The Pontiff addressed thousands of people gathered at Rimini’s Grande Auditorium. His call for fraternity and friendship among peoples was followed by a warning on profit, technology, finance and power dynamics: «There can be no enemies»
«Even today, peace is safeguarded and spread by people who love to meet one another and are not afraid to engage in dialogue». Pope Leo XIV’s address at the Rimini Meeting, delivered before thousands of people gathered in the Fair’s Grande Auditorium, began with peace and the capacity to encounter the other.
It was a highly anticipated address, not least for the historic significance of the Pontiff’s presence at the Rimini event: 44 years had passed since a Pope last spoke at the Meeting. Leo XIV touched on themes of fraternity, social friendship, war and inequality, extending to the role of the economy and technology, with a direct appeal to personal and collective responsibility.
The opening section was devoted to encounters between people and the possibility of building, through dialogue, a form of coexistence capable of overcoming divisions and conflicts. In this context, Prevost recalled the teaching of his predecessor, Francis.
«Pope Francis, with the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, taught us to cultivate social friendship, which represents the public, dynamic and concrete face of fraternity. By recognizing ourselves in the dignity of children of God, we come into contact with what originally unites human beings, beyond any diversity, separation or conflict», Leo XIV said.
From this came an invitation to place the person above allegiances and divisions: «We can identify with one another, listen to each other and become friends — between individuals and therefore also between peoples. Before borders, definitions and institutions, there are always people».
The Pope: «There are those who rekindle dreams and visions»
The address then turned to the tensions running through the present moment and the risk that fear, distrust and division might become fertile ground for further conflict.
«Let there not be only those who fan the flames of weariness and despair; let there also be those who rekindle dreams and visions! The two paths are incompatible, because one exploits division, alienation and despair, while the other serves the Kingdom of God and his justice», the Pontiff warned.
These words were followed by one of the most pointed passages of the speech, addressed directly to the mechanisms governing society, labor and the economy.
«Let us free coexistence from suspicion, culture from arrogance, education from ideology, labor from the idolatry of profit, and technology and finance from the business of death», Leo XIV declared.
For the Pope, change must also extend to the structures and organizations within which each person operates. «Starting with the organizations we have created and in which we work, let us expose the unjust power relations that lie at the root of poverty and inequality, of war and environmental disasters. Let us disarm technological development when it becomes pervasive and destructive».
This led to an appeal to individual responsibility: «We need courageous pioneers, willing to begin by reversing their own course, in order to make the conversion demanded of everyone convincing and credible».
«There can be no enemies»
In the section devoted more directly to war and the tensions shaping the international landscape, Leo XIV also warned against a language and culture that end up paving the way for conflict.
«To the false realism that rearms minds, words and nations, Catholic culture today must oppose the realism of mercy, according to which there can be no enemies, and everyone — even adversaries — are brothers and sisters to be looked in the eye and met in truth», he stated.
This is a perspective that, in the Pontiff’s words, does not mean ignoring evil, but confronting it by starting with a profound review of one’s own choices.
«Sin exists, certainly, but stronger still is the redeeming love of Christ, which calls us to purify our thoughts, interests, habits, associations, plans, investments — every aspect of life — of all that the culture of power has contaminated».
In his address at the Meeting, Leo XIV thus linked the building of peace to everyday economic and social choices, calling for a stand against power dynamics that generate poverty and inequality and for a halt to technological development when it turns destructive. Underlying it all was the principle the Pontiff put forward as a starting point for rebuilding relationships between individuals and peoples: people come before borders, definitions and institutions.
