{"id":3761,"date":"2025-05-19T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2025-05-19T13:42:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:42:40","slug":"pope-leos-address-to-representatives-of-other-churches-and-religions-19-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/pope-leos-address-to-representatives-of-other-churches-and-religions-19-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo’s Address to Representatives of other Churches and Religions ~ 19 May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(OSV News) \u2014 This is the full text of the address given by Pope Leo XIV May 19, 2025 to the representatives of other churches and ecclesial communities and of other religions who had gathered in Rome for the inauguration Mass beginning his Petrine ministry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters,<\/p>\n

With great joy I extend my cordial greetings to all of you, Representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, as well as of other religions, who participated in the inaugural celebration of my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter.\u00a0 I express fraternal affection to His All Holiness Bartholomew, His Beatitude Theophilos III and His Holiness Mar Awa III, and to each of you I am deeply grateful for your presence and prayers, which are a great comfort and encouragement.<\/p>\n

One of the strong emphases of Pope Francis\u2019 pontificate was that of universal fraternity.\u00a0 In this regard the Holy Spirit really \u201curged\u201d him to advance with great strides the initiatives already undertaken by previous Pontiffs, especially since Saint John XXIII.\u00a0 The Pope of Fratelli Tutti promoted both the ecumenical path and interreligious dialogue.\u00a0 He did so above all by cultivating interpersonal relations, in such a way that, without taking anything away from ecclesial bonds, the human trait of the encounter was always valued.\u00a0 May God help us to treasure his witness!<\/p>\n

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My election has taken place during the year of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.\u00a0 That Council represents a milestone in the formulation of the Creed shared by all Churches and Ecclesial Communities.\u00a0 While we are on the journey to re-establishing full communion among all Christians, we recognise that this unity can only be unity in faith.\u00a0 As Bishop of Rome, I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the re-establishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Indeed, unity has always been a constant concern of mine, as witnessed by the motto I chose for my episcopal ministry: In Illo uno unum, an expression of Saint Augustine of Hippo that reminds us how we too, although we are many, \u201cin the One \u2014 that is Christ \u2014 we are one\u201d (Enarr. in Ps., 127, 3).\u00a0 What is more, our communion is realised to the extent that we meet in the Lord Jesus.\u00a0 The more faithful and obedient we are to him, the more united we are among ourselves.\u00a0 We Christians, then, are all called to pray and work together to reach this goal, step by step, which is and remains the work of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Aware, moreover, that synodality and ecumenism are closely linked, I would like to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis\u2019 commitment to promoting the synodal nature of the Catholic Church and developing new and concrete forms for an ever stronger synodality in ecumenical relations.<\/p>\n

Our common path can and must also be understood in the broad sense of involving everyone, in the spirit of human fraternity that I mentioned above.\u00a0 Now is the time for dialogue and building bridges. \u00a0 I am therefore pleased and grateful for the presence of representatives of other religious traditions, who share the search for God and his will, which is always and only the will of love and life for men and women and for all creatures.<\/p>\n

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Pope Leo XIV greets Buddhist monks who present him with gifts during a meeting with religious leaders at the Vatican May 19, 2025. The leaders were in Rome for the pope\u2019s inauguration Mass. (CNS photo\/Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You have witnessed the remarkable efforts made by Pope Francis in favour of interreligious dialogue.\u00a0 Through his words and actions, he opened new avenues of encounter, to promote \u201cthe culture of dialogue as the path; mutual collaboration as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard\u201d (A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019).\u00a0 I thank the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue for the essential role it plays in this patient work of encouraging meetings and concrete exchanges aimed at building relationships based on human fraternity.<\/p>\n

In a special way I greet our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters.\u00a0 Because of the Jewish roots of Christianity, all Christians have a special relationship with Judaism.\u00a0 The conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate (no. 4) emphasises the greatness of the spiritual heritage shared by Christians and Jews, encouraging mutual knowledge and esteem.\u00a0 The theological dialogue between Christians and Jews remains ever important and close to my heart.\u00a0 Even in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue the momentum of this precious dialogue of ours.<\/p>\n

Relations between the Catholic Church and Muslims have been marked by a growing commitment to dialogue and fraternity, fostered by esteem for these our brothers and sisters who \u201cworship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to humanity\u201d (ibid., 3).\u00a0 This approach, based on mutual respect and freedom of conscience, is a solid foundation for building bridges between our communities.<\/p>\n

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Pope Leo XIV receives a gift of prayer beads from a Muslim leader during a meeting with religious leaders at the Vatican May 19, 2025. The leaders were in Rome for the pope\u2019s inauguration Mass. (CNS photo\/Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To all of you, representatives of other religious traditions, I express my gratitude for your participation in this meeting and for your contribution to peace.\u00a0 In a world wounded by violence and conflict, each of the communities represented here brings its own contribution of wisdom, compassion and commitment to the good of humanity and the preservation of our common home.\u00a0 I am convinced that if we are in agreement, and free from ideological and political conditioning, we can be effective in saying \u201cno\u201d to war and \u201cyes\u201d to peace, \u201cno\u201d to the arms race and \u201cyes\u201d to disarmament, \u201cno\u201d to an economy that impoverishes peoples and the Earth and \u201cyes\u201d to integral development.<\/p>\n

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The witness of our fraternity, which I hope we will be able to show with effective gestures, will certainly contribute to building a more peaceful world, something that all men and women of good will desire in their hearts.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dear friends, thank you again for your closeness.\u00a0 Let us ask for God\u2019s blessing in our hearts: may his infinite goodness and wisdom help us to live as his children and as brothers and sisters to each other, so that hope may grow in the world.\u00a0 I offer you my heartfelt gratitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(OSV News) \u2014 This is the full text of the address given by Pope Leo XIV May 19, 2025 to the representatives of other churches and ecclesial communities and of other religions who had gathered in Rome for the inauguration Mass beginning his Petrine ministry. Dear brothers and sisters, With great joy I extend my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":965,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","post-thumbnail":"","vantage-thumbnail-no-sidebar":"","vantage-slide":"","vantage-carousel":"","vantage-grid-loop":"","mailpoet_newsletter_max":"","sow-carousel-default":""},"author_info":{"info":["CADEIO CADEIO"]},"category_info":"News and Updates<\/a>","tag_info":"News and Updates","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3765,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions\/3765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cadeio.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}