By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
OSTIA LIDO, Italy — An authentic Christian community knows how to sincerely and joyfully welcome everyone: Catholics, non-Catholics and people of no faith at all, Pope Leo XIV said.
“A true parish” is where “we all learn to say ‘Welcome,’ not only with words, but with a spirit of hospitality, opening the door and welcoming everyone,” he said, speaking to members of the community during his first visit to a parish in his Diocese of Rome.
The pope also celebrated Mass during which he encouraged the faithful to cultivate humble and peaceful hearts that are open to Christ, because “the evil we see in the world has its roots precisely there, where the heart becomes cold, hard and lacking in mercy.”
The pope’s visit Feb. 15 was to the Roman parish of Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido — a seaside community 16 miles southwest of Rome.
Although it was his first trip to Ostia as pope, he had been to the area many times as an Augustinian friar because of the port town’s close ties to the story of St. Augustine and, especially, his mother, St. Monica, who died there in 387; her remains were moved to Rome in the 15th century.
In his homily during Mass in the large 20th-century church of Santa Maria Regina Pacis, Pope Leo emphasized the need to convert one’s heart for there to be peace in the world.
The path to human fulfillment is fidelity to God based on respect and care for others, he said. But that has to be “cultivated first and foremost in the heart, even before in gestures and words.”
The heart is home to noble feelings and “painful profanations: closed-mindedness, envy, jealousy,” he said. “Those who think badly of their brother, harboring evil feelings toward him, are as if they were already killing him in their hearts.”
He recalled some of the difficulties facing residents in Ostia, including violence, substance abuse and criminal organizations.
He encouraged the parish community to continue its courageous efforts with other groups “to spread the good seed of the Gospel in your streets and in your homes.”
“Do not resign yourselves to the culture of abuse and injustice. On the contrary, spread respect and harmony, beginning by disarming language and then investing energy and resources in education, especially for children and young people,” he said.
“Unfortunately, even today, many clouds still darken the world, with the spread of ideas contrary to the Gospel, which exalt the supremacy of the strongest, encourage arrogance, and fuel the seduction of victory at all costs, deaf to the cries of those who suffer and those who are defenseless,” the pope said.
“Let us oppose this tendency with the disarming power of meekness, continuing to ask for peace, and to welcome and cultivate its gift with tenacity and humility,” he said.
Pope Leo began the visit by greeting young people and families gathered behind the church.
“You are the hope! And you must recognize that in your hearts, in your lives, in your youth, there is hope for today and tomorrow. Hope already begins here, because Jesus walks with us,” he told the small but enthusiastic crowd.
Inside a nearby gym, the pope thanked the community for their warm welcome. “This is one of the many signs of an authentic Christian community, of a true parish,” he said, emphasizing the need to receive “anyone who comes: Catholic, non-Catholic, believer, non-believer.”
Speaking to the young people, the elderly, people with disabilities, Caritas volunteers and the people they serve, the pope told those gathered that “Everyone is part of this parish family, and everyone has something to say, something to give, something to share.”