Pope Leo XIV's Third Full Week

Pope Leo XIV started off his third full week in charge in Paul VI Audience Hall in his Meeting with the Employees of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.

While similar in how they interact with the outside world, and further similar in how they coordinate with one another, the two entities form two separate sovereign entities dedicated to the preservation of the central governance of the Church and the preservation of its sovereignty.

In this context, the Holy See primarily refers to the Roman Curia, the diplomatic corps, and other entities under Pope Leo XIV dedicated to the whole world or certain regions outside of Rome, rather than those entities dedicated to the local affairs of the Diocese of Rome. 

Meanwhile, the Vatican City State refers to the sovereign city-state surrounded by Rome, as well as the Vicariate of Rome, a subdivision of the Diocese of Rome focused on religious functions in the smallest country. 

For both, there are plenty of employees both clergy and lay that help with the day to day functions. Henceforth, many employees had their family in the audience so they could have a special Saturday with the pope and Pope Leo XIV made sure to open his address recognizing them and welcoming them.

As Pope Leo XIV continued his address, he highlighted how he only came to the Vatican two years ago after being in Chiclayo, Peru, and thus he was relatively new to the Church’s internal functions in comparison to the many employees in attendance.

Thus, Pope Leo XIV created a metaphor for the employees calling them the memory of the Church in that they preserve the memory of the past pope and transmit it to new popes, helping keep the Church a living Church as anything living must have memory.

“Popes pass, the Curia remains. This applies to every particular Church, for the episcopal Curias. And it also applies to the Curia of the Bishop of Rome. The Curia is the institution that preserves and transmits the historical memory of a Church, of the ministry of its bishops. This is very important. Memory is an essential element in a living organism. It is not only directed to the past, but nourishes the present and guides the future. Without memory, the path is lost, it loses its sense of direction.” - Pope Leo XIV

The next main part of both entities is their missionary focus.

Pope Leo XIV stressed how Pope Francis’s reforms of the Roman Curia largely focused on returning it to a more missionary perspective and thus that is what Pope Leo hopes to encourage in his pontificate. 

Love and unity will be two key characteristics in order to accomplish all of the tasks as he invoked the Virgin Mary and prayed the Hail Mary with the Audience to guide the employees during his pontificate.

“If, then, we must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us seek to do so first of all with our behaviour in everyday situations, starting also from the work environment. Each person can be a builder of unity with his attitudes towards colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience, with humility, putting himself in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humour, as Pope Francis taught us.” - Pope Leo XIV

Later that day in Poznan, the capital city of the voivodeship of Greater Poland, Stanislaw Streich was beatified.

Father Stanislaw Streich was born to the north in Bydgoszcz in 1902, but would come down to Poznan to study and enter the priesthood in the diocese. 

For those unfamiliar, the Archdiocese of Poznan is one of the most important places in Poland and its Archcathedral Basilica of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is believed to be one of the oldest places of Christian worship in all of Poland.

The island that it sits on called Ostrów Tumski is where many of the early Polish leaders had their palaces and thus it is believed that in 966, Duke Mieszko I was baptized here, thus Christianizing Poland.

Father Stanislaw Streich had served as the pastor of many parishes and eventually would settle in the nearby city of Lubon where he wanted to build a parish called the Church of Saint John Bosco.

Having been in use since 1935, it was not yet fully completed by February 27, 1938. This is the date when Father Stanislaw Streich was celebrating mass in the presence of children. Heading up to the pulpit to preach from the Gospel, a member of a communist militia shot Father Stanislaw Streich multiple times eventually killing him, while chanting communist slogans.

His beatification process started in 2017 where he would be made a Servant of God with the diocesan process completed in 2019. In 2024, Pope Francis approved of the decree of his martyrdom, declaring him a Venerable Servant of God.

Thus, on March 24th, acting on behalf of Pope Leo XIV, the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, as well as Archbishop Zbigniew Zielinski, celebrated mass and beautified Father Stanislaw Streich in the square in front of the Archbasilica Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. 

On Pope Leo XIV’s trip to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, he stopped at the Piazza d'Aracoeli which sits at the base of Capitoline Hill where the seat of the Municipality of Rome is, at the Palazzo Senatorio in the Piazza del Campidoglio. 

Here, he greeted and paid Homage to the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtiere, and the City of Rome, plus all its civic leaders present. 

Pope Leo XIV also thanked military authorities who helped with his inauguration the previous Sunday.

While stating his role as the Bishop of the Diocese of Rome, he stressed how his faith in the Gospel necessitates a care for the common good, a shared goal that the civic administration of Rome can work with. 

He further reminded the civic authorities present of how the Church has placed its ministry in Rome for some 2,000 years, helping out the hungry and poor, educating the masses, and other important initiatives like healthcare to display the connection both institutions have shared for centuries.

