Pope Leo XIV highlighted this Wednesday, October 28, the importance of Christian faith permeating culture and everyday life.
During the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square, the Pontiff recalled a well-known teaching of Saint John Paul II: “A faith that does not become culture is a faith that has not been fully received, not entirely thought through, not faithfully lived.”
In his catechesis on the relationship between faith and culture, Leo XIV continued the cycle of reflections on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, focusing on numbers 53 to 62 of the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes.
The Holy Father explained that faith is called to be present in traditions, thought, art, science, and the various expressions of human life.
Christian faith is called to transform culture
Leo XIV recalled that the relationship between faith and culture finds its foundation in the mystery of the Incarnation.
Just as the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among men, Christian faith must become incarnate in the concrete circumstances of each people and society.
The Pontiff emphasized that Christianity can take root in any culture without identifying exclusively with any of them.
The Church recognizes all that is good, beautiful, and true in the various human traditions, while seeking to transform them from within in accordance with the Gospel.
He also recalled the Church’s historical contribution to the development of education and highlighted that medieval universities were born “from the heart of the Church,” playing a decisive role in the development of Western civilization.
Christians must deepen their faith and intellectual formation
Another central point of the catechesis was the need to integrate human knowledge with Christian faith.
Leo XIV explained that having received from Revelation the answers to the great questions of existence does not exempt believers from cultivating their intellectual and cultural formation.
On the contrary, he insisted that scientific and human knowledge must develop alongside an ever-deeper understanding of the faith.
The Pontiff especially recalled the exhortation of the Second Vatican Council to theologians to collaborate with specialists from other disciplines, without losing sight of the fact that the purpose of theological research is to attain a deeper knowledge of revealed truth.
Leo XIV calls for not living the faith in opposition to the world
In the final part of his catechesis, the Pope recalled that Gaudium et spes invites Catholics to maintain a relationship with the culture of their time without adopting an attitude of hostility or confrontation.
Leo XIV explained that achieving a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture is necessary both to persevere in the Christian vocation and to bear witness to the Gospel before others.
During the subsequent greetings, he also addressed a few words to Spanish-speaking pilgrims, encouraging them to be promoters of culture from the values of the Gospel in the various spheres of life and society.
Complete Message of Pope Leo XIV
General Audience of October 28, 2026
The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. IV. Constitution Gaudium et spes. 7. The Relationship between Faith and Culture (GS, 53-62).
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
The Second Vatican Council could not fail to speak about culture and its relationship with the Christian faith. It does so in the second chapter of the second part of the Constitution Gaudium et spes (GS).
The Catholic Church has always been concerned with accompanying the preaching of the Gospel with the creation of schools of all kinds, intended to increase the human, cultural, and spiritual formation of men and women on the five continents.
Medieval universities, as we know, were born from the heart of the Church, contributing in a decisive way to the development of Western civilization. At the same time, the progress of culture and knowledge raises ever new and deeper questions, stimulating believers to give an account of their faith (cf. 1 Pet 3:15-17).
Finally, as expressions of the spiritual dimension of the human person, the various manifestations of culture contribute to opening minds to the perennial questions about the meaning of the world and human existence, thus preparing the way to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The relationship between faith and culture finds its principal foundation in the Incarnation: if the divine Word became flesh and came to dwell among us (cf. Jn 1:14), then faith is also an incarnate reality, interwoven with the culture in which it is immersed. It is also called to become culture, that is, to reach the person in their environment of life, formed by human words, traditions, religious sense, art and poetry, thought and science.
As Saint John Paul II liked to repeat, “a faith that does not become culture is a faith that has not been fully received, not entirely thought through, not faithfully lived.”
Faith can be incarnated in any culture, because it does not identify specifically with any of them. It dwells in them, shaping them from within according to the “form” of Jesus Christ, that is, through charity, service, and filial recognition of God’s fatherhood.
Thus, the Church recognizes in the various cultures all that is good, beautiful, and true, in order to incarnate and transmit the message of the Gospel. At the same time, being “sent to all peoples of every time and place, it is not bound exclusively and inseparably to any race or nation, to any particular way of life, to any ancient or recent custom.
Faithful to its own tradition and at the same time conscious of the universality of its mission, it can enter into communion with diverse forms of culture; this communion enriches both the Church herself and the various cultures” (GS, 58).
The Church promotes culture because it is a good in itself, a service to the human person and to the fulfillment of his vocation on earth.
For this reason, Gaudium et spes exhorts the international community to ensure that all may have access to fundamental cultural goods, overcoming illiteracy and lack of education. All those who are capable of accessing higher studies — the Council affirms with courage — must find themselves in a position to do so in reality. Moreover, it is “the duty of all to ensure that the proper and necessary participation of women in cultural life is recognized and promoted” (GS, 60).
Likewise, Gaudium et spes upholds the need to orient teaching toward a certain unity of knowledge, even though new conditions of life may make it more difficult (cf. GS, 61). Christians are the first who must strive to achieve this sapiential unity, above all in themselves.
Although they have received from Revelation the answers to the great questions of existence, they are not thereby dispensed from a patient intellectual and cultural formation; on the contrary, their human and scientific knowledge must advance hand in hand with the contents of their faith, which they must continually deepen with age and according to the level of their studies.
The Council makes a particular appeal to theologians: “Those who are engaged in theological sciences […] should seek to collaborate with those who excel in other sciences, pooling their efforts and opinions. Theological research, while pursuing a deeper knowledge of revealed truth, should not neglect contact with its own time, so that it may help those competent in the various branches of knowledge to acquire a fuller understanding of the faith” (GS, 62).
Brothers and sisters, the Constitution Gaudium et spes recommends that we not live the faith in a spirit of opposition or hostility toward the world, culture, and its human expressions, but rather exhorts us in this way: “The faithful should live in very close union with the men of their time and should strive to understand perfectly their way of thinking and feeling, as expressed through culture” (GS, 62).
Achieving a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture is, in fact, a necessary condition for persevering in the Christian vocation, but also an indispensable requirement for bearing witness to the faith before the world and communicating it credibly to others.
Greeting to Spanish-speaking pilgrims
I cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims.
Drawing from the values of the Gospel, I encourage you to be promoters of culture in the various spheres of life and society.
May God bless you. Thank you very much.
Invitation before the Solemnity of All Saints
Finally, I direct my thoughts to the young, the sick, and the newly married.
A few days before the Solemnity of All Saints, I invite you to contemplate this immense multitude of men and women who present themselves to us as a prophetic sign of the future life, which already begins in the commitment and Christian witness of earthly life.
To all, my blessing.