The Pope asks that ecclesial tensions between tradition and novelty not become ideological oppositions

Pope Leo

“The supreme rule in the Church is love. No one is called to command, everyone is called to serve; no one should impose their own ideaseveryone must listen to each other; Without excluding anyone, we are all called to participate; no one possesses the entire truth“We must all seek it with humility, and together,” said Leo XIV during the Mass he celebrated on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Synodal Teams and the participation bodies.

In an appeal to communion, he addressed all the participants in this great event on synodality framed in the Holy Year and asked them for help to “widen the ecclesial space” and to make it “collegial and welcoming.”

These were precisely some of the objectives of the Synod on synodality, one of the most ambitious projects since the Second Vatican Council promoted by Pope Francis to renew the Church and make it a more participatory and less clerical space.

The “pretension to be better than others” creates “division” in the Church

Commenting on the Gospel of the day on the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, the Pope warned against the danger of spiritual pride shown by the former: “The Pharisee goes up to the temple to pray, but not to beg God, but to praise himself. He is obsessed with his ego and ends up revolving around itself without any relationship with God or with others,” he lamented after considering that this can also happen in the Christian community.

For example, the Pope continued, “when the I prevails over the we,” generating “personalisms that prevent authentic and fraternal relationships.” In this way, he criticized “the pretension of being better than others” as the Pharisee does with the publican” because it creates “division and transforms the community into a place that judges and excludes.” He also lamented the attitude of those who take advantage of their position “to exercise power and occupy spaces.”

Instead, he highlighted the humility of the publican as an example for the entire Christian community: “Also in the Church we must recognize ourselves as in need of God and in need of each other, exercising ourselves in mutual love, in mutual listening and in the joy of walking together.”

“Being a synodal Church means recognizing that the truth is not possessed, but sought together, allowing ourselves to be guided by a restless heart in love with Love,” he remarked.

During the homily, the Pontiff asked to face “with confidence and with a renewed spirit the tensions that cross the life of the Church – between unity and diversity, tradition and novelty, authority and participation –, allowing the Spirit to transform them, so that“that they do not become ideological oppositions and harmful polarizations.”

In any case, he asserted that it is not about resolving these tensions “by reducing one another, but rather allowing them to be fertilized by the Spirit, so that they are harmonized and oriented towards a common discernment.”

Furthermore, he made it clear that in the Church, “before any difference,” we are called to “walk together in search of God,” “to clothe ourselves in the feelings of Christ.”

Thus, he assured that the synodal teams and the participation bodies are an expression of what happens in the Church, “where relationships do not respond to the logic of power but to those of love.”

The Pontiff also took up the words of the message of his predecessor, Francis, in the Lenten Message of 2025, where he stressed that “The vocation of the Church is to walk together” and “to be synodal.” “Walking together means being artisans of unity, starting from the common dignity of children of God,” he indicated.

On the other hand, Pope Leo XIV urged us to dream and build a “humble and servant” Church, capable of reflecting the Gospel in its way of living and relating.

“A Church that does not stand upright like the Pharisee, triumphant and full of itself, but lowers itself to wash the feet of humanity; a Church that does not judge as the Pharisee does with the publican, but becomes a welcoming place for each and every one,” said the Pontiff.

He also invited the entire ecclesial community to commit to the building of aa Church “totally synodal, fully ministerial and fully drawn to Christ,” dedicated to the service of the world and open to listening to God and all the men and women of our time.