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This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the participants in the Fourth Cattedra dell’Accoglienza (“Welcome Conference”), promoted by the Fraterna Domus of Sacrofano, Rome.

The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present during the meeting:

 

Address of the Holy Father

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Your Excellencies, dear brothers and sisters,

I am pleased to meet you and to share with you some reflections on the theme you are considering as the “Cattedra dell’Accoglienza” (“Welcome Conference”), which arose from the spiritual experience of the Fraterna Domus Association, with the active support of other ecclesial and social entities.

These days of yours have been inspired by the awareness that the Christian vocation is oriented towards generating communion between people, and communion is born of the capacity to welcome others, offering listening, hospitality and assistance. A possible etymological root of the word “accogliere”, to welcome – the centre of all your activity - goes back to the Latin accipere, which means “to receive”, “to take with you”.

Indeed, at the heart of every authentic welcome is a relationship that stems from the grace of an encounter. We experience many types of encounters and therefore of welcome: the encounter with the people who love us, with our relatives, colleagues, and also with strangers, who are sometimes hostile. When an encounter is genuine, it can be transformed by personal experience and gradually become capable of involving others, giving rise to a communal experience.

Your decision to dedicate the fourth edition of the “ Cattedra ” to young people fits precisely in this dynamic of encounter. In a time of profound cultural and social change, young people, who are naturally the future of society and the Church, are in fact already its living and generative present. Their questions and concerns invite us to renew the style of our relationships. Welcoming young people means, first of all, listening to their voices, meeting their gaze and recognizing that, in their lives and in their languages, the Spirit continues to work and to suggest renewed paths of presence and care.

I would like to focus on these two words – presence and care – which help to illuminate the Christian meaning of welcome.

Each one of us, from the very first moment of life, grows within a social reality. The family, the parish, the school, the university, and work represent models of society where different elements intertwine: psychological, legal, moral, pedagogical, cultural. They are spaces of identity formation whose primary task is defined precisely by presence. Being present in the lives of others means sharing time, experiences and meanings, offering stable points of reference in which others can recognize themselves and grow.

Looking to the Holy Family of Nazareth – whose model inspires Fraterna Domus – every welcoming community can rediscover its calling and learn to orient itself on the path of service. The Gospel episode of Mary and Joseph losing Jesus and, distressed, finding him after three days in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:39-52) teaches us that the presence of the other is not automatic, but the result of constant searching. It has happened to each of us to lose someone or something we were very attached to. At that moment, we realized how precious that presence was.

This also happens in the life of faith: we take for granted the presence of Jesus in our existence, until unexpectedly it seems that He is no longer where we left Him. We feel a sense of loss. In reality, it is not He who is lost, but we who have strayed. When this happens, we are called to seek him with confidence, with the courage to travel unexplored paths, looking at the world with new eyes, filled with hope. In this way, we will stop looking for a God who suits us and instead encounter Him where He dwells. Seeking Jesus, therefore, means moving from the security of our convictions to the responsibility of encounter, learning to see and welcome the presence of God who is always “beyond”.

This is exactly what Saint Joseph did in caring for the family entrusted to him by the Lord. In him we recognize that welcoming is not only presence but also guardianship. Guardianship means being attentive to others, respecting their choices and caring for them. This attitude belongs first and foremost to God, whom the Bible shows as the guardian of his people. We recall the psalm that says: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand” ( Psalm 121: 4-5). From this perspective, we understand that the human family is also called to preserve what has been entrusted to it: relationships, creation, and the life of our brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer and are most fragile. In this way, Joseph shows us that presence and guardianship are inseparable dimensions: it is not possible to guard without being present, and one is not present without assuming responsibility for the other.

These two words represent two lamps on your journey towards a welcome that can open paths to holiness, in a perspective that is never self-referential, but always relational and fraternal, as the Encyclical Fratelli tutti reminds us when it states: “Only a social and political culture that readily and gratuitously welcomes others will have a future” (no. 141) for the new generations.

