Anyone tallying subject areas where Pope Leo XIV is on the same wavelength as his predecessor will find consistent and compelling themes in the Vatican’s 2025 message for the World Day of Social Communications.
Pope Francis’ text for the 59th World Communications Day, upcoming on June 1, the Sunday before Pentecost, has already been previewed. It bears the title “Share with Gentleness the Hope That is in Your Hearts.”
This reference to the biblical instruction—“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence. . . .” (1 Peter 3:15-16)—finds echoes in the early remarks of Pope Leo.
Just a few days after he was elected by the Catholic Church’s cardinals, the pontiff addressed members of the international news media who had covered the interregnum.
A Message of Peace and Gentleness for World Communications Day
In tune with Francis’ passion for world peace, Leo proclaimed the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” He told the throng of journalists on May 12 that “the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: We must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.”
He called upon the media to “strive for a different kind of communication, one that does not seek consensus at all costs, does not use aggressive words, does not follow the culture of competition, and never separates the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it.”
Pope Leo said nations, the international community, and all of us must “safeguard the precious gift of free speech and of the press” because “only informed individuals can make free choices.”
He gave special tribute to war reporters who had suffered imprisonment or death, and he thanked all the assembled professionals “for your service to the truth.” They had been present in Rome to see the sorrow of a pope’s death and the enduring joy of Easter, helping others understand “the beauty of Christ’s love that unites and makes us one people,” he noted.
Connecting the Jubilee Year of Hope with World Communications Day
“We should never give in to mediocrity,” given current developments in societies which are “difficult to navigate.” When we find ourselves in a “Tower of Babel” of “loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan,” Pope Leo told the group, we need good communication that can rescue us. That task should shape “the words you use and the style you adopt.”
Communication transmits information, but “it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion,” according to the new pontiff. The great potential of artificial intelligence “requires responsibility and discernment” to ensure benefits to all of humanity.
He directly cited Pope Francis’ World Communications Day message, with its instruction to “disarm words” in order to “disarm the world.” That means shedding “prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred.” It demands “gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice” and acting “in favor of peace” and human dignity.
In the same message, Pope Francis said the world needs “communicators of hope” who will plant that seed in societies that must respect and serve their people. Hope is “not merely passive optimism,” Francis wrote; it requires action and courage for us to heal the world’s wounds, including the “diseases of self-promotion and self-absorption.”
World Communications Day and the Role of Faith in Media
The message was published months ago—on Jan. 24, 2025, the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, who is the patron saint of journalists. He is also regarded as a saint of great kindness.
Pope Francis connected his thoughts to his previous proclamation of 2025 as a Jubilee Holy Year, whose theme summons Catholics to be “Pilgrims of Hope.”
The world is now in the middle of that Holy Year, which began in 2024 on Christmas Eve with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Jubilee Year of Hope will end with a different man closing of the door on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2026.
Other comments from the World Communications Day message reiterated the Holy Year theme, also discussed in the book Pope Francis had recently published, Hope: The Autobiography.
“I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears, but is able to give reasons for hope,” Francis said.
“I encourage you to discover and make known the many stories of goodness hidden in the folds of the news.” This will encourage consumers of information to rein in their indifference toward the marginalized, to build a “culture of care.”
Gentleness will help journalists and other communicators ensure that their audiences can “draw close” to the stories being told and “get in touch with the best part of themselves.”
Allow information to be shared in an “attentive” and “reflective” way that points out possible paths for dialogue, Francis said. “This kind of communication can help to build communion, to make us feel less alone, to rediscover the importance of walking together.”
Pope Francis gave great attention to storytelling in his World Communications Day messages. In imitation of Jesus as the great storyteller, he saw the need for people to share their faith with the world, to share truth with others as evangelizing pilgrims, and to be in dialogue with Christ himself.
Catholic News Service has posted a video interview with Pope Leo—that is, Father Robert Francis Prevost in 2012 after he had made a presentation to the Synod of Bishops, which Pope Benedict XVI convened to discuss “the New Evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.” Of course, the subjects of communication and the media came up.
Father Prevost told CNS the Catholic Church needs the media to spread the Good News, but the New Evangelization “needs to begin with a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” The Church needs to invite people into a relationship where they can rediscover that God is indeed part of their lives.
He continued, “We should not be trying to create spectacle—if you will, theater—just to make people feel interested in something which in the end is something very superficial, not profound, not meaningful in their lives.”
Father Provost cautioned against “the kinds of myths that society can promote,” fooling people into “thinking that this is what you’re really looking for. . .” Better answers are found in Church history and in transcendent mystery.
Furthermore, “you cannot take at face value what’s offered in today’s society by mass media, and I think personally that the answer, rather than turning away [from media], is in the area of formation [by the Church]: How do we teach people to become critical thinkers? How do we teach people to understand that not everything you hear or read should be taken at face value. . .” because the content does not reveal the “much bigger picture” of meaning in life.
“Having lived outside the US now for a number of years,” said the Augustinian with American and Peruvian citizenship, I see different kinds of entertainment or news where “a slant is taken at times, in whichever direction. . . the kinds of even polemical argumentation presented on TV in the United States. . .”
Father Prevost, who was prior general of his religious order at the time of the interview, said of the Church, “Our real challenge is in formation, in preparing people to become critical thinkers and understand what’s going on in the world around us today.”
With a sense of hope, he said he sees value in social media when they are used well, but “the Church needs to be sophisticated, if you will, in the use of the social networks that are available to us.”
It’s just one more way of reaching out to people, he said of kind and gentle encounters in posts and tweets. “Maybe a little word, a little reflection or invitation, can be the way that we can reach out to someone and make them reflect on their faith and even encourage them to come back and find out more.”
At the age of 69, Pope Leo XIV has used and assessed a variety of media, including Facebook. On top of sharing his predecessor’s love of interpersonal and large-scale communication, he has spoken confidently about the ability of prudent, peaceful evangelization—as well as truth told with charity and clarity—to build bridges spanning the aspirations of Pope Francis.
