Pope Leo XIV, in his first address to journalists at the Vatican, called for the release of imprisoned journalists, championed the free press, and urged caution about AI.

My social media feed is full of memes that purport to represent the words of Leo XIV.

Don’t rely on memes. The Vatican publishes transcripts of all homilies, speeches, and messages from Pope Leo XIV.

Legitimate news sources have already published stories about Pope Leo XIV’s first public speech, Pope Leo XIV’s first public homily, and Pope Leo XIV’s first address to cardinals.

If you’re looking for excerpt to share so you can celebrate and scoff with your like-minded social media contacts, you might not find his actual speeches as interesting as those memes people have been sharing all weekend. 

For all his accomplishments, Leo is just not as good at spinning meme-worthy prose as whoever wrote either the “Be awake. Be loving. Be woke.” speech or the “God doesn’t need soldiers.He needs brothers” speech.

I have both conservative and liberal friends and family who are convinced “the media” is fake because sometimes their social media feed contains stories that don’t flatter their worldview. 

Social media is so addictive because it’s built around impulse. That includes MAGA impulses and woke impulses. We’re all human, and we run the same operating system.

It’s no fun to do the fact-checking, because even if it’s not actually true, it’s the kind of thing that happens all the time, right? Or it’s funny, or it will annoy the other side, etc.

But I’m that guy who looks for attribution, who looks for dates, times, transcripts, who wants to find the whole video from which that still or clip was excerpted. Perspective matters too — whether that means a photo taken from the other side of the room, or a voice speaking from the other side of the political spectrum.

My blog page links to news stories about Leo’s first public statements, his first public homily, and his first address to his cardinals. I’ve also linked to the page on the Vatican website where all his letters, speeches, homilies and messages have already started to appear.

Passion matters, but informed passion is more constructive. We’re not really free if we don’t know what we’re choosing because one side is systematically deporting, bribing, defunding, or suing the other side.

Journalists cover stories about Protestants, Jews, Muslims, atheists, former Catholics, and none-of-the-aboves.

Yet Leo XIV is not calling for a “Catholic-first” press.

Journalists have broken stories about horrific abuses within the Catholic church.

Yet Leo is not, unlike a certain other famous and powerful American, putting all the  reporters who flatter him and amplify his message into a special protected group and dismissing all the rest as “the enemy.”

At this moment probably thousands of journalists around the world are researching stories about what Chicago-native Robert Prevost said and did (and posted online) before he got the white hat.

Some of my Catholic friends and family will read those stories and tut-tut about the clickbait headline and the anti-Catholic bias.

A certain segment of society will read the exact same story, and conclude that it’s biased *in favor* of the Church because it neglected to mention that all Mary-worshippers are hell-bound idolaters.  Yet another group will roll their eyes at how worked up people can get over such things.

But I think we can all agree that when powerful people threaten the free press, human dignity suffers.

Pope Leo XIV has called for the release of imprisoned journalists in his first address to members of the media at the Vatican.

He expressed solidarity with journalists who were jailed “for seeking and reporting the truth” and said their suffering “challenges the conscience of nations and the international community”.

Press freedom must be defended, he said. The media must ensure that the “precious gift” of free speech is protected.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said 361 journalists were in jail in 2024.

Pope Leo, who was chosen as the new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, also highlighted the role journalists can play in bringing attention to injustice and poverty in the world.

He urged the media to focus on reporting the truth instead of taking part in partisan divisions, and not to give space to “fanaticism and hatred.”

Speaking in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, he said “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.”

“We do not need loud, forceful communication,” he said, “but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice.” –BBC, Pope Leo calls for journalists to be released from prison

Although this text appeared on an image that went viral on social media in May 2025, Leo XIV never said:

To all who sent prayers, love, and hope as I begin this sacred journey — thank you. I accept this role not as a throne, but as a vow: To serve the forgotten, To uplift the broken, To speak plainly where others stay silent. To be called ‘woke’ in a world that sleeps through suffering is no insult — it is Gospel. Woke means awakened by compassion. Guided by truth. Humbled by grace. Committed to justice — not just for some, but for all. So let them mock. Let them sneer. We will still build the Kingdom — not with walls, but with love. Be awake. Be loving. Be woke.

Although this quote also spread on social media in May 2025, Robert Prevost never said (in a passage often introduced with “I like him already”):

Brothers, sisters…

I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left.

To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home.

I, too, was angry with God.

I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine.

And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo.

But then I discovered something:

God doesn’t shout. God whispers.

And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything.

I don’t come to offer you perfect faith.

I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs.

I’m not asking you to believe in everything.

I’m asking you not to close the door. Give a chance to the God who waits for you without judgment.

I’m just a priest who saw God in the smile of a woman who lost her son… and yet she cooked for others.

That changed me.

So if you’re broken, if you don’t believe, if you’re tired of the lies…
come anyway. With your anger, your doubt, your dirty backpack.

No one here will ask you for a VIP card.

Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary.

God doesn’t need soldiers.

He needs brothers.

And you, yes, you… are one of them.

Also went viral in May 2025: not  found anywhere on the Vatican archive, or cited by any credible source that I’ve found.

You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself and preys on the innocent is not sent by god. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.