Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

We will continue our catecheses on the Documents of the Second Vatican Council, commenting on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church (LG). After presenting her as the People of God, today we will consider her hierarchical form.

The Catholic Church is founded on the Apostles, whom Christ appointed as the living pillars of His mystical Body, and possesses a hierarchical structure that works in the service of the unity, mission and sanctification of all her members. This sacred Order is permanently founded on the Apostles (cf. Eph 2:20; Rev 21:14), as authoritative witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:22; 1 Cor 15:7) and sent by the Lord Himself on mission into the world (cf. Mk 16:15; Mt 28:19). Since the Apostles are called to faithfully preserve the Master’s salvific teaching (cf. 2 Tim 1:13–14), they hand on their ministry to men who, until Christ’s return, continue to sanctify, guide and instruct the Church “through their successors in pastoral office” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 857).

This apostolic succession, founded on the Gospel and in the Tradition, is explored further in Chapter III of Lumen gentium, entitled “On the hierarchical structure of the Church and in particular on the Episcopate”. The Council teaches that the hierarchical structure is not a human construct, functional to the internal organisation of the Church as a social body (cf. LG, 8), but a divine institution whose purpose is to perpetuate the mission given by Christ to the Apostles until the end of time.

The fact that this theme is addressed in Chapter III, after the first two chapters have considered the very essence of the Church (cf. Acta Synodalia III/1, 209–210), does not imply that the hierarchical constitution is a subsequent element with respect to the People of God: as the Decree Ad gentes notes, “the Apostles were the first budding-forth of the New Israel, and at the same time the beginning of the sacred hierarchy” (no. 5), inasmuch as they were the community of those redeemed by Christ’s Paschal Mystery, established as a means of salvation for the world.

To understand the Council’s intention, it is advisable to read carefully the title of Chapter III of Lumen gentium, which explains the fundamental structure of the Church, received from God the Father through the Son and brought to fulfilment by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Council Fathers did not want to present the institutional elements of the Church, as the noun “constitution” might imply if understood in the modern sense. The Document concentrates instead on the “ministerial or hierarchical priesthood”, which differs “in essence and not only in degree” from the common priesthood of the faithful, recalling that the latter are “nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ” (LG, 10). The Council thus addresses the ministry conferred upon men endowed with sacra potestas, sacred power (cf. LG, 18) for service in the Church: it focuses in particular on the episcopate (LG, 18–27), then on the priesthood (LG, 28) and the diaconate (LG, 29) as degrees of the one sacrament of Holy Orders.

By the adjective “hierarchical”, therefore, the Council intends to indicate the sacred origin of the apostolic ministry in the action of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, as well as its internal relationships. The Bishops, first and foremost, and through them the priests and deacons, have received tasks (in Latin munera), which lead them to the service of “all those who belong to the People of God”, so that, “working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, [they] may arrive at salvation” (LG, 18).

Lumen gentium repeatedly and effectively recalls the collegial and communal nature of this apostolic mission, reaffirming that the “duty which the Lord committed to the shepherds of His people is a true service, which in sacred literature is significantly called ‘diakonia’ or ministry” (LG, 24). We can therefore understand why Saint Paul VI presented the hierarchy as a reality “born of the charity of Christ, to fulfil, spread and ensure the intact and fruitful transmission of the wealth of faith, examples, precepts and charisms bequeathed by Christ to His Church” (Address, 14 September 1964, in Acta Synodalia III/1, 147).

Dear sisters and dear brothers, let us pray to the Lord that He may send to His Church ministers who are ardent with evangelical charity, dedicated to the good of all the baptised, and courageous missionaries in every part of the world.

I extend a warm welcome to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those coming from England, Ireland, Tanzania, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America. I greet in particular the students of the University of Dallas Rome Program. As we continue our Lenten journey, let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace to imitate Our Blessed Mother in her total “yes” to the Lord, and so open our hearts to his will for our lives. Upon all of you and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!

Lastly, my thoughts turn to the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. May the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, which we celebrate today, be an invitation for everyone to follow the example of Mary Most Holy in order to be ready to do God's will always.

My blessing to you all!

25.03.26

Pope Leo General Audience 25.03.26  

Pope Leo Angelus 22.03.26 

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the liturgy proclaims the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:1-45).

In the Lenten journey, this is a sign that speaks of Christ’s victory over death and of the gift of eternal life, which we receive through Baptism (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1265). Today Jesus also says to us, as he did to Martha, Lazarus’s sister: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26).

The liturgy thus invites us, in light of the fact that Holy Week is drawing near, to relive the events of the Lord’s Passion — the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial — so that we may grasp their most authentic meaning and open ourselves to the gift of grace they contain.

These events are fulfilled in the risen Christ, who has conquered death and lives within us through Baptism, for our salvation and the fullness of life.

His grace illumines this world, which seems to constantly search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things — time, energy, values, affections — as if fame, material goods, entertainment and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal. It is a symptom of a longing for the infinite that each of us carries within us, a need that cannot be satisfied by passing things. Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God, and we find no peace until we rest in him (cf. Confessions, I, 1.1).

The account of the resurrection of Lazarus, then, invites us to listen to this profound need and, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to free our hearts from habits, conditioning and ways of thinking which, like boulders, shut us away in the tomb of selfishness, materialism, violence and superficiality. In these places there is no life, but only confusion, dissatisfaction and loneliness.

Jesus also cries out to us: “Come out!” (Jn 11:43), urging us to emerge from these cramped spaces, renewed by his grace, to walk in the light of love, as new women and men, capable of hoping and loving, without calculation and without measure, according to the model of his infinite charity.

May the Virgin Mary help us to live these holy days with her faith, her trust and her fidelity, so that the glorious experience of encountering her risen Son may be renewed in us each day.

