By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christians must avoid using their faith to label those who are different – often the poor – as enemies to be avoided and rejected, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Some forms of worship do not foster communion with others and can numb our hearts,” he said in his homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 12 for the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality.

“Mary’s path follows that of Jesus, which leads us to encounter every human being, especially the poor, the wounded and sinners,” Pope Leo said in his homily. “Because of this, authentic Marian spirituality brings God’s tenderness, his way of ‘being a mother,’ to light in the church.”

Members of movements, confraternities and various Marian prayer groups were invited to Rome for their Oct. 11-12 Jubilee, which included an evening prayer service in the square Oct. 11 with Pope Leo in the presence of the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

The statue, brought from the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, also was on display during the Oct. 12 Mass.

Marian spirituality, “which nourishes our faith, has Jesus as its center,” Pope Leo said in his homily. Remembering Jesus Christ is what matters.

“The celebration of Sunday, therefore, should make us Christians,” he said. “It should fill our thoughts and feelings with the burning memory of Jesus and change the way we live together and the way we inhabit the earth.”

When some forms of worship fail to foster communion with others, he said, “we fail to encounter the people God has placed in our lives. We fail to contribute, as Mary did, to changing the world, and to share in the joy of the Magnificat.”

“Let us take care to avoid any exploitation of the faith that could lead to labelling those who are different – often the poor – as enemies, ‘lepers’ to be avoided and rejected,” he said.

“Marian spirituality is at the service of the Gospel” because “it reveals its simplicity,” he said.

“Our affection for Mary of Nazareth leads us to join her in becoming disciples of Jesus,” he said, and “it teaches us to return to him and to meditate and ponder the events of our lives in which the Risen One still comes to us and calls us.”

Marian spirituality “helps us to see the proud being scattered in their conceit, the mighty being cast down from their thrones and the rich being sent away empty-handed,” he said, referring to the Canticle of Mary (Lk 1:51-54). “It impels us to fill the hungry with good things, to lift up the lowly, to remember God’s mercy and to trust in the power of his arm.”

Just as God asked Mary for her “yes,” he said, “Jesus invites us to be part of his kingdom.”

“Dear friends, in a world seeking justice and peace, let us revive Christian spirituality and popular devotion to the events and places blessed by God that have changed the face of the earth forever,” he said.

By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When catechists teach, their aim is not simply to pass on information about the faith but to “place the word of life in hearts, so that it may bear the fruits of a good life,” Pope Leo XIV said.

“The Gospel announces to us that everyone’s life can change because Christ rose from the dead. This event is the truth that saves us; therefore, it must be known and proclaimed,” the pope told some 20,000 catechists from more than 115 countries attending the Jubilee for Catechists.

But just proclaiming the Good News is not enough, the pope said in his homily at Mass Sept. 28 in St. Peter’s Square. “It must be loved. It is love that leads us to understand the Gospel.”

During the liturgy, Pope Leo formally installed in the ministry of catechist 39 women and men from 16 countries, including David Spesia, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, and Marilyn Santos, associate director of the secretariat.

Before the pope gave his homily, a deacon called the names of each of the 39, who answered in Italian, “Eccomi,” or “present.” After the homily, Pope Leo presented each of them with a crucifix.

“Let your ministry ever be grounded in a deep life of prayer, let it be built up in sound doctrine and animated by genuine apostolic zeal,” the pope told them. “As stewards of the mission entrusted to the church by Christ, you must always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

The Gospel reading at the Mass was the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31.

In the parable, the pope said, Lazarus is ignored by the rich man “and yet God is close to him and remembers his name.”

But the rich man has no name in the parable, “because he has lost himself by forgetting his neighbor,” the pope said. “He is lost in the thoughts of his heart: full of things and empty of love. His possessions do not make him a good person.”

“The story that Christ tells us is, unfortunately, very relevant today,” Pope Leo said. “At the doorstep of today’s opulence stands the misery of entire peoples, ravaged by war and exploitation.”

