Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the “precious gift of free speech and the press” in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who descended on Rome to cover his election as the first American pontiff.
Well, i suppose if the free speech in a region has been there for a while, it’s a gift from the people who fought hard for it.
Fair enough. But I’d rather think of it as a torch that has been passed on and has to be guarded and kept ablaze. Lighting it was the hardest part, but the job’s not done.