Rome, 29 December (LaPresse) – Pope Leo XIV has been chosen as Person of the Year 2025 by the Treccani Italian Encyclopaedia Institute for having based his pontificate on fundamental Christian values such as sobriety, moderation and listening, the ideal expression of “a poor church for the poor”. ‘Economical in his presence and words,’ as the Treccani 2025 Book of the Year recalls, Leo XIV chose to downplay his own figure, reduce his noise, balance positions and audiences, patiently avoiding attempts to place him on the right or left, both politically and theologically. Leo XIV, the first American pope, the first missionary in the modern sense and the first son of the order to which Martin Luther belonged, is applying the leadership skills he developed during his long mission in Peru, and now finds himself, as pontiff, operating in a world where powers that aspire to become “great again” need others to diminish in the awareness of their rights. In this scenario marked by unprecedented and interconnected global challenges, the new Pope is called upon to establish the order of priorities of a complex agenda, between knots to be untied or cut, in a path made up of selective choices, measured responses and thoughtful postponements, which does not promise easy or immediate consensus for a pontificate committed to promoting an “unarmed and disarming” peace.