“Through the centuries, nothing seems to have changed: how many Lazaruses die before the greed that forgets justice, before profits that trample on charity, and before riches that are blind to the pain of the poor,” he said.

In the parable, the rich man dies and is cast into the netherworld. He asks Abraham to send a messenger to his brothers to warn them and call them to repent.

The Gospel story and the words of Scripture that catechists are called to share are not meant to “disappoint or discourage” people, but to awaken their consciences, the pope said.

Echoing the words of Pope Francis, Pope Leo said the heart of catechesis is the proclamation that “the Lord Jesus is risen, the Lord Jesus loves you, and he has given his life for you; risen and alive, he is close to you and waits for you every day.”

That truth, he said, should prompt people to love God and to love others in return.

God’s love, he said, “transforms us by opening our hearts to the word of God and to the face of our neighbor.”

Pope Leo reminded parents that they are the first to teach their children about God, his promises and commandments.

And he thanked everyone who has been a witness to others of faith, hope and charity, cooperating in the church’s “pastoral work by listening to questions, sharing in struggles and serving the desire for justice and truth that dwells in the human conscience.”

Teaching the faith is a community effort, he said, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church “is the ‘travel guidebook’ that protects us from individualism and discord, because it attests to the faith of the entire Catholic Church.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Migrants and refugees often are “privileged witnesses of hope through their resilience and trust in God,” Pope Leo XIV said.

“Often they maintain their strength while seeking a better future, in spite of the obstacles that they encounter,” he said Oct. 2 during a meeting with participants in the conference “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home,” organized by Villanova University.

The Vatican dicasteries for Promoting Integral Human Development and for Culture and Education and the U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services were among the co-sponsors of the conference, held in Rome Oct. 1-3 just before the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of Missions Oct. 4-5.

Pope Leo encouraged participants to share migrants’ and refugees’ stories of steadfast faith and hope so that they could be “an inspiration for others and assist in developing ways to address the challenges that they have faced in their own lives.”

Overcoming the widespread sense that no one can make a difference “requires patience, a willingness to listen, the ability to identify with the pain of others and the recognition that we have the same dreams and the same hopes,” Pope Leo XIV told the group.

Before the conference, Villanova held the official launch of its Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration, which promotes programs of scholarship, advocacy and service to migrants.

Pope Leo praised the project’s goal of bringing together “leading voices throughout a variety of disciplines in order to respond to the current urgent challenges brought by the increasing number of people, now estimated to be over 100 million, who are affected by migration and displacement.”

Sister Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville, Texas, said migrants “are missionaries of hope to us, because their presence with us honestly sanctifies who and where we are.”

People who fear migrants and refugees or believe they are coming just to take jobs need to take the time to meet them, Sister Pimentel said. Then, “they will stop seeing them as somebody that is invading my space, but rather as somebody who I have the opportunity to be able to show the presence of God.”

Addressing the conference Oct. 1, she said that “in a world marked by fear, division and uncertainty, we are invited to be people of hope, pilgrims of hope, of that hope which comes from our trust in the Lord.”
“In this Jubilee Year of Hope, we are called to find within ourselves kindness and compassion and courage, especially courage,” Sister Pimentel said.

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – At a time when people feel powerless to help migrants and refugees, Christians must continue to insist that “there is no justice without compassion, no legitimacy without listening to the pain of others,” Pope Leo XIV said.

In a video message Sept. 12, the pope gave his full support to a bid by the people of the Italian island of Lampedusa to win UNESCO recognition for their “gestures of hospitality” to migrants as an example of an “intangible cultural heritage” that should be protected.

For decades the small island, which lies between Sicily and the northern African nations of Tunisia and Libya, has been a major arrival point for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia seeking a new life in Europe. However, many migrants make the journey in unsafe vessels or without needed provisions. Shipwrecked boats and dead bodies have washed up on the island’s shores.

Pope Leo paid tribute to “the volunteers, the mayors and local administrations that have succeeded one another over the years,” to “the priests, doctors, security forces, and to all those who, often invisibly, have shown and continue to show the smile and attention of a human face to those who have survived their desperate journey of hope.”

