Pope Leo XIV has issued a strong warning about the destructive effects of gambling, calling it a scourge that is “ruining many families” and contributing to loneliness and social fragmentation across Italy.
According to Vatican News, the Pope made his remarks during a meeting at the Vatican on December 29 with mayors from the Associazione Nazionale dei Comuni Italiani, as he addressed the complex challenges facing towns and cities today. These include what he described as a “demographic crisis,” the struggles of families and young people, isolation among the elderly, environmental degradation, and growing social conflicts.
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According to Pope Leo, the response to these challenges must begin with listening to the poor and the vulnerable. Without this attentiveness, he warned, “democracy atrophies, becomes just a name, a formality,” underscoring the moral responsibility of civic leaders to remain close to those who suffer.
During his address, the Pope singled out gambling as a particularly serious threat. “Statistics show a major increase in Italy in recent years,” he said, referencing a Caritas report that identified gambling as a “serious problem” affecting education, mental health, and trust within society. Pope Leo emphasized that gambling does not merely cause financial harm but reflects a deeper spiritual and social loneliness.
He urged public authorities to confront this crisis by fostering “authentically human relationships between citizens,” pointing to the need for communities rooted in solidarity rather than isolation. Citing the Italian priest and social reformer Don Primo Mazzolari, the Pope reminded leaders that society needs more than infrastructure. Italy, he said, does not only require “sewers, houses, roads, aqueducts, and pavements,” but also “a way of feeling, of living, a way of looking at one another, and a way of coming together as brothers and sisters.”
The Pope also reflected on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated the day before the meeting, drawing a stark contrast between destructive power and authentic authority. The massacre ordered by King Herod, he said, revealed an “inhuman power,” one that “does not know the beauty of love because it ignores the dignity of human life.”
By contrast, Pope Leo explained that the birth of Christ reveals the true nature of power, which “is above all responsibility and service.” In this light, he encouraged civic leaders to see their authority not as domination, but as a call to protect life, strengthen families, and rebuild communities wounded by loneliness and social harm.
According to Vatican News, the Pope’s message served as both a moral warning and a pastoral appeal, urging leaders to place human dignity, relationship, and service at the center of public life as societies confront modern forms of suffering and exclusion.
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