With his first words from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica – “Peace be with you all!” – Pope Leo XIV blessed the watching world with the same greeting by which the risen Lord encountered his disciples on that first Easter evening.
Speaking a few days later to representatives of the media from around the world who covered the events surrounding his election, the pope expressed in more poignant terms a way in which that peaceful wish can be fulfilled in our time.
“Let us disarm words,” he said, “and we will help to disarm the world.”
If that sounds far-fetched, consider the pope’s reasoning. “Disarmed and disarming communication,” he explains, “allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.”
That view of the world is one the newly elected Holy Father shares with his predecessor. In calling for a verbal disarmament, Pope Leo makes his own the message promulgated by Francis for this year’s World Communications Day (to be celebrated on June 1). That message encourages all to “share with gentleness the hope that is in your hearts (cf. 1 Peter 3:15-16).”
As the great philosophers have argued, words are what distinguish humans from other animals. Words express our rationality. Words create our sociality.
Understood at this fundamental level, the disarmament desired by the new pope does not require a political treaty. It issues, instead, from a personal and interpersonal choice.
We know from experience that words can be weapons. Loud words communicate forcefully, as when screaming signals rage. Mean words communicate antagonism and aggression, often in the form of name-calling. Spiteful words communicate resentment and hatred, turning dialogue into diatribe.
Anyone on the receiving end of such words – whether heard or read – knows the pain words can cause.
To disarm such words is a simple process: just stop saying or sharing them! Convincing ourselves to do so is more complicated, for it requires a conversion of mind and heart and will.
The mind needs to be converted away from thinking rashly. That’s a challenge in a world where communication entails just one push of a “send” button. The mind needs time to move from impressions and perceptions to a consideration of what’s really happening, an appreciation of the truth of things and of the persons speaking about them.
The heart needs to be converted away from feeling angry. That’s a challenge in a world where communication arises from emotional reaction and gives free expression to instinctive feelings. The heart needs training in gentle restraint, by learning to assume the good in others, to see even those who disagree with us not as threats to our own well-being but as fellow travelers struggling along the same road of life.
The will needs to be converted away from choosing selfishly. That’s a challenge in a world of communication as competition, where one’s gain requires another’s loss. The will needs to decide to co-exist, to learn to forego its inclination to dominate or manipulate people, opting instead for peace as its first approach and bringing respect to every interaction, even in the midst of disagreement.
That threefold conversion, and the resultant disarmament of words, can happen when we embrace hope. More than just a wish or desire for what could be, greater than an optimistic outlook that breeds confident expectation, the hope envisioned and celebrated in this Jubilee year is primarily a virtue. It’s a cultivated attitude and practiced aptitude that gives inward direction and purpose to life.
In this sense, hope is ultimately our choice. It precedes communications, in terms of how we approach others. It informs communications, in terms of how we engage others. It results from communications, in the peace that we learn to share with others.
As the pope explained to the media, the path to peace “begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.”
In Pope Leo XIV, we already see a hopeful way of communicating that embodies his pacifying message. Despite the enormity of his new office, his visage remains serene, his sometimes wry smile exuding tranquility. It’s the look of one totally centered on God and determined to speak Good News to the world.
The new pope’s words deserve our attentive hearing.
Oblate Father Thomas Dailey holds the John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he also directs the new Catholic Preaching Institute.
