Pope Leo’s address at the sapienza university of rome
aula magna – Thursday, 14 May 2026
Address of the Holy Father
Rector, political and civil authorities, distinguished teachers, researchers and technical-administrative staff and, above all, dear students!
I am delighted to accept the invitation to meet the Sapienza University community in Rome.
Your university is renowned for its excellence in various disciplines and for its commitment to the right to education, including for those with fewer economic resources, people with disabilities, prisoners, and those who have fled war zones. I greatly appreciate, for example, that the Diocese of Rome and Sapienza have signed an agreement to open a university humanitarian corridor from the Gaza Strip.
As someone who has been Bishop of Rome for just over a year, it is therefore important for me to be able to meet you.
As a pastor, I would first like to address the students, and then the teachers.
The university city’s avenues, which I walked through to get here, are crossed daily by many young people inhabited by conflicting feelings.
I imagine you are sometimes carefree and happy in your youth, which even in a troubled world marked by terrible injustices, allows you to feel that the future is yet to be written and cannot be stolen from you.
The studies you undertake, the friendships you forge and the encounters with various thinkers are the promise of what can transform us for the better, even before the world around us changes.
When the desire for truth becomes a quest, our dedication to study testifies to the hope of a new world.
As you know, I am spiritually linked to St. Augustine, who was a restless young man.
Despite making serious mistakes, his passion for beauty and wisdom remained undiminished.
I was therefore pleased to receive hundreds of questions from you on this topic.
Obviously, it is not possible to answer them all, but I will bear them in mind and encourage everyone to seek more opportunities for dialogue.
This is also why there are chaplaincies at the university, where faith meets your questions.
However, anxiety also has a darker side: we must not hide the fact that many young people suffer from it.
Everyone has difficult times.
Some people may feel that these difficult times never end.
This increasingly depends on the blackmail of expectations and the pressure to perform.
This is a pervasive lie of a distorted system that reduces people to numbers, exacerbating competitiveness and leaving us in spirals of anxiety.
This spiritual malaise experienced by many young people reminds us that we are not merely the sum of what we have or a haphazard part of a silent cosmos.
We are a desire, not an algorithm!
It is this special dignity that leads me to share two questions with you.
This malaise asks you young people: ‘Who are you?’
The characteristic commitment of the life of every man and woman is, in fact, being ourselves.
Who are you?’ is a question we ask each other, and one we silently ask God. It is a question only we can answer for ourselves, but never alone.
We are defined by our relationships, our language and our culture. It is therefore vital that our university years are a time of significant encounters.
Therefore, youthful malaise asks those who are more adult: ‘What world are we leaving?’
It is a world that is unfortunately crippled by wars and words of war.
This pollution of reason invades every social relationship, from the geopolitical level downwards.
The simplification that creates enemies must therefore be corrected, particularly in universities, through a careful consideration of complexity and the wise use of memory.
In particular, the drama of the 20th century must not be forgotten.
The cry of my Predecessors, ‘Never again war!’, which is in harmony with the rejection of war enshrined in the Italian Constitution, encourages us to form a spiritual alliance with the sense of justice that dwells in the hearts of young people.
They are not confined by ideologies or national borders.
For example, military spending has grown enormously around the world in the last year, particularly in Europe.
We should not call this ‘defense’ when it increases tensions and insecurity, impoverishes investment in education and health, undermines trust in diplomacy and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good.
The development and application of artificial intelligence in military and civilian spheres must also be monitored so that it does not remove responsibility from human choices and does not worsen the tragic nature of conflicts.
The situation in Ukraine, Gaza, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iran exemplifies the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies, creating a spiral of annihilation.
Study, research, investments should go in the opposite direction: may they be a radical “yes” to life!
Yes to innocent life! Yes to young life! Yes to the lives of people crying out for peace and justice!
A second area of shared commitment is ecology. In the Encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis tells us that “there is a very consistent scientific consensus that indicates that we are in the presence of a worrying warming of the climate system” (n. 23).
More than a decade has passed since then, and despite some good intentions and efforts in this direction, the situation does not seem to have improved.
In this scenario, I would like to encourage you, dear young people, above all not to give in to resignation, but to transform your restlessness into prophecy instead.
Those who believe know that history does not inevitably fall into the hands of death but is always protected by a God who creates life from nothing, who gives without taking and shares without consuming, whatever happens.
Today, it is precisely the collapse of a possessive and consumerist paradigm that paves the way for a new era: study, cultivate and defend justice!
Join me and so many others in being artisans of true peace: peace that disarms, peace that is humble and persevering, peace that works for harmony among peoples and for the care of the Earth.
It requires all your intelligence and boldness.
In fact, you can help those who came before you to re-establish an authentic horizon of meaning, ensuring that we do not merely take another rapid snapshot of our current situation.
We must move from hermeneutics to action, which is rarely considered by a society with fewer and fewer children. You demonstrate that humanity is capable of building a future with wisdom.
Your university, bearing a divine name, is a place of study and experimentation that has fostered critical thinking for centuries.
Teachers in particular can establish valuable connections with young people.
It is certainly a demanding responsibility, but an exciting one.
Believing in your students is extremely important.
Therefore, ask yourself often: Do I trust them?
Teaching is as much a form of charity as rescuing a migrant at sea, helping a poor person on the street or providing solace to the troubled.
It is about always loving human life and appreciating its potential, in order to connect with the hearts of young people and not just their minds.
Teaching then becomes a way of demonstrating values through one’s life: it is a commitment to reality.
It involves accepting what is not yet understood and telling the truth.
What would be the point of training a researcher or professional who does not cultivate their conscience, sense of justice, and respect for that which cannot and must not be dominated?
Knowledge is not only used to achieve work goals; it is also used to discern who one is.
Through lectures, internships, interaction with the city, theses and doctorates,
each student can find new motivations and balance study with life and tools with goals.
Dear friends, as I encourage you to undertake this daily exercise, I would like to take this opportunity to announce a new educational alliance between the Church in Rome and your prestigious university, which was born and grew in the heart of the Church.
I assure you all of my remembrance in prayer and cordially invoke the Lord’s blessing upon the entire Wisdom community.
Thank you!
