Pope Leo XIV Interviewed by Little Boy - Reveals he Attended a World Cup and says "we are called" make "God’s love for every man and woman present" FULL TEXT

Pope Leo XIV met with the archdiocese's charitable and welfare organizations at the parish of Sant'Agostino, known as the "Cathedral of the Poor," in  Ciutat Vella, Barcelona.
On the fifth day of his apostolic journey to Spain, and on the eve of the World Cup, he answered questions from Renzo, a six-year-old boy: "Let's keep our hearts open to everyone."  Renzo is six years old, and no one knows what he'll do when he grows up. He met with the diocese's charitable and welfare organizations, listening to the testimonies of three workers. But before giving them his speech of thanks and encouragement, he responded to the questions that little Renzo—introduced by a video and accompanied by his mother—read to him from a letter he had previously written to him, in Spanish. 
MEETING WITH DIOCESAN CHARITY AND WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
Church of Sant Agustí (Barcellona)
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
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Dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon!

I thank the Cardinal Archbishop for his cordial welcome and for his kind words, as well as the delegate for social ministry and those who have shared with us their testimonies about the archdiocesan charity and welfare organizations. I would like to thank Renzo for his letter and the questions he has asked; I will going to try to answer some of them.

As I have already said, I never wanted to be Pope—not as a young man, nor as an old man—but when the Lord calls, you have to say “yes.” Before answering your questions, I simply want to say thank you very much for your warm welcome; I truly feel at home here. Thank you also for everything you represent.

The reason you might guess—obviously—is because it is Saint Augustine’s, but let me tell you that the first time I came to this church—this Archbishop was not here by my side—it was 1984 and I was traveling by land from Rome to León. When I arrived, I said, “Look, there is a Saint Augustine church in Barcelona, let us go visit it.” It was closed, but today it is open. How beautiful it is to find a church with a community of Augustinians and so many people who live here, who praise God, who feel a sense community, welcome, and belonging in this church and in this social ministry. Thank you all very much, truly.

As for the question about soccer, everyone now knows that I play tennis. I played soccer when I was younger, but American football was more physical. I also played soccer with the seminarians when I was in Trujillo, as a defender, if you are curious. I was not a great goal-scorer, but when I was a freshman in Rome, I experienced my first World Cup in 1982, which was held here in Spain. Later, in Peru with the seminarians, I followed the local teams closely. But I also played with the seminarians. A little exercise is good for everyone. We have to find ways to stay healthy: body, mind and soul. So, that has definitely been part of my life. Soccer also helps us remember something very important: life is not a race to live in isolation; it is a team sport, and we have to learn to work together. Second question—I have already answered that—but let us stick to the text a bit so we do not get sidetracked and finish by 8:30.

You ask me if, as a child, I wanted to be Pope. Well, Renzo, I do not think so. I do not think I ever really thought about it. But I can tell you this: ever since I was little, I felt the desire to give my life to God. I did not yet fully know how or where the Lord would lead me. Over time, I came to realize that Jesus was calling me to follow him as a priest, and that this path led through the Order of Saint Augustine. Yet this is not just true for me. Every child is a dream of God, and you are too, Renzo. God desires everyone’s happiness and wants us, from childhood and throughout our lives, to keep our hearts like those of children (cf. Mt 18:3): capable of trusting, full of goodness. He wants us to be his friends and not to stray from him. That is why, more important than asking yourself if you will be a priest, a doctor, a teacher, a parent, or anything else, is asking yourself if you want to be a friend of Jesus. Because friendship with Jesus gives us joy, sets us free and helps us see, step by step, the vocation and the path that God has planned for each of us.

It is not easy to find, Renzo, the answer to your question about why bad things happen to some people but not to others. Reflecting on the life of Jesus might help us. The word of God tells us that our Lord “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38), yet we know that he was crucified. However, the story did not end there because he rose on the third day and conquered evil and conquered death. Through the life of Jesus Christ, God shows us that, even though there is suffering, he never abandons any of his children, because he has prepared eternal joy for us where there will be no more sadness or pain. Let us be confident that Jesus is with us, that he helps and accompanies us and that he gives us the strength to get through the difficult moments we may encounter in life.

