CNA Newsroom, Jun 1, 2025 / 19:56 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV urged French Catholics to embark on a profound spiritual renewal by following the example of three beloved saints as France commemorated the centenary of their canonization.
In his first message to the French bishops’ conference, released by the Holy See Press Office on Saturday, the Holy Father highlighted St. John Eudes, St. John Mary Vianney, and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus as powerful models for contemporary evangelization.
The pope emphasized their shared spiritual trait: “they loved Jesus unreservedly in a simple, strong and authentic way” and experienced his goodness in daily closeness.
The pontiff presented these saints as Catholics whose lives demonstrate the transformative power of Christ’s tender love.
Leo noted St. John Eudes as the first to celebrate liturgical worship of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, St. John Mary Vianney as the priest who declared, “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus,” and St. Thérèse as the great Doctor of scientia amoris who “breathed” Jesus’ name with spontaneity and freshness.
Pope Leo framed this anniversary not as mere nostalgia but as an opportunity for missionary momentum. He expressed hope that God can “renew the marvels he has accomplished in the past” through these saints’ intercession.
The pope specifically addressed the shortage of priestly vocations, asking whether these saints might inspire young people to embrace the priesthood’s “beauty, greatness and fruitfulness.”
The message concluded with papal gratitude for French priests’ “courageous and persevering commitment” amid contemporary challenges, including “indifference, materialism and individualism.”
Pope Leo invoked the saints’ intercession for France and placed the nation under the maternal protection of Our Lady of the Assumption.
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“The message concluded with papal gratitude for French priests’ ‘courageous and persevering commitment . . .'”
What a difference a month makes!
We read that Pope Leo “..expressed hope that God can ‘renew the marvels he has accomplished in the past’ through these saints’ intercession.”
About renewed marvels and surely relevant in our moment, we have this account about St. John Vianney (Abbe Francis Trochu, “The Cure of Ars: St. John Marie-Baptiste Vianney,” 1927/Tan 1977):
“A number of his parishioners were ignorant of the most elementary notions of the catechism. This was especially true of those who had grown up during the [Sexual!] Revolution–that is, the young men and women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five [and today, we add the following generation]. It was they who were the chief causes of scandal. Some of them went so far as to boast of their conduct, openly asserting that they saw no harm in their [licentious] dances [and now serial cohabitation and more], their profanation of the Sunday and other disorders. How were these wandering sheep to be brought back to the fold? The new pastor was painfully aware of his helplessness; he did not lose heart, however–God and time would work with him” (p. 117).