His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to Eastern Catholics: The Church needs you

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV meets with participants in the Jubilee of Eastern Churches

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV welcomes Eastern Catholics to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Eastern Churches, and highlights the need to preserve their traditions and pray for true peace, “which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew."

By Christopher Wells

Pope Leo XIV welcomed Eastern Catholics to the Vatican with the traditional Easter greeting, “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!”

Addressing the faithful from the 23 sui iuris Churches in full communion with Rome, the Holy Father said, “You are precious in God’s eyes,” and expressed his happiness at being able to devote one of the first encounters of his pontificate to the Eastern faithful.

“Looking at you,” he said, “I think of the diversity of your origins, your glorious history, and the bitter sufferings that many of your communities have endured or continue to endure.”

At the same time, he reaffirmed “the conviction of Pope Francis that the Eastern Churches are to be ‘cherished and esteemed for the unique spiritual and sapiential traditions that they preserve, and for all that they have to say to us about the Christian life, synodality, and the liturgy’.”

Recalling the teachings of previous Popes, including Leo XIII and St. John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of Eastern traditions, especially the liturgy.

He also expressed concern for “many of our Eastern brothers and sisters” who have been exiled from their homelands “and risk losing not only their native lands,” but also their religious identity.

Pope Leo insisted on the importance of preserving the Eastern rites and asked the Dicastery for Eastern Churches “to help define principles, norms, and guidelines” to help Latin Bishops support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora to preserve their heritage…

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