Pope at Regina Caeli: “Working for peace is working for life”

At Regina Caeli, Pope Leo XIV recalls the message of peace from Francis of Assisi. May Laudato Si' Week serve to renew our commitment to ‘integral ecology’. In the age of AI, we must “promote communication that respects the truth of the human person”. Ascension of the Lord: with the saints “next door”, we must learn “to ascend day by day towards Heaven”.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - “Caring for peace is caring for life!” This morning, after the Regina Caeli, from the window of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV recalled St Francis of Assisi – in the jubilee year marking the 800th anniversary of his death – and his still-relevant “message of peace with God, with our brothers and sisters, and with all creatures”. To highlight the close link between peace and care for Creation, whilst “wars” hinder the necessary progress.

These words were shared on the eve of Laudato si’ Week – running from today until next Sunday – inspired by Bergoglio’s encyclical on care for our common home, published on 18 June 2015. “I encourage the members of the Laudato si’ Movement and all those working for an integral ecology to renew their commitment,” he said.

The Pope also recalled that today marks World Communications Day in several countries – first established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 – which this year has the theme “Safeguarding human voices and faces”. “In this age of artificial intelligence, I encourage everyone to commit to promoting forms of communication that always respect the truth of the human person, towards which every technological innovation should be directed,” he said. Meanwhile, anticipation is growing for Prevost’s first encyclical on AI and anthropological challenges, possibly to be titled Magnifica humanitas.

Before the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the Pope commented on the Gospel of the Day (Mt 28:16-20), on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. “Christ’s entire life is a movement of ascent, which, through his humanity, embraces and involves the whole world, raising and redeeming humanity from its sinful condition, bringing light, forgiveness and hope where there was darkness, injustice and despair,” he said this morning.

Thus, the Ascension does not convey a “distant promise”, but a “living bond, which draws us too towards heavenly glory”, he added. The “way” of the “path of ascent” can be found in Jesus Christ, as in Mary, and in the saints. Those whose veneration is “universal” by the Church’s decree, and those “next door”, with whom we live our daily lives—fathers, mothers, grandparents, people of every age and condition—who, with joy and commitment, sincerely strive to live according to the Gospel,” he added.

“With them, with their support and thanks to their prayers, we too can learn to ascend day by day towards Heaven, making the object of our thoughts, as St Paul says, all ‘that which is true […], just, […] lovely’ and putting into practice, with God’s help, what we have ‘heard and seen’.”

• Regina
• Caeli