Mr Director-General, Mr President of the General Conference, Mr President of the Executive Board, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to be with you today in this assembly of Nations, where languages and cultures meet to cooperate in a project that involves the whole human family: "to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms" (Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Art. 1, para. 1). Building a just world together is, in fact, the very foundation of international cooperation. Our experiences, abilities and skills are directed toward building a space that is welcoming to all and fruitful for each person, so that every people may grow in peace.

As a witness of peace I extend my cordial greeting to you, Representatives of Member States and Observers, of International Organizations, of the academic world and of civil society. I thank Mr Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of this Organization, for his warm invitation [and for the words he addressed to us]. As a Pastor, I bring you the word of the Church, which time and again becomes "message" and "dialogue" toward all peoples, women and men of good will (cf. St Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam suam, 67).

The project of building a just world together coincides with a mission that we have learned to share throughout history. In this regard, UNESCO represents both a goal and an instrument for continuing this task today with renewed commitment, according to our many fields of activity. In 2027 we will mark the 75th anniversary of the Holy See's presence at UNESCO: a presence that springs from the conviction that the future depends above all on respect for and the promotion of the inalienable dignity of every human being created in the image of God. For this reason we consider this Organization a privileged partner in the service of the common good, which is the "social form of dignity" that we all share in an original and equal way (cf. Encyclical Letter Magnifica humanitas, 59). Since 1952, the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission has, with this outlook, evaluated and accompanied UNESCO's initiatives, contributing to dialogue among nations in order to support authentic human development, which is such only when it is directed "to the promotion of every man and of the whole man" (St Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum progressio, 14).

Addressing this assembly, my venerated predecessor Saint John Paul II recalled that "genus humanum arte et ratione vivit." Since, therefore, "man lives a truly human life thanks to culture" (Address to UNESCO, 2 June 1980, 6; cf. St Thomas Aquinas, In Aristotelis Posteriora Analytica, 1), this word "culture" indicates the way of being through which man gives meaning to everything he does. Forty-six years later, as I renew among you the Holy See's commitment to cooperation, I invite you to conceive of UNESCO not only as an illustrious international body, but as a place where humanity reflects on itself, on its history and on its future. Indeed, it is impossible to promote education, the sciences and culture without promoting the life of man and woman, who are their protagonists.

In the field of education, the Catholic Church has a very ancient experience: for centuries its communities have opened schools and universities, taught people to read and write, and been present even in the poorest and most remote places. With the Global Compact on Education, my predecessor Francis wished to insert this experience into a broader educational alliance, open to the contribution of all. But what I wish to convey to you is not primarily the works: it is the conviction from which they spring. No education is complete unless it addresses the question of meaning. In that same address, Saint John Paul II recalled that to educate means to help man "to be" more and not only to "have" more, recognizing in him also that transcendence of the person which belongs to the fullness of his humanity (cf. ibid., 10-11).

In our assembly, then, a fundamental question deserves to be explored, one that urgently challenges us: what does it mean to be human? Every culture is caught up in this question, which touches the point of convergence of all knowledge, art and religion. Even in the twenty-first century, after all, we cannot take for granted that we know who man is and what it means to live in a human way. Every generation, in fact, is called to grapple with this cultural challenge, especially in the face of tragedies that, unfortunately, still occur today.

First of all, man is one who is conceived and born: to be human therefore means, first and foremost, to be a child. None of us chose to be one. No one decided from whom, or when, or where to be born. This evident fact sheds light on something that is not only biological, but ethical: as children, we are all brothers and sisters. Our humanity is from the outset a gift and a test, a promise and a responsibility. For all human beings, being begotten entails an original bond, a communion of life that has in the family its source and its first educational setting.

