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The Pope defends a social Europe before ultraconservative deputies

by AI | 10.Dec 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday at the Vatican advocated for a social Christianity before ultraconservative European deputies, inviting them not to remain “stuck in a bygone era,” while emphasizing the Judeo-Christian roots of Europe.

Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd upon his arrival in the popemobile during the weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on December 10, 2025. (Photo: TIZIANA FABI / AFP)

Vatican City – The European identity “can only be understood and promoted with reference to its Judeo-Christian roots,” the pope told members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

Bringing together around 80 Members of the European Parliament, the latter promotes a moderate national-conservative conservatism, strict positions on immigration and a marked social conservatism. It notably includes Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party, the Polish nationalist party Law and Justice (PIS), and Identity-Freedoms of the French MEP Marion Maréchal.

Léon XIV reaffirmed the “intrinsic link between Christianity and European history.” True to his social concern, the head of the Catholic Church linked this Christian heritage to an invitation to “respond to the challenges posed by poverty, social exclusion, economic insecurity, as well as by the climate crisis, violence and war.”

These remarks can be read as a way of steering the debate towards inclusion and social responsibility, thus moving it away from the identity-based terrain advocated by the ECR group. (10 December 2025)