The Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas has assured that the meeting between Pope Leo XIV and the writer Gareth Gore was a direct initiative of the Pontiff and that his intervention occurred at the express request of the Holy Father, as he explained on his program La Verdad a Fondo, broadcast on the digital channel of La República.
In his intervention, Salinas responded directly to the information published by InfoVaticana and stated: “Yes, I answer you InfoVaticana, yes, it was a personal initiative of the Pope. The Pope asked me if I could help him arrange a meeting with Gareth Gore”.
The journalist explained that his role was limited to facilitating that contact, after receiving the Pope’s request, and emphasized that he acted accordingly: “If the Pope asks me for a favor, I’m going to do it. Period”.
Likewise, Salinas denied that the meeting responded to the intervention of third parties or to an initiative external to the Pontiff. “Was it suggested by third parties? I don’t think so, at least it didn’t seem that way to me. It seemed to me like an authentic curiosity of Pope Leo XIV”, he noted, insisting on the personal nature of the request.