Pope Leo XIV speech to the cardinals

Next, the speech that Pope Leo XIV directed this Saturday, May 10, the cardinals gathered in the New Synod classroom.

Before sitting, let’s begin with a prayer, asking the Lord to continue accompanying the school and the entire Church with this spirit and enthusiasm, which is however of deep faith. Let’s pray together in Latin: Pater noster … Ave Maria …

In the first part of the meeting there is a small speech with the reflections that I would like to share with you. But then there will be a second part, which many have requested, will be a kind of dialogue with the Cardinal College in which to listen to the advice, the suggestions, the concrete proposals, of which which has already been spoken in the days before the conclave.

Cardinal brothers:

I greet them and I thank everyone for this meeting and for the days that have preceded him, painful for the loss of the Holy Father Francisco, arduous for the responsibilities faced together and, at the same time, according to the promise that Jesus himself has made us, rich of grace and consolation in the spirit (cf. Jn 14,25-27).

You, dear cardinals, are the closest collaborators of the Pope, and this serves as a comfort in accepting a yoke that clearly surpasses not only my strength, but those of any other. His presence reminds me that the Lord, who has entrusted me this mission, does not leave me alone with the burden of this responsibility. First of all, I know that I always tell, always, with your help, the help of the Lord, and, by your grace and providence, with the closeness of you and so many brothers and sisters who believe in God in the world, love the Church and maintain with the prayer and good works to the vicar of Christ.

My thanks to the Dean of the Cardenalicio College, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re – deserves applause, at least one, but more – that, with his wisdom, the result of a long life and many years of faithful service to the Apostolic Headquarters, he has helped us a lot in this time.

I also thank the Camarlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell – I think he is present here – for the valuable and difficult role he has played during the time of the vacant headquarters and the convocation of the conclave. I also direct my thoughts to the Cardinal Brothers who, for health reasons, have not been able to be present and, together with you, I join them in communion of affection and prayer.

At this time, at the same time sad and cheerful, wrapped providentially in the light of Easter, I would like us to contemplate together the transit of the remembered Holy Father Francisco and the conclave as a Easter event, a stage of the long exodus through which the Lord continues to guide us towards the fullness of life. In this perspective, we trust the “father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 co 1,3) the soul of the deceased pontiff and also the future of the Church.

The Pope, from San Pedro to me, his unworthy successor, is a humble servant of God and the brothers, and nothing more than this. The examples of many of my predecessors, such as that of Pope Francis himself, have demonstrated with his style of total dedication to service and sober essentiality of life, abandonment in God during the time of the mission and serene confidence at the time of return to the Father’s house. Let’s collect this valuable inheritance and return to the way, animated by the same hope that comes from faith.

It is the resurrected, present in us, who protects and guides the Church, and continues to rekindle it in hope, through love that “has been shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us” (RM 5,5). We have to be docile listeners of his voice and faithful ministers of his salvation designs, remembering that God loves communicating, rather than in the heat of thunder or earthquake, in “the rumor of a soft breeze” (1 r 19,12) or, as some translate it, in a “subtle voice of silence.” This is the important encounter, which must not be lost, and towards which we must educate and accompany all the holy people of God that has been confident.

In the past days we have been able to see the beauty and feel the strength of this immense community that, with so much affection and devotion, has fired and cried to its pastor, accompanying it with faith and prayer until its definitive encounter with the Lord. We have seen what is the true greatness of the Church, which lives in the variety of its members, united to its only head, Christ “Pastor and Guardian” (1 p 2,25) of our souls.

She is the belly in which we were also generated and, at the same time, the Gray (cf. Jn 21,15-17), the country time the Israelites in the desert, in the shadow of the cloud and the light of the fire of God (cf. ex 13,21).

And for this purpose, I would like us to renew together, today, our full accession to that path, to the route that the universal church has been touring after the footprints of the Vatican Council II.

Pope Francis has remembered and masterfully updated its content in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, from which I would like to highlight some fundamental notes: the return to the primacy of Christ in the announcement (cf. n. 11); the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community (cf. n. 9); growth in school and synodality (cf. n. 33); Attention to Sensus Fidei (cf. Nn. 119-120), especially in its most own and inclusive forms, such as popular piety (cf. 123); the love care of the weak and discarded (cf.N. 53); The brave dialogue and confident with the contemporary world in its different components and realities (cf. n. 84, Second Vatican Council, Const. Past. Gaudium et Spes, 1-2).

These are the principles of the Gospel that encourage and inspire, always, the life and work of the family of God; Of the values ​​through which the father’s merciful face has revealed himself and continues to reveal himself in the son made man, the last hope of all those who seek the truth, justice, peace and fraternity with sincere encouragement (cf. Benedict XVI, Letter Enc. Spe Salvi, 2; Francisco, Bulla Spes Non Confundit, 3).

Precisely, when I felt called to continue this path, I thought to take the name of Leo XIV.

There are several reasons, but the main one is because Pope Leo XIII, with the historical encyclical Rerum Novarum, faced the social issue in the context of the first great industrial revolution and today the Church offers everyone, its heritage of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the developments of artificial intelligence, which behave new challenges in the defense of human dignity, of justice and work.

Dear brothers, I would like to finish this first part of our meeting making mine – and also propose it to you – the desire that St. Paul VI, in 1963, expressed at the beginning of his Petrino Ministry: “That over the whole world passes a great flame of faith and love that enlighten all men of good will, raising the paths of reciprocal collaboration and that attracts about humanity, the abundance of divine benevolence, God, without whose help nothing is worth or anything is holy “(First message to the whole world Qui Fausto Die, June 22, 1963).

That our feelings are also and, with the help of the Lord, we translate them into prayer and commitment. Thank you.