Pope Leo XIV is calling Catholics to reject indifference toward the suffering and upheaval unfolding around them, insisting that the Church must actively engage the challenges of the modern world while pointing humanity toward Jesus Christ.
During his Sept. 2 General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo reflected on the Church’s relationship with the modern world as he began a new phase of catechesis focused on the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
According to Vatican News, the Pope centered his remarks on Gaudium et Spes, the Council’s 1965 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.
The Holy Father warned that Christians cannot simply watch events unfold around them without becoming involved.
The Church must “leave behind all passivity and indifference in the face of current events, history and people’s lives, especially in the face of the rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today,” Pope Leo said, according to Vatican News.
“We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved,” he continued. “With Christ and sustained by the power of His Spirit, believers are called to take on the burdens of their brothers and sisters, especially those who are crushed by injustice, discrimination, and violence.”
Pope Leo emphasized that Christian engagement with society also requires recognizing the contradictions present within modern life.
“Christian solidarity commits us to engaging with reality and also to unmasking the contradictions that characterize personal and social life in the contemporary world,” he said.
Among those contradictions, the Pope pointed to scientific and technological advances that do not benefit everyone equally. He also highlighted the coexistence of enormous wealth and economic power alongside persistent hunger and poverty.
Pope Leo additionally drew attention to concerns about the future of the planet while societies remain unwilling to abandon excessive consumption. He also criticized what he described as “the illusion that war is an effective means of building peace.”
Against those challenges, the Church must continue directing humanity toward Christ.
“In a time marked by profound changes, giving rise to worrying imbalances,” Pope Leo said, “the Church is called to serve the human person, listening to and welcoming the deepest questions of their heart and the longings that dwell within them, pointing to Christ as ‘the key, the focal point and the goal of … all human history’.”
The Pope also recalled the vision of Pope St. John XXIII at the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo cited John XXIII’s call to recognize the workings of Divine Providence even amid difficult historical circumstances. The saintly pontiff urged Christians to “see the mysterious plans of Divine Providence,” which ultimately order even adverse human events toward the good of the Church.
Pope Leo connected that understanding to the mystery of the Incarnation. Just as Jesus Christ entered fully into human life, the Church cannot separate herself from the joys, suffering and struggles of the people she is called to serve.
He recalled the famous opening words of Gaudium et Spes, which declare that the Church makes her own “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted.”
That mission, Pope Leo explained, requires Catholics to examine the “signs of the times” through the light of the Gospel while continuing Christ’s work of bearing witness to truth and serving others.
The Pope placed particular emphasis on the poor and vulnerable, stressing that the Church’s concern for them cannot be reduced simply to politics or social activism.
Citing Pope Francis, Pope Leo recalled that “the option for the poor is primarily a theological category rather than a cultural, sociological, political or philosophical one.”
“We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them,” Pope Leo said, quoting Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium.
For Catholics, the message places engagement with the suffering of others firmly within the Christian vocation. The Church is called neither to withdraw from the world nor simply conform herself to it, but to enter into humanity’s struggles while bearing witness to Christ and the truth of the Gospel.
Pope Leo concluded by expressing his hope that the words at the heart of Gaudium et Spes will characterize the Church’s presence in the world.
“Joy and hope – gaudium et spes –” should be “the distinctive features of a Church who proclaims and bears witness to the Gospel, drawing close to the women and men of our time,” the Pope said.
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