- Cindy Wooden, Vatican City, CNS
"Unity and mission are two essential aspects of the life of the Church and two priorities of the Petrine ministry," Pope Leo XIV affirmed in the audience. "For this reason, I ask all ecclesial associations and movements to cooperate faithfully and generously with the Pope, especially in these two areas."
"With their specific forms of prayer, evangelization or emphasis, both the long-established Catholic lay groups and those movements and more recent communities, are called to contribute to the unity and mission of the Church, Pope Leo XIV pointed out.
A common goal
Those who met with the Pope were about 250 leaders of 115 international associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements and new communities. Recognized and supported by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, whose prefect is Cardinal Kevin Farrell. Among the groups were, for example, the Legion of Mary, the Neocatechumenal Waywhose international team, headed by Kiko Argüellowas received by the Pope the day before, Communion and Liberationvarious charismatic communities and several Catholic scout groups.
"Some were founded to carry out a common apostolic, charitable or liturgical project, or to support Christian witness in specific social settings," Pope Leo noted. "Others, however, arose from a charismatic inspiration, an initial charism that gave rise to a movement, a new form of spirituality and evangelization."
However, all the groups aim to help their members live more deeply the Christian life in the service of God, the Church and their brothers and sisters, he said.
"The Christian life is not lived in isolation."
"The desire to work together for a common goal reflects an essential reality: no one is a Christian alone," the Pope told the leaders. "We are part of a people, a body established by the Lord."
"The Christian life is not lived in isolation, as a kind of intellectual or sentimental experience, confined to the mind and heart," he added. "It is lived with others, in groups and in community, because the risen Christ is present wherever disciples gather in his name."....
But within the Church, the Pope said, such groups cannot live in isolation either.
"Seek to spread everywhere this unity that you yourselves experience in your groups and communities, always in communion with the pastors of the Church and in solidarity with other ecclesial realities," said Pope Leo.
"Your charisms, leaven of unity and communion."
"Draw close to all those you meet, so that your charisms may always be at the service of the Church's unity and be a leaven of unity, communion and fraternity in a world so torn apart by discord and violence," he said, quoting from his May 18 homily at the Mass inaugurating his papacy.
The outward focus of the groups is also essential, he said, since the Church is called to be missionary, sharing God's love with the world.
"The mission of the Church has been an important part of my own pastoral experience and has shaped my spiritual life," said the pope, who spent decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru.
At the service of the Church's mission
"You too have lived this spiritual journey," he stressed. "Your encounter with the Lord and the new life that filled your hearts gave birth in you to the desire to make him known to others."
"Keep this missionary impulse always alive among you: the movements also today have a fundamental role in evangelization," the Pope encouraged.
"Put your talents at the service of the Church's mission, whether in places of first evangelization or in your parishes and local ecclesial communities, in order to reach out to those who, though distant, are often waiting, without being aware of it, to hear God's word of life," Pope Leo told the groups.
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This article is a translation of an article first published in OSV News. You can find the original article here.
