Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Monsignori,

A special greeting to all of you, dear Pontifical Representatives. Before sharing the words I have prepared, I would just like to say to His Eminence and to all of you that what the Cardinal mentioned, I said not at the suggestion of anyone, but because I deeply believe it: your role, your ministry, is irreplaceable. The Church would be unable to give many things if it were not for the sacrifice, the work and everything that you do in order to enable such an important dimension of the great mission of the Church to proceed, and precisely in the case of which I spoke, namely the selection of candidates to the episcopate. Thank you from the heart for what you do! Now, please have a little patience.

After yesterday morning’s celebration for the Jubilee of the Holy See, I am pleased to be able to stay briefly with you, the Pope’s representatives to States and international organizations throughout the world.

First of all, thank you for coming, for undertaking a journey that for many of you was long. Thank you! You are already, as people, an image of the Catholic Church, since a diplomatic Corps as universal as ours does not exist in any other country in the world. However, at the same time, I believe that one may equally say that no other country in the world has a diplomatic Corps as united as you are: because your, our, communion is not merely functional, nor an idea; we are united in Christ and we are united in the Church. It is interesting to reflect on this fact: that the diplomacy of the Holy See constitutes in its very staff a model – certainly not perfect, but very meaningful – of the message it proposes: that of human fraternity and peace among all peoples.

Dear friends, I am taking my first steps in this ministry that the Lord has entrusted to me. And I also feel towards you what I confided some days ago, when speaking to the Secretariat of State: namely, my gratitude towards those who are helping me to carry out my service day by day. This gratitude is even greater when I think – and directly touch upon as I address various topics – that you work very often goes before me! Yes, and this applies in a particular way to you, because when a situation is presented to me that relates, for example, to the Church in a given country, I can rely on the documentation, reflections and summaries prepared by you and your collaborators. The network of Pontifical Representations is always active and operative. This is for me a cause for great appreciation and gratitude. I say this thinking certainly of the dedication and organization, but, even more so, of the motivations that guide you, the pastoral style that should characterize you, the spirit of faith that inspires us. Thanks to these qualities, I too will be able to experience what Saint Paul VI wrote; that through his Representatives, who reside in various nations, the Pope is able to participate in the very life of his sons and, almost by becoming part of it, becomes aware, in a surer and more rapid way, their needs and at the same time their aspirations (cf. Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesarium, Introduction).

And now I would like to share with you a biblical image that came to mind when thinking of your mission in relation to mine. At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (3:1-10), the story of the healing of the cripple describes the ministry of Peter well. We are at the dawn of Christian experience, and the first community, gathered around the Apostles, knows it can count on a single reality: the risen and living Jesus. A crippled man sits begging at the door of the Temple. It appears to be the image of a humanity that has lost hope and is resigned. Even today, the Church often encounters men and women who no longer have any joy, whom society has sidelined, or whom life has in a certain sense forced into begging for their existence. This page of the Acts relates: “Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said ‘Look at us’. He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk’. Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. He leaped up, stood and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God” (3:4-8).

The request Peter makes to this man – “Look at us” – makes us think. To look into one’s eyes means to build a relationship. The ministry of Peter is to create relationships, bridges: and a Representative of the Pope, first and foremost, serves this invitation to look into the eyes. Always be the eyes of Peter! Be men capable of building relationships where it is hardest to do. But in doing so, preserve the same humility and the same realism of Peter, who is well aware that he does not have the solution to everything: “I have neither silver nor gold”, he says; but he knows he has what counts, namely Christ, the deepest meaning of every existence: “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, walk!”.

To give Christ means to give love, to bear witness to the charity that is ready for everything. I am counting on you so that in the countries where you live, everyone may know that the Church is always ready for everything out of love, that she is always on the side of the last, the poor, and that she will always defend the sacrosanct right to believe in God, to believe that this life is not at the mercy of the powers of this world, but rather is traversed by a mysterious meaning. Only love is worthy of faith, in the face of the suffering of the innocent, the crucified of today, whom many of you know personally, as you serve peoples who are victims of war, violence, and injustice, or even of the false wellbeing that deludes and disappoints.

Dear brothers, may you always be consoled by the fact that your service is sub umbra Petri, as you will find engraved on the ring that you will receive as a gift from me. Always feel you are bound to Peter, protected by Peter, sent by Peter. Only in obedience and in effective communion with the Pope may your ministry be effective for the edification of the Church, in communion with the local bishops.

Always have a blessing gaze, because the ministry of Peter is to bless, that is, always to know how to see the good, even that which is hidden, which is in the minority. Feel that you are missionaries, sent by the Pope to be tools of communion, unity, serving the dignity of the human person, promoting sincere and constructive relations everywhere with the authorities with whom you are required to cooperate. May your competence always be enlightened by the sound decision for holiness. The Saints who were in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, such as Saint John XXIII and Saint Paul VI, provide an example to us.

Dear friends, your presence here today strengthens the awareness that the role of Peter is to confirm in faith. You are the first to need this confirmation in order to become its messengers, visible signs in every part of the world.

May the Holy Door we all passed through together yesterday spur us to be courageous witnesses of Christ, who is always our hope. Thank you.

Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 10 June 2025