Pope Leo XIV says the Church needs the Christian East and has a “great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your … liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety.”

The new pontiff was speaking to participants in the Jubilee of the Oriental Churches in the Vatican’s Audience Hall on Wednesday.

There are 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in the world, consisting of nearly 20 million people. The Eastern Catholic Churches are located in Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and India. However, many Eastern Catholics have come to Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

Pope Leo said contribution that the Christian East can offers the world today “is immense.”

He said it is important to rediscover, especially in the Christian West, “a sense of the primacy of God, the importance of mystagogy and the values so typical of Eastern spirituality: Constant intercession, penance, fasting, and weeping for one’s own sins and for those of all humanity (penthos)!”

It is vital, then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them, for the sake perhaps of practicality or convenience, lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism.

Leo then spoke about the fact that most Eastern Catholics are in regions they face discrimination and persecution.

“Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence? Who, better than you, who have experienced the horrors of war so closely that Pope Francis referred to you as ‘martyr Churches’? From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see,” he said.

“Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the Pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: ‘Peace be with you!’ And he adds: ‘Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it’. Christ’s peace is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew,” Leo said.

“For my part, I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail. The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” he continued.

“The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbors are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings; not criminals to be hated, but other men and women with whom we can speak. Let us reject the Manichean notions so typical of that mindset of violence that divides the world into those who are good and those who are evil,” Pope Leo said.

“The Church will never tire of repeating: Let weapons be silenced. I would like to thank God for all those who, in silence, prayer and self-sacrifice, are sowing seeds of peace. I thank God for those Christians – Eastern and Latin alike – who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” Pope Leo said.

Interestingly, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the works of his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who served as pontiff from 1878 until 1903.

Most famous for his reflections on the Industrial Revolution, Leo XIII is the pope who Leo XVI said made a heartfelt appeal that the “legitimate variety of Eastern liturgy and discipline… may redound to the great honor and benefit of the Church.”

“Over a century ago, Leo XIII pointed out that ‘preserving the Eastern rites is more important than is generally realized.’ He went so far as to decree that ‘any Latin-Rite missionary, whether a member of the secular or regular clergy, who by advice or support draws any Eastern-Rite Catholic to the Latin Rite” ought to be “dismissed and removed from his office.’ We willingly reiterate this appeal to preserve and promote the Christian East, especially in the diaspora,” the new pontiff said.

“In addition to establishing Eastern circumscriptions wherever possible and opportune, there is a need to promote greater awareness among Latin Christians. In this regard, I ask the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches – which I thank for its work – to help me to define principles, norms, and guidelines whereby Latin Bishops can concretely support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora in their efforts to preserve their living traditions and thus, by their distinctive witness, to enrich the communities in which they live,” Pope Leo XIV said.

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