“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” Pope Leo XIV said this morning as he greeted some 5,000 managers and employees of the Roman Curia, the Governorate of the Vatican City State and the Vicariate of Rome, and their family members, in the Paul VI audience hall.
Describing the Curia as the institution that preserves and passes on “the historical memory of the church,” Pope Leo called on these Vatican employees to “work together” with him “in the great cause of unity and love” and “to find ways to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue.”
The Chicago-born pope, who until May 8 was a member of the Curia, was greeted with long, enthusiastic applause when he arrived. When it ended he joked, “Thank you! When the applause lasts longer than the address, I will have to make a longer address! So…be careful! Thank you! Thank you!”
His words drew even more applause for this new pope from the Americas, signaling that he is clearly reaching the hearts of those working in the Vatican.
He told them that this first meeting “is certainly not the moment to make keynote speeches”; on the contrary, “it is an opportunity for me to thank you for the service you carry out, and this service that I have, so to speak, ‘inherited’ from my predecessors.”
He recalled that he had arrived in the Vatican “only two years ago, when our beloved Pope Francis appointed me as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops,” on Jan. 30, 2023. “Then, I left the diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, and came to work here.”
“What a change!” he said with a smile. “And now?” he remarked, “What can I say? Only what Simon Peter said to Jesus on Lake Tiberias: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (Jn 21:17).” The crowd applauded.
“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” the first pope from the Augustinian order said, noting that it was also true at the diocesan level.
“The Curia is the institution that preserves and transmits the historical memory of a church, of the ministry of its bishops” and “this is very important,” Pope Leo said.
He emphasized that “memory is an essential element in a living organism. It is not only directed to the past, but nourishes the present and guides the future. Without memory, the path is lost, it loses its sense of direction.”
Addressing them as “dear friends,” he said, “ to work in the Roman Curia means to contribute to keeping the memory of the Apostolic See alive, in the vital sense I have just mentioned, so that the pope’s ministry may be implemented in the best way.”
In addition to the aspect of memory, Pope Leo said, there is “the missionary dimension of the church and of every institution linked to the Petrine ministry.” He recalled that Pope Francis insisted on this in his 2013 programmatic document “The Joy of the Gospel” (“Evangelii Gaudium”), and he “reformed the Roman Curia from the perspective of evangelization,” with the Apostolic Constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” on March 19, 2022. In implementing reform, Pope Leo said, Francis followed in the footsteps of Saints Paul VI and John Paul II who also reformed the Curia in different ways.
Pope Leo reminded the Vatican employees that “ the experience of mission forms part of my life, and not only as a baptized person, as for all us Christians, but because as an Augustinian religious I was a missionary in Peru, and in the midst of the Peruvian people my pastoral vocation matured.”
Pope Leo, who worked as a missionary in Peru for more than 20 years said, including as a bishop in the northwestern Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo, with its 1.2 million Catholics, from 2013-2023, commenting on this experience said, “I will never be able to thank the Lord enough for this gift!”
He recalled how Pope Francis called him to Rome in January 2023 “for a new mission” to work in the Roman Curia, a mission, he told these Vatican employees, “which I shared with you during these last two years.”
As pope, he said, “I continue it and will continue it, as long as God wills, in this service that has been entrusted to me.”
Looking at them, he repeated the greeting he made from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to the church of Rome on the evening of his election, May 8: “Together, we must look for ways to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue, a church ever open to welcoming…with open arms, all those who are in need of our charity, our presence, our readiness to dialogue and our love.”
He said he repeated these same words to them today “thinking of the mission of this church towards all the churches and the entire world, of serving communion, unity, in charity and in truth.” He reminded them that the Lord Jesus “gave this task to Peter and his successors” and said, “you all collaborate in different ways in this great task. Each one of you gives your contribution, carrying out your daily work with commitment and also with faith, because faith and prayer are like salt for food; they impart flavour.”
Pope Leo told them: “We must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us seek to do so first of all with our behaviour in everyday situations, starting also from the work environment. Each person can be a builder of unity with his attitudes towards colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience, with humility, putting himself in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humour, as Pope Francis taught us.” His mention of Francis again drew applause.
He concluded, “Dear brothers and sisters, thank you again from the bottom of my heart!” Then, in this month of May, he invited them to join him in invoking the Virgin Mary “that she may bless the Roman Curia and Vatican City, and also your families, especially children, the elderly and the sick and suffering.”
After praying the “Hail Mary…” with them, he spent a long time greeting people and blessing children of all ages much to the delight of their parents, as the crowd cheered and applauded “the pope of the two worlds.”
