During the Holy Wednesday Audience, the Pope encouraged the mission and role of the laity in the Church and in the world, to bear witness to faith, hope and charity, so that “the beauty of Christian life may spread to different places and areas of society”.
Your catechesis The focus was on the fourth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the laity, on the Fathers of the Church such as St. Augustine, and on the magisterium of Popes John Paul II and Francis.
“A very beautiful passage: the greatness of the Christian condition.”
Right at the beginning, the Augustinian pope opened his heart, commenting that this chapter of the Lumen Gentium explains “in a positive way the nature and mission of the laity, after centuries in which they had been defined simply as those who are not part of the clergy or the consecrated”.
“For this reason I like to reread with you a very beautiful passage,” he commented, “which speaks of the greatness of the Christian condition: ‘Therefore, the People of God, chosen by him, is one: ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:5). ”(...) Before any difference of ministry or state of life, the Council affirms the equality of all the baptized“.
Greetings to the participants of the UNIV 2026 conference
Addressing the faithful in various languages, Pope Leo XIV greeted in English, French and Spanish “the young people coming from different parts of the world who are participating in the International University Conference UNIV 2026”.
Vatican News reported the warm response of the young people to the Holy Father's greeting, and noted that this year 2,500 young people from 26 countries are participating in the UNIV 2026 Meeting, who wish to spend these days of Holy Week together with the Pope.
UNIV Inspire was born in 1968, promoted by St. Josemaría Escrivá, who wanted an international meeting of young university students from the five continents during Holy Week, in Rome, to seek answers that would help to improve the world.
Pilgrims from Haiti, Nigeria, the Philippines, the United States...
At the audience, The Pope also greeted pilgrims from Haiti and the Collège La Salle of France (French language), from Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States of America (English language), “the sick, the poor and the innocent victims of wars, so that Christ, with his Resurrection, may grant peace and consolation to all” (Arabic language), or the parishes, associations, educational centers and individual faithful (Italian language).
St. John Paul II: “mission and responsibility of the lay faithful”.”
Referring to St. John Paul II and his Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici (December 30, 1988), Leo XIV said: “In this way, my venerable predecessor relaunched the apostolate of the laity, to whom the Council had dedicated a specific Document, of which we will speak later”.
In that Exhortation, “he emphasized that ‘the Council, with its very rich doctrinal, spiritual and pastoral patrimony, has reserved truly splendid pages on the nature, dignity, spirituality, mission and responsibility of the lay faithful. And the Council Fathers, echoing Christ's call, have summoned all the lay faithful, men and women, to work in the vineyard’ (n. 2)”.
Leo XIV: “in working environments, in civil society and in all human relations”.”
The vast field of the lay apostolate, Leo XIV continued, “is not limited to the Church, but extends to the world. The Church, in fact, is present wherever her children profess and witness to the Gospel: in the workplace, in civil society and in all human relationships, wherever they, by their choices, show the beauty of Christian life, which anticipates here and now the justice and peace that will be full in the Kingdom of God”.
The world needs, he said, “to be imbued with the spirit of Christ and to achieve its purpose more effectively in justice, charity and peace» (LG, 36). And this is possible only with the contribution, service and witness of the laity".
Pope Francis: “all called to be disciples-missionaries”.”
“It is the invitation to be that Church “going forth” of which Pope Francis has spoken to us,” the Pontiff continued: “a Church incarnated in history, always open to mission, in which we are all called to be disciple-missionaries, apostles of the Gospel, witnesses to the Kingdom of God, bearers of the joy of the Christ we have encountered!”.
Baptism, St. Augustine
Earlier, the Successor of Peter had recalled that “by virtue of Baptism, the lay faithful share in the same priesthood as Christ. In fact, ‘Christ Jesus, the supreme and eternal Priest, wishes to continue his witness and service through the laity, enlivening them with his Spirit and impelling them unceasingly to every good and perfect work’ (LG 34).
And quoting the holy Bishop of Hippo, he recalled that “the holy people of God, therefore, is never a formless mass, but the body of Christ or, as Augustine said, the Christus totus: it is the organically structured community, in virtue of the fruitful relationship between its forms of participation in the priesthood of Christ: the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood (cfr LG, 10)”.
At the end, the Pope invited that “the Easter that we are preparing to celebrate may renew in us the grace to be, like Mary Magdalene, like Peter and John, witnesses of the Risen Christ!.
Español 
English 
Italiano