Thus, Pope Leo XIV declared his love for Rome and his goals to work with Rome: “today I can say that for you and with you I am Roman!”

Lastly he called on Rome to show the same level of humanitarian and civil qualities as it does for its immense history and artistry. 

Pope Leo XIV next arrived at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, the cathedra or head church of the Diocese of Rome. 

Contrary to popular belief, it is this historic cathedral where the “see of Rome” exists and thus Pope Leo XIV came to say mass here to take Possession of the Holy Chair of the Bishop of Rome. 

He began his homily thanking everyone in attendance and stated how the Diocese of Rome has a special mission which can be seen in the facade of the cathedral: Mater omnium Ecclesiarum (Mother of all Churches of the World). 

It is in this immense responsibility that Pope Leo expressed how the Diocese must have the “qualities of tenderness, self-sacrifice and the capacity to listen” to assist others and “anticipate their needs and expectations before they are even expressed”. 

Pope Leo XIV next focused on the Gospel reading from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 15, where Saints and Apostles Paul and Barnabas had to figure out how to bring the Gentiles into Christianity in the Church of Antioch. 

The question rested on whether they should have to become fully Jewish first and adopt all of their traditional customs or rather they could skip this and become Chrisitan.

To best come to a decision, Saints Paul and Barnabas put humility and dialogue above their pride as leaders as they visited Saint Peter and the other Apostles in Jerusalem to listen where they came to a unifying conclusion “not to impose excessive burdens on [the Gentiles], but rather to insist only on what was essential” for them to do to convert to Christianity. 

However, Pope Leo told the congregation that the work of the Apostles in this reading was not only one of human dialogue, but rather a more important quality through the words they used which stressed the praying to God and listening to the Holy Spirit: “they remind us that communion is built primarily “on our knees,” through prayer and constant commitment to conversion.”

“First, the Spirit teaches us the Lord’s words by impressing them deep within us, written, as the biblical image would have it, no longer on tablets of stone but in our hearts.  This gift helps us grow and become “a letter of Christ” for one another.  Naturally, the more we let ourselves be convinced and transformed by the Gospel, allowing the power of the Spirit to purify our heart, to make our words straightforward, our desires honest and clear, and our actions generous, the more capable we are of proclaiming its message.” - Pope Leo XIV

Using these words for the Diocese of Rome, he stressed how the Diocese must listen to the world to come to good decisions and how he would try to facilitate this as the Bishop of Rome. He also told the congregation how the Diocese of Rome must continue thinking big, such as in their 2025 Jubilee Year where Rome has welcomed the world to its diocese through lots of work and volunteering. 

Lastly, he asked for prayers and for the intercession of the Virgin Mary to help himself and the Diocese in their continued journeys. 

On Pope Leo’s way back to the Vatican City, he would make one more stop at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome to pray in the Pauline Chapel as an Act of Veneration for the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus Icon of Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People).

This Icon has served extremely important venerations for past popes and for the intercessions of the whole Church, and especially for Rome. 

It is often seen as the Virgin Mary Icon for the Municipality of Rome, thus continuing the theme of the day to honor Rome as a city and diocese.

After his prayers, he went to the central loggia to greet the crowd who had been visiting the basilica.

He thanked all the visitors, the cardinals accompanying him on this journey, and the workers at the basilica. He called on the crowd to use this opportunity to “to renew this devotion to Mary, Salus Populi Romani, who many times has accompanied Rome in her needs”, and prayed for the intercession of Mary to bless all people present. 

Once Pope Leo XIV returned to the Vatican City, it was now time for him to greet the Sunday crowd in Saint Peter’s Square with the weekly Regina Caeli, the replacement for the Angelus during this Holy Easter season. 

Focusing on the aforementioned Gospel reading, Pope Leo XIV spoke of the fear we all have at different times in our lives, to do whatever it is we are supposed to do. Yet, he gave the crowd hope by highlighting the “gift of the Holy Spirit” who “takes us by the hand and enables us to experience God’s presence and closeness amid our daily lives.”

Thus, we are never truly alone, and if we choose to love God and to listen and accompany Him, through guidance from the Holy Spirit, we will not only accomplish whatever it is we need to, but also attain a spot in Heaven with God.

After the Regina Caeli, Pope Leo would turn his focus to the current world, speaking first of the recent beatification of Father Stanislaw Streich of Poland. 

“Yesterday in Poznan (Poland), Stanislaus Kostka Streich, a diocesan priest killed in hatred of the faith in 1938 because his work on behalf of the poor and workers irritated followers of the Communist ideology, was beatified. May his example inspire priests in particular to give themselves generously in the service of the Gospel and their brothers and sisters.” - Pope Leo XIV

He then invoked the crowd to pray with him for the Church in China and around the world for their unification with the universal Church, as May 24th had also marked the Day of Prayer for the Church in China created by Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Leo then prayed for those in war and also celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, on its impact for the environment and the poor, and welcomed any members from the Laudato Si’ Movement. 

