By 
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT — Pope Leo XIV spoke bluntly about war, migration, same-sex blessings, and the Holy See’s relations with authoritarian governments during a roughly 20-minute in-flight press conference with journalists traveling with him from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to Rome after his apostolic journey to Africa.
Before taking questions, the pope stressed that the primary purpose of a papal trip is pastoral rather than political.
“When I make a trip — speaking for myself, but today as pope, bishop of Rome — especially an apostolic, pastoral trip, it is to find, accompany, and come to know the people of God,” he said.
He added that such journeys should be understood above all as “an expression of wanting to announce the Gospel, proclaim the message of Jesus Christ,” and as a way “to draw close to the people in their happiness, in the depth of their faith, but also in their suffering.”
Asked about the chaotic state of negotiations aimed at ending the conflict involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, the pope called for a new mindset rooted in peace rather than violence.
“Certainly, I would like to begin by saying that we need to promote a new attitude, a culture of peace,” he said. “Many times when we evaluate certain situations, the immediate response is that we must enter with violence, with war, by attacking, and we have seen that many innocent people have died.”
Leo said the key question was not simply whether a regime should change but how to defend important values without more innocent victims.
“Regime change or no regime change, the question is how to promote the values in which we believe without the death of so many innocent people,” he said.
Describing the situation as “very complex,” the pope said the back-and-forth of negotiations had created “this chaotic and critical situation for the world economy,” while innocent people in Iran were suffering because of the war.
“Rather, I would encourage the continuation of dialogue for peace,” he said. “As Church, I say again, and as a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war, and I would like to encourage everyone to make every effort to seek responses that come from a culture of peace and not of hatred.”
Later in the exchange, responding to a question about reported executions by the Iranian regime, the pope issued an unequivocal condemnation.
“I condemn all actions that are unjust, I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment,” Leo said. “I believe that human life is to be respected, and that all people from conception to natural birth, their lives should be respected and protected. So when a regime, when a country, takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned.”
On migration, a major topic ahead of his next international apostolic journey to Spain, the pope said governments have the right to regulate their borders but insisted that wealthier nations must also address the deeper causes driving people to leave poorer countries.
“Evidently, the issue of migration is very complex and affects many countries, not only Spain, not only Europe, but also the United States; it is a global phenomenon,” he said.
Leo continued: “I personally believe that a state has the right to establish rules at its borders. I do not like the idea that everyone enters as if there were no order, and at times creating even more unjust situations than those they had left behind.”
At the same time, he challenged richer countries and multinational corporations to do more for developing nations, especially in Africa.
“But having said that, I ask: What are we doing in richer countries to change the situation in poorer countries?” he said. Referring to Africa, he added that for many people it is seen as “a place where one can go to take minerals, to take its riches, to enrich others in other countries.”
The pope insisted that migrants must always be treated with dignity.
“When people arrive, they are human beings and they deserve the respect that every human being deserves because of human dignity,” he said. “We need to treat human beings in a humane way and not treat them worse than household pets, animals, etc.”
A French journalist asked Leo how he avoids lending moral legitimacy to authoritarian rulers when he meets them during papal trips. The pope said such encounters can be interpreted in different ways, but he returned to the pastoral purpose of travel and the diplomatic mission of the Holy See.
“Certainly, the presence of a pope with any head of state can be interpreted in different ways,” he said. “I would go back to something I said in my initial remarks about the importance of understanding the primary purpose of the travel that I do, that the pope does to visit the people.”
He also defended the Vatican’s continued diplomatic engagement even with difficult governments.
“We don’t always make great proclamations, criticizing, judging, or condemning,” he said. “But there’s an awful lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to promote justice, to promote humanitarian causes.”
That work, he said, can include efforts to free political prisoners and respond to hunger and sickness. “So the Holy See, by maintaining if you will, a neutrality, and looking for ways to continue our positive diplomatic relationship with so many different countries, we’re actually trying to find a way to apply the Gospel to concrete situations, so that the lives of people can be improved.”
