Image: Cathedral of Saint Mary the Royal of the Almudena, Madrid
Pope Leo’s letter to the Presbytery of the Archdiocese of Madrid
on the occasion of the “Convivium” Presbyteral Assembly
“All this is born of the recognition that the initiative is always the Lord’s”
Dear brothers,
I am pleased to be able to address this letter to you on the occasion of your Priestly Assembly and to do so with a sincere desire for fraternity and unity.
I thank your Archbishop and, from the bottom of my heart, each one of you for your willingness to meet as a presbyterate, not only to discuss common affairs, but to support one another in the mission you share.
I appreciate the commitment with which you live and exercise your priesthood in different parishes, doing various services and facing very diverse realities.
I know that this ministry often takes place in the midst of fatigue, complex situations and a silent dedication of which only God is a witness.
Precisely for this reason, I hope that my words will reach you as a gesture of closeness and encouragement, and that this meeting will foster an atmosphere of sincere listening, of true communion and of trusting openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who never ceases to work in your life and in your mission.
The time in which the Church lives invites us to pause together in a serene and honest reflection.
Not so much to limit ourselves to immediate diagnoses or the management of emergencies but to learn to read in depth the moment we are living, recognizing, in the light of faith, the challenges and also the possibilities that the Lord opens before us.
On this journey it becomes ever more necessary to educate our gaze and exercise our discernment, so that we can perceive more clearly what God is already at work, often in a silent and discreet way, in our midst and in our communities.
This reading of the present cannot disregard the cultural and social framework in which faith is lived and expressed today.
In many environments we see advanced processes of secularization, a growing polarization in public discourse and the tendency to reduce the complexity of the human person, interpreting it from partial and insufficient ideologies or categories.
In this context, faith runs the risk of being exploited, trivialized or relegated to the realm of the irrelevant, while forms of coexistence that disregard any transcendent reference are strengthened.
Added to this is a profound cultural change that cannot be ignored: the progressive disappearance of common references.
For a long time, the Christian seed found a soil that was largely prepared, because moral language, the great questions about the meaning of life, and certain fundamental notions were, at least in part, shared.
Today that common substrate has been significantly weakened.
Many of the conceptual presuppositions that for centuries facilitated the transmission of the Christian message have ceased to be evident and, in many cases, even understandable.
The Gospel is not only encountered with indifference, but also with a different cultural horizon, in which words no longer mean the same thing and where the first proclamation cannot be taken for granted.
However, this description does not fully capture what is really happening.
I am convinced — and I know that many of you perceive this in the daily exercise of your ministry — that in the hearts of many people, especially young people, a new restlessness is opening up today.
The absolutization of well-being has not brought the hoped for happiness.
A freedom detached from the truth has not generated the promised fullness; and material progress, by itself, has not succeeded in fulfilling the deep desire of the human heart.
In fact, the dominant proposals, together with certain hermeneutical and philosophical readings with which they have sought to interpret the destiny of man, far from offering a sufficient answer, have often left a greater feeling of weariness and emptiness.
Precisely for this reason, we note that many people are beginning to open themselves to a more honest and authentic search, a search that, accompanied by patience and respect, is leading them back to the encounter with Christ.
This reminds us that for the priest it is not a time of withdrawal or resignation, but of faithful presence and generous availability.
All this is born of the recognition that the initiative is always the Lord’s, who is already at work and precedes us with his grace.
Thus it is emerging what kind of priests Madrid — and the whole Church — needs at this time.
Certainly not men defined by the multiplication of tasks or by the pressure of results, but men configured to Christ, capable of sustaining their ministry on the basis of a living relationship with him,, nourished by the Eucharist and expressed in a pastoral charity marked by the sincere gift of self.
It is not a question of inventing new models or of redefining the identity we have received, but of reproposing, with renewed intensity, the priesthood in its most authentic nucleus – being alter Christus – allowing him to shape our lives, unify our hearts and give form to a ministry
(1) lived in intimacy with God,
(2) lived in faithful dedication to the Church and
(3) lived in concrete service to the people entrusted to us
Dear brothers, allow me to speak to you today about the priesthood with the help of an image that you know well: your cathedral. This is not to describe a building, but to learn from it.
