Pope Leo XIV says “it is necessary to proclaim Christ to a society that is distancing itself from Christian values and is even losing the memory of them" at Mass on 1st Anniversary of his Pontificate - FULL TEXT + VIDEO

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in the Italian city of Pompeii, and prayed that God’s overflowing mercy may fill our hearts and world with peace. The pontiff marked the first anniversary of his pontificate on Friday, May 8, with a visit to the southern Italian cities of Pompeii and Naples. The Pope celebrated Mass in the square in front of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary, and recalled that he was elected Pope on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Pastoral Visit of Pope Leo XIV to Pompeii and Naples - HOLY MASS
FULL TEXT HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER
Piazza Bartolo Longo, in front of the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii on Friday, May 8, 2026
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Dear brothers and sisters!
"My soul magnifies the Lord." These words, with which we responded to the first reading, flow from the heart of the Virgin Mary as she presents to Elizabeth the fruit of her womb, Jesus, the Savior. After her, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and the elderly Simeon will sing for Christ. These three canticles punctuate the Church's daily praise in the Liturgy of the Hours. They are the gaze of ancient Israel, which sees its promises fulfilled; they are the gaze of the Church, the Bride, reaching out to her divine Spouse; they are implicitly the gaze of all humanity, which finds the answer to its yearning for salvation.

One hundred and fifty years ago, by laying the first stone of this Shrine, on the spot where the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD had buried the signs of a great civilization under ash, protecting them for centuries, Saint Bartolo Longo , together with his wife, Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, laid the foundations not only for a temple, but for an entire Marian city. Thus he expressed his awareness of God's plan, which Saint John Paul II , speaking in this place of grace on 7 October 2003 , at the conclusion of the Year of the Rosary, relaunched for the Third Millennium, from the perspective of the new evangelization: "Today," he said, "as in the times of ancient Pompeii, it is necessary to proclaim Christ to a society that is distancing itself from Christian values ​​and even losing its memory of them."

Exactly one year ago, when I was entrusted with the ministry of Successor of Peter, it was precisely the day of the Supplication to the Virgin, this beautiful day of the Supplication to the Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii! I therefore had to come here, to place my service under the protection of the Holy Virgin. Having then chosen the name of Leo, places me in the footsteps of Leo XIII , who had, among other merits, that of having developed a broad Magisterium on the Holy Rosary . Added to all this is the recent canonization of Saint Bartolo Longo , apostle of the Rosary . This context provides us with a key to reflect on the Word of God we have just heard.

The Gospel of the Annunciation introduces us to the moment when the Word of God became flesh in Mary's womb. From this womb radiates the Light that gives full meaning to history and the world. The greeting that the angel Gabriel addresses to the Virgin is an invitation to rejoice: "Hail, full of grace!" ( Lk 1:28; cf. Zeph 3:14). Yes, the Hail Mary is an invitation to joy: it tells Mary, and through her, all of us, that on the ruins of our humanity, tested by sin and therefore always prone to abuse, oppression, and war, God's caress has come, the caress of mercy, which takes on a human face in Jesus. Mary thus becomes the Mother of Mercy. Disciple of the Word and instrument of his incarnation, she truly reveals herself as "full of grace." Everything in her is grace! By offering her own flesh to the Word, she also becomes, as the Second Vatican Council teaches following St. Augustine, "mother of the members (of Christ) ... because she cooperated through charity in the birth of the faithful of the Church, who are the members of that Head" (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium , 53; cf. St. Augustine, De S. Virginitate , 6). In Mary's "Here I am," not only Jesus is born, but also the Church, and Mary becomes at once the Mother of God – Theotokos – and the Mother of the Church.

Great mystery! Everything happens in the power of the Holy Spirit, who overshadows Mary and makes her virginal womb fruitful. This moment in history has a sweetness and power that attract the heart and bring it to that contemplative heights in which the prayer of the Holy Rosary springs forth . A prayer that, having arisen and developed progressively in the second millennium, has its roots in the history of salvation, and has its prelude precisely in the Angel's Greeting to the Virgin. "Hail Mary!" The repetition of this prayer in the Rosary is like the echo of Gabriel's greeting, an echo that spans the centuries and guides the believer's gaze to Jesus, seen through the eyes and heart of the Mother. Jesus is adored, contemplated, assimilated in each of his mysteries, so that with Saint Paul we can say: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" ( Gal 2:19).

