GREETING OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE PEOPLE
Prince’s Palace
Saturday, 28 March 2026
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Your Serene Highness,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am very pleased to spend this day among you and thus to be the first of the Successors of the Apostle Peter in modern times to visit the Principality of Monaco, a City-State marked by the deep bond that unites it to the Church of Rome and to the Catholic faith.
Overlooking the Mediterranean and situated among the founding nations of European unity, your land finds in its very independence a vocation to promote encounter and to foster social friendship. Today, these values are threatened by a widespread climate of isolation and self-sufficiency. The gift of smallness and a living spiritual heritage invite you to put your prosperity at the service of law and justice, especially at a historical moment when the display of power and the logic of oppression are harming the world and jeopardizing peace. As you know, in the Bible it is the little ones who make history! Indeed, authentic spiritualities keep this awareness alive. Even when a sense of powerlessness or inadequacy prevails, we need to trust in God’s providence, for we believe that the Kingdom of God is like a tiny seed that grows into a great tree (cf. Mt 13:31–32). Such faith, however, changes the world only if we do not fail in our historic responsibilities.
The pluralistic makeup of your community makes this country a microcosm, where a vibrant minority of local people and a majority of citizens from other nations around the world contribute to its wellbeing. Within your community, many people hold positions of considerable influence in the economic and financial spheres; many are engaged in various kind of service; and there are numerous visitors and tourists. To dwell here is a privilege for some, and a particular call for everyone to reflect on their place in the world.
In God’s eyes, nothing is received in vain! As Jesus suggests in the parable of the talents, what has been entrusted to us must not be buried in the ground, but placed at the service of others and multiplied within the perspective of the Kingdom of God. What is more, this perspective is not limited to the private sphere, still less to a utopian vision of the world. On the contrary, the Kingdom of God, to which Jesus dedicated his life, is close, for it comes among us and shakes up the unjust configurations of power – those structures of sin that create chasms between the poor and the rich, between the privileged and the discarded, between friends and enemies. Every talent, every opportunity and every good placed in our hands has a universal destination; it bears an intrinsic need not to be held back, but to be shared, so that everyone’s life may be better. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt 6:11). At the same time he says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Mt 6:33). This logic of freedom and sharing lies at the heart of the parable of the Last Judgment, which places the poor at its center: Christ the Judge, seated on the throne, identifies with each one of them (cf. Mt 25:31–46).
You are among the few countries in the world to have the Catholic faith as a state religion. This faith places us before the sovereignty of Jesus, who calls Christians to become in the world a kingdom of brothers and sisters – a presence that does not cast down but raises up, that does not separate but connects, always ready to protect every human life with love, at any time and in any condition, so that no one is ever excluded from the table of fraternity. This is the perspective of integral ecology, which I know is very close to your hearts. By virtue of the profound bond that unites you to the Church of Rome, I entrust the Principality of Monaco with the very special task of deepening its commitment to the Social Doctrine of the Church and to develop local and international best practices that manifest its transformative power. Even in cultures that are not very religious and are highly secularized, the approach to problems characteristic of this Social Doctrine can reveal the great light that the Gospel brings to our time – a time in which many find it difficult to hope.
Thanks to this ancient faith, you will thus become experts in “new things”; not so much by chasing after fleeting goods, which often fade after a season, but by being prepared to face unprecedented challenges, which can only be met with free hearts and enlightened minds. As Saint Paul VI said on the 75 th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, “You understand very well that to walk, one needs light; to promote social progress, one needs a doctrine […]; it is thought that guides life; and if thought reflects the truth – the truth about man, the world, history, and all things – then the journey can proceed freely and swiftly; if not, the journey becomes either slow, uncertain, difficult or misguided.” [1] How relevant these words are today! For this reason, let us invoke Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Cause of our Joy, that through our minds, hearts and choices, she may always lead us to Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Pax vobis! Que la paix soit avec vous!
[1] SAINT PAUL VI,
Homily on the LXXV Anniversary of “Rerum Novarum” (22 maggio 1966).