Pope Leo criticized the emergence of nationalist political movements and their “state of mind of exclusion”, without naming a specific country or leader.
Leo, the first pope of the United States, asked during a mass on Sunday with tens of thousands of people on the square of Saint-Pierre that God “opens the borders, breaks down the walls (and) dissipate hatred”.
“There is no room for prejudices, for” security “areas that separate us from our neighbors, for the exclusion mentality which, unfortunately, we now see emerging in political nationalisms,” he said.
The pontiff said that the Church “should open the boundaries between the peoples and decompose the barriers between the class and the race”.
“People must move” beyond our fear of those who are different, “he said, saying that the Holy Spirit” breaks down the barriers and demolishes the walls of indifference and hatred “.
Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis as church chief of 1.4 billion members.
Before becoming pontiff, Prevost did not hesitate to criticize Donald TrumpSharing many disapproving positions on the American president and the vice-president, JD Vance, on X in recent years.
The Vatican did not confirm the property by the Pope of the X account, which had the @DrPrevost handle, and was disabled after its election.
Francis, who was pope for 12 years, was a living critic of Trump. He said in January that the president’s plan to expel millions of migrants in the United States during his second term was a shame. He had previously declared that Trump was not a Christian because of his opinions on immigration.
“A person who thinks only of building walls, wherever it is, and not to build bridges, is not Christian,” he said when he was asked about Trump in 2016.
Leo celebrated a Mass for Pentecost, one of the most important holidays in the church.