As the weekend was marked by honoring Rome and a Polish priest, Pope Leo finished his remarks by giving a special greeting to the people of Italy and Poland, as well as the people of Valencia, “those taking part in the great pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Piekary Slaskie in Poland”, those coming on pilgrimage from “Pescara, Sortino, Paternò, Caltagirone, Massarosa Nord, Malnate Palagonia, and Cerello”, the “pilgrims from the parish of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Rome”, “confirmands from the Archdiocese of Genoa and San Teodoro in the Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias”, the “cyclists coming from Paderno Dugnano”, and “the Bersaglieri [(military marksmen)] from Palermo”. 

Sunday was the 62nd Africa Day, and thus a special Jubilee of African pilgrims to Rome for Peace in the Continent had arrived and had a special mass celebrated by Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Monday the 26th.

Also present were Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Section of First Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization, as well as many of the diplomats of African countries to the Holy See.

Here, Pope Leo XIV welcomed the congregation in his native English to Rome and the Vatican City, and spoke of the importance of Faith and hope, not just for themselves, but for all people to give others strength too.

“It is our faith that gives us strength.  It is our faith that enables us to see the light of Jesus Christ in our lives and to understand how important it is to live our faith.  Not only on Sundays, not only during a pilgrimage, but each and every day so that we will be filled with the hope that only Jesus Christ can give us and that all of us together will continue to walk united as brothers and sisters to praise our God; to recognize that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God, and to place those gifts at the service of others.” - Pope Leo XIV

May 27th was a fun day for Pope Leo XIV as he hosted the Champions of Serie A, the top league that awards the national champions of Italy in association football (soccer), in Clementine Hall.

Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (SSC Napoli) captured its fourth league title and second this decade in dramatic fashion on Friday the 23rd, in front of a packed home crowd inside and outside the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. 

Known for their sky blue colors, SSC Napoli fans lined the streets and squares of the city on Friday to watch as a community, and lit fireworks the whole night in joyous occasion as they won the league by a single point.

Then, the city woke up once again for a celebration of the team throughout the picturesque coastal Southern Italian city with a reported 200,000 fans. 

Despite having household name striker Romelu Lukaku, a very strong Catholic from Belgium, and world-renowned manager Antonio Conte, a strong Catholic from Italy, this year's team drew support from the whole world for how they banded together with many other players who were less proven on the elite stage, or who were deemed not good enough for other top clubs.

Thus, Pope Leo congratulated the players on their championship on how they worked as a team: “The [c]hampionship is won by the team, and when I say “team”, I mean the players, the trainer with the entire team, and the sports association.”

Having joked earlier how the team did not seem to cheer for him when he walked in because the media reported that he supported league contenders, AS Roma, Pope Leo stated how much the win meant for Naples, and how the social value of this victory “goes beyond the merely technical and sporting fact” and “is the example of a team … working together, in which the talents of the individuals are placed at the service of the whole”. 

While very congratulatory, Pope Leo issued a worry he had in which he felt the need to say to the players and coaches of the club regarding sports as a business.

“Unfortunately, when sport becomes a business, it risks losing the values that make it educational, and can even become anti-educational. It is necessary to keep a lookout for this, especially with regard to teenagers. I appeal to parents and sports managers: we must be very careful of the moral quality of the experience of sport at competitive level, because the human growth of the young is at stake.” - Pope Leo XIV

Unknown to the players were one of Pope Leo’s cooks, Mrs. Rosa, who comes from Naples and wanted to congratulate the club on the victory for she too is a SSC Napoli fan.

Perhaps the best moment of the meeting came when Scott McTominay greeted Pope Leo. The Scottish midfielder had a similar year to Pope Leo XIV, in that people did not expect much from him, but his outstanding leadership and play won him the Serie A Most Valuable Player award, bringing newfound hope to his nation that has not qualified for the World Cup since 1998 despite being one of the two founding nations in the sport. 

Later in the day, it was announced that Pope Leo XIV had made Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro the new President of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro is a renowned doctor.

He earned a bioethics and medicine degree from the University of Padua, before earning a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He later studied bioethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome and the USA’s first Catholic university, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., before taking positions at the Kennedy Institution in Washington, D.C., and then becoming a professor in bioethics at the Faculty of Theology of Northern Italy.

Additionally, his previous roles include Secretary General of the Lanza Foundation in Padua, Professor of Bioethics at the Theological Faculty of Triveneto, professor of Nursing Ethics at the "Bambino Gesù" Pediatric Hospital in Rome, and from 2010-2013 as the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics. 

