Pope Leo: The Church is open for everyone

Holy Father meets mini-Pope during the General Audience in St Peter's Square today - Screenshot

Source: Vatican Media

In a world marked by divisions and tensions, the Church unites her members through their faith in Christ and His love and therefore has the mission to reach out to everyone, Pope Leo XIV said during the General Audience today in St Peter's Square.

"Unified in Christ, Lord and Saviour of every man and woman, the Church can never turn inwards on herself, but is open to everyone and is for everyone," he said.

"It is a great sign of hope - especially in our times, traversed by so many conflicts and wars - to know that the Church is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages, and cultures live together in faith," he continued.

"It is a sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all His children," he said.

Pope Leo XIV continued his catechesis series on the Documents of the Second Vatican Council, focusing again on the 1964 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium.

In this week's catechesis, he reflected on the alliance that God has created with His people and what this means for the Church and every Christian.

"In the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone," he said, adding that "every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which he or she lives and works."

The Pope explained that God "wishes to save every person," and He thus carries out His "work of salvation in history" by "choosing a real people and dwelling among them."

He highlighted that, in the Old Testament, God called Abraham, promised him numerous descendants, and then freed these descendants from slavery and made a covenant with them.

"The identity of this people is given by God's action and by faith in Him," the Pope said, adding that "they are called to become a light for other nations, like a beacon that will draw all peoples, the whole of humanity, to itself."

In Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council explains that this mission takes its fuller meaning in light of "that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh," the Pope underlined.

"Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this people in Himself and in a definitive way."

Pope said this is truly the identity of the Church today: "the people of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ and who are themselves the body of Christ." It is "made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth" who are united not by "a language, a culture, an ethnicity" but by Jesus.

"Those who belong to it do not pride themselves on merits or titles, but only on the gift of being, in Christ and through Him, daughters and sons of God," the Pope continued.

He pointed out that "above any task or function" in the Church, what is truly important is being "grafted onto Christ" and being "children of God by grace." That is "the only honorary title we should seek as Christians," he insisted.

"Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity."

Explaining that the Church is made up of the people of God united and chosen by Christ, Pope Leo then emphasized that the mission of the Church and of every one of her faithful is to spread the Gospel to all.

The Council, through Lumen gentium, reminds us that "all men are called to belong to the new people of God," meaning that "this people, remaining one and unique, must extend to the whole world and to all ages," so that God's intention of gathering together all "his children" may be fulfilled.

"Even those who have not yet received the Gospel are therefore, in some way, oriented towards the people of God," he continued, adding that the Church "is called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere and to everyone, so that every person may enter into contact with Christ."

This invites the Church to be open to all, meaning welcoming different cultures while at the same time "offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up."

"In this regard, the Church is one but includes everyone," the Pope concluded, citing also French Jesuit Father Henri de Lubac, who said, "The unique Ark of Salvation must welcome all human diversity into its vast nave."

LINKS

Official text of Pope Leo's reflection: www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/audiences/2026/documents/20260311-udienza-generale.html

Watch the audience on Vatican Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNT2-89QJmc

Lumen Gentium: www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html