Dear friends, thank you for your silent and discreet commitment. I encourage you to be educators of welcome. Cultivate the charism of welcome by listening to the Holy Spirit, whose fruit, as Saint Paul tells us, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” ( Gal 5:22). In this way, you will be able to continue to create environments capable of promoting goodness and fraternity in the Christian community and in society. May Mary Most Holy and Saint Joseph watch over you and intercede for you. I bless you from my heart. Thank you.

Appointment of Almoner of His Holiness, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

Appointment of metropolitan archbishop of Łódź, Poland

 

Appointment of metropolitan archbishop of Łódź, Poland

The Holy Father has appointed His Eminence Cardinal Konrad Krajewski as metropolitan archbishop of Łódź, Poland, transferring him from the office of Almoner of His Holiness, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

Curriculum vitae

His Eminence Cardinal Konrad Krajewski was born in Łódź, Poland, on 25 November 1963. After entering the diocesan seminary of Łódź in 1982, he obtained a degree in theology from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.

He was ordained a priest on 11 June 1988.

After ordination, he first served as parish vicar in Rusiec and in Łódź. He was awarded a licentiate at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Saint Anselm in Rome, and a doctorate in theology with a specialization in liturgy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He went on to serve as collaborator in the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, chaplain of the Orthopaedic and Traumatology Clinic of La Sapienza University in Rome; Master of Ceremonies of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Łódź; lecturer at the diocesan Seminary and the Franciscan and Salesian Seminaries of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Łódź; lecturer at the Academy in Warsaw; prefect of the diocesan Seminary in Warsaw; and Papal Master of Ceremonies at the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

In 2013 he was appointed Almoner of His Holiness and titular archbishop of Benevento, receiving episcopal consecration the following 17 September.

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of 28 June 2018, of the deanery of Santa Maria Immacolata all’Esquilino . From 2022 to date, he has served as prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity (Apostolic Almoner).

 

Appointment of Almoner of His Holiness, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, O.S.A., titular of Suliana, until now undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, as Almoner of His Holiness, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, conferring to him the dignity of Archbishop.

This morning, the Holy Father received in audience:

- Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, titular of Tuscania, apostolic nuncio in Israel and apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine;

- Bishop Hugo Nicolás Barbaro of San Roque de Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Argentina;

- Her Excellency Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary General of the “International Telecommunication Union” (ITU) and entourage;

- His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, metropolitan archbishop of Marseille, France, and entourage;

- Bishop Orazio Francesco Piazza of Viterbo, Italy;

- A delegation from the “Worldwide Marriage Encounter”;

- Participants in the “Cattedra dell’Accoglienza” Meeting;

- Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, dean emeritus of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.

This morning, the Holy Father received in audience:

- Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Delegate for Catechesis of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World;

- His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, O.F.M. Conv., archbishop of Teheran-Ispahan of the Latins, Iran.

This morning’s General Audience took place at 10.00 in Saint Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Leo XIV met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and all over the world.

In his address in Italian, the Pope continued his cycle of catechesis on “The Documents of the Second Vatican Council”, focusing on the theme: Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. The Church, people of God (Reading: Jer 31:33).

After summarizing his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful present.

He then made an appeal for prayer for peace in Iran and throughout the Middle East, in particular for the numerous civilian victims, including many innocent children.

The General Audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

 

The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 3. The Church, people of God

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

Continuing in our reflection on the Dogmatic Constitution  Lumen gentium  ( LG ), today we will look at the second chapter, dedicated to the People of God.

God, who created the world and humanity, and who wishes to save every man, carries out his work of salvation in history, choosing a real people and dwelling among them. For this reason, He calls Abraham and promises him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (cf.  Gen  22:17-18). With Abraham’s children, after freeing them from slavery, God makes a covenant with them, accompanies them, cares for them, and gathers them together whenever they stray. Therefore, the identity of this people is given by God’s action and by faith in Him. They are called to become a light for other nations, like a beacon that will draw all peoples, the whole of humanity, to itself (cf.  Is  2:1-5).

