The pontiff held his first meeting with the news media at the Vatican and called on reporters to choose “the path of communication in favor of peace.”

Pope Leo XIV called for a kinder, gentler mass media, one that speaks up for those with no voice and in defense of free speech, and urged regimes around the world that jail journalists to set them free.

Pope Leo XIV may have broken a historic barrier by becoming the first pontiff from the United States, but his views on the Catholic Church could harken back to more traditional times. There are also some areas of the church's doctrine where he takes a more progressive stance, similar to his predecessor, Pope Francis.