In a short press conference on the flight from Beirut to Rome at the conclusion of his weeklong visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo answered questions on several topics: about the possibility of lasting peace in Lebanon and in Ukraine; on President Trump’s ultimatum to remove Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro with the use of force; what Leo’s next trips could be; how he felt at the conclave when he saw he could be elected; on the fear of Islam by some in Europe; and on the German synodal way.

He began by thanking the 80 journalists from 15 countries—including America’s senior Vatican correspondent—who traveled with him to Turkey and Lebanon for communicating the important messages of the trip.

Joe Farchakh, a correspondent for Lebanese national TV, asked whether the U.S.-born pope would “use his connections” with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote peace in the region, and if a sustainable peace was achievable. 

“Yes, I think sustainable peace is achievable,” Pope Leo said, adding that he had explored ways to work “with some of the leaders you have mentioned, and I intend to continue to do so personally, or through the Holy See, because the fact is we do have diplomatic relations with most of the countries in the region.”

Imad Atrach, a reporter for Sky News Arabia, noted that the pope’s last talk in Lebanon contained a clear message to the Lebanese authorities to negotiate for peace and asked if the Holy See would do something concrete to facilitate this. He also recalled that the pope had met a Shiite representative the day before and that Hezbollah had sent the pope a message. He asked if the pope had received the message and if he had any comment on it.

Pope Leo began by saying that the principal reason for the trip was to mark the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and to promote Christian unity. He also had meetings with representatives “who had something to do with internal conflicts or international ones,” he said, but that the diplomatic work of the Holy See “is not something public that we want to showcase in the window. It is something behind the scenes, it is something we do and have done to seek to convince all the parties to leave the arms and violence and to sit together at the table of dialogue to seek solutions and proposals that are not violent and are more productive.”

As for the Hezbollah communication, he said, “There is already the proposal of the church that they lay down their arms and seek dialogue, but on this I prefer not to comment.”

Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service, who was on her last foreign trip with the pope and will retire at the end of the year, asked him some personal questions, including: “Would you say what the most difficult thing is in being pope? Do you want to comment on what it felt like in the conclave when it became clear to you what was happening?”

Pope Leo gave a long, personal answer, speaking in English (the predominant language for the first time on a papal trip): 

My first comment would be that just a year or two ago, I thought about retiring someday, you have received that gift apparently, but it seems that  some of us will continue to work. As for the conclave itself, I believe very strictly about the secret of the conclave, even though I know there have been public interviews where some things were revealed. I said to a reporter the day before I was elected—she caught me on the street as I was going to lunch across the street at the Augustinians’—and she said, “What do you think, you have become one of the candidates?” and I simply said, “I think everything is in the hands of God.” And I believe that profoundly.

Pope Leo recalled that a German journalist there had asked him on a previous day to recommend a book (one not by St. Augustine) that one could read to understand who Robert Prevost is. His answer was The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite friar. “It describes, if you will, a type of prayer or spirituality where one gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead. If you want to know something about me, that’s been my spirituality for many years, in the midst of great challenges, living in Peru for many years in the midst of terrorism, being called to services I never thought I would be called to serve.” 

As for the conclave, Leo said: “I resigned myself when I saw the way things were going…. I took a deep breath, [and] I said: ‘Here we go, Lord. You are in charge; you lead the way.’” 

On the question of Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan, which was drafted without the input of European members of NATO, Pope Leo said he was happy to see that revisions to the plan were already being made to include Europe’s concerns.

Leo, who showed in the press conference that he is well briefed on national and international political questions, said: “This concerns peace in the world, but the Holy See does not have a direct participation because it is not a member of NATO. But it has called for dialogue, and many times we have called for a ceasefire, dialogue and not war.”

Elisabetta Piqué from the Argentine newspaper La Nación posed a two-part question on behalf of the Spanish-speaking journalists on the plane. She noted first that there is high tension in Venezuela because of President Trump’s threat to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power using military force. Second, she asked about the pope’s next travels.

Leo, the first American pope, indirectly criticized his country of birth and rejected any use of force by the United States to overthrow the regime of Mr. Maduro. He said there are other ways to bring change about, including “dialogue, negotiations and even economic pressure.” The Holy See and the Venezuelan bishops “are looking for ways to calm the situation, to seek above all the good of the people, because so often those who suffer the most in these situations are the people, not the authorities,” he said.

Regarding what future trips he has in mind, Pope Leo announced that, as an Augustinian, he wants to visit Algeria “to visit the places of St. Augustine’s life” and “also to continue with the theme of dialogue and building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world.” Vatican sources say the visit to Algeria could be in the second quarter of 2026. 

