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Pope Leo’s address to General Assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference
Synod Hall – Thursday, 28 May 2026
“We are people who are generated by mothers and fathers in the faith”
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
Thank you, Your Eminence, for your words.
I extend a warm greeting to all those elected to serve in the Episcopal Conference, especially the Vice President.
Through you, I would like to express my affection for all the churches in Italy, including priests, deacons, consecrated persons, families, catechists, educators, young people, the elderly, the poor, the sick, and those who live their faith in the simplicity of daily life. I also wish to express my affection for those who, perhaps without knowing it, carry a thirst for God in their hearts.
We have the grace to see this in different ways, even in a time like ours, which is marked by complexity.
I experienced this firsthand during my recent visits to Pompeii, Naples, and Acerra.
Many signs speak to us of fatigue, fragmentation, and loneliness.
In our communities, we sometimes feel the difficulty of transmitting the faith and involving the new generations.
But the Gospel rouses us.
Jesus does not see the crowds as a problem to be solved; he sees a harvest, he sees God’s field.: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few! Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest!” (Luke 10:2).
God is a tireless sower who goes out into the world every day and generously spreads the desire for the infinite, for a full life, and for salvation that liberates in hearts. Thank God the harvest is plentiful.
Our first task is to make the Lord’s gaze our own.
Don’t just complain about hardened soils or dwell on statistical data. Know how to see the harvest that God prepares for us with the eyes of the Risen One.
Dear brothers,
May the Holy Spirit give us hearts burning with Christ’s zeal and raise up many holy workers to join us in our work.
With this in mind, our top priority is the Gospel.
Eight hundred years after his passing, St. Francis of Assisi reminds us of this, as do St. Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi and Pope Francis’s Evangelii Gaudium. Faith is born from the Gospel as a living encounter with Christ, who died and rose again and is present in his Church..
In today’s context, where we are confronted with different life perspectives and unprecedented anthropological challenges, bringing the Gospel back to the center gives us enthusiasm and urgency as bishops.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves:
What aspect of God do we allow to shine through in our preaching, catechesis, liturgy, charitable work, and community life?
How do we foster encounters with Christ, and what does initiating others into the Christian life mean today for us and our churches?
As pastors, we must always ask ourselves these questions without ever taking them for granted.
Thus, renewed attention is given to Christian initiation, which cannot be considered only as preparation for the sacraments.
Rather, it is the “womb” in which a community generates faith and introduces it to Easter life, communion with the Lord, and ecclesial fraternity.
The focus is on rediscovering baptism as a living, existential reality and “it is not possible to fully understand Baptism except within Christian initiation, that is, the journey through which the Lord, through the ministry of the Church and the gift of the Spirit, introduces us to the paschal faith and inserts us into Trinitarian and ecclesial communion” (Final Document of the XVI Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,24).
This emphasis on the most recent Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is very important because it places the path that begins with baptism within a church that believes, celebrates, accompanies, and generates.
It is a Church that rejoices in amazement at young and adult catechumens and then sustains their perseverance after the initial impetus.
Faith is transmitted and grows in living, hospitable communities that are capable of prayer and listening.
These are communities in which the Word of God illuminates choices and is not relegated to the margins.
These are communities in which the Eucharist is truly the source and summit. These are communities in which the poor are not external recipients of service, but rather brothers and sisters through whom the Lord speaks to us.
These are communities in which young people have a voice and a story with which to engage in dialogue.
These are communities in which families are not left alone and their wounds are not hidden but rather brought before the Lord with humility.
These are communities in which faith becomes an effective commitment in society, politics, and culture.
For this reason, we bishops are called to listen deeply: to the Word of God, to the people of God, and to the signs of the times.
We must also listen to what calls our pastoral habits into question.
When we truly listen, the community does not close in on itself.
Instead, it becomes a place of discernment and mission.
To this end, it knows how to renew itself.
This is the meaning of the Synodal Journey that you have completed, and as you emphasized, it must now become a permanent way of life.
The Second Vatican Council reminded us that God wants to sanctify and save people not separately, but as a community that recognizes and serves him. .
In the synodal Church, each person, according to their vocation, can offer the gift received from the Spirit for the common good.
Participation is not a concession; it is a requirement of communion and mission.
Therefore, it must be a method, a responsibility, and a means of verification in the involvement of different charisms and ministries, as well as in respect of the bishop’s own task.
The Summary Document of the Synodal Journey of the Churches in Italy highlights the importance of participatory bodies as spaces where communities can engage in discernment.
However, merely having these tools is not enough; it is also necessary to verify that they are effective.
Throughout this process, the various CEI structures are called upon to continue providing communion, coordination, discernment, and support to the churches in Italy.
Because of this role, the organization of the Episcopal Conference must be modeled according to the needs of the mission and changed historical conditions.
The goal is not to imitate external organizational schemes or reduce everything to administrative efficiency.
Rather, we must ask ourselves what physiognomy best enables Pastors and local Churches to proclaim the Gospel, walk together, and facilitate effective, orderly, and fruitful participation.
When lived in the Spirit, this process strengthens, rather than weakens, communion.
Brothers,
The Lord does not ask us to measure the fruitfulness of the Church by the criteria of numbers, visibility, or influence.
When we look with God’s eyes, we see that he chose the way of littleness and descended among us.
This logic of smallness is the true strength of the Church.
It does not reside in its resources and structures, nor do the fruits of its mission derive from numerical consensus, economic power, or social importance.
Rather, the Church lives by the light of the Lamb, gathered around Him and impelled by the power of the Holy Spirit along the roads of the world”
(Address to the Prayer Meeting, Istanbul, November 28, 2025).
We have the courage of conviction!
We have the courage of communities that are less concerned with preserving everything and are freer to proclaim Christ.
We have the courage of conviction!
We have the courage of a catechesis that is a path of initiation and ongoing formation to Christian life.
We have the courage to welcome missionary parishes where families gather and renew themselves with the spirit of the Gospel.
We have the courage to live participatory bodies.
We have the courage to listen to young people without taming their questions.
We have the courage to let ourselves be evangelized by the poor.
We have the courage of a national structure that is increasingly at the service of the missionary communion of the churches in Italy.
We are people who are generated by mothers and fathers in the faith,
We are people who are generated by communities that know how to say with their lives, even before words, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41 — Andrew found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah”).
Italy needs this testimony.
I entrust your journey to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church.
She accepted the gift, kept the Word, walked with the disciples, waited for the Spirit in the Upper Room.
May she help you to be “rooted and built on him, firm in the faith” (Colossians 2:7),
to guard what is essential, to grow in faith, to walk with the People of God and to recognize the voice of the Lord who still calls, consoles and sends.
I accompany you with my blessing. Thank you!
