Rome - “More than this, I prefer not to comment,” “In Africa to confirm in the faith and to reach the places of Saint Augustine,” “I firmly believe in the Conclave’s secret.” The first press conference of Leo XIV aboard the papal plane is a manifesto for a press corps that, for years, had grown accustomed to remarks such as “perverse homosexuality,” “They bark at Russia’s gates,” “If you insult my mom, a punch is waiting for you,” “In the Conclave what happened was…”The American Pontiff shifts the register and brings the Papacy back into a space of prudence, spirituality, and courtesy.
The first international Apostolic Journey of Leo XIV has just concluded, marked by departure from Lebanon—the final stage of a visit defined bypublic gestures of care and a message of hope addressed to the Lebanese faithful. Between Beirut, Annaya, and Harissa, the Pope met wounded communities, praying before the memorial of the great 2020 explosion, laying wreaths, greeting survivors and victims’ families holding photographs of their loved ones lost. The journey culminated with the celebration of Holy Mass at the Beirut Waterfront, and with a Pope visibly moved—not by personal triumph, but by belonging: a people that seeks not a symbol, but recognizes a father.
The behavior of the press
The international media received the event with a temperature that was surprisingly cold, at moments distracted, far from the engagement that for thirteen years had routinely accompanied public papal remarks. Even the Pope’s visit to a Mosque followed the same media script of chroniclers more committed to manipulation than reporting. On one side, some attempted to twist the Pontiff’s words into an anti-Islam interpretation; on the other, others chose silence or outright questioned the reliability of the Imam’s statements. Silere non possum confirms without margins of approximation that Pope’s only answer to the Imam’s invitation to join a prayer was: “No, thanks.” A straightforward, calm, and contextualized refusal, devoid of polemical insinuations, followed by the explicit choice to continue the visit inside the Muslim place of worship. That composed rejection, placed in context, signals not closure, but ecclesiological coherence and interreligious respect.In the Islamic tradition, a non-Muslim praying inside a Mosque may be perceived as improper, instrumental, or even an involuntary parody of the sacred.
As head of the Catholic Church, Leo XIV therefore adopted a non-mimetic stance, avoiding gestures that might appear inauthentic, but performing at the same time an act of real and dialogical presence, one that conveys recognition rather than religious confusion. The Pope gave young people concrete material for navigating ordinary faith: no generic taglines, no empty slogans, but operational everyday suggestions rooted in the existential questions that define their generation.
The papal language of pastoral closeness is refreshed without dissolving doctrinal integrity, speaking of an incarnated Gospel, not spiritual abstractions.
Embedded Vaticanists and the addiction to logistical privilege
A significant number of Vatican journalists have chosen not to board the papal flight anymore, not only due to an asphyxiating internal climate, but because of an operational model that has little journalistic essence and a lot of pre-packaged logistics. Transfers during Apostolic Journeys take place in groups, on Holy See buses, while nights are spent in luxury hotels bound by institutional conventions chosen for comfort and embedded logistical convenience, not autonomy. Although correspondents attend papal events from privileged vantage points, an independent perspective rarely develops in the published coverage. The reporting is often molded on Press Office templates—a newsroom copy-and-paste of institutional press briefings that produces a narrative without emotional insight and unable to offer a real reading of events. The contrast with April-era coverage is stark: where once any Francis Papacy uttered syllable was amplified, today even a service news item barely appears. Every newsroom knows the collateral effect: the addiction to logistical privilege cultivates defensive language and narrative resentment when the main actor stops feeding that need for exclusivity.
The issue is not criticism of a papacy, which is justified and necessary when it emerges from facts, but the reactive tone that surfaces when reporting no longer stems from competence but from loss of symbolic revenue.
In flight to Rome: dotting the i’s
Also aboard the return flight to Rome, Leo XIV derailed the Vatican press corps’ reflexes, trained for years on the gossip tone of Pope Francis: from loose political confidences to bar-room soundbites such as the disputed remark on homosexuals on the Apostolic flight or the notorious “If you insult my mom, I’ll punch you.” Asked for Conclave details by the Vaticanist Cindy Wooden, now fortunately close to retirement, Leo XIV responded on another plane: “On the Conclave, I completely believe in the Conclave’s secret, though I know some public interviews revealed certain things.” Not the hoped-for hook, not the leak, but a reminder of institutional boundaries and the sense of an institution that is not carved up for cheap entertainment.
Africa and Algeria: the only papal mandate
Asked about future journeys, the Pope does not grant geopolitical hypotheses nor gives scraps of backwards reasoning. He says Africa—yet, crucially, he explains why, a reason the Vatican press radar had long lost: to confirm in the faith. Not to appease the fantasies of gutter press hacks, but to reaffirm the one papal mandate: to be a faith custodian, not fuel for impressionist reporting. He adds with deliberate intent: “I would like to go to Algeria, starting from Algeria to visit the places of Saint Augustine.” Finally, the Pope pushes back against face-reading journalism: “I don’t know whether I said ‘wow’ last night. My face is very expressive, and it amuses me to see how journalists reinterpret it. Sometimes I get big ideas from you, because you think you can read my mind or my face. But you are not always right. You are not always right.” A sharp jab at vatican newsroom category games that began the moment he was elected. Leo XIV closes the gossip curtain and restores what the Petrine ministry has always been and that many media workers had preferred to obscure or minimize: a man of prayer, spiritual fatherhood, confirmation in the faith. A Pope—not a sideline commentator.
fr.G.V.
Silere non possum