Pope Leo XIV urges mercy and vigilance in Angelus at St. Peter’s

AC Wimmer By AC Wimmer for CNA

August 10, 2025 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Pope Leo XIV in his Sunday Angelus on Aug. 10, 2025, urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the “treasure” that is their life. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Aug 10, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).

In his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the “treasure” that is their life, challenging Catholics to share not only material possessions but also their skills, time, and compassion for the good of others.

Drawing on the Gospel reading from Luke 12:32-48, the pope emphasized that generosity and love are the keys to fulfillment, reminding the crowd that these gifts must be cultivated and put at the service of others, rather than hoarded or misused.

“Sell your possessions and give alms,” Jesus exhorts in the passage. Pope Leo made clear that this invitation extends beyond charitable donations, pressing his audience to offer their presence, love, and talents to those most in need. “Everything in God’s plan that makes each of us a priceless and unrepeatable good must be cultivated and invested in order to grow. Otherwise, these gifts dry up and diminish in value,” he warned.

The pontiff’s remarks on Aug. 10 echoed the teachings of St. Augustine, who Leo quoted verbatim: “What you give will certainly be transformed…it isn’t gold, it isn’t silver, but eternal life that will come your way.”

Drawing on St. John Paul II, Leo also emphasized the spiritual transformation that results from acts of mercy. Highlighting the example of the poor widow from Mark’s Gospel, Leo XIV called works of mercy “the most secure and profitable bank” where believers can place their lives’ treasures.

The pope also underscored the importance of vigilance in daily life — at home, parish, school, or workplace — encouraging all “to grow in the habit of being attentive, ready, and sensitive to one another.” He invoked Mary, the Morning Star, as a guide for the Church’s mission of mercy and peace in a world “marked by many divisions.”

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Laudato si’ Week recalls encyclical’s sixth anniversary

May 20, 2021 Catholic News Agency 0
L’Osservatore Romano.

Vatican City, May 20, 2021 / 11:29 am (CNA).

The Vatican is observing Laudato si’ Week to mark the sixth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home. The week includes an online climate summit.

 “The Laudato si’ action platform will be launched at the end of this week that offers the Church and all religious bodies a huge range of activities that they can join in order to move further away from fossil fuels,” Lindlyn Moma, Director of Advocacy for the Global Catholic Climate Movement, said during day three of the summit.

Father Augusto Zampini, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is overseeing the May 16-25 Laudato si’ Week.

Fr. Zampini told Crux May 17 he hopes the Laudato si’ action plan will create “a massive movement” of organizations throughout society and the Church. 

“The idea is that everyone commits to the seven Laudato Si resolutions, which are easy,” he said.

A conversation during the summit’s third day, Laudato Si Dialogue on Energy and Fossil Fuels: Global Catholic Divestment Drumbeat, featured six panelists discussing fossil fuels and plans for reduction in their use.

Day three of the summit brought in 1,100 views on YouTube and nearly 240 on Facebook. The previous day, the summit attracted 3,000 viewers on YouTube and 500 on Facebook. On the first day, the summit brought 4,000 views on YouTube, and almost 560 on Facebook.  

The summit will continue to feature discussions of the pope’s call for ecological responsibility in the face of climate change. 

Laudato si’ Week is the conclusion of a year-long observance of the fifth anniversary of the encyclical. The year has included numerous activities to encourage the others.

In June 2020 the Vatican encouraged Catholics to put their faith into action to promote integral ecology and care of creation with the release of a 200-page document. 

The introduction of On the Journey for Care of the Common Home said, “the intention is to offer an orientation to the action of Catholics (but not only) in the secular dimension and to ask every Christian to examine their own behavior, also in everyday life…”

During the launch of the Laudato si’ year in May 2020, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development commented that five years from Pope Francis’ signing of the document, the “encyclical appears ever more relevant.”

“We hope that the anniversary year and the ensuing decade will indeed be a time of grace, a true Kairos experience and ‘Jubilee’ time for the Earth, and for humanity, and for all God’s creatures,” the dicastery said at the time.


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