In first homily, Pope Leo urges joyful witness to Christ

Preaching at a Mass in the Sistine Chapel on May 9 with the cardinals who elected him, Pope Leo reflected on Jesus’ question to the apostle Peter in Matthew’s Gospel: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

Pope Leo said that one might find two possible responses: the world’s, which considers Jesus “a completely insignificant person” who becomes “irksome because of his demands for honesty and his stern moral requirements”, and that of ordinary people, who see him as an “upright man, one who has courage, who speaks well and says the right things”.

“Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent,” he said. In these settings, “a lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society”, the Pope said.

And in many settings in which Jesus is appreciated, the Pope said, he can be “reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman”.

“This is true not only among nonbelievers, but also among many baptised Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he said. “Therefore, it is essential that we too repeat, with Peter: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.”

In an address to the College of Cardinal’s in the new Synod Hall in the Vatican on May 10, Pope Leo said that the Catholic community is alive, beautiful and strong, and it is up to its pastors to protect and nourish the faithful and to help bring God’s hope to the whole world.

For that reason, the Pope asked the cardinals to renew together their “complete commitment” to the Church’s post-Vatican II journey, which was detailed in Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).

“I would like to highlight several fundamental points” from the document, Pope Leo said: “the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the ‘sensus fidei’ (the people of God’s sense of the faith), especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.”

He also said that he chose his name in homage to Pope Leo XIII, recognising the need to renew Catholic social teaching to face today’s new industrial revolution and the developments of artificial intelligence “that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”.

FULL STORY

New pope calls for Christian witness in world that finds faith ‘absurd’ – OSV News (By Justin McLellan/CNS)

Pope Leo: A pope is nothing more than a humble servant (By Carol Glatz/CNS)

Full text of the first public homily of Pope Leo XIV

Full text of Pope Leo XIV’s address to College of Cardinals

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