Pope Leo XIV received this Saturday in the Clementine Hall the Members of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party, led by its president, Manfred Weber, and by the EU’s special envoy for religious freedom, Mairead McGuinness. The audience is in line with the meetings held by John Paul II and Benedict XVI with the European popular family, and with the message that Francis sent them in June 2023 from the hospital.
The Pontiff structured his speech around three axes: the Christian heritage of Europe, the critique of ideology, and the role of politics as the «highest form of charity,» according to the formula of Pius XI that he expressly quoted. He claimed Adenauer, De Gasperi, and Schuman as foundational references and warned against the two extremes that, in his view, empty political action today: populism, which «only seeks easy approval,» and elitism, «which tends to act without consensus.» Against both, he proposed a return to the «analog» in the era of the «digital triumph,» understood as the recovery of direct contact between representatives and citizens.
Leo XIV asked the populars to «rediscover and embrace the Christian heritage,» maintaining the distinction between prophetic witness, proper to the Church, and Christian witness translated into political decisions. Being a Christian in politics, he specified, does not equate to being confessional, but to allowing the Gospel to guide choices, «even those that do not seem to obtain easy consensus.» He cited as priorities dignified working conditions, the European fear of forming a family and having children, the root causes of migration, the care of creation, and the risks of artificial intelligence. He closed with a defense of religious freedom, of thought and of conscience, and a warning against the «short-circuit of human rights» that ends up yielding «to force and oppression.»
Among the attendees was the MEP Dolors Montserrat, who shared images of the meeting on X and summarized the audience in five words: «dignity, unity, freedom, democracy and truth.»
However, what the speech does not contain stands out. Despite the Pope’s insistence on the Christian heritage and the need for the Gospel to guide unpopular decisions, the text does not explicitly mention the defense of life from conception, nor marriage, nor the educational freedom of families—three classic cores of social doctrine that have marked the speeches of John Paul II and Benedict XVI before this same audience. The omission is relevant at a time when the European Parliament, with divided votes within the PPE itself, has approved resolutions in favor of including abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and in which the majority of the group’s national delegations hold positions favorable to it.
The Pontiff chose to speak of the «human person at the center» in general terms and of migration or work in concrete terms, leaving bioethical issues in a deliberately undefined area. It will be necessary to see if that choice responds to a diplomatic strategy—avoiding direct confrontation with a parliamentary group heterogeneous in these matters—or anticipates a magisterial profile less centered on what Benedict XVI called the «non-negotiable principles.»
Below is the full speech:
In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Peace be with you,
Distinguished parliamentarians,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I extend a warm welcome to all of you to our meeting. In a special way, I greet your president, Mr. Manfred Weber, and Ms. Mairead McGuinness, the EU Special Envoy responsible for promoting freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union.
Our meeting takes place in the wake of those held with my predecessors, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, as well as the message that Pope Francis sent you in June 2023, when he could not receive you personally due to his hospitalization. Therefore, I am pleased to continue this dialogue with the European People’s Party, which draws its political inspiration from figures such as Adenauer, De Gasperi, and Schuman, widely regarded as the founding fathers of modern Europe.
As Benedict XVI did twenty years ago, I too «appreciate the recognition that your Group makes of the Christian heritage of Europe.» [1] The European project, which arose from the ashes of the Second World War, undoubtedly arose from the practical need to prevent such a conflict from happening again. However, it is equally imbued with an ideal vision, that is, the desire to foster cooperation that overcomes centuries of division and allows the peoples of the continent to rediscover the human, cultural, and religious heritage they share. The founding fathers were inspired by their personal faith and considered Christian principles as a common and unifying element that could help put an end to the spirit of revenge and conflict that had led to the Second World War.
Pope Francis coined a beautiful and simple expression that summarizes this idea: «unity prevails over conflict.» [2] For the search for unity has the value of going beyond the surface of conflict and seeing others in their deepest dignity. [3] In this way, it becomes possible to create something new and constructive, while conflict exalts differences, fosters the search and affirmation of power, and ultimately leads to destruction.
The main task of any political action is to offer an ideal vision, since politics requires a broad vision of the future, without fear of making difficult and even unpopular decisions when necessary for the common good. In this sense, politics is the «highest form of charity» [4] because it can fully commit to building the common good.