But the pope also noted the political divisions and backlash that have accompanied the continued arrival of migrants and refugees on Lampedusa’s shores and to other nations.

“It is true that over the years fatigue can set in. Like in a race, we can run out of breath,” he said.

“Hardships tend to cast doubt on what has been done and, at times, even divide us. We must respond together, staying united and opening ourselves once again to the breath of God.”

“All the good you have done may seem like drops in the sea,” Pope Leo told the island’s people. “But it’s not so – it is much more than that!”

Many of the migrants, including mothers and children, never made it to shore and from the depths of the sea “cry out not only to heaven, but to our hearts,” he said. Others died and are buried on Lampedusa “like seeds from which a new world longs to sprout.”

But, he said, “thank God, there are thousands of faces and names of people who today are living a better life and will never forget your charity. Many of them have themselves become workers for justice and peace, because goodness is contagious.”

Pope Leo said his thanks is the thanks “of the whole church for your witness,” and is meant to renew the thanks of the late Pope Francis, who made a trip to Lampedusa the first official trip of his papacy. He said he hoped he, too, would be able to visit the island soon.

The islanders’ hospitality and welcome, he said, are “a bulwark of humanity, which loud arguments, ancient fears and unjust policies try to erode.”

“The ‘globalization of indifference,’ which Pope Francis denounced beginning from Lampedusa, today seems to have turned into a globalization of powerlessness,” Pope Leo said.

Thanks to the media, people are more aware of “injustice and innocent suffering,” he said, but increasingly “we risk standing still, silent and saddened, overcome by the feeling that nothing can be done.”

People ask themselves, “What can I do in the face of such great evils?” he said.

“The globalization of powerlessness is the child of a lie: that history has always been this way, that history is written by the victors, which makes it seem that we can do nothing,” the pope said. “But that is not true: history is ravaged by the powerful, but it is saved by the humble, the just, the martyrs, in whom goodness shines and true humanity endures and is renewed.”

The antidote, Pope Leo said, is to work to create “a culture of reconciliation.”

“Reconciliation is a special kind of encounter. Today we must meet one another, healing our wounds, forgiving each other for the wrong we have done – and even for the wrong we have not done but which we still bear the consequences of,” the pope said. “So much fear, so many prejudices, so many walls – even invisible ones – exist between us and between our peoples, as consequences of a wounded history.”

While fear and evil can be passed from one generation to the next, he said, so can goodness.

“We must repair what has been broken, delicately treat bleeding memories, draw close to one another with patience, put ourselves in the place of others’ stories and suffering, and recognize that we share the same dreams and the same hopes,” Pope Leo said. “There are no enemies – only brothers and sisters. This is the culture of reconciliation.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christian hope is not about avoiding pain and suffering but about knowing that God gives people the strength to persevere and to love even when things go wrong, Pope Leo XIV said.

When Jesus allowed himself to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he showed that “Christian hope is not evasion, but decision,” the pope told thousands of people gathered in the Vatican audience hall Aug. 27 for his weekly general audience.

“The way that Jesus exercised his freedom in the face of death teaches us not to fear suffering, but to persevere in confident trust in God’s providential care,” the pope said in his address to English speakers.
“If we surrender to God’s will and freely give our lives in love for others, the Father’s grace will sustain us in every trial and enable us to bear abundant fruit for the salvation of our brothers and sisters,” he said.

A person of faith, the pope said, does not ask God “to spare us from suffering, but rather to give us the strength to persevere in love, aware that life offered freely for love cannot be taken away by anyone.”

Jesus lived every day of his life as preparation for the “dramatic and sublime hour” of his arrest, his suffering and his death, the pope said. “For this reason, when it arrives, he has the strength not to seek a way of escape. His heart knows well that to lose life for love is not a failure, but rather possesses a mysterious fruitfulness, like a grain of wheat that, falling to the ground, does not remain alone, but dies and becomes fruitful.”

