Bulletins, Newsletters, and Flocknotes

The following is the text of the Video Message sent by the Holy Father Leo XIV to the participants in the 16 th National Symposium of Families, promoted by the Life and Family Commission of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (NCBB), taking place today in Aparecida, Brazil:

 

Video Message of the Holy Father

Dear families,

It is with great joy that I address this message to all those taking part in this National Symposium, organized by the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil at the Casa da Mãe Aparecida , a place of special meaning for all Brazilians and indeed for Catholics throughout the world. I feel a deep connection with you and with the work you are carrying out together, through each person’s prayer and reflection, on a subject of such great importance: the family.

The Church teaches that the family is the “primary and essential cell of society” (Pius XII, Summi pontificatus , 47) and, for this reason, must be protected and promoted. Called to proclaim God’s love in today’s world, this unique community of persons formed by a man and a woman, so united in love that they become “one flesh” ( Gen 2:24), only fully understands its identity when it looks to the Lord Jesus and the sacrifice He made of Himself on the cross for the sake of His Bride, the Church (cf. Eph 5:21–33; Saint John Paul II, Familiaris consortio , 13). It is in Christ that we learn to see the image of God in others, loving our neighbour as He loved us (cf. Jn 13:34).

However, we must look upon families with realism and compassion, aware of the countless difficulties that afflict them—that is, their fragilities, crises, anxieties and so many other situations of suffering. All this requires of the Church and pastoral workers a merciful approach and a prudent and mature discernment (cf. Francis, Amoris laetitia , Chapter VIII).

Let us therefore look to the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The small yet fundamental virtues of the home in which Jesus was born and grew up, learning from Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, must serve as an inspiration and model for all our homes and be the source from which true peace is sought. Indeed, as Benedict XVI pointed out, the family plays a primary and indispensable role as a “teacher of peace” ( Message for the World Day of Peace , 1 January 2008, 3).

In view of this, dear brothers and sisters, as a pledge of the most abundant heavenly gifts and through the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida, Queen and Patroness of Brazil, I send my blessing to the Bishops, to the participants in this Symposium and to all families.

God bless you!

Appointment of member of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches

The Holy Father has appointed His Beatitude Polis III Nona, Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Iraq, as member of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.

Yesterday afternoon, the Holy Father received in audience:

- His Eminence Cardinal Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, metropolitan archbishop of Goa and Damão, India;

- Archbishop Alfonso Vincenzo Amarante, C.SS.R., titular of Sorres, Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical Lateran University.

* * *

This morning, the Holy Father received in audience:

- Archbishop Filippo Iannone, O. Carm., prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops;

- Participants in the International Meeting on “Educación sobre salud mental”;

- Members of the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice” Foundation;

- Members of Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

* * *

Activities of the Holy Father in the afternoon:

- Audience with the Community of Villa Nazareth;

- Holy Rosary for the conclusion of the Marian month.

This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the members of Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS).

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

 

Address of the Holy Father

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you!

Your Eminence, Your Excellencies, Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! Buenos Dias!

I am pleased to have my first meeting with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and to greet all of you present, as well as the communities, groups and schools of prayer and of evangelization that you represent. God has indeed blessed your communities with so many gifts, including spiritual vitality. I also greet the leaders of the national and international Services of Communion of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS), who have organized this gathering.

For the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the years following the Second Vatican Council were a time of great expansion and growth, and of integration into the life of the Church, as well as for consolidating your structures of service.

My venerable Predecessors recognized this development as a great gift to the Church. Indeed,  Saint Paul VI  affirmed that nothing is more necessary for such an increasingly secularized world than the witness of this spiritual renewal, which the Holy Spirit is inspiring in the most diverse regions and communities (Cf.  Address to the Third International Congress of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal , Pentecost, 19 May 1975).

In emphasizing your characteristic focus on evangelization,  Saint John Paul II  said: “It is the Spirit himself who impels you to bear witness.” He likewise remarked: “How can anyone who has tasted the goodness of Christ remain silent and inactive?… Christ is our Savior… How can we fail to evangelize? Continue to communicate this zeal for the Gospel to those around you!” ( Address to the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Communities , 7 December 1991).

