Pope Leo XIV urges Roman Curia to embrace missionary outreach and authentic communion, honoring Francis’s legacy amid global divisions and conflicts.
Newsroom (22/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a poignant Christmas address delivered on Monday in the Hall of Benedictions, Pope Leo XIV challenged the Roman Curia to transform into a more missionary institution while fostering genuine communion, warning against internal divisions and ideological rigidity in a world fractured by conflict and aggression.
The pontiff, meeting with cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay collaborators for the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings, began by paying tribute to his “beloved predecessor,” Pope Francis, who died earlier this year. Amid applause from those gathered, Leo XIV praised Francis’s “prophetic voice, pastoral style and rich magisterium,” which emphasized God’s mercy, renewed evangelization, and a Church that is “joyful, welcoming to all and attentive to the poorest.”
Drawing inspiration from Francis’s 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Leo centered his reflections on two intertwined pillars of ecclesial life: mission and communion.
“The Church is outward-looking, turned toward the world, missionary,” the Pope declared, rooted in the truth that God himself initiated the outreach by sending his Son into the world. The mystery of Christmas, he said, proclaims this divine “exodus” — God’s going forth to meet humanity.
This missionary impulse, Leo XIV stressed, must serve as a “criterion of discernment” for the Curia’s work. Structures and offices, he argued, should not merely maintain ordinary administration but be reoriented to address “today’s major ecclesial, pastoral and social challenges.” “We need an ever more missionary Roman Curia,” he insisted, one that supports particular Churches and their pastors with pastoral solicitude rather than bureaucratic inertia.
Turning to communion, the Pope described it as inseparable from mission, yet perpetually challenged both within the Church and beyond. Internally, he cautioned against hidden “forces of division” that manifest as extremes: either a uniformity that suppresses differences or an exacerbation of viewpoints that undermines unity.
In relationships, office dynamics, and debates over faith, liturgy, and morality, there lies a risk of “rigidity or ideology, with their consequent conflicts,” Leo XIV warned. Recalling his papal motto — In Illo uno unum (“In him, the one, we are one”) — he reminded his audience that, despite diversity, “we are brothers and sisters” in Christ.
Building communion, the Pope explained, demands concrete gestures over mere words or documents, especially in a synodal Church where all contribute according to their charisms. He candidly addressed longstanding frustrations within the Curia, noting how power struggles, desires to prevail, or personal interests can breed disappointment and bitterness after years of service.
“Is it possible to be friends in the Roman Curia? To have relationships of genuine fraternal friendship?” he asked, describing such bonds — free of masks, exploitation, or resentment — as a grace requiring personal conversion.
Externally, this internal communion becomes a “prophetic sign of peace” in a world “wounded by discord, violence and conflict,” where aggression is often amplified by digital platforms and politics. The Curia, Leo XIV said, must view its work in a universal horizon: not as “gardeners tending our own plot,” but as “disciples and witnesses of the Kingdom of God,” leaven for fraternity across peoples, religions, and cultures.
Closing his address, the Pope linked these themes to the concluding Jubilee Year of hope, marking anniversaries of the Council of Nicaea, the Second Vatican Council, and the 50th anniversary of St. Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi. He highlighted the exhortation’s teaching that authentic Christian witness — lived in unbreakable communion and zealous love for neighbor — is the primary means of evangelization.
“The work of each is important for the whole,” Leo XIV concluded, “and the witness of a Christian life, expressed in communion, is the first and greatest service we can offer.”
As is customary, the Pope presented each attendee with a book: The Practice of the Presence of God by 17th-century Carmelite Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a text he recently recommended as key to understanding his own spirituality.
In a final invocation, Pope Leo prayed that the Lord grant humility, compassion, and peace to the world, allowing the Church to reflect the light of Christmas amid human lowliness and brokenness.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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