The Council affirms that “All these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh” (  LG , 9). Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this people in Himself and in a definitive way. It is a people now made up of members of every nation; it is united by faith in Him, by adherence to Him, by living the same life as Him, animated by the Spirit of the Risen One. This is the Church: the people of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ  [1] and who are themselves the body of Christ;  [2] not a people like any other, but the People of God, called together by Him and made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth. Its unifying principle is not a language, a culture, an ethnicity, but faith in Christ: the Church is therefore – according to a splendid expression of the Council – the assembly of “all those who in faith look upon Jesus” (  LG , 9).

It is a messianic people, precisely because it has Christ, the Messiah, as its head. Those who belong to it do not pride themselves on merits or titles, but only on the gift of being, in Christ and through Him, daughters and sons of God. Above any task or function, therefore, what really matters in the Church is to be grafted onto Christ, to be children of God by grace. This is also the only honorary title we should seek as Christians. We are in the Church in order to receive life from the Father unceasingly and to live as His children and brothers and sisters among ourselves. Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity.

Unified in Christ, Lord and Saviour of every man and woman, the Church can never turn inwards on herself, but is open to everyone and is for everyone. If believers in Christ belong to it, the Council reminds us that “All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Wherefore this people, remaining one and unique, must extend to the whole world and to all ages, so that the intention of God’s will may be fulfilled, who in the beginning created human nature as one and wants to gather together his children who were scattered” ( LG , 13). Even those who have not yet received the Gospel are therefore, in some way, oriented towards the people of God, and the Church, cooperating in Christ’s mission, is called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere and to everyone (cf.  LG  17), so that every person may enter into contact with Christ. This means that in the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone, and that every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which he or she lives and works. Thus, this people shows its catholicity, welcoming the wealth and resources of different cultures and, at the same time, offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up (cf.  LG , 13).

In this regard, the Church is one but includes everyone. A great theologian described it thus: “The unique Ark of Salvation must welcome all human diversity into its vast nave. The only banquet hall, the food it distributes is drawn from all of creation. The seamless garment of Christ, it is also – and it is the same thing – the garment of Joseph, with its many colours”.  [3]

It is a great sign of hope – especially in our times, traversed by so many conflicts and wars – to know that the Church is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages and cultures live together in faith: it is a sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all his children.

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[1] Cf. J. Ratzinger,  The New People of God , Brescia 1992, 97.

[2] Cf. Y. M.-J. Congar,  A Messianic People , Brescia 1976, 75.

[3] Cf. H. de Lubac,  Catholicism: A study of dogma in relation to the corporate destiny of mankind (Catholicisme: Les aspects sociaux du dogme) .

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Appeal of the Holy Father

Today in Qlayaa, Lebanon, the funeral of Father Pierre El Raii, Maronite parish priest of one of the Christian villages in southern Lebanon, is being celebrated. These villages are once again experiencing the tragedy of war. I am close to all the Lebanese people at this time of grave trial.

In Arabic, “El Raii” means “the shepherd”. Father Pierre was a true shepherd, who always stayed beside his people, with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As soon as he heard that some parishioners had been wounded in a bombing, he rushed to help them without hesitation. May the Lord grant that the blood he shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue to pray for peace in Iran and throughout the Middle East, especially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children. May our prayer be a comfort to those who suffer and a seed of hope for the future.

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Greeting in English

Dear brothers and sisters, in our continuing catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution  Lumen Gentium ,  we reflect on God’s salvific work in history by choosing a people as his own. He makes a covenant with Abraham and calls his people to be a light for other nations. In this way, he foreshadows the new and perfect covenant in Jesus Christ. With his Death and Resurrection, Jesus gathers all peoples, men and women of different nationalities, languages and cultures into his Bride, the Church. The Church is the new people of God, who united by faith and animated by Christ’s love proclaim the Gospel to the whole world. We too, as members of the Church, are called to be signs of hope and to spread the message of the Father, who desires to gather to himself all his children.

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Summary of the Holy Father's words

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from Denmark, Australia and the United States of America. With prayerful good wishes that this Lent will be a time of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.