear rebuke of the partisan, dehumanizing and manipulative tendencies that characterize the MAGA movement’s approach to the media.
According to The New York Times, the pope told journalists Monday:
‘Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression,’ Leo told more than 1,000 journalists, including the Vatican press corps, who were gathered in an auditorium. ‘We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening,’ he added, delivering his address in Italian. In comments that were likely to win him points with his audience, Leo spoke of the need for people to be informed in order to make sound decisions and of ‘the precious gift of free speech and of the press.’
The pope also called for the release of jailed journalists:
Leo said that the church viewed imprisoned journalists as witnesses. ‘I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives — the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices,’ he said. ‘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,’ he said.
Prior to his promotion, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost shared a tweet critical of Vice President JD Vance’s tribalistic tendencies, so it’s fair to wonder whether the pope’s remarks may have come in response to the political divisions Trump has helped inflame in the United States. But I tend to agree with the proposition that we don’t need to view every declaration from the pope through the lens of U.S. politics (even if he is the first American pope).
That said, President Donald Trump — who’s boasted about his support from American Catholics — might do well to heed the first American pope’s sermon.
The president has openly, and repeatedly, called for the jailing of journalists he disagrees with, while he has used his own social media platform to sow chaos, misinformation and bigotry. His administration detained an academic researcher for no other reason than that the person had written an op-ed criticizing Israel. President Trump told the Justice Department that news outlets (including MSNBC) that air reporting critical of him are “illegal”; on the campaign trail, he claimed he wouldn’t mind if a would-be assassin tried to “shoot through” the media to get him; he publicly mused on the sexual assault of journalists in prisons; and his Justice Department has rolled back previous protections for journalists tied to leak investigations in a move that critics say could subject reporters to jail time.
All this is to say: Whether or not Pope Leo was thinking specifically of Trump, the masterminds behind the MAGA movement’s misuse of mass media would do well to take his message to heart.
