Pope Leo XIV warned that you cannot serve God and requested prayers so that politicians do not transform the capital they manage into “weapons that destroy people.”
“Today, in particular, the Church prays so that the rulers of the nations are free from the temptation to use the wealth against man, transforming it into weapons that destroy the peoples and monopolies that humiliate the workers,” he said in the homily of the Mass he presided this morning in the parish of Santa Ana.
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
This church, located within the walls of the Vatican, has been confident since 1929 to the order of the Augustinians, to which the Pontiff belongs.
In his sermon, Leo XIV invited to persevere with hope in prayer “in a time severely threatened by war.”
“Whole peoples are today crushed by violence and even more for a shameless disinterest that abandons them to a destination of misery,” he said.
From it, he asked not to be liabilities “before these dramas” and called to announce “with the word and with the works that Jesus is the Savior of the world, the one who frees us from all evil.”
Thus, when commenting on the Gospel of the day, which tells the parable of the unfaithful administrator, it made it clear that God can not be served.
“It is not a contingent choice, like so many others, or a reviewable option over time, according to situations. It is necessary to decide a true lifestyle. It is about choosing where to place our heart, to clarify who we sincerely love, who we serve with dedication and what is really our good,” said the pontiff.
Jesus contrasts wealth to God
Therefore, he insisted that Jesus contrast the wealth to God. The Lord speaks like this “because he knows that we are needy creatures, that our life is full of deficiencies. Since we are born, poor, naked, we all need care and affection, a house, food, dress,” he continued.
In this way, he warned that the thirst for wealth runs the risk of “occupying the place of God in our hearts, when we believe it is she who saves our life.”
He also focused on the temptation to think that “without God we could also live well, while without wealth we would be sad and overwhelmed by a thousand needs”
“Who serves God is free from wealth, but who serves the wealth is a slave to her! Who seeks justice transforms wealth into a common good; who seeks domain transforms the common good into the dam of its avidity,” he explained.
An interior revolution
In any case, he said that the word of the Lord, “does not oppose men in rival classes, but urges everyone to an inner revolution, a conversion that begins in the heart.”
Similarly, he stressed that the providence of God reaches both the poor materials and to those who suffer from spiritual or moral misery “that afflicts the powerful as the weak, the homeless and the rich.”
The Pontiff recalled that the church of Santa Ana is “on the border”, at the entrance to the Vatican, a place of passage for workers, pilgrims and visitors. In that context, he urged that this parish – which was built in the 16th century and hosted the historic brotherhood of the Palafrenieri Pontificals, responsible for the papal stables – is a space of doors open to the encounter, prayer and charity.
They concelebrated with him, the new prior of the Augustinians, Fr. Joseph Farrell and the parish priest Fr. Mario Millardi. The celebration was attended by Fr. Gioele Schiavella, also Agustino, who has turned 103. The Holy Father recalled in the homily that he was pastor of this Church from 1991 to 2006 and that today lives here.
The visit of the pontiff to the parish of Santa Ana has a strong symbolic value: being a cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost presided in this same church the Eucharist on July 26, 2024, in the liturgical memory of the saints Joaquín and Ana, parents of the Virgin Mary.
After Lateran’s pacts, on May 30, 1929, Pius XI erected the church in parish through the Apostolic Constitution From the lateranensi pact and confided his pastoral care to the Augustinians. The first pastor, Father Agostino Ruelli, was appointed a few months later, on August 7, 1929. At present, the community is in charge of the Augustinian Father Mario Millardi.
Popes in the Santa Ana parish
Popes have forged a special relationship with the parish of Santa Ana over the years. Pío XI personally attended the inauguration of the organ in 1931; San Juan XXIII visited her in 1961; San Pablo VI celebrated the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination in 1970; San Juan Pablo II called her “my parish” during a visit in December 1978; Benedict XVI presided over a mass in 2006; And Pope Francis chose her to celebrate her first public mass on March 17, 2013.
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.