- 17 June, 2025
Vatican City, June 17, 2025: Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) on Tuesday morning in the Hall of Blessings at the Vatican, where he called on the Bishops to renew their commitment to proclaiming the Christian faith with Jesus Christ at its centre.
In his address, the Holy Father underlined the need for a “renewed impulse” in transmitting the faith. He also called for collegiality, witness, and, most of all, "helping people live a personal relationship with the Lord," following the path indicated by the late Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, "so they may discover the joy of the Gospel.”
Saying we live in a time of great fragmentation, the Holy Father called for returning "to the foundations of our faith, to the kerygma.”
Pope Leo invited the Italian bishops to discern ways to bring the Good News to everyone "with pastoral actions capable of reaching those who are furthest away."
The Pope also invited the Bishops to join him in walking together, "with joy in our hearts and a song on our lips," for God, he noted, "is greater than our mediocrity.""Let us be drawn to Him! Let us place our trust in His providence," he said.
The Pope told the Italian Bishops to foster a Church that embodies the Gospel and is a sign of the Kingdom of God, by proclaiming the Gospel, peace, human dignity, and dialogue.
The relationship with Christ, the Holy Father underscored, calls us to develop pastoral attention to the theme of peace.
The Pope also highlighted the importance of peace as a central theme of Christian witness.
"Where conflict arises", he said, "there must be a visible Church of reconciliation." He described peace not as a utopia but as a concrete, daily effort.
In addition to fostering peace, the Holy Father asked the Bishops to promote collegiality—both among themselves and in communion with the Successor of Peter—and to engage cooperatively with civil institutions for the common good.
Pope Leo lamented that the Christian community in Italy has long been facing new challenges "tied to secularism, a certain disaffection with the faith, and the demographic crisis". However, he urged the bishops not to be disturbed by this and to work hard towards peace.
The Pope acknowledged the impact of modern technological and social shifts, including artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, the data economy, and social media economy, warning that these often threaten human dignity.
"In this context," he warned, "the dignity of the human being risks being forgotten, especially since "the person is not a system of algorithms: he or she is a creature, a relationship, a mystery.”
Pope Leo expressed his hope that the journey of the Church in Italy may include an anthropological vision as an essential instrument of pastoral discernment.
“Without a living reflection on the human being—in his or her corporeality, vulnerability, thirst for the infinite, and capacity for relationship," the Pope warned, "ethics is reduced to a code, and faith risks becoming disembodied.”
The Holy Father exhorted the Bishops to advance in unity, urging them to look with serenity toward tomorrow and not be afraid of making courageous choices.
"No one can prevent you from being close to the people, from sharing life, from walking with the least, from serving the poor," he said.
And "no one", Pope Leo underscored, "can stop you from proclaiming the Gospel.”
Concluding his remarks, Pope Leo XIV urged the Bishops of Italy to be attentive that the lay faithful, nourished by the Word of God, "may be the protagonists" of evangelisation in their workplaces, in schools, in social and cultural settings, in the economy, and in politics.
He then entrusted the Bishops to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Italy’s countless Marian shrines before imparting his Apostolic Blessing.
Courtesy: Vatican News
© 2025 CATHOLIC CONNECT POWERED BY ATCONLINE LLP
