Office for Social Ministry
“Peace be with all of you! Dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ … I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families, and all people, wherever they are, all of the people, all over the earth.” (Pope Leo XIV’s first papal message, May 8)
On May 8, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost made history as the first American and Augustinian religious elected as the 267th Roman Catholic pope.
Appearing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the new pope greeted the world with the words “Peace be with all of you! This is the peace of the Risen Christ … it comes from God, who loves us all unconditionally.”
It is also significant that the newest pope chose the name Pope Leo XIV after Pope Leo XIII, who is known for his contributions to Catholic social teaching on justice and peace.
From the first moment of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV made it clear that he wants to reach out pastorally with a heartfelt message of God’s unconditional love, peace and justice for all people.
In his first papal message, Pope Leo XIV thanked Pope Francis and repeated his predecessor’s last Easter blessing by saying, “God loves us, God loves you all … We are disciples of Christ. … The world needs his light … Help us, too, and help each other to build bridges, with dialogue, with encounters, uniting us all to be one people, always in peace.”
Pope Leo XIV then said: “We must seek together how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, dialogue, always open to receive like this square with its open arms; everyone, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
Pope Leo XIV’s journey to the papacy and his first papal message were impacted by his varied experience in the Americas and Rome.
Born in Chicago and educated at an Augustinian college in Philadelphia, he holds dual citizenship in the United States and Peru due to his decades of missionary work in Latin America, including as a bishop. This profoundly shaped his pastoral approach and commitment to accompanying marginalized communities.
In January 2023, Pope Francis called him to lead the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome and its Pontifical Commission for Latin America. There he continued his commitment to pastoral care and social justice. He was created a cardinal in September 2023, just before the two-year Synod on Synodality in which he participated.
In his first message to the world, Pope Leo XIV stated “we want to be a synodal church … a church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close, especially to those who suffer.”
The spirit of welcoming peace and compassionate caring expressed in Pope Leo XIV’s first papal message was like a lei of aloha reflecting the resilient light of God’s unconditional love for all, especially with those suffering.
Today this light of resilient, loving faith also shines in Maui’s Sacred Hearts School, which was founded in Lahaina by missionaries from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and later sustained by the Sisters of St. Francis (the missionary religious orders who brought to Hawaii Sts. Damien de Veuster and Marianne Cope).
Recently, the school community gathered its mother parish, Maria Lanakila Church, under the light of a bright May moon for its annual Ho‘ike celebration on an outdoor Lahaina stage constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic (before the 2023 wildfire burned down most of the parish’s school structures).
The Ho‘ike theme was “E Hoi I Ka Piko (Return to the Source),” and it featured inspiring hula and mele by kindergartners through eighth graders celebrating the creation account in Genesis.
Sacred Hearts School Principal Tonata Lolesio thanked all who made it possible after the fire for the school to survive in the parish’s Sacred Hearts Mission Church at Kapalua and now begin to thrive at its temporary campus in Kaanapali.
She reflected on the resilience of their faith: “Sacred Hearts School is where students are consistently reminded of their inherent goodness created in the image of their loving creator. It is this intrinsic goodness that truly makes us resilient in the face of adversity.”
She shared how the school’s new H.E.A.R.T.S. of Resilience campaign aims to sustain tuition assistance through an endowment fund and support the rebuilding of a new campus in Lahaina “to continue the legacy of nourishing the inherent goodness of each child.”
H.E.A.R.T.S. stands for ways all can contribute to this light of resilience: H is for hope, opening doors to education and brighter futures; E is for empowerment, creating opportunities for students to grow; A is for advocacy, championing success and community renewal; R is for resource, providing essential support for students; T is for transformation, sparking change through tuition support; S is for sustainability, investing in the school’s long-term strength.
For more on the H.E.A.R.T.S. of Resilience campaign, please visit www.shsmaui.org. For texts of Pope Leo XIV’s messages, go to www.vaticannews.va.
Let us continue giving thanks to God for the gift of Pope Leo XIV, a new, humble missionary who has pastorally accompanied persons suffering on the margins and whose first heartfelt papal message was about peace, the light of Christ’s unconditional love, and building bridges through encounter, listening, dialogue and working together. A blessing of aloha for all!
Mahalo Ke Akua!
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