By Our Reporter
Pope Leo XIV in his first public homily as pontiff, issued a stark warning against a rising global loss of faith, urging the Catholic church to respond with “desperate” missionary outreach in the face of indifference, ridicule and hostility towards Christianity.
The 69-year-old former missionary, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, addressed the College of Cardinals on Friday at the Sistine Chapel, a day after his election as the 267th successor of st peter and spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Standing before Michelangelo’s towering Fresco of The Last Judgment, the new pope spoke passionately about the contemporary world’s drift from Christian values. “There are places or situations where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied,” he said.
“Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.”
Leo XIV lamented what he called the reduction of faith to irrelevance in many societies. “In settings where the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent,” he warned, “a lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”
Wearing a simple white papal robe trimmed with gold, Pope Leo also seemed to address a growing trend within some Christian movements, cautioning against distorting the image of Jesus.
“Jesus cannot be reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman,” he said. “This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptised Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.”
The newly elected pontiff also made an impromptu appeal in English, his native language, calling for unity within the Church. “I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me,” he told the cardinals, drawing a warm round of applause.
A former bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru, Leo XIV served for decades in Latin America, earning him the nickname “Latin Yankee” in Roman ecclesiastical circles. His unexpected elevation — the first time a pope has been chosen from the United States — sent shockwaves through the global Catholic community.
“A Pope from the United States is almost more surprising than an Argentine and Jesuit pope,” wrote Corriere della Sera, referencing his predecessor, Pope Prancis, who in 2013 became the first pontiff from the Americas.
As the world comes to know the new pope, his homily offered an early glimpse of a leadership style shaped by pastoral engagement, missionary zeal and a deep concern for the fractured state of modern faith. His message: the Gospel remains vital, especially where it seems most unwelcome.
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