Pope Leo: In Our Challenge-Filled Time, Place Christ at the Centre

Vatican, Nov 12, 2025: Celebrating Mass at the Church of Sant'Anselmo on the Aventine Hill in Rome to mark the 125th anniversary of its dedication, Pope Leo urged the Benedictines to place Christ at the centre of their lives as they face the challenges of the modern age.

During the Mass on Tuesday, 11 November, Pope Leo encouraged the Benedictines to respond to today’s trials with faith and commitment. “The sudden changes we are witnessing provoke and question us, raising issues that have never been seen before,” he said.

“This celebration,” the Pope continued, “reminds us that, like the apostle Peter, and together with him Benedict and many others, we too can respond to the demands of our vocation only by placing Christ at the centre of our existence and our mission, starting from that act of faith that makes us recognise Him as the Saviour and translating it into prayer, study, and commitment to a holy life.”

The Church of Sant’Anselmo stands within a complex managed by the Benedictine Confederation, the international governing body of the Order of St Benedict. The site also includes the abbot primate’s residence—currently held by Abbot Jeremias Schröder—his curia, the Pontifical Atheneum of Sant’Anselmo, and a residential college.

Monasteries Have Brought Peace in Dark Times

The Pope recalled how Pope Leo XIII promoted the creation of the complex and the Benedictine Confederation because “he was convinced” that the Order of St Benedict “could be of great help to the good of all God's people at a time full of challenges, such as the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.”

Pope Leo highlighted that since its origins, monasticism has been a “frontier” inspiring “courageous men and women to establish centres of prayer, work, and charity in the most remote and inaccessible places,” transforming desolate areas into fertile lands both economically and spiritually.

“The monastery, thus, has increasingly characterised itself as a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even in the darkest periods of history,” he said.

A School of the Lord’s Service

He urged the community to “aspire to become a beating heart” of the Benedictine world, centred on the church and faithful to the teachings of its founder.

The Pope noted that the Benedictines already live this vocation through “the liturgy, first of all, then in the Lectio Divina, in research, in pastoral care, with the involvement of monks from all over the world and with openness to clerics, religious, and lay people from the most diverse backgrounds and conditions.” He encouraged the community to continue developing as a true “school of the Lord’s service.”

Referring to the first reading from the Prophet Ezechiel, the Pope described it as an image of “the river flowing from the Temple,” symbolising “a heart pumping the lifeblood into the body, so that every member may receive nourishment and strength for the benefit of others.” From the second reading, he drew attention to the “spiritual house” founded on the solid rock of Christ.

“In the industrious hive of Sant'Anselmo, may this be the place where everything begins and to which everything returns to find verification, confirmation, and deeper understanding before God,” Pope Leo XIV said.

He expressed his hope that the institution would send a “prophetic message” to the Church and the world, to be a chosen people, “so that we may proclaim the admirable works of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

Bring Jesus to All

Pope Leo described the church’s dedication as a “solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated as a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God.”

Citing the Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium, he reaffirmed that the Church is “both human and divine” and “in her the human is directed and subordinated to the divine, the visible likewise to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, which we seek.”

“It is the experience of our lives and of the lives of every man and woman in this world, searching for that ultimate and fundamental answer that 'neither flesh nor blood' can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven; ultimately in need of Jesus, ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’,” the Pope said.

He concluded by inviting everyone present to seek Jesus and bring Him to all, “grateful for the gifts He has given us, and above all for the love with which He has preceded us. This temple will then increasingly become a place of joy, where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have received freely.”

Courtesy: Vatican News