Cardinal Pedro Barreto, Archbishop Emeritus of Huancayo (Peru) who participated in the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV, the first Peruvian and American Pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church, exclaimed with the Holy Father: “This is the time of love!”
Although he did not participate in the conclave that chose Pope León for being more than 80 years old, Barreto did attend the Mass presided by the Holy Father this Sunday, with whom he shared for a recent time the directive of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP), when both vice presidents of it were.
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In statements a RPPCardinal Barreto recalled the importance that, in his homily today, Leo XIV said that “’This is the time of love!’, The non -enunciative, emotional love, but the love put on site. Jesus said at some point ‘not the one who tells me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who fulfills the will of the Father’”.
Indeed, in his homily today, Pope León said: “Brothers, sisters, this is the time of love! The charity of God, which makes us brothers among us, is the heart of the Gospel.”
In that sense, the Peruvian archbishop continued, it is necessary to assume the Mission of the Christian and remember that “Christ himself said I was hungry and they feed me, I was thirsty and they gave me drink, I was as a migrant and you welcomed me”, taking into account the need to love the brother, to the neighbor needed.
Joy, hope and a call to unite “the whole human family”
The purple also commented that “there has been an overflowing sign of joy, not only in Chiclayo, in Peru, in Latin America, but on many continents, this has been something evident, very important.”
“It also seems very necessary to highlight that the joy enlivens hope, that is, it does not close the eyes to the harsh reality that humanity lives in general, but at the same time it is very important to recognize that there is as a renewed the call of Christ, the good shepherd, to unite the whole human family,” he said.
After remembering that Pope León cited today “one of the most famous phrases in St. Augustine: ‘You made us Lord for you and our heart is restless until I rest in you,'” Barreto also said that “in the light of the resurrection, which we are celebrating, we face, he said (Leo XIV), this moment with a call to guard the rich heritage of the Christian faith in the service of humanity.”
“This is the fundamental message by inviting everyone to work for unity in diversity, and especially the practice of love, especially the poorest, the most humble,” said the Peruvian cardinal.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.