Questioned about the blessing of same-sex couples after a decision by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx in Munich and Freising, Leo said Church unity should not be reduced to sexual ethics.
“First of all, I think it’s very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters,” he said. “We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
Leo said the Holy See had already made clear to the German bishops that it does not agree with the “formalized blessing of couples,” including homosexual couples or couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis had permitted.
Invoking Francis’ well-known statement of “Tutti, tutti, tutti,” Leo said: “All are welcome, all are invited. All are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives.”
“To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity,” he added, “and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches.”
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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“First of all, I think it’s very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters”.
Although it does in fact revolve around sexual matters that are directly related to the family. Furthermore, it’s insufficient to say “I disagree”, as if my opinion is different from yours. A doctrine is not defended by stating opinions.
recall the Church has ever been united or divided by “sexual matters”, probably the teaching of the Church re: those matters has always been sufficiently clear and consistent. Thus, to do away with “revolving around sexual matters” means simply to clarify them.
Edit: “I do not recall” in the beginning got cut off:
I do not recall the Church has ever been united or divided by “sexual matters”, probably the teaching of the Church re: those matters has always been sufficiently clear and consistent. Thus, to do away with “revolving around sexual matters” means simply to clarify them.
The Pope goes against Holy Scripture and even St. Augustin, the patron saint of his order:
Romans 1:26-27
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a]
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
AND SAINT AUGUSTINE
“Those sins which are against nature, like those of the men of Sodom, are in all times and places to be detested and punished. Even if all nations committed such sins, they should all alike be held guilty by God’s law” (Confessions 3.8).
We read that all are invited to conversion, but “to go beyond that today” risks disunity.
But, also a lost opportunity to elevate the engineered discourse back to the level of, say, real “families”? And, about “what Jesus Christ teaches” and about which, our ambiguity—this from St. Augustine and others:
FIRST, “Take up and read. Take up and read [….] Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in strife and envying; but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh and in its concupiscences” (Confessions, bk 8, ch. 12:29), and:
“Therefore, it is no monstrous thing partly to will a thing and partly not to will it, but it is a sickness of the mind [!]. Although it is supported by truth, it does not wholly rise up, since it is heavily encumbered by habit. Therefore there are two wills, since one of them is not complete, and what is lacking in one of them is present in the other” (bk 8, ch. 9:21).
SECOND, about the polyglot term “irregular couples”…this discarded clarity of Cardinal Erdo at the 2015 Synod on the Family (synodal!) only eleven years ago [!]: “‘There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family….” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/32772/full-text-of-cardinal-erdos-introductory-report-for-the-synod-on-the-family
QUESTION: Reluctantly concurring with Pope Leo, perhaps “today” is not quite the right time for the weakened Church to be lured further into a very historic visible rupture and the contrived blame game, even as we continue to be flimflammed by frontman Marx (of der Synodal Weg)…butt, still, the tail (!) wagging the dog?
Catholic Social Teaching (the mentioned justice, equality, freedom, etc.) is based on “moral theology” (Centesimus Annus, n. 55); now with the underlying and universal natural law denatured into sexual “ethics”—and binary/complementary human sexuality marginalized (!) by a euphemistically validated third option—Sentiment Anus?
Feducia Supplicans is a cunning document. Will you tell the German church to stop, Leo? Let your “yes” mean yes and your “no” mean no, Leo. “Anything else is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:28).
“much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
This is a very disheartening remark by the Holy Father.
What could be more important to someone’s eternal salvation than issues surrounding sexuality? Adultery pornography, sodomy, fornication– offenses against the sixth commandment– basically decide one’s eternal fate according to Scripture and Tradition. Abstract applications of justice, equality and freedom are outside the purview of ordinary people.
There is no cure for wokeness save contrition and repentance.
Who does God make human beings? Once he did it with dirt, once with a rib, but then the rest of the time through sex. Honestly, since God is involved very directly in that activity, I can’t see why the Pope is brushing it off and unimportant.
