In the solemnity of San Pedro and San Pablo, whom the Catholic Church recognizes as pillars of faith and venerates as employers of the city of Rome, Pope Leo XIV warned the risk of falling into “pastoral schemes that are repeated without renewing” while calling to always maintain ecclesial unity respecting the “diversity.”
“Our employers have traveled different paths, they have had different ideas, sometimes they faced and discussed with evangelical frankness. However, that did not prevent them from living the concord apostles (Among the Apos), that is, a living communion in the spirit, a fruitful tune in diversity, ”he said.
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In this way, he claimed the example of Pedro and Paul, who were called to live that of martyrdom, and whose testimony “teaches us that the communion to which the Lord calls us is a harmony of voices and faces, does not annul each one’s freedom.”
In the mass that he celebrated in the Basilica of San Pedro – in which he imposed the Palio to 54 new metropolitan archbishops – the Pontiff urged them to “look for new paths for evangelization” starting from the “problems and questions” raised by the community of faithful.
“In the history of the two apostles, on the other hand, we are inspired by their willingness to open up to changes, to let us interrogate for the events, encounters and specific situations of communities,” he said.
As is tradition, the Holy Father entered the Vatican Basilica procession. After the homily, the deacons went down to the tomb of the apostle Peter, who is below the altar of the chair, to take the palates that were blessed for him.
One by one, all the Archbishops named during this year were receiving from the pontiff this exclusive badge that distinguishes residential or metropolitan archbishops and remembers unity with the successor of Peter.
Do not fall into routine or ritualism
During the homily, the Pope praised the example of St. Peter and St. Paul of which he highlighted “the ecclesial communion and the vitality of faith” asked not to fall “into routine, in ritualism” and “in pastoral schemes that are repeated without renewing and without capturing the challenges of the present.”
In this way, he pointed out that it is “important to learn to live communion in this way, as a unit in diversity, so that the variety of gifts, articulated in the confession of the only faith, contributes to the announcement of the Gospel.”
For the Pope the path of ecclesial communion “is born from the impulse of the spirit, unites diversities and creates bridges of unity in the variety of charisms, gifts and ministries.”
“It is important to learn to live communion in this way, as a unit in diversity, so that the variety of gifts, articulated in the confession of the only faith, contributes to the announcement of the Gospel,” he said.
“Make our diversities a unit workshop”
In this way he claimed the “fraternity” and urged “to make our diversities a workshop of unity and communion, of fraternity and reconciliation so that each one in the Church, with the personal history itself, learn to walk along with others.”
“It is needed by the Church, the relations between the laity and the presbyters, between the presbyters and the bishops, between the bishops and the Pope, need, as they need pastoral life, ecumenical dialogue and the friendship relationship that the Church wishes to maintain with the world,” he added.
On the other hand, he called to wonder if the path of our faith “retains dynamism and vitality.”
“If we do not want our Christian being to reduce an inheritance of the past, as Pope Francis has warned us, it is important to get out of the danger of a tired and static faith, to ask ourselves: who is today for us Jesus Christ? What place does it occupy in our life and in the action of the Church?” He exclaimed.
New paths and new practices for the announcement of the Gospel
Therefore, he indicated that he asked to carry out this discernment exercise, which is born from these questions, to allow faith and the Church “that are continually renewed and experience new paths and new practices for the announcement of the Gospel.”
“This, together with communion, must be our first wish,” he insisted. Finally, he greeted the members of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church. At the end of the celebration, the pontiff descended the climbs to the tomb of the apostle Peter, who is below the altar of the chair, and prayed a few minutes before her. He did it precisely together with the Metropolite Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who chairs the delegation of the ecumenical patriarchy, which has been sent to Rome by Bartolomé I, to participate in the solemnity of San Pedro and Paul that encloses a great ecumenical background.
During the celebration, Pope Leo XIV resumed the ancient tradition of personally imposing the Palio on the new Metropolitan Archbishops.
This rite, loaded with symbolism, was modified by Pope Francis in 2015 when he decided that he would only deliver to the archbishops this white wool band in the form of a necklace, adorned with six black silk crossings, which resembles a stole and is used as a scapular, and that the imposition would be made later, in each archdiocese, by the nuncio.
The Argentine Pope then explained that it was a gesture to give more prominence to local churches, make the most pastoral and participatory ceremony, and reinforce the link between the archbishop and his people, without weakening communion with Rome.
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.