Newly-elected Pope Leo XIV may have received his first-ever invitation to a foreign trip from a political prisoner support organization in the Philippines.
The group Kapatid extended an invitation to the new pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church to return to the Philippines and visit the more than 700 political prisoners in the country.
Kapatid said on Friday it welcomes the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV as “a pivotal moment in global moral leadership in a world increasingly plagued by authoritarianism, inequality, and repression—including in the Philippines.”
“In this spirit, Kapatid and the families of political prisoners are extending a heartfelt invitation to Pope Leo XIV to revisit the Philippines and, most urgently, to go to the country’s prisons in this Jubilee Year 2025,” said Fides Lim, Kapatid spokesperson and wife of detained activist Vicente Ladlad.
Lim said they request the new Pope “to come and witness the plight of the forgotten—those who suffer extreme poverty, repression, and systemic neglect.”
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the country’s severely congested prisons, where innocent political prisoners and others unjustly detained endure cruel and degrading conditions. Let their stories be heard by the leader of the global Church.”
Soon after his election to the pontificate last Thursday, reports revealed that then Fr. Robert had visited Manila, Cebu and Iloilo as global head of the Order of St. Augustine.
Kapatid’s invitation however is yet to be formalized through the Papal Nuncio in the Philippines.
The group said it believes a visit by the new Pope could be a “profound moment of reckoning and moral reflection”—not just for the Church, but for catalyzing long-overdue changes in how justice, human dignity, and accountability are upheld in the Philippines and across the world.
“This call for moral clarity becomes even more urgent when seen in the stark contrast between two U.S.-born leaders now shaping global discourse,” Lim said.
“The election of Pope Leo XIV is more than a transition—it is an invitation to action,” said Lim. “We pray his leadership marks a new era of courage, one that brings the Church back to the margins, back to the people—and back to the prisons—as what Pope Francis did during his term,” Lim added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
