PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV visits Equatorial Guinea as Africa visit draws to a close

FOCUS founder Curtis Martin discusses evangelization with “EWTN News In Depth” on May 2, 2025, from the Vatican. / Credit: “EWTN News In Depth”

CNA Staff, May 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
As the world focuses on the Catholic Church and the upcomin… […]

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the recitation of the Angelus on January 4, 2026. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jan 4, 2026 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said Christian hope “is not based on optimistic forecasts or human calculations,” but on God’s decision to share humanity’s path so that no one is alone on life’s journey.

Speaking Jan. 4 from the window of the Apostolic Palace to hundreds of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square despite the rain, the pope said the foundation of Christian hope is “God’s Incarnation,” pointing to the day’s Gospel reading from the Prologue of St. John: “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14).

On the Second Sunday after Christmas, before reciting the Angelus, Leo urged believers to rethink their faith and avoid an abstract or distant spirituality. “He is not a distant deity in a perfect heaven above us, but a God who is nearby and inhabits our fragile earth, who becomes present in the faces of our brothers and sisters, and reveals himself in the circumstances of daily life,” he said.

The pope also underscored that the Incarnation calls for a concrete and consistent commitment, including examining whether one’s spirituality and the ways faith is expressed are “truly incarnate.” “God has become flesh; therefore, there is no authentic worship of God without care for humanity,” he said, linking Christian faith to solidarity with those who suffer.

After the Angelus, Leo reiterated his closeness to those affected by the New Year’s Eve fire in a bar in the Alpine town of Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where young people had been celebrating. Swiss authorities have confirmed at least 40 dead and about 115 injured, many of them seriously.

“I wish to express once again my closeness to those suffering as a result of the tragedy in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and to assure them of my prayers for the young people who died, for the injured, and for their families,” the pope said.

He also said he was following developments in Venezuela “with deep concern,” and that “the good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration.” His remarks came a day after news of the U.S. capture and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The pope urged that the country’s sovereignty and rule of law be guaranteed.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.

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Pope Francis’ Angelus message on Jan. 1, 2023, marked the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. An estimated 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the event. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jan 1, 2023 / 08:31 am (CNA).

Let Mary, the Mother of God, be your guide in the New Year, Pope Francis said on Sunday, the first day of 2023.

In his Angelus address before a crowd of an estimated 40,000 people in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 1, the pope said: “As we contemplate Mary in the stable where Jesus was born, let us ask ourselves: What languages does the Holy Virgin use to speak to us? How does Mary speak?”

“What can we learn from her for this year that is dawning?” he added. “We can say: Virgin Mary, teach us what we should do this year.”

The pope’s message preceding the Angelus prayer was delivered on the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Pope Francis also celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica earlier in the day to mark the feast day.

At the beginning of his Angelus message, Pope Francis remembered his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95.

Echoing his words at Mass Sunday, he invited Catholics to invoke the Virgin Mary’s intercession for Benedict. “Let us all join together, with one heart and one soul, in thanking God for the gift of this faithful servant of the Gospel and of the Church,” he said.

‘The language of love’

His Angelus reflection focused on the “language of Mary,” specifically her tenderness and care for the Baby Jesus.

The Gospel of Luke describes the shepherds’ encounter with the Holy Family, and how they saw the infant Jesus “lying in the manger.”

“This verb ‘to lay’ means to carefully place, and tells us that the language proper to Mary is maternal: She tenderly takes care — this is the language of Mary — to tenderly take care of the Child. This is Mary’s greatness,” he said.

He described a noisy scene: the angels celebrating Christ’s birth and the shepherds running to meet Jesus with everyone loudly praising God.

Instead, “Mary does not speak,” Francis said, “she does not steal the show — we like to steal the show! On the contrary, she puts the Child in the center, she lovingly takes care of him.”

The pope recalled a line of poetry from the Italian writer Alda Merini, which says that Mary “even knew how to be solemnly mute, […] because she did not want to lose sight of her God.” 

All mothers do the same, he said: “After having carried the gift of a mysterious prodigy in her womb for nine months, mothers constantly put their babies at the center of their attention: They feed them, they hold them in their arms, they tenderly lay them down in the crib.”

The Mother of God’s language is “a language of a mother,” he added.

Mary, Pope Francis said, “reminds us that, if we truly want the New Year to be good, if we want to reconstruct hope, we need to abandon the language, those actions and those choices inspired by egoism, and learn the language of love, which is to take care.”

He continued: “This is the commitment: to take care of our lives, of our time, of our souls; to take care of creation and the environment we live in; and even more, to take care of our neighbor, of those whom the Lord has placed alongside us, as well as our brothers and sisters who are in need and who call for our attention and our compassion.”

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