This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the participants in the Meeting “Fratelli tutti: North-South socio-environmental Dialogue” of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), promoted by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present at the meeting:

Address of the Holy Father

[In Spanish]

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Peace be with you.

I extend a warm greeting to Their Eminences, Their Excellencies, the ecclesiastical authorities of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council, the Amazonian Ecclesial Conference and of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I appreciate the perseverance with which, together with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, you have sustained this process of North-South socio-environmental dialogue over the past five years.

Likewise, I express my gratitude for the presence and support of the representatives of international organizations, regional development banks, the business community and the foundations that have chosen to join us on this journey.

I also welcome the presidents, vice presidents and secretaries general of trade union confederations and employers’ organizations from the Americas, as well as the leaders of ecclesial networks in Latin America and the Caribbean, of Organized Communities in North America, and of university networks in both hemispheres. Your presence expresses a desire to continue a dialogue that can lead to more humane, sustainable and solidarity-based models of development, capable of protecting the dignity of every person and paying particular attention to those at risk of being left at the margins.

This meeting is of particular interest considering the breadth of the sectors represented and the responsibilities held by many of its participants in areas crucial to social, economic and cultural life. Precisely for this reason, this space for dialogue can help us tackle the challenges affecting our common future with greater realism.

At the beginning of my pontificate, when I met with the College of Cardinals, I recalled some fundamental aspects of the path that the universal Church has been following for decades, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Among these, I highlighted the need for a “courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities” (Address to the College of Cardinals, 10 May 2025).

Such dialogue is part of the very mission of the Church, which has received from Jesus Christ the task of proclaiming the Gospel to all peoples and of bringing its light to the concrete realities of every age. Her pastoral character is part of her very nature and commits her to facing directly the reality of the men and women to whom she is sent. The Gospel’s imperative to care for the poor also demands that this gaze be directed in a particular way towards those who suffer most severely from the consequences of social, economic and technological changes.

A few days ago, I recalled that the Church is committed to “engaging with reality and also to unmasking the contradictions that characterize personal and social life in the contemporary world”, including those that may accompany scientific and technological progress which opens up unprecedented possibilities (Catechesis, 2 September 2026).

This commitment is deeply rooted in the very mystery of the Christian faith. God entered our history. In Jesus Christ, He took on our humanity and entrusted to the Church the mission of proclaiming the Gospel amid the real circumstances in which peoples live. From the Scriptures to the great Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, the Christian tradition has learnt to discern within history that which truly serves humankind and that which ultimately turns against it.

The innovations of our time thus place us before a shared responsibility. In Magnifica humanitas I sought to express this using a biblical image: we stand at a crossroads where we must choose “either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together” (1). For this reason, in the face of technological development, the decisive question is not simply whether we accept or reject certain tools, but what kind of humanity we wish to build and what place each person will have within it. A responsibility of such magnitude exceeds the capabilities of any single institution. It is therefore necessary to revitalise the principle of subsidiarity (cf. 13), recognizing the specific responsibility of each actor and, at the same time, the need to work together.

I am pleased that the Church in the Americas has promoted this forum for encounter and cooperation to advance the North-South Agenda for Shared Responsibility in Multisectoral Cooperation. When public institutions, businesses, workers, universities, communities and social organizations share their knowledge, skills and resources in the service of the common good, it gives tangible form to a conviction which has been maturing within the social teaching of the Church, and which my Predecessors have developed in various ways: the great social challenges require shared responsibility, participation and collaboration amongst the various sectors of society. Pope Francis expressed this same conviction when speaking of “social friendship” (cf. FT, 154).

An agenda of shared responsibility can help ensure that legitimate differences do not lead to fragmentation. In my first Encyclical, I sought to emphasize that pluralism requires a principle of unity and one that enables it to be oriented towards common foundations and towards the ultimate purpose of the person (cf. MH, 10). The Church’s synodal experience can offer a lesson here: truly listening to differences does not mean diluting them, but learning to discern them and to seek, from within them, that which can serve the common good. This exercise is particularly necessary at a time when polarized narratives find immediate amplification and when confrontation can easily become an instrument of power (cf. MH, 190). In the face of this dynamic, the very fact that such diverse people and institutions have decided to sit down at the same table already entails a responsibility. True dialogue demands more than mere cordiality: it requires us to remain in conversation when conflicting interests arise and when decisions call for real sacrifices.

For believers, moreover, fraternity finds its ultimate basis in a truth that precedes any agreement: we have the same Father. As Fratelli tutti reminded us, “without an openness to the Father of all, there will be no solid and stable reasons for an appeal to fraternity” (272).

[Hereafter in English]

The res novae of our time set in motion a true movement of “reflection and action” (MH, 174), which must “be guided with foresight: by institutions capable of regulating without stifling, and protecting without taking over; by businesses that recognize work and dignity as measures of success; by intermediary organizations and educational communities that rebuild trust and relationships; and by citizens who cultivate responsibility, moderation, discernment and a sense of truth” (MH, 181).

“Do not be afraid” is an exhortation that my predecessors repeated at decisive moments in the life of the Church.  I would also like to make it my own today, since “we should not be intimidated by tensions or differences because they can become creative forces when guided by shared responsibility” (MH, 13).

The Church’s Social Doctrine offers invaluable assistance in this regard.  Many of the organizations present here are familiar with it, are studying it and are helping to spread it.  It “is not a handbook of principles and norms to be applied, but a process of shared discernment” (MH, 27).  Its principles do not replace the decisions that you must take; rather they offer criteria for judging whether these decisions truly respect human dignity and serve the common good.

For this reason, the value of any points of consensus that can be reached will not be measured solely by the number of people who endorse them.  They will be recognized by the interests that they are able to protect and, in particular, by the impact that they have on the lives of those who have the least power to defend themselves.

The principles of social justice provide a decisive criterion here.  A social, economic and political order can truly be called humane when it allows everyone — “particularly the weakest — to live a truly dignified life, without leaving anyone behind” (MH, 77).

At the end of Magnifica Humanitas I reflected on the figure of the prophet Nehemiah.  Faced with a Jerusalem in ruins, he listened to the suffering of his people, brought it before God, discerned what needed to be done, sought the necessary resources and organized a project that could only be carried out with the participation of many people (cf. MH, 241).

I would like to propose to you that same image for the work that you are doing.  Likewise, in our time, great edifices have come crashing down wherever progress ceases to serve the person, where work loses its dignity, where entire communities are cast aside or where technology ends up deepening the divisions that it should be helping us to overcome.

Like Nehemiah, you are to “enter the construction sites of history — research laboratories, technology companies, schools, the media, institutions, local communities — in order to rebuild what has collapsed and to protect what is threatened” (MH, 241).  Moreover, I invite you to allow yourselves to be challenged by the signs of the times and embrace the contributions of the sciences, of cultures and of human experiences to discern possible paths forward.

Negotiation is part of that work and is part of a “better kind of politics” capable of seeking the common good above particular interests (cf. FT, 154).  Therefore, I encourage you to cultivate a healthy “culture of negotiation” (cf. MH, 221) which is capable of opening paths where differences seem to close off every possibility of encounter.  In this way, you will also be able to contribute to the diplomacy of peace that our world needs.

Nehemiah did not rebuild Jerusalem alone.  He called upon his people, and each person worked on the section they were responsible for building.  It is now up to you to recognize what part of this shared work has been entrusted to you.  May the progress of our time not leave new ruins in its wake, and may whatever we build truly be a home and a refuge for all, beginning with those most in need.

Thank you very much.