CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 11:59 am (CNA).
In his first prayer intention video of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has asked the faithful to pray that the world might grow in compassion during the month of June.
“Let us pray that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his heart, learn to have compassion on the world,” the pope said in a video released June 3.
Let us #PrayTogether that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from His Heart, learn to have compassion on the world. #PrayerIntention @clicktopray_en #ClickToPray pic.twitter.com/pLxwjg0fex
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) June 3, 2025
The video also includes an original prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to which the month of June is dedicated.
According to a press release, the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Jesuit Father Cristóbal Fones, explained that Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention focuses on growing in compassion for the world through a personal relationship with Jesus.
“By cultivating this truly close relationship, our hearts are more conformed to his. We grow in love and mercy, and we better learn what compassion is,” Fones said. “Jesus manifested an unconditional love for everyone, especially for the poor, the sick, and those who were suffering. The pope encourages us to imitate this compassionate love by extending a hand to those in need.”
He added: “Compassion seeks to alleviate suffering and to promote human dignity. This is why it is translated into concrete actions that address the roots of poverty, inequality, and exclusion, so as to contribute to the construction of a more just and solidary world.”
Here is the full prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Lord, I come to your tender heart today,
to you who have words that set my heart ablaze,
to you who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor,
on those who suffer, and on all human miseries.
I desire to know you more, to contemplate you in the Gospel,
to be with you and learn from you
and from the charity with which you allowed yourself
to be touched by all forms of poverty.
You showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure
with your divine and human heart.
Grant all your children the grace of encountering you.
Change, shape, and transform our plans,
so that we seek only you in every circumstance:
in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine.
From this encounter, send us out on mission,
a mission of compassion for the world
in which you are the source from which all consolation flows.
Amen.
The video prayer intention is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.
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Pope Leo’s prayer is for the people who inhabit the world, rather than an earth day worship. A good start. Then he uses the socialist bandied about terminologies the poor, the excluded, the unequal.
The last two are difficult to differentiate unless the excluded are those who are mistreated, at least thought unequal. Racial difference can be a factor for unequal treatment and exclusion. So can any body or class of persons such as Trans, Lgbt.
Our problem is the poor as Christ noted will always be with us. Remember how he chided Judas for Mary’s anointing him with expensive nard. Nevertheless, Christ focused mercifully on the poor, was more critical of the wealthy. However, Lgbt Trans and all the rest weren’t organized now considered a legal class with rights, and by many a persecuted class. Francis I spent much of his pontificate as a champion, not perhaps for the deviation as much as he did from their inclusion. Socially, and particularly the Church.
So we had appointments Cdl Hollerich Synod Relator, still there, Archbishop Paglia president of the Pontifical Academy for Life replaced with Msgr Pegoraro [Paglia’s right hand man as Edward Pentin said] by Pope Leo, a similar transition with the appointment of Cdl Reina [noted for his advocacy of the poor] chancellor of John Paul II marriage and family institute in Rome.
It seems Leo XIV is prepared to carry out the Francis I restructure of Ecclesial priorities while proposing a keenly orthodox doctrinal message. Most of us seem happy with events biding with patience as things unfold. As others note they’re some other weighty issues on his desk including the Rupnik scandal. We small fish having swam in turbulent waters for over a decade are now hopeful for a more pleasant swim. Though some of us slightly wary, lest we are sleepily drawn into an awaiting vortex.
About “the poor” and about the marginalized faithful…
Pope St. John Paul II defines “the option for the poor” inclusively (!): “This option is not limited to material poverty, since it is well known that there are many other forms of poverty, especially in modern society—not only economic, but cultural and spiritual poverty as well” (Centesimus Annus, 1993, n. 57).
He also asserts that “…the right of the faithful to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity must always be respected” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 113).
As a sequence to my initial comment it’s noteworthy that Pope Leo’s first major appointments were to Dicasteries that address the family. Family, its Catholic Christian doctrinal theology is paramount for society and Church.
Cdl Baldissare Reina chancellor of John Paul II marriage and family institute in Rome, Msgr Pegoraro president of the Pontifical Academy for Life are both strong supporters of the Francis I agenda. All depends on what direction Reina and Pegoraro take and to what extent and purpose will Pope Leo XIV manage these two Dicasteries.