For his part,  Benedict XVI  referred to the specific contribution you make to the Church. He said: “One of the positive elements and aspects of the Community of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is precisely their emphasis on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit and their merit lies in having recalled their topicality in the Church” ( Address to the 13th International Conference of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship , 31 October 2008).

Like Cardinal Suenens in the early days of the movement,  Pope Francis  frequently spoke of you as a “flood of grace,” which is “for the whole Church, not just for some” ( Prayer Vigil on the Occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal , 3 June 2017). In summary, he outlined your path as “evangelization, spiritual ecumenism, caring for the poor and needy, and welcoming the marginalized,” and added, “all of it is based on worship! The foundation of the renewal is worshiping God!” ( Address at the 37th National Convocation of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit , 1 June 2014).

I, too, wish to foster the relationship of mutual respect, closeness and support between the See of Peter and the great family of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In this regard, I would like to reflect on the following key aspects of your spiritual experience: baptism in the Spirit; prayer of praise; the word of God; communion; and charity.

First  baptism in the Spirit . Your shared journey of faith has its source in the personal experience of the Holy Spirit, which has enabled the grace of Baptism to become effective within each of you, leading you to a clear awareness of God’s love. This is the first powerful experience of grace that Saint Augustine himself had after his conversion and which he described in these heartfelt words: “O Christ Jesus, ‘my helper and redeemer’; suddenly it had become sweet to me to be without the sweets of folly. What I once feared to lose was now a delight to dismiss. You turned them out and entered to take their place, pleasanter than any pleasure” ( Confessions , IX, 1, 1).

The Holy Spirit has likewise allowed you to taste the sweetness of Christ. For you, too, life has changed since that moment. God ceased to be a mere idea and became the real and ultimate expression of fatherhood. His Spirit has brought inner reconciliation, peace and freedom from worldly attachments and the oppression of sin. He has also made possible a new outlook characterized by openness and hope towards others and the future, in the certainty that nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ (cf.  Rom  8:38–39). From this experience of the Holy Spirit comes the inner desire to be witnesses and heralds of his love, bringing his consolation to people oppressed by a sense of emptiness and loneliness.

Prayer of praise . It was precisely from this captivating experience of the Holy Spirit that a new life of prayer began, taking the form of a new capacity for spontaneous and sincere dialogue with God, and a new openness to praise, worship and offering thanksgiving to him. Worship and praise, which are so characteristic of your gatherings, are essential aspects of Christian prayer, and you have helped them to be rediscovered and brought them back to the forefront in recent years.

The word of God . The renewed outpouring of the Spirit has also led you to a living encounter with Sacred Scripture. The Holy Spirit inspired the revealed word of God and is also the One who keeps it ever alive and active in the Church, causing it to resonate in the hearts of believers, especially in the Liturgy. Scripture has therefore become for you a wonderful source of spiritual nourishment that enlightens and comforts. It is similarly a source of discernment for guiding your daily choices, and gives substance to communal prayer, enabling you to address the Lord with words inspired by God himself.

Communion . The Holy Spirit is the wellspring of communion. In various documents, Pope  Leo XIII  encouraged Catholics to pray a novena to the Holy Spirit each year between the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost, especially for the intention of Christian unity. You clearly appreciate the significance of this invitation, for you have seen that unity in the Church is the fruit of the Spirit, because, as Saint Augustine affirms, the Holy Spirit “is a certain unutterable communion of the Father and the Son” ( De Trinitate , V, 11, 12). It is the Spirit who creates harmony among the various charisms and components of the Charismatic Renewal, as well as with our brothers and sisters of other Christian denominations.

And finally,  charity . Saint Augustine wrote that the Holy Spirit “who is himself love, has been given to man and inflames him to the love of God and neighbor. For man can have no love for God unless he be given it from God” ( De Trinitate , XV, 17, 31). This is what you, too, have experienced. The renewed presence of the Spirit has awakened in you a new capacity to love, inspired by divine charity itself. This love is directed toward God and toward your brothers and sisters, and inspires closeness and compassion, especially for those who are suffering. Many works of charity for those in need, both in spirit and in body, have sprung from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I invite you, then, to keep alive this love for the poor, which reveals the true face of God.