Preceded by the proclamation of the Word of God, nestled between the Our Father and the Gloria, the Hail Mary repeated in the Holy Rosary is an act of love. Isn't it precisely love to tirelessly repeat: "I love you"? An act of love which, on the beads of the rosary, as can be clearly seen in the Marian painting in this Shrine, leads us back to Jesus and brings us to the Eucharist, "the source and summit of all Christian life" ( Lumen Gentium , 11). Saint Bartolo Longo was convinced of this when he wrote: "The Eucharist is the living Rosary, and all the mysteries are found in the Holy Sacrament in an active and vital form" ( Il Rosario e la Nuova Pompei , 1914, p. 86). He was right. In the Eucharist, the mysteries of Christ's life are all found, so to speak, concentrated in the memorial of his sacrifice and in his real presence. The Rosary has a Marian physiognomy, but a Christological and Eucharistic heart (cf. Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae , 1). If the Liturgy of the Hours marks the times of the Church's praise, the Rosary marks the rhythm of our life, continually bringing it back to Jesus and the Eucharist.

Generations of believers have been shaped and protected by this prayer, simple and popular, yet capable of mystical heights and a treasure trove of the most essential Christian theology. What, in fact, is more essential than the mysteries of Christ, than his holy Name, spoken with the tenderness of the Virgin Mary? It is in this Name, and in no other, that we can be saved (cf. Acts 4:12). By repeating it in every Hail Mary, we somehow experience the house of Nazareth, almost listening again to the voices of Mary and Joseph during the long years Jesus lived with them. We also experience the Upper Room, where the Apostles with Mary awaited the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is what the first reading pointed out to us. How can we not imagine that, in that time between the Ascension and Pentecost, Mary and the Apostles vied with each other in recalling the different moments of Jesus' life? No detail was to escape notice! Everything was to be remembered, assimilated, imitated. Thus was born the contemplative journey of the Church, of which, like the liturgical year, the Rosary offers a synthesis in the daily meditation of the holy Mysteries. The Rosary has rightly been considered a compendium of the Gospel, which Saint John Paul II wished to integrate with the Mysteries of Light . This dimension was also very much alive in Saint Bartolo Longo , who offered pilgrims profound meditations to remove the Holy Rosary from the temptation of mechanical recitation and ensure its biblical, Christological, and contemplative scope.

Sisters and brothers, if the Rosary is "prayed" and, I dare say, "celebrated" in this way, it is also, by natural consequence, a source of charity. Charity towards God, charity towards neighbor: two sides of the same coin, as the second reading from the first Letter of Saint John reminds us, concluding with the exhortation: "Let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and in truth" ( 1 John 3:18). Therefore Saint Bartolo Longo was an apostle of the Rosary and, at the same time, an apostle of charity. In this Marian city he welcomed orphans and children of prisoners, demonstrating the regenerating power of love. Here even today the smallest and weakest are welcomed and cared for in the Works of the Shrine. The Rosary directs our gaze to the needs of the world, as the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae emphasized, proposing in particular two intentions that remain of pressing relevance: the family, which suffers from the weakening of the marital bond, and peace, jeopardized by international tensions and an economy that prefers the arms trade to respect for human life.

When Saint John Paul II proclaimed the Year of the Rosary —next year marks a quarter of a century—he wanted to place it in a special way under the gaze of the Virgin of Pompeii. Times have not improved since then. The wars still being fought in many regions of the world call for a renewed commitment, not only economic and political, but also spiritual and religious. Peace is born within the heart. The Pontiff himself, in October 1986, gathered the leaders of the main religions in Assisi, inviting everyone to pray for peace . On several occasions, including recent ones, both Pope Francis and I have asked the faithful around the world to pray for this intention. We cannot resign ourselves to the images of death that the news presents to us every day. From this Sanctuary, whose façade Saint Bartolo Longo conceived as a monument to peace, today we raise our prayer with faith. Jesus told us that prayer offered with faith can obtain everything (cf. Mt 21:22). And Saint Bartolo Longo , thinking of Mary's faith, calls her "omnipotent by grace." Through her intercession, may the God of peace bring forth an overflowing outpouring of mercy, touching hearts, calming fratricidal resentments and hatreds, and enlightening those with special responsibilities in government.

Brothers and sisters, no earthly power will save the world, but only the divine power of love, this divine power of love that Jesus, the Lord, revealed and gave to us. Let us believe in Him, let us hope in Him, let us follow Him!