Naturally, Pope Leo said, Jesus “is troubled when faced with a path that seems to lead only to death and to the end. But he is equally persuaded that only a life lost for love, at the end, is ultimately found.”

“This is what true hope consists of: not in trying to avoid pain, but in believing that even in the heart of the most unjust suffering, the seed of new life is hidden,” he said.

After spending more than 90 minutes greeting people in the audience hall, including dozens of newlywed couples, Pope Leo went into St. Peter’s Basilica, where hundreds of people who did not get a place in the hall had been watching the audience and waiting for their turn to see the pope.

The pope thanked them for their patience, which, he said, “is a sign of the presence of the Spirit of God, who is with us. So often in life, we want to receive a response immediately, an immediate solution, and for some reason God makes us wait.”

“But as Jesus himself taught us, we must have that trust that comes from knowing that we are sons and daughters of God and that God always gives us grace,” the pope said. “He doesn’t always take away our pain or suffering, but he tells us that he is close to us.”

By Francesca Merlo
(Vatican Media) – Addressing the faithful gathered for his Sunday Angelus on July 6, Pope Leo offered a reflection on the missionary nature of the church, grounded in the Gospel of Luke.

The pope focused his reflection on Jesus’ sending out of 72 disciples, an act which, he explained, represents the universal scope of the Gospel. “The hope of the Gospel is meant for all peoples,” he said, adding that this reflects “the breadth of God’s heart and the abundance of His harvest.”

However, Pope Leo continued in quoting Jesus: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” He explained that while the world may seem overwhelmed by distractions and noise, people today still “yearn for a greater truth,” seek justice, and carry within themselves “a longing for eternal life.”

He described God as a sower who has generously gone out and sown in people’s hearts “a desire for the infinite, for a fulfilled life and for salvation that sets us free.” Despite this, there are few who are able “to distinguish, with the eyes of Jesus, the good grain that is ripe for harvesting.”

– Be a laborer of faith –
The pope warned that faith should not become “merely an external label.” What the church and the world need are not occasional participants but “laborers who are eager to work in the mission field, loving disciples who bear witness to the Kingdom of God in all places.”

He acknowledged that there may be many “intermittent Christians who occasionally act upon some religious feeling or participate in sporadic events,” but there are far fewer who are ready “on a daily basis, to labor in God’s harvest.”

Pope Leo stressed that this mission does not require “too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans.” Instead, he said, “we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest.” Giving priority to one’s relationship with the Lord and cultivating dialogue with Him, he added, allows people to become true labourers, ready to be sent “into the field of the world to bear witness to His Kingdom.”

At the end of his Angelus address, Pope Leo greeted those from around the world who had come to St. Peter’s Square, saying “in the great heat of this time of year, your journey to pass through the Holy Doors is even more courageous and admirable!”

He also expressed his condolences and assured his prayers for those suffering through the flooding in Texas.

“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States,” he said. “We pray for them.”

And he called for peace, requesting that all people “ask the Lord to touch the hearts and inspire the minds of those who govern, that the violence of weapons be replaced by the pursuit of dialogue.”

(Reprinted with permission by Vatican Media. OSV News contributed to this report.)

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Being religious does not automatically mean someone is compassionate, and yet for a Christian compassion is a clear sign of following Christ, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human,” the pope said May 28 as he held his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
At the end of the audience, Pope Leo again pleaded for peace in Gaza and in Ukraine.

“From the Gaza Strip there rises to heaven ever more intensely the cry of mothers and fathers who, clutching the lifeless bodies of their children, are continually forced to move in search of some food and safer shelter from the shelling,” the pope said. “To the leaders, I renew my appeal: Cease firing; free all the hostages; fully respect humanitarian law.”

And after days of Russia increasing its attacks on Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure, the pope assured the Ukrainian people of his “closeness and my prayers for all the victims, especially the children and families.”

“I strongly renew my appeal to stop the war and support every initiative of dialogue and peace,” he said. “I ask everyone to join in prayers for peace in Ukraine and wherever people suffer because of war.”

