Pope Leo XIV says "Christians" Bear Witness as They "leave signs of faith and love in society" and Urges All to Pray for Peace

Pope LEO XIV at the GENERAL AUDIENCE
in the Vatican Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 8 April 2026

FULL TEXT  - The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 7. Holiness and evangelical counsels in the Church


Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

The Constitution of the Second Vatican Council Lumen gentium (LG) on the Church dedicates an entire chapter, the fifth, to the universal vocation to holiness of all the faithful: every one of us is called to live in the grace of God, practising the virtues and imitating Christ. Holiness, according to the Conciliar Constitution, is not a privilege for the few, but a gift that requires every baptized person to strive for the perfection of charity, that is, the fullness of love towards God and towards one’s neighbour.

Charity is, in fact, the heart of the holiness to which all believers are called: infused by the Father, through the Son Jesus, this virtue “rules over all the means of attaining holiness and gives life to these same means” (LG, 42). The highest level of holiness, as in the early days of the Church, is martyrdom, the “supreme witness of faith and charity” (LG, 50: for this reason, the Council text teaches that every believer must be ready to confess Christ even unto blood (cf. LG, 42), as has always been the case and continues to be so today. This readiness to bear witness is realized every time Christians leave signs of faith and love in society, committing themselves to justice.

All the Sacraments, and in a pre-eminent way the Eucharist, are nourishment that fosters a holy life, assimilating every person to Christ, the model and measure of holiness. He sanctifies the Church, of which He is the Head and Shepherd: holiness is, from this point of view, His gift, which is manifested in our daily life every time we receive it with joy and respond to it with commitment. In this regard, Saint Paul VI, in the General Audience of 20 October 1965, recalled that the Church, to be authentic, requires that all the baptized must “be holy, that is, truly worthy, strong and faithful children of hers”. This is realized as an inner transformation, whereby the life of every person is conformed to Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:29; LG, 40).

Lumen gentium describes the holiness of the Catholic Church as one of her constitutive characteristics, to receive in faith, inasmuch as she is believed to be “indefectibly holy” (LG, 39): this does not mean that she is so in a full and perfect sense, but that she is called to confirm this divine gift during her pilgrimage towards the eternal destination, walking “amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God” (Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei 51,2; LG, 8). The sad reality of sin in the Church, that is, in all of us, invites each person to carry out a serious change of life, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, who renews us in charity. It is precisely this infinite grace, which sanctifies the Church, that entrusts us with a mission to fulfil day after day: that of our conversion. Therefore, holiness does not only have a practical nature, as if it were reducible to an ethical commitment, however great, but concerns the very essence of Christian life, both personal and communal.

From this perspective, a decisive role is played by consecrated life, which the Conciliar Constitution considers in the sixth chapter (cf. nos. 43-47). In the holy People of God, it constitutes a prophetic sign of the new world, experienced here and now in history. Indeed, signs of the Kingdom of God, already present in the mystery of the Church, are those evangelical counsels that shape every experience of consecrated life: poverty, chastity and obedience. These three virtues are not rules that shackle freedom, but liberating gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which some of the faithful are wholly consecrated to God. Poverty expresses complete trust in Providence, freeing one from calculation and self-interest; obedience takes as its model the self-giving that Christ offered to the Father, freeing one from suspicion and domination; chastity is the gift of a heart that is whole and pure in love, at the service of God and the Church.

By conforming to this style of life, consecrated persons bear witness to the universal vocation of holiness of the entire Church, in the form of radical discipleship. The evangelical counsels manifest full participation in the life of Christ, unto the Cross: it is precisely by the sacrifice of the Crucified One that we are all redeemed and sanctified! By contemplating this event, we know that there is no human experience that God does not redeem: even suffering, lived in union with the passion of the Lord, becomes a path of holiness. The grace that converts and transforms life thus strengthens us in every trial, pointing us not towards a distant ideal, but towards the encounter with God, who became man out of love. May the Virgin Mary, the all-holy Mother of the Incarnate Word, always sustain and protect our journey.