Dear friends, I thank you for your commitment and encourage you to continue your mission. Put yourselves at the service of the dioceses and parishes, offering your experience and methods of evangelization. Faithfully follow the guidance of your priests; and, in your communal discernment, listen to the voices of wise people, even if they do not belong to your groups. Cultivate harmony and cooperation among the communities to which you belong, taking care never to give way to the desire for self-promotion, or the pursuit of power or personal prestige. May the Holy Spirit always be a light and a source of strength on your personal and communal journey, and may the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, protect you. And now, with these heartfelt sentiments, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.

Thank you.

This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the members of the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice” Foundation.

The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present at 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!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ ,

I am pleased to welcome you this morning, the President and members of the  Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice  Foundation , as well as those of you who took part in the 2026 General Assembly and International Conference. Your presence here is motivated by your continued dedication to the study and implementation of the Social Doctrine of the Church in today’s society. It is no secret that this is a topic that is particularly close to my own heart, not to mention that it is an essential part of the Church’s mission in this world. Your annual meeting has coincided with the recent publication of  Magnifica Humanitas ,  and   I believe that this Encyclical can provide guidelines to develop and assess the many topics that you have been exploring during the Conference and the preparation that preceded it.

In this regard, the theme chosen for this year — A Fragmented World in Search of Spirituality: Freedom and Pluralism from Within the Social Doctrine of the Church — offers much to consider. Firstly, it acknowledges the unfortunate situation in which humanity currently finds itself as we navigate an era marked by wars and growing polarization, as well as cultural and social divisions. Yet, in the midst of fragility, a new hope arises. Even as division seems to grow, a common denominator that indisputably unites us all appears: our shared humanity. Indeed, it is precisely when faced with adverse circumstances that the human person is called to reconsider the fundamental questions that have gently prodded the heart of countless generations to more serious reflection: “Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?” ( Magnifica Humanitas   6).

Such questions are a clear manifestation of humanity’s search for truth, and give rise to a desire for something more, a thirst for God and lasting meaning. They also bear witness to the essential aspects of our humanity: the God-given gifts of reason and freedom by which we may come to know the truth and adhere to what is good. Though freedom is often understood as the capacity to do what one wants, it is imperative to recover an authentic meaning of freedom that allows us to discover its relational dimension, for it is precisely here that we can speak of the person’s fulfilment both as individuals and as a society.  Saint John Paul II  reminded us that this fulfilment is found when freedom is lived as a “gift of self and openness to others” ( Evangelium Vitae  19), that is, when freedom is used to love. On the contrary, “when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted” (ibid).

What we discover here are the two “cities” described by Saint Augustine that continue to characterize not only the human heart, but also the civilizations that we create. The City of Man, built on pride and love of oneself, is marked by selfish individualism. The City of God, built on love of God unto selflessness, and the cultivation of relationships, is what makes it truly possible to build a civilization of love. In this light, we can discover that what lies behind the crisis of contemporary democracies and the weakening of multilateralism is, in fact, an anthropological crisis that stems from having largely forgotten about the Creator. Far from despairing however, we are called to do our part, remembering that “the civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization” ( Magnifica Humanitas   213).

Another aspect of fostering and working toward an authentic civilization of love is dialogue. A dialogue grounded in truth that recognizes and values the shared humanity of every person. Indeed, bearing in mind the innate dignity of every individual allows selfishness and particular interests to be overcome in favor of the common good. This same dignity also provides the context in which we can speak of a healthy pluralism that recognizes the wealth of contributions that come from people of diverse backgrounds and which leads to peaceful coexistence.

With these brief reflections, I thank you for your presence here today and your efforts to further promote the Church’s Social Doctrine. In assuring you of my continued prayers, I cordially impart my blessing, which I willingly extend to your families and all your loved ones. Thank you.