VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV exhorted the devoted on Sunday (Jun 8) to reject an “exclusionary mindset” he mentioned had led to nationalism around the globe.
Leo’s homily didn’t name out present occasions and conflicts nor establish particular person leaders. However his alternative of language was important, encouraging individuals to “open borders” inside their hearts and minds.
The deal with marked a month since the former Robert Prevost from Chicago was elected pope, and got here throughout a Sunday mass to have fun Pentacost held underneath sunny skies in St Peter’s Sq..
Earlier than mass, the 69-year-old pontiff made a flip across the sprawling Baroque sq. in his popemobile to the enthusiastic cheers of the gang, estimated by the Vatican at round 80,000 individuals.
Leo mentioned the Church “should open the borders between peoples and break down the obstacles between class and race”.
Individuals should transfer “past our concern of those that are totally different”, he mentioned, noting that the Holy Spirit “breaks down obstacles and tears down the partitions of indifference and hatred…”
“The place there may be love, there is no such thing as a room for prejudice, for ‘safety’ zones separating us from our neighbours, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see rising additionally in political nationalisms.”
Leo didn’t converse of bodily borders however his concentrate on obstacles and partitions evoked the politics of US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to stem illegal immigration into the United States.
The pope additionally mentioned the Holy Spirit was an antidote to poisonous relationships marked by “suspicion, prejudice or the need to control others”.
“With nice ache”, Leo cited “circumstances the place relationships are marked by an unhealthy want for domination, an angle that usually results in violence, as is proven, tragically, by quite a few current circumstances of femicide”.
