The Pope spoke during the audience granted on September 9 at the Vatican Apostolic Palace to a group of bishops who are friends of the Focolare Movement, gathered for a spiritual encounter under the motto “Bearing witness to unity.”
In a world marked by polarization, prejudice, racism, religious intolerance, and, in some countries, violence, Leo XIV presented Christian communion as a response to increasingly fragmented societies.
Family, friendship, and community versus individualism
Focusing specifically on the situation in the West, Leo XIV noted that individualism affects not only the understanding of freedom but also the bonds on which social life has traditionally been built.
“I am also thinking of the situation here in the West, now too marked by the effects of individualism, where the once stable networks of family, friendship, and community are giving way to greater fragmentation,” he stated.
The Pontiff linked this process to a notion of freedom that “is increasingly presented as absolute autonomy,” understood as “the capacity to seek happiness without any moral, natural, or even human limit.”
Leo XIV also warned of a paradox. Despite the contemporary emphasis on individual freedom, people often feel “less free to be truly themselves or to pursue their highest ideals,” due to a “hidden fear” of being judged or not fitting in.
The loss of openness toward others, he explained, heightens the sense of disunity and ultimately deprives man of the happiness for which he was created.
Communion as a response to fragmentation
In the face of this individualism, the Pope recalled that man was created in the image of the Triune God, “who is Himself a communion of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
According to Leo XIV, Christ reveals to man the deepest meaning of his existence and relationships, while communion with God gives rise to communion among men “as brothers and sisters in Christ.”
“This is the Church, the mystery of communion, a sign and leaven of unity for our world,” he affirmed, referring to Communionis notio, the letter of the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on certain aspects of the Church understood as communion.
The legacy of Chiara Lubich
The Pontiff framed these reflections within the theme chosen for the gathering, “Bearing witness to unity,” which he described as one of the essential elements of the movement founded by Chiara Lubich.
Leo XIV recalled that Lubich bore witness “to the meaning and service of unity” in an era already marked by divisions and considered that this task is “even more urgent today.”
The Pope explicitly cited the address that Francis delivered in September 2021 to another gathering of bishops who are friends of the Focolare Movement. During his pontificate, Francis urged the movement to avoid self-referentiality and to maintain a “dynamic fidelity” to the charism of its foundress.
Leo XIV now encouraged the prelates to take advantage of these days to live out fraternity among bishops and expressed his hope that the spiritual support found in the Work of Mary—the official name of the Focolare Movement—will also help them to live “communion and fraternity” in their respective episcopal conferences.
“The answer is not to form more committees”
The Pope made clear, however, that the response to divisions does not primarily lie in multiplying structures or initiatives.
“The response to the sad divisions afflicting our world does not lie in forming more committees or launching more projects, but in returning to the source of our unity in the Most Holy Trinity,” he stated.
“Indeed, we must become contemplatives!” he added.
For Leo XIV, the witness of unity he calls for from the bishops thus has a spiritual rather than organizational foundation.
Prayer before the Tabernacle and attentive celebration of the Mass
In this regard, the Pontiff asked the prelates to take advantage of the gathering to nourish their interior life especially through “generous and persevering prayer before our Lord in the Tabernacle.”
He also exhorted them to a “serene and attentive” celebration of the Divine Office and the Holy Mass, and to frequent contemplation of the indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity “in the depths of our being.”
In this way, Leo XIV concluded, the bishops will be able, among themselves and before the faithful they serve, to be witnesses of “that unity which builds lasting peace.”