Dear friends in Christ
This weekend we celebrate the memory and lives of Saints Peter and Paul—the two foundation stones of Holy Church. In Peter we see the image of the Church as founded on his profession of faith; in Paul we see the Church as missionary, going out to bring the Gospel of salvation to all mankind. The iconography of these two Apostles reminds us of these dimensions of the Church: Peter holds the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and Paul the scroll representing the teaching of his Letters to the various Christian Communities to which he wrote. I always feel an uplift when I see their statues on the tower of our Church: Peter is looking south, towards Rome, and Paul looks in the opposite direction, gazing out to the rest of the world, to where he would go as a missionary at the service of God’s Word.
It is the person of the Pope who embodies all of this for us today. It has been an exciting two months since the election of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, as he continues to make his mark upon the Church in all of the facets of ecclesiastical life.
Why did he want to be called Leo XIV? He himself explains the choice of name:
I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.
We have been blest with our new Holy Father, who exhibits such a love of Christ and His Church. He seems so very conscious of inhabiting a role that is greater than his person and seems determined to manifest this in his words and actions. For our part, let us pray that he will be given strength from above, to persevere and fulfil what Jesus told Peter: Confirm the faith of your brethren.
Finally, I recall the first words of Our Holy Father, immediately following his election and as he was presented to the world on 8th May:
I thank my brother Cardinals, who have chosen me to be the Successor of Peter and to walk together with you as a Church, united, ever pursuing peace and justice, ever seeking to act as men and women faithful to Jesus Christ, in order to proclaim the Gospel without fear, to be missionaries. I am an Augustinian, a son of Saint Augustine, who once said, “With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.” In this sense, all of us can journey together toward the homeland that God has prepared for us.
Our Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intercession and her love. So I would like to pray together with you. Let us pray together for this new mission, for the whole Church, for peace in the world, and let us ask Mary, our Mother, for this special grace.
God bless our Pope, the Church and all of us, as we celebrate the origins and foundational pillars of the Church this weekend!
Msgr Kevin Hale