As for grandparents, yes, grandparents play a very important role in family life. They should never be left alone. Often they are the ones who look after their grandchildren while the parents are at work, and in this way, with love and dedication, they help the children to learn to love God and their neighbor, so that this love may take root in their hearts and one day they may grow up to be good men and women. How should we respond to love? With love. That is what Jesus wants us to do. To care for and accompany our grandparents in their old age, just as they, in their turn, cared for us. Let us not allow loneliness and abandonment to become the norm in the lives of older adults. That is a very sad thing. Let us keep our hearts open to all of them; and even if they are not our grandparents, let us not allow them to feel alone or unprotected. If we do not want to be lonely ourselves, we must not allow others to be lonely either.

As for whether we should always forgive, Jesus tells us that we should. One day Peter asked him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:21–22). And by that Jesus meant: always forgive. Yet we must understand clearly what it means to forgive. Forgiving does not mean saying that what was wrong was right, nor does it mean letting someone continue to do harm. It does not mean forcing ourselves to forget, as if nothing had happened. Forgiving means not letting hatred take hold of our hearts. Jesus asks us to forgive because it is the only way to experience God’s peace and to heal spiritual wounds. When we forgive, we imitate the example of Jesus, who forgave those who crucified him. Our willingness to forgive is a condition for the forgiveness we receive from God.

Brothers and sisters,

Being here in the Church of Saint Augustine opens our hearts to a truth that the holy Bishop of Hippo points out to us: being Christian is, above all, a gift, a grace. Grounded in Christ, who is the living stone, we experience the action of the Holy Spirit, with the conviction that every sincere effort to cooperate with him for the sake of our neighbor will be blessed by our heavenly Father, in whom we place our hope. As members of the mystical Body of Christ, we are truly bound to the destiny of those whom God loves and invites to share in his life.

Called to love God and our brothers and sisters out of love for him, we too are sent to go out and meet everyone. The Christian, in addition to being kind and gentle, must be compassionate, love selflessly and seek the good of others, knowing that in every brother and sister who suffers it is the Lord himself who asks and receives, who is welcomed or rejected, loved or despised.

Evangelical charity, rooted in Jesus Christ and nourished by his love, shapes and defines the personal and communal life of every Christian. Hence, every local Church, moved by charity and guided by the Holy Spirit, is called to address — according to its own means and capabilities and with discretion, sensitivity and perseverance — the wounds and needs of the least and most vulnerable, to alleviate their suffering and remedy their poverty. It does so by imitating the generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ who, out of love for us, though he was rich, became poor to enrich us with his grace and salvation, and who calls us also to recognize him and assist him in those most in need (cf. Mt 25:40).

For this reason, it is a joy this afternoon to meet with all of you, who, in various ways, are concretely involved in the care, accompaniment and support of those most in need, especially in these times when the sense of the sacred dignity of the human person seems to have been lost.

I would like to emphasize that as Christians we are called to the task of making God’s love for every man and woman present in the concrete fabric of history. The Book of Genesis tells us that God created “humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). In this is rooted the inalienable dignity of every human being, which does not depend on the abilities they possess, the wealth they accumulate or the role they play, but on the gift that precedes and transcends them, given by God as an expression of his unfailing love (cf. Magnifica Humanitas, 50).

The Lord, then, invites us to welcome every woman as a sister and every man as a brother. As children of the same Father, every person is constitutively made for relationship; they have been conceived and willed by God to enter into a history of communion with him, with others and with creation (cf. ibid.). A unique expression of this divine longing is found in the works of charity and welfare of which you are a part. You carry these works forward with effort and dedication, aware that the human person is at the center of the Church’s action (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 24) and that charity is “the greatest social commandment” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1889).

I encourage you, together with your pastors, to continue fostering these ministries, bearing witness to the Gospel and showing the world the beauty of the Christian life, which offers a foretaste here and now of the justice and peace that will be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. Be, then, credible witnesses of Christian hope in your solicitous service to your brothers and sisters who, living in precarious conditions marked by deprivation, fragility and marginalization, need not only material aid and moral support but also God, his friendship, his blessing, his Word, his sacraments and a path of growth and maturation in the faith (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 200).

I place your work and your dedication at the feet of Our Lady of Good Counsel, so that her intercession may accompany you and that the Lord may bring forth abundant fruit from all of the good that you seek to do. May God bless you. Thank you very much.