With dismay I continue to follow the situation in the Middle East, which like other regions of the world is torn apart by war and violence. We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many defenceless people who are victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts all of humanity. The death and pain caused by these wars is a scandal for the entire human family and a cry that rises to God! I strongly renew my appeal to persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths to peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person.

22.03.26

Pope Leo Angelus  22.03.26  

FAMINE

Pope Francis

Hunger

Hunger is an injustice that destroys men and women because they have nothing to eat, even if there is a lot food available in the world. Human exploitation; different forms of slavery; recently I saw a film shot inside a prison where migrants are locked up and tortured to turn them into slaves. This is still happening 70 years after the Declaration of Human Rights. Cultural colonization. This is exactly what the Devil wants, to destroy human dignity – and that is why the Devil is behind all forms of persecution.

01.06.18

Pope Leo

Message for Lent 2026

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the link above

Listening and Fasting:

Lent as a Time of Conversion

 Dear brothers and sisters,

Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.

Every path towards conversion begins by allowing the word of God to touch our hearts and welcoming it with a docile spirit. There is a relationship between the word, our acceptance of it and the transformation it brings about.  For this reason, the Lenten journey is a welcome opportunity to heed the voice of the Lord and renew our commitment to following Christ, accompanying him on the road to Jerusalem, where the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection will be fulfilled.

13.02.26

Pope Leo General Audience 18.03.26 

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

Today I would like to revisit the second chapter of the Conciliar Constitution Lumen gentium (LG), devoted to the Church as the people of God.

The messianic people (LG, 9), receive from Christ the participation in the priestly, prophetic and kingly work office through which his salvific mission is carried out. The Council Fathers teach that the Lord Jesus, through the new and eternal Covenant, has established a kingdom of priests, constituting his disciples as a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Pet 2:9; cf. 1 Pet 2:5; Rev 1:6). This common priesthood of the faithful is given with Baptism, which enables us to worship God in spirit and truth, and to “confess before men the faith which they have received from God through the Church” (LG, 11). Furthermore, through the sacrament of Confirmation, all the baptised “are more perfectly bound to the Church … and the Holy Spirit endows them with special strength so that they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ” (ibid.). This consecration is at the root of the common mission that unites the ordained ministries and the lay faithful.

In this regard, Pope Francis observed that, “Looking at the People of God is remembering that we all enter the Church as lay people. The first sacrament, which seals our identity forever, and of which we should always be proud, is Baptism. Through Baptism and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, (the faithful) ‘are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood’ (LG, 10), [so that] everyone forms the faithful Holy People of God” (Letter to the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, 19 March 2016).

The exercise of the royal priesthood takes place in many ways, all aimed at our sanctification, first and foremost through participation in the offering of the Eucharist. Through prayer, asceticism and active charity, we thus bear witness to a life renewed by God’s grace (cf. LG, 10). As the Council summaries, “it is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation” (LG, 11).

The Council Fathers then teach that the holy People of God also participate in the prophetic mission of Christ (cf. LG, 12). In this context, the important theme of the sense of the faith and the consensus of the faithful is introduced. The Doctrinal Commission of the Council specified that this sensus fidei “is like a faculty of the whole Church, by which she, in her faith, recognises the revelation handed down, distinguishing between true and false in matters of faith, and at the same time penetrates it more deeply and applies it more fully in life” (cf. Acta Synodalia, III/1, 199). The sense of faith therefore belongs to individual believers not in their own right, but as members of the People of God as a whole.

Lumen gentium focuses on this latter aspect, and places it in relation to the infallibility of the Church, to which that of the Roman Pontiff is inherent and by which it is served. “The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One (c. 1 Jn 2:20,27), cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals” (LG, 12). The Church, therefore, as the communion of the faithful – which naturally includes the pastors – cannot err in matters of faith: the organ through which this truth is preserved, founded on the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is the supernatural sense of faith of the entire People of God, which is manifested in the consensus of the faithful. From this unity, which the Magisterium of the Church safeguards, it follows that every baptized person is an active agent of evangelisation, called to bear consistent witness to Christ in accordance with the prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church.

Indeed, the Holy Spirit, who comes to us from the Risen Christ, “distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church” (LG, 12). A particular demonstration of this charismatic vitality is offered by consecrated life, which continually germinates and flourishes through the work of grace. Ecclesial associations, too, are a shining example of the variety and fruitfulness of spiritual fruits for the edification of the People of God.

My blessing to everyone!

18.03.26

Pope Leo Holy Mass 15.03.26 

How do we receive the Word of God? The response is clear: As one receives Jesus Christ. The Church tells us that Jesus is present in the Scripture, in His Word.

Always carry a small Gospel with you in your purse, in your pocket, and read a passage from the Gospel during the day. Not so much to learn something, but mostly to find Jesus, because Jesus actually is in His Word, in His Gospel.  Every time I read the Gospel, I find Jesus.  - Pope Francis 01.09.14

Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period (reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)

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Thank you, Francis

Every month, you have invited us to pray with you for the challenges of humanity and the mission of the Church, teaching us to learn compassion for others from the heart of Christ. Thank you, Francis, for your life and your witness.

Your Worldwide Prayer Network.

Pope Francis Easter Message and Urbi et Orbi Blessing   20.04.25

Easter Sunday

for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Pope Francis

Care for Our Common Home - Laudato Si'

Pope Francis 

Refugees and Migrants

Pope Francis

 Marriage

Pope Francis - The ‘foreverness’ and beauty of Love 

Pope Francis - The Family in the Light of the Word of God

Pope Francis 

Fraternity

Pope Francis

Compassion

Pope Francis

Happiness

Pope Leo Holy Mass 11.01.26 

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord  

Pope Francis Message for the 58th World Day of Peace 01.01.25