When Pope Leo XIV met the ambassadors from the 184 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See for the first time since his election, he told them that peace, justice and truth are three essential words “that represent the church’s missionary activity and the aim of the Holy See’s diplomacy.”
He received them in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on the morning of May 16, and was welcomed by the retiring dean of the diplomatic corps, George Poulides, ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus.
The United States was represented by its chargée d’affaires, Laura H. Hochla. The notable absentees included the People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and North Korea, which do not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
Pope Leo began by thanking the ambassadors for the “many messages of good wishes” he had received following his election on May 8, and for the expressions of condolences for the death of Pope Francis, some of which “came from countries with which the Holy See does not have diplomatic relations.”
While the diplomatic community “represents the entire family of peoples,” Pope Leo said “papal diplomacy is an expression of the very catholicity of the church”; it “is inspired by a pastoral outreach that leads it not to seek privileges but to strengthen its evangelical mission at the service of humanity.” It seeks to “resist all forms of indifference” and “appeals to consciences,” as we saw in the efforts made by Pope Francis who was “ever attentive to the cry of the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as well as to contemporary challenges, ranging from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence.”
Speaking in Italian, the pope told the ambassadors their presence is “a visible sign of your countries’ respect for the Apostolic See.” He said he considered it “a gift for me” because “it allows me to renew the church’s aspiration—and my own—to reach out and embrace all individuals and peoples on the Earth, who need and yearn for truth, justice and peace!” He recalled that his own life experience was on this same track as “it has spanned North America, South America and Europe,” and has been marked by “this aspiration to transcend borders in order to encounter different peoples and cultures.”
Leo XIV told the ambassadors that as pope he intended “to strengthen understanding and dialogue” with their respective countries “many of which” he said he had already visited “especially during my time as Prior General of the Augustinians” [from 2001 to 2013].
The missionary pope told them, “I trust that God’s providence will allow me further occasions to get to know the countries from which you come,” in other words to visit them, and “to have occasions to confirm in the faith our many brothers and sisters throughout the world and to build new bridges with all people of good will.” Leo has already indicated that he intends to go to Nicea (modern-day Iznik) in Turkey in the near future for the 1700-year anniversary of the first ecumenical council.
Pope Leo emphasized that the Catholic Church’s “missionary activity” and the Holy See’s “diplomacy” focus on peace, justice and truth.
From his very first words to the world on the evening of his election on May 8, and in all his speeches ever since Pope Leo has focused on the need for peace in a world torn by war and polarization. Addressing the ambassadors today he emphasized that peace cannot be reduced to “the absence of war and conflict, since opposition is a perennial part of human nature, frequently leading us to live in a constant ‘state of conflict’ at home, at work and in society.”
“From a Christian perspective—but also in other religious traditions—peace is first and foremost a gift”, he said; “it is an active and demanding gift” that “engages and challenges each of us, regardless of our cultural background or religious affiliation, demanding first of all that we work on ourselves.” He explained that “peace is built in the heart and from the heart, by eliminating pride and vindictiveness and carefully choosing our words. For words too, not only weapons, can wound and even kill.”
Pope Leo told the ambassadors that “all of us are called to take part” in building peace in the world, and “start to eliminate the root causes of all conflicts and every destructive urge for conquest.” He said peace building “demands a genuine willingness to engage in dialogue, inspired by the desire to communicate rather than clash.” In this context, he emphasized the need “to give new life to multilateral diplomacy” and “to those international institutions conceived and designed primarily to remedy eventual disputes within the international community.”
At the same time, he said, “there must also be a resolve to halt the production of instruments of destruction and death” because, as Pope Francis said his last Urbi et Orbi Message on Easter Sunday, “[No peace is] possible without true disarmament [and] the requirement that every people provide for its own defence must not turn into a race to rearmament.”
“The pope of the two worlds” next turned to the second pillar of papal diplomacy and the church’s missionary effort: justice. In April 2024, Pope Francis had stated, “There is no peace without justice,”; today his successor emphasized that “Working for peace requires acting justly.”
He told the ambassadors he chose the name Leo “thinking first of all of Leo XIII, the Pope of the first great social Encyclical, Rerum Novarum” and said that “in this time of epochal change, the Holy See cannot fail to make its voice heard in the face of the many imbalances and injustices that lead, not least, to unworthy working conditions and increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden societies.”
He told them that “every effort should be made to overcome the global inequalities—between opulence and destitution—that are carving deep divides between continents, countries and even within individual societies.”
He said “it is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies” and emphasized that “this can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.” Furthermore, he said, “no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.”
Pope Leo recalled that he too is “a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate” and said: “All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God.”
The first American pope then turned to the third pillar of the church’s mission and papal diplomacy: truth. He told the ambassadors, “Truly peaceful relationships cannot be built, also within the international community, apart from truth.” He reminded them that “[w]here words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its altered perception of reality, takes over unchecked, it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking.”
The Augustinian pope concluded by recalling that his papal ministry begins during the Jubilee Year, that is devoted to hope. This year “is a time of conversion and renewal and, above all, an opportunity to leave conflicts behind and embark on a new path,” he said, “confident that, by working together, each of us in accordance with his or her own sensibilities and responsibilities, can build a world in which everyone can lead an authentically human life in truth, justice and peace.” He hoped this would come true first of all “in those places that suffer most grievously, like Ukraine and the Holy Land.”
He thanked the ambassadors for working “to build bridges between your countries and the Holy See.” He ended by invoking God’s blessing on them, their families and the peoples they represent, and then greeted each of them individually.
Next Sunday, May 18, some 200 delegations from states and international organizations will be present in St. Peter’s Square for the inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Leo XIV. Among them will be the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, both of whom are Catholic, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, together with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the Presidents of Italy, Ukraine, Peru, Israel and other countries.
Correction, May 16: King Charles III of England is not attending Pope Leo XIV’s installation, as originally reported here.
