Pope hopes the Lunar New Year will bring a future of ‘peace and prosperity for all’
Next Tuesday, 17 February 2026, billions of people in Asia will ushered in the Lunar New Year. In his Angelus address, Leo XIV expressed hope that this will “strengthen family ties and friendships” and “bring peace to homes and society”. Speaking about today’s Gospel, he noted that “true righteousness consists in love and that, within every precept of the Law, we must learn to identify a call to love”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Leo XIV appeared this morning from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace for the customary Sunday recitation of the Angelus. In his address, he noted that billions of “people in East Asia and other parts of the world will celebrate the Lunar New Year” on 17 February 2026, ushering in the Year of the Fire Horse.
“May this joyful celebration strengthen family ties and friendships, bring peace to homes and society and provide an opportunity to look to the future together and to build peace and prosperity for all,” he said.
The celebration symbolises the arrival of spring, and the day of the New Moon marks the beginning of the next twelve months. It is a very popular holiday, celebrated as a time of outreach and solidarity.
“With my best wishes for the New Year, I express to everyone my affection and invoke the Lord’s blessing upon each one of you,” the pontiff said.
After reciting the Marian prayer, Leo expressed his “closeness to the people of Madagascar who have been impacted by two cyclones, flooding and landslides”.
The latest, tropical cyclone Gezani, left scores of fatalities with winds of up to 250 km/h. China pledged 100 million yuan in aid. “I pray for the victims, their families and for all who have suffered serious damage,” the pope said.
Before the Angelus, Leo commented on today's Gospel (Mt 5:17-37), the passage from the Evangelist Matthew that contains part of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount.
In it, Christ “reveals the true meaning of the precepts of the Law of Moses”, which “bring us into a relationship of love with God and with our brothers and sisters. For this reason, Jesus says that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to bring it to fulfilment”.
“The Law,” Leo said, “is fulfilled precisely by love, which brings its profound meaning and ultimate purpose to completion. We are called to achieve a righteousness that ‘exceeds’ that of the scribes and Pharisees, a righteousness that is not limited to observing the commandments, but that opens us to love and compels us to love.”
To explain this, Jesus uses a type of paradox known as an antinomy, a “very important" approach in which two contradictory statements are present, both proven or justified.
“Jesus teaches us that true righteousness consists in love and that, within every precept of the Law, we must learn to identify a call to love,” Leo XIV said. “Indeed, it is not sufficient to refrain from killing a person physically if one then kills with words and undermines the dignity of the other,” he added.
“Similarly, it is not enough to be technically faithful to one’s spouse and not commit adultery if the relationship lacks mutual tenderness, listening, respect, care for the other and shared goals.” Indeed, “The Gospel offers us this valuable teaching: minimal righteousness is not enough; great love is needed.”
The pontiff ended, saying: “Let us invoke together the Virgin Mary, who gave Christ to the world, the One who fulfills the Law and the plan of salvation. May she intercede for us, help us to understand better the Kingdom of God and to live out its call for righteousness.”
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