Below is a link to an actual Pope speech. As far as I can tell, it is legit. I am not hiding the link behind text so you can see for yourself before clicking.
Love this bit:
When you write stories and develop your characters, you identify with them; you grasp their points of view, their emotions, their feelings, their attitudes. This is the great training ground of humanity that you allow your readers to experience, because, in a sense, readers “live” many lives in addition to their own. This helps us to discover different perspectives, to avoid treating our own views as absolute and to piece together, as in a mosaic, the outline of that truth which always transcends us.
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/giugno/documents/20260624-scrittori-lev.html
ADDRESS OF POPE LEO XIV
TO A GROUP OF WRITERS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE “LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA”
(THE VATICAN PUBLISHING HOUSE)
Room adjacent to the Audience Hall
Wednesday, 24 June 2026