Pope Leo XIV on Sunday made his first visit to a parish in the Diocese of Rome, celebrating Mass at Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido and urging Catholics to cultivate \u201ccoherence between faith and life\u201d while opposing violence and injustice with \u201cthe disarming strength of meekness\u201d and renewed prayer for peace.<\/p>\n
Santa Maria Regina Pacis, located on Rome\u2019s coast and part of the diocese\u2019s southern sector, is the first Roman parish the pope has visited during his pontificate. The pope is expected to visit four additional parishes over the next four Sundays in the diocese\u2019s remaining sectors.<\/p>\n
Upon his arrival, Leo was welcomed by Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina and Bishop Tarantelli Baccari, vicegerent and auxiliary bishop for the southern sector. Before Mass, the pope greeted children in catechism and young people in a field behind the church, then met with the elderly, the sick, the poor, and Caritas volunteers in the parish gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is for me a source of great joy,\u201d the pope said in his homily, \u201cto be here and to live with your community the gesture from which Sunday takes its name. It is the Lord\u2019s Day because the risen Jesus comes among us, listens to us and speaks to us, nourishes us and sends us out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the day\u2019s readings, Leo said the law God gave his people is not opposed to freedom but is \u201cthe condition for making it flourish.\u201d The Lord\u2019s commandments, he added, \u201care not an oppressive law, but his pedagogy for humanity, which seeks the fullness of life and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 preaching, he continued, reveals \u201cthe authentic and full meaning of God\u2019s law,\u201d pointing to a fidelity to God grounded in respect and care for others \u201cin their inviolable sacredness\u201d \u2014 something to be cultivated first \u201cin the heart.\u201d The pope warned that it is in the heart that both \u201cthe noblest sentiments\u201d and \u201cthe most painful profanations\u201d take root: \u201cclosures, envies, jealousies,\u201d by which someone who harbors evil thoughts against a brother is \u201cas if, within, he were already killing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must remember,\u201d Leo added, \u201cthat the evil we see in the world has its roots precisely there, where the heart becomes cold, hard, and poor in mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pope said such realities are felt \u201calso here, in Ostia,\u201d where violence can wound, sometimes taking hold among young people and adolescents, \u201cperhaps fueled by the use of substances,\u201d or through criminal organizations that exploit people and draw them into wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
In response, he urged the parish community to continue working \u201cwith generosity and courage\u201d to sow \u201cthe good seed of the Gospel\u201d in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not resign yourselves to the culture of abuse and injustice,\u201d the pope said. \u201cOn the contrary, spread respect and harmony, beginning by disarming language and then investing energy and resources in education, especially for children and youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the young in particular, Leo expressed the hope that they would learn in the parish \u201chonesty, welcome, and love that overcomes boundaries,\u201d as well as the ability to help those who do not repay them and to greet those who do not greet them \u2014 learning to go toward everyone \u201cfreely and gratuitously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLearn coherence between faith and life, as Jesus teaches us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In concluding remarks, the pope recalled that Pope Benedict XV gave the church its title, \u201cSt. Mary, Queen of Peace,\u201d during World War I, envisioning the community as \u201ca ray of light in the leaden sky of war.\u201d Today, Leo said, \u201cmany clouds still darken the world,\u201d including the spread of ways of thinking contrary to the Gospel that exalt \u201cthe supremacy of the strongest,\u201d encourage arrogance, and prize \u201cvictory at any cost,\u201d deaf to the cry of those who suffer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us oppose this drift with the disarming strength of meekness,\u201d the pope said, \u201ccontinuing to ask for peace, and to welcome it and cultivate its gift with tenacity and humility.\u201d<\/p>\n