Secondly, we are all born naked and needy. We are poor from birth: lacking bread and word, care and affection — that is, everything that nourishes body and spirit. We know this well, and yet as we become adults we risk forgetting it. And it is precisely the needy who suffer the greatest consequences of this amnesia, whenever their humanity is betrayed or discarded, exploited or deceived. Forgetting our birth obscures the idea of human life, because it detaches it from the history common to us all. Then life is no longer conceived as a gift, but as merchandise. It is no longer seen as a call to care and responsibility, but as a product to be exploited. This dramatic alternative reminds us precisely that to be human means to be free by nature. Since each of us is a child, our freedom begins by responding to the freedom of the one who first speaks to us, with gestures of affection or rejection, of loving welcome or abandonment and cruelty.

Thirdly, then, to remember our common humanity means to recognize that it is magnificent, that is, full of potential, even though marked by many evils and injustices. Those who devote themselves to education, science and culture are called, all the more, to care for every person, so that the beauty of our freedom may shine forth. This beauty has a name: justice. Yes, freedom is beautiful when it is directed toward the good and the truth; it is disfigured when it slides into arbitrariness, violence and the thirst for power. To be human thus implies a responsibility before the summons of history: man is one who grows, learns, works with mind and hands. Through his commitment he can cultivate or disfigure the earth, produce art or destroy. At this particular moment, we must recognize that the most terrible of "human works" is war; for in it, science itself is placed at the service of an inhuman will to destroy and kill.

In this regard, the Preamble to UNESCO's Constitution opens with words that retain a striking relevance — as we have seen at the "Wall of Peace" —: "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed" (Constitution of UNESCO, Preamble, 1945). These words were written in the aftermath of the Second World War: the most devastating tragedy of the past century. Humanity had understood that scientific progress, when separated from wisdom, can turn into a devastating weapon; that culture, when it bends to ideology, can become lies and propaganda; that education, when it renounces truth, degrades into an instrument for manipulating consciences. The founding States of UNESCO understood that treaties are necessary, but not sufficient in themselves. They require a culture and a shared commitment to peace to sustain them. Peace cannot be built through treaties alone, nor through compromises between opposing forces. Peace is true when it springs from the virtue of justice rather than from a mere contract, from an upright will rather than an unstable balance of interests. Indeed, only an upright will can recognize in another a brother or sister, a person like oneself.

Eighty years later, the words of your founding Charter have lost none of their force. And yet we also see how deeply this shared principle is threatened by forms of barbarity that foment rivalry and conflict. Among the challenges facing the scientific and educational world today, I would point in particular to those opened up in the vast field of technology. Our efforts in this area must ensure that new technologies remain at the service of the human person, rather than becoming a further instrument of domination and injustice.

Over the centuries, many activities once carried out by human beings have been entrusted to machines, whose capacities and applications have continued to expand. More recently, some artificial systems have even been given the name of our human faculty of thought: intelligence. At the same time, however, our ideas and relationships risk being impoverished by a process of dehumanization. The paradox has become ever more evident: while "intelligence" is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognize the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are assessed by the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, rejected and discarded.

This painful reality invites us to reflect both on the fragility of our human nature and on the immense dignity of every human person, a dignity that remains intact even in the most vulnerable circumstances, even unto death itself. Yes, the human being is certainly one who is born, but is also one who dies. Our dignity is not destroyed by illness or pain, nor does it depend on the performance a person is capable of. On the contrary, it requires loving care at every stage of life.

For the Christian faith, the mystery of the human person finds its full light in Christ, who, "in revealing the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear" (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22). In his light, every person appears to us as a creature willed and loved by God. This light also helps us to grasp more deeply the meaning of our common human experience.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the name of our shared history, as men and women of science, you are constantly called to cooperate, so that from a diversity of perspectives a convergence of outlooks may mature, and from a convergence of outlooks, a harmony of action. This harmony is expressed in the work of UNESCO when it gives symphonic voice to the highest intentions of goodness and care for humanity. Where there is harmony, there is agreement among different voices, and thus concord among the Nations you represent.

In this regard, I would like to draw on two images from the Bible, the great cultural code of humanity: the Tower of Babel and the square of Pentecost. I propose them to you as ways of representing the unity of the human family which, even today, is continually called to discern the direction, the meaning of the history it is passing through. These biblical accounts, in fact, narrate two social forms that lead us to reflect on the circumstances of our present.

