“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

“Lord, listen to my groaning.”

“We are his people: the sheep of his flock.”

“You are my inheritance, O Lord.”

“The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”

“Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.”

Todo ser humano es “digno” por el mero hecho de haber sido querido, creado y amado por Dios. No existe ninguna situación que haga al Señor apartar de nosotros su mirada. Es una verdad consoladora que nos acompaña en todo momento y que nos recuerda cómo su amor misericordioso está siempre por encima de cuánto bien o mal hayamos hecho. #ViaggioApostolico vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

Em um mundo dilacerado por guerras e divisões, em uma sociedade cada vez mais fragmentada e individualista, queremos ser testemunhas e profetas de unidade, de acolhida, de harmonia e de paz, mesmo ao custo de sacrifícios e renúncias. Queremos dizer o nosso "sim", prontos, quando necessário, a morrer para nós mesmos, a nos perdermos para nos reencontrarmos, a renunciar ao supérfluo para construir sobre o essencial e o eterno (Mt 16,24-26). #ViagemApostólica

At the close of his meeting with Madrid’s Catholic community, Pope Leo says that "the goodness of even a few people can overcome the fear of many."

El corazón humano no se colma acumulando experiencias, posibilidades o seguridades temporales; se colma cuando descubre una llamada, cuando comprende que la vida llega a plenitud sólo si es donada. Seguir a Cristo no empobrece la existencia, sino que la expande. #ViajeApostolico

People don’t always need you to fix their problem or struggle, they just need you to listen.

HISTORIC: The Catholic Church has surpassed, for the first time in history, 1.422 BILLION faithful worldwide. Let that sink in for a moment. In a culture where many people claim religion is dying, the Catholic Church is larger today than at any point in history. According to the latest Vatican statistics, there are now more than 1.422 billion baptized Catholics around the world. And the growth is not happening where many people would expect. Some of the fastest growth is taking place in parts of Africa and Asia. In many of these places, the faith is not convenient. It often comes with sacrifice, hardship, or even persecution. Yet the Church continues to grow. Why? Because people are still searching for truth. They are still searching for God. They are still searching for something that lasts. At the same time, many people in the West are beginning to take a second look at Christianity. Some are returning to the faith they left behind. Others are entering the Church for the first time after years of searching for meaning, purpose, and stability. That should make all of us pause. For more than 2,000 years, kingdoms have risen and fallen. Cultures have changed. Ideas have come and gone. Yet the Catholic Church remains, preaching the same Gospel, celebrating the same sacraments, and pointing people to the same Jesus Christ. The Church is not growing because Catholics are perfect. It is growing because people are still hungry for what the world cannot give. And that raises an uncomfortable question. If faith is supposed to be disappearing, why are so many people still becoming Catholic? 💬 What do you think is drawing people to the Catholic Church right now?

In what will certainly become one of the most fundamental speeches of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV told the Spanish Parliament, before receiving a 7-minute standing ovation: "The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization." "If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?" he said, speaking to a gathering of politicians, many supporting abortion and euthanasia. "Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?" "Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person." "For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile," he said, repeating what John Paul II emphasized decades ago. Starting his speech he commented that Church's is the "message offered in the spirit of service to the human person." "When the Church addresses anything concerning public life, she does so while respecting the proper mission of institutions and the legitimate responsibility of those who have received the mandate to legislate," Pope Leo said, emphasizing "the Church offers a reflection born of the desire to serve the common good." He hailed Spain as country that "has known how to view the human being as more than just a cog in the social, economic or political order. It has recognized the human being as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom, and driven by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can quench -- in a word, as someone whose dignity takes precedence over all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject." He said it was Catholic orders that "helped to shape a legal and moral consciousness capable of remembering that authority always entails responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties." "That aspiration continues to resonate today: that dignity, justice and the common good should be the measure of social relations, both at the national and international levels." Referring multiple times to his "Magnifica Humanitas" encyclical, he said: "When the common good ceases to be a shared horizon, public action runs the risk of fragmenting into partial interests, incapable of safeguarding what belongs to all." "In this context, the family — the primary human reality and the natural foundation of the community — takes on particular importance," Pope Leo said. "The family will always be the first school of humanity, where one learns, before anywhere else, the basic grammar of living together: welcoming life, caring for others, forgiving, serving and belonging." "Human life can never be treated as a commodity," the pope said. "A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame." "I invite you, then, to lift your gaze to the world around you, not to turn away from reality, but to remember that every decision by public authorities affects real people, especially those who have less power to make their voices heard." "The expanse of one’s vision consists precisely in looking more deeply at what is at stake in every public decision. This is why, alongside technical solutions and legal reforms, a moral renewal is also needed." Video: Vatican Media (fragment of speech follows)