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Address of Pope Leo XIV to Participants in the MINDS International Association Conference

Vatican City: Holy See, October 9 (2025)
"[...] The world needs free, rigorous and objective information. In this context, it is worth remembering Hannah Arendt’s warning that “the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist“ (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 474). With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing. You can also be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth. The communications sector cannot and must not separate its work from the sharing of truth. Transparency of sources and ownership, accountability, quality and objectivity are the keys to restoring the role of citizens as protagonists in the system, convincing them to demand information worthy of the name [...]"