The Tower of Babel represents a unity imposed through domination (cf. Gen 11:4). At the same time, this edifice reveals that the more power oppresses, the more it weakens itself, showing its inhuman face. This can be seen in the sufferings and injustices caused by despotism, as well as in the exploitation that wounds society and the environment. As history teaches, many empires celebrated their arrogance before consuming themselves and collapsing like a tower. The result of this pride, exalted and then destroyed, is dispersion. The presumption of making oneself like God and subjecting peoples to a single yoke results in the confusion of languages and general incomprehension. Instead of touching the sky, as it claimed to do, the Tower of Babel collapses, with a double negative effect. Just as the unity it imposed was forced, so the diversity that follows its collapse is conflictual. Today, the temptation of Babel reappears in a globalization pursued without fraternity, in avid financial colonialism, in ideological impositions, in all those "contacts without bonds" that reduce human life to commerce (cf. International Theological Commission, Quo vadis, humanitas?, 42). Science itself, when reduced to a technique of power, no longer serves to elevate the human person, but instead risks degrading the fruits of human endeavor.

In particular, today we have instruments capable of instantly connecting people and continents, and yet we witness new forms of isolation, of material and spiritual poverty, of abandonment. Communication has become much faster, but not necessarily more truthful; information is abundant, but does not coincide with wisdom. Without a shared code of ethics, the most varied channels of communication risk multiplying false information, or using words without meaning, hindering dialogue rather than fostering it.

Artificial intelligence accentuates this problem: although these systems are capable of correlating data, they cannot answer questions about the meaning of human existence, which is rooted in lived experience. And yet human beings cannot live without meaning. Meaning is the oxygen of the mind. Therefore the challenges of communication, which are always challenges of education, raise the question of truth as a matter of social justice and historical equity. This is why education in this field is essential, and I welcome UNESCO's initiative through its "Media and Information Literacy" (MIL) programme, which promotes the responsible use of media and digital tools.

Indeed, without truth, language ends up submitting to the logic of violence and to the arbitrary will of the powerful. Others are thus excluded in the name of profit, and the innocent are killed in the name of freedom. Instead of respecting the law, those who hold power invoke it when it serves their interests and ignore it when it limits them, even treating justice as a commodity to be bought and sold. If we recognize that the corruption of law begins with the corruption of the heart, we can appreciate that any science risks losing its meaning if it is conducted without ethics, thereby ceasing to serve and reflect human dignity.

In this regard, I urge the international community as a whole to devote particular attention to the protection of children and young people. In the digital age, their vulnerability must never become an occasion for exploitation. May these technologies support their growth, their formation and their relationships, safeguarding their freedom to think and discern, and remaining always at the service of the dignity of the human person.

The corruption of culture we are speaking of is redeemed on the square of Pentecost. There, a message of peace is welcomed as good news by all peoples. That proclamation announces the resurrection of Jesus, that is, the victory of life over death, the salvation that gives hope to the world. On the day of Pentecost, the square becomes the place where the peace that heals every offense against the human person is celebrated. Each one hears this message "in his own language," and communion does not at all prevent diversity (cf. Acts 2:8). On the contrary, it allows diversity to flourish in the harmony of voices and faces. In the proclamation of peace, the variety of cultures becomes a vehicle of a universal truth. Biblical teaching thus points us toward what we are all seeking: "that unity which does not cancel out differences, but values the personal history of each individual and the social and religious culture of every people" (Homily at the Eucharistic Celebration for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry, 18 May 2025). Not the arrogance of Babel, but the peace of Pentecost makes such communion among all peoples possible. Every culture thus achieves its highest wisdom when it seeks peace and the good of all, bearing witness to the authentic meaning of our humanity.

