Leo XIV at the Rimini Meeting: migration, wars and the relationship between technology and finance
The Pontiff spoke at the 47th Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, following his visit to San Marino. Sources diverge on attendance: nearly 60,000 present according to Euronews, around 100,000 expected according to Open.
Pope Leo XIV spoke on Saturday, August 22 at the 47th Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, the annual event organized by Comunione e Liberazione held at the Rimini Fair. The speech, whose full text was published by Il Sussidiario, touched on three subjects: the migration question, the ongoing wars, and the relationship between technology, finance and profit.
The passage on people and borders
The core of the address, as reported by Euronews Italia, is the formula “Before borders, definitions and institutions there are always people.” This is the phrase around which the passage on migration is organized, the first of the three subjects addressed.
The second axis concerns peace, presented not as the absence of conflict but as a practice of relationship: “Peace is kept and spread by people who love to meet one another,” according to the full text published by Il Sussidiario.
The number: two figures, two different things
On attendance, the available sources do not agree, and the discrepancy deserves to be noted rather than resolved by fiat. Euronews reports that the Pontiff was welcomed by nearly 60,000 people. The live coverage by Open instead indicates around 100,000 people expected at the Rimini Fair.
The two figures are not necessarily contradictory: one describes a presence recorded at the moment of entry, the other an expectation communicated by the organizers. These are quantities of a different nature — a count and a projection — and this newspaper publishes both with their respective sources, without adding them together or reconciling them.
| Source | Figure | Nature of the data |
|---|---|---|
| Euronews Italia | nearly 60,000 | people who welcomed the Pope |
| Open | around 100,000 | people expected at the Fair |
The day, before the Grand Auditorium
The Rimini leg was preceded by a stop in the Republic of San Marino: Leo XIV is the third Pontiff to visit it. On the same day he had lunch at the convent of the Augustinian nuns in Pennabilli.
Upon arriving in Rimini, before the address at the Grand Auditorium, he visited two exhibitions — one dedicated to Saint Augustine, the other to Leon Harmel — and greeted the Villaggio Ragazzi. The file provides no further details on the content of the two exhibitions, and we add none.
Why the Meeting matters as a cultural event
The Rimini Meeting is, in scale and continuity, one of the events where Italian cultural and political debate overlap most visibly: at its 47th edition, the papal presence amplifies its reach. The choice of topics addressed — migration, armed conflicts, the relationship between technology and finance — places the address within the register of social teaching rather than that of homily.
The full text of the speech is publicly available: readers can directly verify the context of each passage, without relying on journalistic summaries.
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