Pope: Love of God leads to work for justice, proclaiming Gospel
August 15, 2025 at 5:05 p.m.
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Living and proclaiming the Catholic faith always includes concrete assistance to people in need, Pope Leo XIV wrote in a message to Catholics in Peru.
"The pain of injustice and exclusion experienced by so many of our brothers and sisters urges all of us who are baptized to respond," he said in his message to people participating in the Peruvian Church's Social Week events Aug. 14-16 in Lima.
The response of Catholics to the poverty and injustice around them "must come from the heart of the Gospel and be attuned to the signs of the times," Pope Leo wrote.
The combination of intense prayer and unselfish service to the poor is part of the "density of holiness" found in Peru and is seen particularly in the country's saints, including St. Rose of Lima, Martin de Porres, John Macías and Toribio of Mogrovejo, he said.
Today, too, the world needs the witness of saints, "that is, people who remain united to the Lord, like branches to the vine."
"Saints are not decorations from a baroque past; they are born from a call of God to help build a better future," he wrote. But Catholics also must understand that "all social action of the Church must have as its center and goal the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, so that, without neglecting what is urgent, we always keep a clear sense of the true and ultimate direction of our service. For if we do not give Christ fully, we are always giving far too little."
Pope Leo quoted what St. Paul VI had said at the canonization of St. John Macías, describing the saint as one who engaged in charity "because he loved human beings, because in them he saw the image of God."
But St. Paul also cautioned that "one must not stray from the Gospel, nor break the law of charity to seek greater justice through paths of violence. The Gospel holds within itself sufficient power to generate renewing forces that, transforming people from within, move them to change whatever structures are necessary, to make them more just, more human."
"The same love" that moves Christians to offer material bread, he said, moves them to offer "the bread of the word, which in turn, by its own dynamism, must awaken a hunger for the 'Bread of Heaven' – that which only the Church can give, by the mandate and will of Christ, and which no human institution, no matter how well-intentioned, can replace."
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CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Living and proclaiming the Catholic faith always includes concrete assistance to people in need, Pope Leo XIV wrote in a message to Catholics in Peru.
"The pain of injustice and exclusion experienced by so many of our brothers and sisters urges all of us who are baptized to respond," he said in his message to people participating in the Peruvian Church's Social Week events Aug. 14-16 in Lima.
The response of Catholics to the poverty and injustice around them "must come from the heart of the Gospel and be attuned to the signs of the times," Pope Leo wrote.
The combination of intense prayer and unselfish service to the poor is part of the "density of holiness" found in Peru and is seen particularly in the country's saints, including St. Rose of Lima, Martin de Porres, John Macías and Toribio of Mogrovejo, he said.
Today, too, the world needs the witness of saints, "that is, people who remain united to the Lord, like branches to the vine."
"Saints are not decorations from a baroque past; they are born from a call of God to help build a better future," he wrote. But Catholics also must understand that "all social action of the Church must have as its center and goal the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, so that, without neglecting what is urgent, we always keep a clear sense of the true and ultimate direction of our service. For if we do not give Christ fully, we are always giving far too little."
Pope Leo quoted what St. Paul VI had said at the canonization of St. John Macías, describing the saint as one who engaged in charity "because he loved human beings, because in them he saw the image of God."
But St. Paul also cautioned that "one must not stray from the Gospel, nor break the law of charity to seek greater justice through paths of violence. The Gospel holds within itself sufficient power to generate renewing forces that, transforming people from within, move them to change whatever structures are necessary, to make them more just, more human."
"The same love" that moves Christians to offer material bread, he said, moves them to offer "the bread of the word, which in turn, by its own dynamism, must awaken a hunger for the 'Bread of Heaven' – that which only the Church can give, by the mandate and will of Christ, and which no human institution, no matter how well-intentioned, can replace."