When a man tells you who he is, you ought to believe him

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER TO REPRESENTATIVES OF OTHER CHURCHES AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES, AND OTHER RELIGIONS 

Clementine Hall
Monday, 19 May 2025

Dear brothers and sisters,

With great joy I extend my cordial greetings to all of you, Representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, as well as of other religions, who participated in the inaugural celebration of my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter. I express fraternal affection to His All Holiness Bartholomew, His Beatitude Theophilos III and His Holiness Mar Awa III, and to each of you I am deeply grateful for your presence and prayers, which are a great comfort and encouragement.

One of the strong emphases of Pope Francis’ pontificate was that of universal fraternity. In this regard the Holy Spirit really “urged” him to advance with great strides the initiatives already undertaken by previous Pontiffs, especially since Saint John XXIII. The Pope of Fratelli Tutti promoted both the ecumenical path and interreligious dialogue. He did so above all by cultivating interpersonal relations, in such a way that, without taking anything away from ecclesial bonds, the human trait of the encounter was always valued. May God help us to treasure his witness!

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Aware, moreover, that synodality and ecumenism are closely linked, I would like to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis’ commitment to promoting the synodal nature of the Catholic Church and developing new and concrete forms for an ever stronger synodality in ecumenical relations.

Our common path can and must also be understood in the broad sense of involving everyone, in the spirit of human fraternity that I mentioned above. Now is the time for dialogue and building bridges. I am therefore pleased and grateful for the presence of representatives of other religious traditions, who share the search for God and his will, which is always and only the will of love and life for men and women and for all creatures.

You have witnessed the remarkable efforts made by Pope Francis in favour of interreligious dialogue. Through his words and actions, he opened new avenues of encounter, to promote “the culture of dialogue as the path; mutual collaboration as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard” (A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019). I thank the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue for the essential role it plays in this patient work of encouraging meetings and concrete exchanges aimed at building relationships based on human fraternity…

Full text: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250519-altre-religioni.html