Romana

In his homily on May 18, 2025, during the Mass marking the beginning of his Petrine ministry, Pope Leo XIV offered two essential pillars in the mission that Jesus entrusted to Peter, and that can also be seen as an invitation to every Christian: “Love and unity: these are the two dimensions of the mission entrusted to Peter by Jesus.”

The Pope said he addressed the faithful “with fear and trembling,” but also as “a brother, who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy.” Authority is not domination, but service based on love. A love that is unconditional on God’s part, which doesn’t waver even when we fall or deny Him. That is why Peter continued forward: because “his own life was touched by the infinite and unconditional love of God.”

Authority in the Church, Leo XIV said, is marked by “self-sacrificing love” and is legitimate when it is exercised by drawing close to and walking alongside the people of God, caring for the flock without arrogance, with Christ’s love.

Unity is another dimension inseparable from love. The Holy Father reminds us that the Church is “one family,” united in faith, in the communion among different cultures, experiences, and communities. Not an artificial or imposed uniformity, but a sincere one that recognizes differences, does not hide tensions, and generates authentic communion.

The Pope invites the Church to be a sign of unity for a reconciled world, to be a leaven of communion and fraternity. In a world wounded by prejudice, violence, and fear of differences, Leo XIV points to unity not as an abstract ideal, but as a specific mission: to build bridges, to welcome our neighbor, to serve the poor.

The Christian vocation to foster love and unity is not without difficulties. Even Peter, the pillar of the Church, denied Jesus three times. But on his return journey, the apostle encountered, in a very special way, divine mercy. Peter’s path teaches us that God gives us the strength to start again in every situation and circumstance, to cast our nets once again, to continue serving Jesus and others with humility.

We are being asked to make our own the desire of Leo XIV: that the Church be a sign of unity, communion, and fraternity, and that this have real effects in the world, so in need of reconciliation and overcoming conflicts, of healing wounds, and of a faith experienced not as a burden but as a joyful and transforming force. The world needs a Church that makes present God’s love, without calculation, accompanying and giving of itself; a Church that can build unity in the midst of diversity.

“At times like this,” wrote Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz in a message dated May 8, included in this issue of Romana, “the faith of the Church shines with particular splendor in the unity of hearts and prayer for our common Father and for all our brothers and sisters. Today especially, we are called to live that advice which Saint Josemaría left us in The Forge: ‘You must love, venerate, pray and mortify yourself for the Pope, and do so with greater affection each day. He is the foundation stone of the Church and, throughout the centuries, right to the end of time, he carries out among men that task of sanctifying and governing which Jesus entrusted to Peter’ (The Forge, no. 134).”