He also confirmed his intention to travel to Argentina and Uruguay, two countries Pope Francis had planned to visit, and to his beloved Peru, where he served as a missionary and a bishop. He envisaged the Latin American trip could take place in either 2026 or 2027.

Michael Corre of the French Catholic newspaper La Croix asked the pope to comment on the fact that “some Catholics in Europe believe that Islam is a threat to the Christian identity of the West.”

Pope Leo said “all the conversations” that he had during his visits to Turkey and Lebanon, including with many Muslims, had “precisely concentrated on the topic of peace and respect for people of different religions.” He said he knew from history both remote and recent that this “has not always been the case.” Moreover, he said, “I know that in Europe there are many times fears that are present but oftentimes generated by people who are against immigration and trying to keep out people who may be from another country, another religion, another race.” 

“One of the values of this trip,” the pope said, “is precisely to raise the world’s attention to the possibility that dialogue and friendship between Muslims and Christians is possible.” Indeed, he said, “I think one of the great lessons that Lebanon can teach to the world is precisely showing a land where Islam and Christianity are both present and are respected and that there is a possibility to live together to be friends.”

Anna Giordano, a reporter for German ARD radio in Germany, told the pope that the church in Germany is a financial supporter of the Lebanese church, so “it is important that the German church stays a strong church.” She asked whether he believed the “synodal way” process in Germany would strengthen or weaken the church there.

As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Pope Leo participated in at least one important meeting between the German bishops and the Vatican, and in fact came up with a practical solution when other senior Vatican officials were taking a harder-line stance. 

He first noted that there are similarities and differences between the synodal way in Germany and the entire church’s experience of the Synod on Synodality, the signature reform project launched by Pope Francis in 2021. 

“On the one hand,” he said, “I would say there is certainly room for respect for inculturation,” and “the fact that in one place synodality is lived in a certain way, and in another place it is lived differently, does not mean that there will be rupture or a fracture.”

“At the same time,” Pope Leo said, “I am aware that many Catholics in Germany believe that certain aspects of the synodal way that have been celebrated in Germany up until now do not represent their own hope for the church or their own way of living the church. So, there is need for further dialogue and listening within Germany itself, so that no one’s voice is excluded, so that the voice of those who are more powerful does not silence or stifle the voice of those who might also be very numerous but don’t have a place to speak up and to allow their own voices and own expressions of church participation to be listened to.”

Furthermore, he said, the German bishops and cardinals in the Roman Curia have been meeting “to try and make sure the German synodal way does not, if you will, break away from what needs to be considered as a pathway of the universal church.” 

“I’m sure that will continue,” he said. “I suspect there will be some adjustments made on both sides in Germany, but I’m certainly hopeful that things will work out positively.”

Rita El-Mounayer, a reporter of Lebanese origin working for the Christian broadcaster Sat-7 International, described herself as “a child of war” who knows what it means “to have a hug from Your Holiness, a tap on the shoulder, and saying everything is going to be O.K.” She told him that she was struck by his motto as pope: “In the One we are one,” and said that “this motto speaks of building bridges between different Christian denominations, between religions and also across neighbors, that sometimes can be a bit difficult.”

“From your own perspective,” she asked, “what unique gift can the church in the Middle East—with all its tears, wounds, challenges and past history—give the church in the West and the world?”

The American pope, who uses a smartphone and is well versed in social media, said, “I think there is a very important message here to say to all people that unity, friendship, human relationships, communion, are extremely important and extremely valuable.”

The pope said it is important to emphasize this, “if for no other reason than the example you mentioned about someone who has lived through war or has suffered and is in pain, and what an embrace can mean to them.” This very morning, Pope Leo had done exactly that when he met the relatives of the victims and the survivors of the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020. 

He noted what a “very human, real, healthy expression of personal care can do to heal the heart of someone else,” saying that this is true “on a personal level” and “can become [true], if you will, [on] a common level, a community level that unites all of us, and helps us understand that respect for one another goes far beyond ‘You keep your distance; I’ll stay here, and you stay there, and we’ll have no interaction…. It means building up relationships that will enrich all people.”

“With that message [above], certainly, my motto is primarily because of Christ,” the pope said, “In illo” is ‘In Christ who is one [in whom] we are all one.’” But, he added, “It is not defined, if you will, only for Christians. As a matter of fact, it is an invitation to all of us and to others to say: the more we can promote authentic unity and understanding, respect and human relationships of friendship and dialogue in the world, the greater possibility there is that we will put aside the arms of war, that we will leave aside the distrust, the hatred, the animosity that has so often been built up and that we will find ways to come together and be able to promote authentic peace and justice throughout the world.” 

Pope Leo arrived back at Rome’s airport just after 4 p.m. this Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 2, and went to the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, where he will rest after a demanding but highly successful first foreign trip.

Material from Catholic News Service was used in this report.