Pope Leo XIV Asks All People to Foster Reconciliation saying “There are no enemies; there are only brothers and sisters."
In a video message to an event in the Italian island of Lampedusa, highlighting its history of welcome and hospitality, Pope Leo XIV thanks the local community for its long-standing witness of welcome to migrants and appeals for a “culture of reconciliation” as a path to peace and fraternity. In a video message delivered to participants in the Gesti dell’Accoglienza event in Lampedusa. The event, whose name means “Gestures of Welcome,” brings together local residents, volunteers, Church representatives, and civic authorities to reflect on the island’s experience as a frontline of migration. It highlights stories of hospitality, commemorates those who lost their lives at sea, and reaffirms a commitment to solidarity with those seeking refuge on Europe’s shores. Greeting the gathering with the local word O’scià!—meaning “breath” or “spirit”—the Pope linked it to the biblical meaning of the Spirit of God. (Vatican News excerpt)
FULL TEXT + VIDEO MESSAGE FROM HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE NOMINATION OF THE PROJECT
“GESTURES OF HOSPITALITY”
FOR THE UNESCO LIST OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
[Lampedusa, Friday, September 12, 2025]
_______________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters gathered in Lampedusa!
“ O'scià! ” The breath, the breath: this is what you wish for, greeting one another in your dialect. And this is how our beloved Pope Francis greeted you in 2013 when he came among you: it was his first trip . You know that in the language of the Bible, breath, the breath are what we translate as “the spirit.” And so, in greeting one another—today at a distance, but I hope soon in person—as believers we invoke for one another the Holy Spirit, the breath of God.
The fruits of the Spirit, dear friends, are abundant among you. You remind me of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians of Thessalonica: you "received the word amid great afflictions, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all believers" ( 1 Thess 1 :6-7). The geographical position of Lampedusa and Linosa, in fact, has always made you a gateway to Europe. In recent decades, this has required an enormous commitment of welcome from your community, which has brought you from the heart of the Mediterranean to the heart of the Church, "so much so that," says Saint Paul again, "we have no need to speak of it" ( 1 Thess 1:8), because your faith and your charity are now known to all. It is an intangible, but real, heritage.
My "thank you," which is the "thank you" of the entire Church for your witness, extends and renews that of Pope Francis . "Thank you" to the associations, volunteers, mayors, and administrations that have succeeded one another over time; "thank you" to the priests, doctors, security forces, and all those who, often invisibly, have shown and continue to show the smile and attentiveness of a human face to those who have survived on their desperate journey of hope.
You are a bastion of that humanity which loud arguments, atavistic fears, and unjust measures tend to undermine. There is no justice without compassion, there is no legitimacy without listening to the pain of others. So many victims—and among them, how many mothers, and how many children!—from the depths of the Mare Nostrum cry out not only to heaven, but to our hearts. Many migrant brothers and sisters have been buried in Lampedusa, and rest in the earth like seeds from which a new world awaits germination. There is no shortage, thank God, of thousands of faces and names of people who today live a better life and will never forget your charity. Many of them have in turn become workers of justice and peace, because goodness is contagious.
Sisters and brothers, may the breath of the Spirit never fail you! It's true, as the years pass, fatigue can set in. Like a race, you can run out of breath. Fatigue tends to call into question what you've done and, at times, even divides us. We must react together, staying united and opening ourselves once again to God's breath. All the good you've done may seem like drops in the ocean. But that's not the case; it's much more!
The globalization of indifference, which Pope Francis denounced precisely from Lampedusa , today seems to have mutated into a globalization of impotence. In the face of injustice and innocent suffering, we are more aware, but we risk standing still, silent and sad, overcome by the feeling that there is nothing we can do. What can I do, faced with such great evils? The globalization of impotence is born of a lie: that history has always been this way, that history is written by the victors. Then it seems we can do nothing. But no: history is devastated by the powerful, but it is saved by the humble, the just, the martyrs, in whom goodness shines and authentic humanity endures and is renewed.
Just as Pope Francis countered the globalization of indifference with a culture of encounter, so today I would like us to begin, together, to counter the globalization of impotence with a culture of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a particular way of encountering one another. Today we must meet by healing our wounds, forgiving each other for the evil we have done and also for the evil we have not done, but whose effects we bear. So much fear, so many prejudices, great, even invisible, walls exist between us and between our peoples, as a consequence of a wounded history. Evil is transmitted from one generation to the next, from one community to the next. But good is also transmitted and can be stronger! To practice it, to put it back into circulation, we must become experts in reconciliation. We must repair what is broken, delicately treat bleeding memories, draw closer to one another with patience, empathize with each other's history and pain, recognize that we share the same dreams, the same hopes. There are no enemies: only brothers and sisters. This is the culture of reconciliation. We need gestures of reconciliation and policies of reconciliation.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us move forward together on this path of encounter and reconciliation. Thus, islands of peace will multiply, becoming pillars of bridges, so that peace may reach all peoples and all creatures. On this horizon of hope and commitment, through the intercession of Mary, Star of the Sea, I bless you and greet you with great affection. O'scià! And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you. Amen.
ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE NOMINATION OF THE PROJECT
“GESTURES OF HOSPITALITY”
FOR THE UNESCO LIST OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
[Lampedusa, Friday, September 12, 2025]
_______________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters gathered in Lampedusa!
“ O'scià! ” The breath, the breath: this is what you wish for, greeting one another in your dialect. And this is how our beloved Pope Francis greeted you in 2013 when he came among you: it was his first trip . You know that in the language of the Bible, breath, the breath are what we translate as “the spirit.” And so, in greeting one another—today at a distance, but I hope soon in person—as believers we invoke for one another the Holy Spirit, the breath of God.
The fruits of the Spirit, dear friends, are abundant among you. You remind me of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians of Thessalonica: you "received the word amid great afflictions, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all believers" ( 1 Thess 1 :6-7). The geographical position of Lampedusa and Linosa, in fact, has always made you a gateway to Europe. In recent decades, this has required an enormous commitment of welcome from your community, which has brought you from the heart of the Mediterranean to the heart of the Church, "so much so that," says Saint Paul again, "we have no need to speak of it" ( 1 Thess 1:8), because your faith and your charity are now known to all. It is an intangible, but real, heritage.
My "thank you," which is the "thank you" of the entire Church for your witness, extends and renews that of Pope Francis . "Thank you" to the associations, volunteers, mayors, and administrations that have succeeded one another over time; "thank you" to the priests, doctors, security forces, and all those who, often invisibly, have shown and continue to show the smile and attentiveness of a human face to those who have survived on their desperate journey of hope.
You are a bastion of that humanity which loud arguments, atavistic fears, and unjust measures tend to undermine. There is no justice without compassion, there is no legitimacy without listening to the pain of others. So many victims—and among them, how many mothers, and how many children!—from the depths of the Mare Nostrum cry out not only to heaven, but to our hearts. Many migrant brothers and sisters have been buried in Lampedusa, and rest in the earth like seeds from which a new world awaits germination. There is no shortage, thank God, of thousands of faces and names of people who today live a better life and will never forget your charity. Many of them have in turn become workers of justice and peace, because goodness is contagious.
Sisters and brothers, may the breath of the Spirit never fail you! It's true, as the years pass, fatigue can set in. Like a race, you can run out of breath. Fatigue tends to call into question what you've done and, at times, even divides us. We must react together, staying united and opening ourselves once again to God's breath. All the good you've done may seem like drops in the ocean. But that's not the case; it's much more!
The globalization of indifference, which Pope Francis denounced precisely from Lampedusa , today seems to have mutated into a globalization of impotence. In the face of injustice and innocent suffering, we are more aware, but we risk standing still, silent and sad, overcome by the feeling that there is nothing we can do. What can I do, faced with such great evils? The globalization of impotence is born of a lie: that history has always been this way, that history is written by the victors. Then it seems we can do nothing. But no: history is devastated by the powerful, but it is saved by the humble, the just, the martyrs, in whom goodness shines and authentic humanity endures and is renewed.
Just as Pope Francis countered the globalization of indifference with a culture of encounter, so today I would like us to begin, together, to counter the globalization of impotence with a culture of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a particular way of encountering one another. Today we must meet by healing our wounds, forgiving each other for the evil we have done and also for the evil we have not done, but whose effects we bear. So much fear, so many prejudices, great, even invisible, walls exist between us and between our peoples, as a consequence of a wounded history. Evil is transmitted from one generation to the next, from one community to the next. But good is also transmitted and can be stronger! To practice it, to put it back into circulation, we must become experts in reconciliation. We must repair what is broken, delicately treat bleeding memories, draw closer to one another with patience, empathize with each other's history and pain, recognize that we share the same dreams, the same hopes. There are no enemies: only brothers and sisters. This is the culture of reconciliation. We need gestures of reconciliation and policies of reconciliation.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us move forward together on this path of encounter and reconciliation. Thus, islands of peace will multiply, becoming pillars of bridges, so that peace may reach all peoples and all creatures. On this horizon of hope and commitment, through the intercession of Mary, Star of the Sea, I bless you and greet you with great affection. O'scià! And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you. Amen.
Source: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2025/09/12/0637/01125.html
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