Shun polarization, Pope tells Italian newspaper
February 02, 2026
» Continue to this story on Il Foglio
CWN Editor's Note: In a letter marking the 30th anniversary of Il Foglio, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the Italian newspaper’s director to promote the free exchange of ideas, shun polarization, and offer “the most objective narration of the facts possible.”
“The possibility of spreading different opinions, and of offering different interpretations of the facts, is the concrete foundation of that free exchange of ideas without which there is no freedom of thought,” Pope Leo wrote in his letter to Claudio Cerasa. “It is necessary to promote dialogue and not surrender to an extremist and deceptive polarization that reduces reality to its parody, cultural and religious roots almost to labels to be exhibited, thought to a calculation,”
In the letter, dated January 23 and published on January 30, the Pope added that a free press “requires a great sense of responsibility, for example in the distinction between the most objective narration of the facts possible and the exposition of opinions on them, always dutifully open to discussion.”
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