Those who work in the field of education know that only the truth sets us free. Those who teach and those who do research know that error enslaves us to ignorance and superstition. Whenever we feel obstacles to our mission, let us remember that there is only one earth for everyone, and one common human nature. The human being cannot be understood by separating what belongs to a whole: body and soul, personal life and relationships, our relationship with others and with the environment. Everything is part of the unity of our existence. Therefore, cultivating the earth implies cultivating the humanity that inhabits it. Education and science are called to this task. Indeed, as the etymology of the term teaches, every culture is cultivation. I therefore renew the appeal of my predecessors to care for the human person and creation together: Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the need for an ecology of the human person, while Pope Francis developed the perspective of integral ecology (cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the Federal Parliament, 22 September 2011; Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato si', 137-162).

The touchstone that allows us to evaluate this commitment of ours is the care we have for the smallest and the poorest: children in the womb and in the various theatres of war, persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and all those whom pride excludes as unproductive. They are the proving ground of our claims about respect for human dignity, whose protection and promotion also extend to creation. On the opposite side stands a will to exploitation and plunder, which aims to squeeze as much as possible from every living being, consuming without caring for and destroying without cultivating. Thus the current ecological crisis is an anthropological crisis; moreover, the Church is convinced that every culture bears within it a wisdom that matures within an ecosystem of peoples. Yes, the habitat of the human person is indeed society: not merely a physical environment, like the desert or the ocean for animals, but a moral and relational environment. In social peace, peoples prosper according to justice.

Consequently, UNESCO finds here the synthesis of its lofty educational and scientific tasks: in the patient work of building peace. Faced with the many and complex urgencies of our time, the world looks upon international institutions with mixed feelings. On the one hand, they are called to respond to challenges that no single State can face alone. On the other hand, these same institutions experience a crisis of effectiveness, especially when dialogue is judged to be a brake on action rather than a resource for peace, a form of hypocrisy rather than an opportunity to seek the good together. In the face of these tendencies, we need to promote a virtue that today appears as rare as it is desired: trust — trust that differences do not necessarily constitute a threat; trust that sincere dialogue can generate a greater good than each could build alone. The Holy See wishes to instill this trust in UNESCO, as in other international Organizations, aware that every people possesses a wealth to share along the path toward that authentic progress which only peace can guarantee. This is not a matter of preaching a naive optimism that ignores difficulties, but of persevering in the hope that good is always possible. Every child who is born carries hope with him. Every man and woman who devotes his or her life to the search for truth performs an act of hope. May UNESCO, then, bear witness to this hope by fostering understanding among Nations, through dialogue between their respective cultures. We believe, in fact, that education is the instrument for overcoming mutual fears and that science can serve the life of every human being, sowing in the present the good harvest of the future. This trust nourishes our hope in charity, that is, in service for the good of neighbor: by devoting ourselves all, with consistency, to our magnificent humanity, peace will finally be able to flourish.

In collaborating on this work, religious traditions play a culturally necessary and irreplaceable role, and religions give voice to our questions about the origin of life and its end, elaborating the first and ultimate meaning of existence, which is reflected in daily choices. Indeed, when men and women of good will direct their actions toward God, the pluralism of cultures does not disperse into the disorder of Babel. Humanity instead finds itself in a common search for meaning, oriented toward a destiny that is not death. We are not journeying toward nothingness. This is why the human soul, in its relationship with God, feels all the more intensely the call to cultivate peace through an alliance among peoples who recognize one another as children of the same Father and as brothers and sisters to one another.

I therefore hope that our meeting will strengthen each one's commitment to work tirelessly, so that the awareness of belonging to a single humanity may become more alive, active and upright. In this regard, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all the staff of UNESCO, who carry out with competence and dedication this most lofty mission: building peace by cultivating every science and art of humanity.

I entrust these words to all of you, to the Peoples you represent and, in a special way, to young people. It is precisely the new generations, in fact, who observe our actions with the greatest attention. As we support their desires for justice, with gratitude and esteem I invoke upon all of you and upon your Nations the abundance of the blessings of God, almighty and merciful Creator. Thank you.