A special event happened on Tuesday at the Pontifical Ethiopian College inside the Vatican Gardens whereby the Pontifical Ethiopian College held a presentation on the new edition of the Ge‘ez-language Missal that will be used by the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea. 

These two separate sui generis churches represent the two different independent countries often at odds with each other, despite many commonalities. 

One of these commonalities has been in religion, as both are predominantly Oriental Orthodox with their own churches in that denomination, as well as have their own Eastern Catholic Churches that are also very similar.

Thus, the two churches have been working with the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches for 25 years to perfect this missal, so the two can more closely worship with each other and the wider church. 

Present were many key figures including the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of the Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia, and Bishop Kindane Yebio of the Eritrean Catholic Eparchy of Keren in Eritrea, among many other important people. 

Pope Leo XIV held his second General Audience on May 28th in Saint Peter’s Square.

Here, he focused on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and he asked each one of us a simple question: “when will we too be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion?”

This question followed his Audience, when he gave us some key points.

The main key point is “Before being believers, we are called to be human.”

What this means is that most times, Jesus Christ is simply calling us to be good people in the Gospel rather than a full on believer.

There are many faithful people from Jerusalem that day who go to the temple weekly, including certain clerics. But, each one of them viewed their journey’s haste as more important than the human needing help. 

It was not a case of religiosity in this parable, rather it was a simple case of needing to help others regardless of your own and their own religion. 

And, that is what the Good Samaritan does, he follows the principles set out for all humans to be kind and generous. He sets aside money, he gets dirty, he uses up his resources, and he struggles with the man he helps.

“If you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated.” - Pope Leo XIV

Afterwards, he gave a special appeal to pray for and call for an end to the war in Ukraine and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as well as praying for the ending of war wherever else it is present.

He also gave a special greeting to English-speaking pilgrims and to the large number of pilgrims visiting from England, Scotland, Norway, Ghana, Kenya, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States of America.

Later in the day, Pope Leo XIV sent a special telegram to Cardinal Jaime Spengler, Archbishop of Porto Alegre and President of CELAM, as the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean met for the 40th Ordinary General Assembly of CELAM.

Due to high poverty levels whether at a continent or global level as well as high levels of tribulation with decreasing numbers, it has become imperative for the bishops to missionize and meet people where they are, which is what Pope Leo XIV expressed in his telegram.

Pope Leo XIV stated that the aim of CELAM must be to “seek, in true and effective communion, pastoral initiatives that offer solutions grounded in the criteria of Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.”

Therefore, Pope Leo XIV hopes that the bishops are able to come up with solutions to everyday problems whether Faith-related or socially-related via Catholic Social Teaching. 

On Thursday May 29th, Pope Leo XIV addressed the 500th Anniversary gathering of the Annabaptist movement in Zurich, Switzerland.

He first focused on the glories of Easter, and how Jesus came to the Apostles still with the marks of his Passion and implored them to receive his gifts and thus the Holy Spirit, to missionize the world and begin Jesus’s Church.

“By receiving the Lord’s peace, and accepting his call, which includes being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all the followers of Jesus can immerse themselves in the radical newness of Christian faith and life. Indeed, such a desire for renewal characterises the Anabaptist movement itself.” - Pope Leo XIV

Expressing his delight at the motto chosen for their gathering, “the Courage of Love”, Pope Leo XIV used this motto to describe the necessities of Catholics and Mennonites to reflect on this in a push for Christian unity.

He stated how both should use our common history to overcome our differences, and how in a troubled world full of war, “the more united Christians are, the more effective will be our witness to Christ the Prince of Peace in building up a civilization of loving encounter.” 

Pope Leo XIV then visited the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo in the outskirts of the municipality of Rome.

He visited the Garden of the Virgin Mary, and reflected on the heroic actions of Pope Pius XII who provided shelter for 12,000 Romans in 1944 in the surrounding Castelli Romani region.

Visiting the Borgo Laudato Sì (“Laudato Sì Village”) inside the grounds of the Papal Palace, Pope Leo learned from his predecessor and the project director, Manuel Durantes, as well as Cardinal Fabio Baggio, Under Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. 

This is where Pope Francis employed a program to “offer opportunities to explore the values underlying the encyclical and, at the same time, job preparation courses such as those for gardeners and green space maintenance workers”. 

Pope Leo XIV also would visit the Belvedere Gardens and the Cryptoporticus. 

Later that day, the Gardens and Environment Service of the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services of the Governorate of Vatican City State unveiled the floral reproduction of Pope Leo XIV’s Coat of Arms in the Vatican Gardens.

Lastly, one cannot talk about this third week without mentioning the Holy See’s official website receiving a refresh for the first time in 30 years. I for one enjoyed the old version, but the new version works well thus far.