However, pursuing an ideal does not mean glorifying an ideology. In fact, ideology is always the result of a distortion of reality and a kind of violence imposed upon it. Every ideology twists ideas and subjugates the human being to its own project, stifling their true aspirations, their desire for freedom, happiness, and personal and social well-being. Modern Europe arose by recognizing the failure of the ideological projects that had destroyed and divided it.
As De Gasperi pointed out, pursuing an ideal means placing the human person at the center, «with his spirit of evangelical fraternity, with his reverence for the law inherited from antiquity, with his appreciation for beauty refined over the centuries, and with his commitment to truth and justice, sharpened by millennia of experience.» [5]
This is the framework within which politics can still be practiced today and to which political activity must be redirected. Your party is called the European People’s Party. The people are at the heart of your commitment, and you cannot set them aside. They are not mere passive recipients of political proposals and decisions; they are, above all, called to be active participants who share responsibility for every political action. Being present among the people and involving them in the political process is the best antidote against populism, which only seeks easy approval, and against elitism, which tends to act without consensus. Both are widespread trends in the current political landscape. An authentically «popular» politics requires time, shared projects, and love for the truth.
One of the main problems of politics in recent years has been the constant decline of harmony, cooperation, and mutual commitment between the people and their representatives. It is necessary to recreate a genuine sense of «people,» which implies personal contact between citizens and their representatives, in order to effectively respond to the concrete problems of the people in the light of an ideal vision. We could say metaphorically that in the era of the «digital triumph,» political action truly oriented toward the common good requires a return to the «analog.»
Perhaps this is the true antidote against a politics that often shouts, composed only of slogans and unable to respond to people’s real needs. Moreover, to overcome a certain disaffection with politics, it is necessary to recover people by approaching them personally and rebuilding a network of relationships in the areas where they live, so that everyone can feel they belong to a community and share their future.
What does this mean in practical terms for those who base their actions on Christian-democratic values? First of all, it means rediscovering and embracing the Christian heritage from which they come, while at the same time maintaining the necessary line of demarcation between prophetic religious witness—reserved for the ecclesial community—and Christian witness expressed through concrete political choices. [6] Being a Christian in politics does not mean being openly confessional; rather, it means allowing the Gospel to guide the decisions that must be made, even those that do not seem to obtain easy consensus. It means working to preserve the connection between natural law and positive law, and between Christian roots and political action.
Being Christians committed to politics requires a realistic perspective that starts with people’s concrete concerns. This perspective must seek, above all, to foster dignified working conditions that encourage people’s ingenuity and creativity in the face of an increasingly dehumanizing and unsatisfactory market. That perspective must enable people to overcome the fear of forming a family, of having children, a fear that seems to be especially prevalent in Europe. It must also address the root causes of migration, care for those who suffer, taking into account the true capacities to welcome and integrate migrants into society. Likewise, it requires addressing in a non-ideological way the great challenges of our time, such as the care of creation and artificial intelligence. The latter offers great opportunities, but it is also full of dangers.
Being Christians committed to politics also means investing in freedom—not a trivialized freedom reduced to mere personal preferences, but one based on truth, which safeguards religious freedom as well as freedom of thought and conscience in all places and circumstances. At the same time, fostering a «short-circuit» of human rights [7] must be avoided, because it ends up yielding to force and oppression.
I leave you with these brief points, in the hope that they may constitute a starting point for your commitment. In expressing my best wishes for your service to the European peoples, I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing.
Thank you.
[1] BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Members of the European People’s Party on the Occasion of the Study Days on Europe (March 30, 2006), AAS 98 (2006), 344.
[2] FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 228: AAS 105 (2013), 1113.
[3] Cf. ibid.
[4] Pius XI, Audience with the Leaders of the Catholic University Federation (December 18, 1927).
[5] A. DE GASPERI, Europe, Our Homeland. Speech to the European Parliamentary Conference, April 21, 1954 in: Alcide De Gasperi and International Politics, Rome 1990, vol. III, 437-440.
[6] Cf. MARIALUISA L. SERGIO in: ALCIDE DE GASPERI, Diary 1930-1943, Bologna 2018, 24.
[7] Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See (January 9, 2026).