Because cathedrals exist, — like any sacred place —like the priesthood, to lead us to an encounter with God and reconciliation with our brothers and sisters.
Their elements contain a lesson for our life and our ministry.
When we contemplate its façade, we already learn something essential.
It is the first thing that is seen, yet it does not say everything.
It indicates, suggests, invites.
So too the priest does not live to show off, but neither does he live to hide.
His life is called to be visible, coherent and recognizable, even when it is not always understood.
The façade does not exist for itself: it leads inside.
In the same way, the priest is never an end in himself.
His whole life is called to refer to God and to accompany the passage to the Mystery, without usurping his place.
Once you reach the threshold. understand that it is not appropriate for everyone to enter inside, because it is a sacred space.
The threshold marks a passage, a necessary separation.
Some enter and some remain outside.
The priesthood is also lived in this way: being in the world, but not of the world
(John 17:14 – I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world) .
At this crossroads there are celibacy, poverty and obedience; not as the denial of life, but as the concrete form that allows the priest to belong entirely to God without ceasing to walk among men.
The cathedral is also a common home, where there is room for everyone.
This is how the Church is called to be, especially towards her priests: a house that welcomes, protects and does not abandon.
And this is how the priestly fraternity must be lived; as the concrete experience of knowing that we are at home, responsible for one another, attentive to the life of our brothers and sisters and ready to support each other.
My children, no one should feel exposed or alone in the exercise of the ministry: resist together the individualism that impoverishes the heart and weakens the mission!
Walking the temple, we notice that everything rests on the columns that support the whole.
The Church has seen in them the image of the Apostles
(Eph 2:19-20 – you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone).
Nor does priestly life sustain itself, but in the apostolic witness received and transmitted in the living Tradition of the Church and guarded by the Magisterium
(cf. 1 Corinthians 11:2 – I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.;
2 Timothy 1:13-14 – Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; 14 guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.).
When the priest remains anchored in this foundation, he avoids building on the sand of partial interpretations or circumstantial accents, and leans on the solid rock that precedes and surpasses him
(Matthew 7:24-27 – “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.).
Before reaching the presbytery, the cathedral shows us discreet but fundamental places:
the People of God are born in the baptismal font; they are continually regenerated in the confessional.
In the sacraments, grace is revealed as the most real and effective force of the priestly ministry. Therefore, dear brethren, celebrate the sacraments with dignity and faith, aware that what happens in them is the true force that builds up the Church and that they are the ultimate goal to which our entire ministry is ordered.
But do not forget that you are not the source, but the channel, and that you also need to drink of that water. Therefore, do not cease to confess and to always return to the mercy you proclaim.
Next to the central space there are various chapels.
Each one has its history, its dedication.
Despite being different in art and composition, they all share the same orientation; none is turned in on itself, none breaks the harmony of the whole.
This is also the case in the Church with the different charisms and spiritualities through which the Lord enriches and sustains your vocation.
Each one receives a particular way of expressing faith and nurturing interiority, but all remain oriented towards the same center.
Let us look at the center of all, my brethren: here is revealed what gives meaning to what you do every day and from which your ministry springs.
On the altar, through your hands, Christ’s sacrifice is actualized in the highest action entrusted to human hands; in the tabernacle, he whom you have offered, entrusted once again to your care.
Be worshippers, men of deep prayer, and teach your people to do the same.
At the end of this journey, in order to be the priests that the Church needs today, I leave you with the same advice of your holy compatriot, St. John of Avila: “Be yourselves all his” (Sermon 57). Be holy!
I entrust you to St Mary of Almudena and, with a heart full of gratitude,
I impart to you the Apostolic Blessing, which I extend to all those entrusted to your pastoral care.
From the Vatican, 28 January 2026. Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church.
LEÓN PP. XIV
