Message from Pope Leo XIV

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. As we cross the threshold of the 8th Centenary of the death of our beloved brother Francis of Assisi, I wish to join my voice to yours in gratitude to God for the extraordinary gift that this saint has been — and continues to be — for the whole Church and for the world.

Eight hundred years ago, a young man from Assisi heard the voice of Christ speaking from a crumbling cross: “Go and rebuild my Church.” What began as a literal task of laying stones became a profound journey of interior conversion — a life poured out in prayer, poverty, brotherhood and joyful proclamation of the Gospel. That life continues to speak with extraordinary power to our own generation.

The four pillars that guide this Centenary Year — Faith, Peace, Creation and Service — are not merely themes. They are the very contours of the Franciscan soul, drawn from the Gospel and written in the witness of Francis himself. I encourage the entire Franciscan Family, and indeed all the faithful, to allow this year to be a genuine time of renewal: a return to the sources, a deepening of prayer, and a renewed commitment to the poor, to the earth and to one another.

In a world wounded by conflict, anxiety and ecological crisis, the spirit of St. Francis is not a nostalgic memory but an urgent summons. His peace was not the absence of difficulty but the presence of God. His care for creation was not sentiment but theology. His embrace of the poor was not charity alone but the recognition of Christ himself in the face of the suffering.

I ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to make this year a time of genuine encounter — with God in prayer, with the poor in service, with one another in fraternity, and with the earth in reverence. May the example of Francis renew your courage, deepen your joy, and send you forth as instruments of that peace which the world cannot give.