Pope Leo XIV greets an audience at the Jubilee of Catechists at the Vatican, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 27, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has chosen as the theme for World Day of the Sick 2026: “The compassion of the Samaritan: loving by bearing the pain of others.”
The theme focuses on the Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan, “who shows love by taking care of the wounded and abandoned man on the road,” according to a press release issued by the Holy See.
The Vatican said the theme is meant to emphasize an essential aspect of love of neighbor, one requiring concrete gestures of closeness while being capable of assuming the fragility and suffering of others, particularly those who experience illness accompanied by poverty, isolation, or loneliness.
The Holy See also recalled that today, Christ, the “Good Samaritan,” continues to draw close to wounded humanity and, through the sacraments of the Church, pours out “the oil of consolation and the wine of hope.”
In this way, he “[inspires] actions and gestures of help and closeness for those who live in conditions of fragility due to illness,” the Holy See said.
The upcoming World Day of the Sick will take place on Feb. 11, 2026.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Vatican City, Sep 12, 2018 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Attachment to sin and vice are a form of interior slavery which inhibit the ability to love, but true freedom is always found in God’s mercy, Pope Francis said at the general audience Wednes… […]
Pope Francis gives an extraordianry urbi et orbi blessing in St. Peter’s Square, March 27, 2020. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Mar 27, 2025 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ historic “Statio Orbis” blessing during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic remains relevant for the Church as it did five years ago. Before an empty and rain-covered St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis held Eucharistic adoration and gave an extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing, praying for the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Holy Hour on March 27, 2020, included a reading from the Gospel and a meditation by Pope Francis, who spoke about faith and trust in God during a time when people fear for their lives, as did the disciples when their boat was caught in a violent storm.
Pope Francis gives an extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing from the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica on March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
These powerful words were a papal refrain throughout his 2020 address before an empty St. Peter’s Square.
“‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’ Lord, your word this evening strikes us and regards us, all of us. In this world, that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things and lured away by haste,” he prayed.
Pope Francis implored people to believe in God’s presence during the time of COVID-19 when he spoke of Jesus’ reaction to the cry of the disciples: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” recorded in chapter 4 of St. Mark’s Gospel.
Pope Francis speaks in an empty St. Peter’s Square during a Holy Hour and extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
The pandemic’s impact on the life of the Church is yet to be fully researched and understood.
Recent studies from around the world suggest a decline in Church attendance in some regions. A new Pew study shows thousands of people have chosen to leave behind the religion of their childhood in some of the traditionally Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain.
At the same time, the study acknowledges the report’s figures “are not necessarily representative of the entire world’s population.”
A growing Church
While religious belief and practice may seem to be weakening in some parts of the world, the Holy Father’s “Statio Orbis” prayer five years ago can still resonate with millions of people of faith who trust and hope in God’s presence in times of world suffering and hardship.
According to the Vatican’s 2025 Annuario Pontificio, the Catholic Church has grown worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest growth recorded in Africa.
Pope Francis venerates the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso in St. Peter’s Square during his urbi et orbi blessing on March 27, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media
Between 2022 and 2023, the global Catholic population has grown from approximately 1.39 billion Catholics to 1.406 billion in the last two years. In Africa alone, the Catholic population increased by 3.31%, from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023.
As Pope Francis said on this day five years ago: “You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm. Tell us again: ‘Do not be afraid’ (Mt 28:5). And we, together with Peter, ‘cast all our anxieties onto you, for you care about us’ (cf. 1 Pt 5:7).”
We’ve transitioned from an Apostolic Church proclaiming Christ and repentance to a sinful world, men and women responsible for evil – to empathetic samaritans treating the wounded. The field hospital analogy. As if sins are really psychic/emotive wounds that a little salvific friendship can heal.
With that approach we transform Christianity into a social services support consortium. Love as revealed by Christ is realized in togetherness. At this stage there’s little difference seen and heard from Church leadership. For example, very little is said about offering self, or assuming the committed approach to faith in Christ of the martyr Churches in Africa.
When a Roman pontiff proclaims during an ordinary address to the Church that All are welcome, people make their own decisions in life – What are we to understand if not those living in ‘irregular unions’, inclusive of homosexual, don’t require repentance or conversion to Apostolic doctrine?
For a concise reading of Pope Leo’s position on Church inclusion and differences in life choices I submit the following:
Speaking with Crux Senior Correspondent Elise Ann Allen for her new biography Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century [Penguin Peru], the pope said his approach mirrors that of Pope Francis: an open door rooted in dignity and respect for all, but without doctrinal revision.
“What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, todos, todos, todos,” Pope Leo explained. “Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God.” “It’s very important to understand how to accept others who are different than we are, how to accept people who make choices in their life and to respect them” (Kasmir Nema, RVA News September 22, 2025).
Oh dear, the sidestepped difference between a choice/decision and a moral judgment…
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [a choice and no longer a ‘moral judgment’?] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience [?] is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not…]” (Veritatis Splendor, papal encyclical of 1993, n. 56).
Accepting and respecting individual people as persons is one thing, but another is endorsing a sociological “identity” committed to the gay lifestyle, as is the lack of charity by withholding conceptual and moral clarity. Also, the broader problem of–anyone–sacrilegiously receiving of the sacrificial Eucharist. Christ wept at Gethsemani.
This non-amnesiac comment is offered in the spirit of Pope Francis’ lay/ecclesial synodal dialogue.
We’ve transitioned from an Apostolic Church proclaiming Christ and repentance to a sinful world, men and women responsible for evil – to empathetic samaritans treating the wounded. The field hospital analogy. As if sins are really psychic/emotive wounds that a little salvific friendship can heal.
With that approach we transform Christianity into a social services support consortium. Love as revealed by Christ is realized in togetherness. At this stage there’s little difference seen and heard from Church leadership. For example, very little is said about offering self, or assuming the committed approach to faith in Christ of the martyr Churches in Africa.
When a Roman pontiff proclaims during an ordinary address to the Church that All are welcome, people make their own decisions in life – What are we to understand if not those living in ‘irregular unions’, inclusive of homosexual, don’t require repentance or conversion to Apostolic doctrine?
For a concise reading of Pope Leo’s position on Church inclusion and differences in life choices I submit the following:
Speaking with Crux Senior Correspondent Elise Ann Allen for her new biography Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century [Penguin Peru], the pope said his approach mirrors that of Pope Francis: an open door rooted in dignity and respect for all, but without doctrinal revision.
“What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, todos, todos, todos,” Pope Leo explained. “Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God.” “It’s very important to understand how to accept others who are different than we are, how to accept people who make choices in their life and to respect them” (Kasmir Nema, RVA News September 22, 2025).
Oh dear, the sidestepped difference between a choice/decision and a moral judgment…
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [a choice and no longer a ‘moral judgment’?] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience [?] is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not…]” (Veritatis Splendor, papal encyclical of 1993, n. 56).
Accepting and respecting individual people as persons is one thing, but another is endorsing a sociological “identity” committed to the gay lifestyle, as is the lack of charity by withholding conceptual and moral clarity. Also, the broader problem of–anyone–sacrilegiously receiving of the sacrificial Eucharist. Christ wept at Gethsemani.
This non-amnesiac comment is offered in the spirit of Pope Francis’ lay/ecclesial synodal dialogue.
They are wise and compassionate. Society needs Good Samaritans.