_____________________________

Special greetings:


I cordially greet the French-speaking pilgrims, especially those from France: the faithful of various parishes and the students of various Catholic schools; the pilgrims from Belgium and Switzerland. Be joyful witnesses of charity and peace, which the world so desperately needs. God bless you !

I greet the English speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today's audience, in particular the groups from England, Ireland, Nigeria, Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States of America. In the joy of the risen Christ, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all and may his peace be with you!

 Dear German-speaking brothers and sisters, in these days we give thanks to God for the gift of our redemption, for through the sacrifice of Christ's Cross we have been saved and sanctified. Strengthened by his love and in the sure hope of the resurrection, we wish to follow the Lord and profess him as our Redeemer before all men .]

I cordially greet the pilgrims of the Spanish language. Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of all Saints, who intercedes for us, so that we may be persevering and happy on the path to holiness, bearing witness every day to our faith in Christ resurrected. May God bless them. Much thanks.


I extend my cordial greeting to the Chinese-speaking people. Dear brothers and sisters, I invoke upon each of you the gifts of grace and peace that flow from Christ's Resurrection. I bless you wholeheartedly .


Dear Portuguese-speaking brothers and sisters, welcome! I extend a special greeting to the young scouts of Vila Flor, Portugal. Saint Charles Acutis said: "In front of the sun, we get a tan. In front of the Eucharist, we become saints!" Go, therefore, to the Risen Jesus and become friends with Him: seek Him every Sunday, stop by to greet Him in church, welcome the gift of His Spirit, and always guard His Peace. May the Lord bless you and your families !

[ I greet the Arabic-speaking faithful. With the resurrection of Jesus, evil no longer has power over us, and death becomes a gateway to the beginning of a new life. To all of you, Happy Easter! ]

I cordially greet the Polish people. The risen Christ brings joy and hope to every man. May his victory over evil and death give courage, especially to young people, to faithfully follow the evangelical counsels, particularly on the path of vocation to the various forms of consecrated life. My blessing to all !

__________________________________

APPEAL

Following these last hours of great tension in the Middle East and the entire world, I welcome with satisfaction and as a sign of fervent hope the announcement of an immediate two-week truce. Only through a return to negotiations can the war end.

I urge you to accompany this time of delicate diplomatic work with prayer, hoping that openness to dialogue may become the instrument for resolving other conflict situations in the world.

I renew my invitation to everyone to join me in the Prayer Vigil for Peace that we will celebrate here in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, April 11.

* * *

I extend a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. In particular, I greet the young people from the Archdiocese of Milan, who have come to Rome to complete their journey of catechetical formation through the profession of faith at the tombs of the Apostles; the confirmed students from the Diocese of Treviso; and the young people from the mystagogy of Cremona. Dearest friends, may you bear witness with the enthusiasm and generosity typical of your youth to your fidelity to the Gospel, always following Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Finally, my thoughts turn to the sick, newlyweds, and other young people, especially the schoolchildren, including the Maraini School of Rieti. I encourage each of you to let the consoling light of the Easter message grow in your hearts.

My blessing to everyone!_____________________________

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters, in today’s catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, we turn our attention to the universal call to holiness. Every baptized person is called to be holy: to live in God’s grace, to practice virtue and to become like Christ. At its heart is love for both God and neighbor, and its greatest expression is martyrdom, the supreme witness of faith and charity. For this reason, the Church teaches that believers should be ready to confess Christ to the point of shedding blood. However, the interior transformation that conforms us to Christ is not possible without the aid of the Sacraments, most especially the Eucharist. In this regard, I would like to make particular mention of those men and women who consecrate their lives to God through the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience which express their complete trust in God’s providence, modelled on Christ’s gift of himself to the Father with a pure heart. By their lives, consecrated persons radically witness to the fullness of life in Christ, even to the cross.