“. . . the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters.” Perhaps so, You Holiness, but it was your brother priests’ and bishops’ sexual matters that brought entire dioceses and archdioceses into bankruptcy, destroyed the lives and faith of thousands, and made the Church look like the cesspool of corruption that Her enemies have condemned Her for being since at least the days of Martin Luther.
The Pontiff Leo just let his slip show:
“Church unity does not mean unity about sexual morality.”
And yes, I’m sticking with our immoral secret accord with the Communist Party running China, who are, as Excellency Sorondo observed, the leaders in the world of a just society.
Just ask David Axelrod.
Dear Pontiff Leo:
You say “Our unity does not revolve around sexual morality.”
But I say: “Even if a man look at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery in his heart.”
Sincerely,
Jesus
It seems that Jesus agreed that there are much more egregious behaviors than sexual sins as he was very forgiving of them. But he always directed the parties to “go and sin no more.” That part is usually ignored.
““We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
So, the mask finally falls off of Leo and we get to see his priorities clearly. The fact that church leaders like James Martin & Cardinal Marx are actively and intentionally undermining historic church teaching on sexuality is not important in the larger scope of things. Evidently, immigration, social justice, and criticizing Trump are the most pressing issues of the day. This despite the clear biblical teaching that those who are active homosexuals – and by extension, those who defend and support them – will not inherit the kingdom of God. Shame on you, “pope” Leo.
The tragedy of the lack of sexual ethics is that is linked to divorce, the slaughter of the unborn et al…..
The ideology expressed by Pontiff Leo seems to amount to glorified Marxist virtue signaling, in lieu of Christianity.
Exactly. It’s like Francis 2.0
Preaching the Good News of nonviolence, human dignity, justice, peace, solidarity, faith, hope, and love is the need of the hour worldwide. Memorable apostolic, pastoral trip of His Holiness to the God’s people in Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea. May the Holy Father be blessed with strength and stamina to visit and bless people in other countries.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT…
🗿
Perfect summation
Completely wrong emphasis from since FS?
There has to be instruction and defense of purity and chastity for their own sake and for everyone’s sake; and in context of preserving and guarding against impurity and degradation. Yes there is a religious dimension to these but they properly belong to humanity and secular society, they are in the Natural Law.
“We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women” (Leo XIV).
Family structure within Christianity is the sine qua non for a unified, faithful body of Christian persons. Justice begins with the creation of life during the transmission of life between a man and woman.
Relegating family to secondary or even tertiary significance in Pope Leo’s theologically expressed positions is de facto commitment to the progressive position that unity is conceptual mutual agreement that such unity is the preeminent moral principle.
‘ Foster a culture of sincerity in the home, where children are unafraid to bring up anything that is on their minds.
Learn how to talk about chastity in a rich and human way. It is not just about restraint, or rules, or to avoid pregnancy, or disease, or ruining their future. Chastity is the power to love well, body and soul. It integrates our sexuality into our whole person. It shows us that sex is good but sacred. Chastity is a powerful and beautiful virtue and one of the great goods of life, one that is completely worth the price.
If you are uncertain how to speak about chastity in this positive way, find good resources that will give you the language and tools to do so. Trusted family, friends, authors and apostolates are good sources of suggestions. Collaborate with like-minded parents in your parish to learn from and reinforce each other.
My second suggestion is about screens. I got my first BB gun when I was 11 years old. My father took that opportunity to teach me about gun safety: how to load it, keep it safe, and use it properly. He taught me muzzle control and trigger discipline and to always treat it as if it were loaded.
That is how we need to treat smartphones. They are dangerous tools that can seriously hurt people and should not be left lying around for anyone to accidentally “fire” them. They can be given only to older and more mature children who must be taught how to use them safely.
Several ideas follow. Social media, if permitted at all, should only be allowed late in adolescence, perhaps a year or two before they leave home. In addition, there should be regular physical separation between children and devices. ‘
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/forming-your-children-for-chastity-a-letter-to-parents