The pope’s main talk at the audience focused on the Gospel parable of the good Samaritan, a story the pope said offered important lessons for Christians but also was a source of hope.

“The lack of hope, at times, is due to the fact that we fixate on a certain rigid and closed way of seeing things, and the parables help us to look at them from another point of view,” Pope Leo said.

The parable of the good Samaritan is an obvious lesson in being compassionate and recognizing all men and women as neighbors, he said. But it also says something about the compassion of Jesus.

“We can also see ourselves in the man who fell into the hands of robbers, for we have all experienced the difficulties of life and the pain brought about by sin,” he said in his English summary. “In our frailty, we discover that Christ himself is the Good Samaritan who heals our wounds and restores our hope.”

“Let us turn, then, to the Sacred Heart, model of true humanity, and ask him to make our heart ever more like his,” the pope said.

The wounded man on the side of the road “represents each one of us,” he said, and remembering “all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion.”

Being compassionate, he said, is not just a feeling; it means taking action.

“If you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated,” the pope said, noting that in the parable, the good Samaritan cleans and bandages the man’s wounds and takes him to safety.

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With a huge and festive crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV led his first Sunday recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer and urged all Catholics to pray for vocations, especially to the priesthood and religious life.

Before the pope appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica May 11, the crowd was entertained by dozens of marching bands and folkloristic dance troupes who had marched into the square after attending an outdoor Mass for the Jubilee of Bands and Popular Entertainment.

Pope Leo also noted that it was Mother’s Day in Italy, the United States and elsewhere. “I send a special greeting to all mothers with a prayer for them and for those who are already in heaven,” he said. “Happy holiday to all moms!”

Italian officials estimated 100,000 people were in St. Peter’s Square or on the surrounding streets to join the new pope for the midday prayer.

In his main address, Pope Leo said it was a “gift” to lead the crowd for the first time on the Sunday when the church proclaims a passage from John 10 “where Jesus reveals himself as the true Shepherd, who knows and loves his sheep and gives his life for them.”

It also is the day the Catholic Church offers special prayers for vocations, especially to the priesthood and religious life.

“It is important that young men and women on their vocational journey find acceptance, listening and encouragement in their communities, and that they can look up to credible models of generous dedication to God and to their brothers and sisters,” the pope said.

Noting that Pope Francis had released a message in March in preparation for the day of prayer, Pope Leo told the crowd, “Let us take up the invitation that Pope Francis left us in his message for today: the invitation to welcome and accompany young people.”

“And let us ask our heavenly Father to assist us in living in service to one another, each according to his or her state of life, shepherds after his own heart, capable of helping one another to walk in love and truth,” the new pope said.

Setting aside his prepared text, he told young people in the square, “Do not be afraid! Welcome the call of the church and of Christ the Lord.”

After reciting the “Regina Coeli,” he mentioned how the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe was celebrated May 8, the day of his election.

While that is reason to celebrate, he said, “’the Third World War is being fought piecemeal,’ as Pope Francis often said. I, too, appeal to the leaders of the world, repeating this ever-relevant plea: Never again war!”

Pope Leo prayed for the people of Ukraine, saying, “May everything possible be done to achieve as soon as possible an authentic, just and lasting peace. May all prisoners be freed, and may the children return to their families.” Ukraine says thousands of children have been forcibly taken to Russia during the war.

The pope also told the crowd, “I am deeply saddened by what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Let the fighting cease immediately. Humanitarian aid must be given to the exhausted civilian population, and all hostages must be released.”

He praised India and Pakistan for reaching a ceasefire agreement, but said, “But how many other conflicts are there in the world?”

Pope Leo entrusted his “heartfelt appeal” for peace to Mary, “Queen of Peace, that she may present it to the Lord Jesus to obtain for us the miracle of peace.”

Earlier in the day, Pope Leo had celebrated Mass at an altar near the tomb of St. Peter in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica. Father Alejandro Moral Anton, the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, to which the pope belonged, was the principal celebrant.

Afterward, the Vatican press office said, he stopped to pray at the tombs of popes who are buried in the grotto.