Pope Leo XIV welcomed Eastern Catholics to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Eastern Churches, emphasizing the need to preserve their traditions and pray for true peace. “The Church needs you!” he said, highlighting the immense contribution the Christian East can offer the Church today. He greeted the faithful with the traditional Easter greeting, “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!” and expressed happiness at devoting one of the first encounters of his pontificate to the Eastern faithful.
“You are precious in God’s eyes,” Pope Leo XIV said, acknowledging the diversity of origins, glorious history, and bitter sufferings of the Eastern Catholic communities. He reaffirmed Pope Francis’ conviction that Eastern Churches are to be “cherished and esteemed for the unique spiritual and sapiential traditions that they preserve, and for all that they have to say to us about the Christian life, synodality, and the liturgy.”
The Pope emphasized the importance of preserving Eastern traditions, especially the liturgy, and expressed concern for those who have been exiled from their homelands and risk losing their native lands and religious identity. He asked the Dicastery for Eastern Churches to help define principles and guidelines to support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora.
Preserving Traditions and Promoting Peace
Pope Leo XIV highlighted the need to recover the sense of mystery expressed in Eastern liturgies and to rediscover the primacy of God and mystagogy. “It is vital then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them,” he said. He also emphasized the “medicinal” value of Eastern spirituality, combining “the drama of human misery with wonder at God’s mercy.”
The Pope lamented the violence plaguing regions like the Holy Land, Ukraine, and the Middle East, and made a heartfelt appeal for peace: “Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” He insisted that “war is never inevitable” and called for the silencing of weapons, “which do not resolve problems, but only increase them.”
Commitment to Peace
Pope Leo XIV expressed his commitment to making every effort for peace to prevail, reaffirming the Holy See’s willingness to help bring enemies together for dialogue. He thanked God for those sowing peace and expressed gratitude for Christians persevering in their homelands. The Pope encouraged pastors of Eastern Churches to promote community with integrity, making their communities “places of fraternity and co-responsibility.”
“Today more than ever,” concluded Pope Leo XIV, “the splendor of the Christian East demands freedom from all worldly attachments, and from every tendency contrary to communion, in order to remain faithful in obedience and in evangelical witness.”