Pope Leo XIV has said that the leadership of the Church must focus on helping the Catholic faithful who are often facing despairing situations, highlighting the need for bishops to do so “with closeness” and not just through their words.
“When families are greatly burdened and public institutions fail to provide adequate support; when young people are disillusioned and fed up with empty promises; when the elderly and those with grave disabilities feel abandoned, the Bishop is close to them,” the pontiff said in St. Peter’s Basilica during his meeting on Wednesday with bishops who were in Rome for the Jubilee of Bishops.
“Not [by] offering easy solutions, but rather the experience of communities that strive to live the Gospel in simplicity and solidarity.”
The Pope told the bishops that preaching the message that “hope does not disappoint” can at times mean “swimming against the tide, even in certain painful situations that appear to be hopeless”.
“Yet it is precisely at those times when it becomes all the more apparent that our faith and our hope do not come from ourselves, but from God,” Leo continued.
“If we are truly close to those who suffer, the Holy Spirit can revive in their hearts even a flame that has all but died out.”
In his remarks, the Pope also confirmed the importance of celibacy in bishops “for the sake of the Kingdom of God”.
He explained: “Here, it is not just a question of living as a celibate, but of practicing chastity of heart and conduct, and in this way living a life of Christian discipleship and presenting to all the authentic image of the Church, holy and chaste in her members as in her Head.
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