The question “concerns an essential aspect of our ministry,” Pope Leo XIV said, “namely, the world in which we live, with its limitations and its potential, its questions and its convictions.”
Peter’s response charges all Christians with an important call: to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, both through daily personal conversion and through evangelization to society, especially in settings where the Gospel is persecuted and where the faith “is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent,” the pope said.
The mockery, despising, or even mere toleration of the faith are exactly why “they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed,” the new pope said. “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.”
It is also important to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ because too often even many Christians see Jesus as merely “a kind of charismatic leader or superman,” and because of this view live “in a state of practical atheism,” he noted.
Reflecting on his particular role and responsibilities now as pope, he said that Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Romans provides wisdom for anyone in a position of authority in the Church: Such a leader must remain committed “to move aside so that Christ may remain,” Pope Leo XIV said, “to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified (cf. Jn 3:30), to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.”
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