Pope Leo XIV addressed a message to the participants of the meeting “Building communities that safeguard dignity”, organized in Rome by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. In it, the Pontiff asked religious men and women from various institutes—contemplative and apostolic—a renewed commitment to create environments where every person, especially the most vulnerable, is respected, listened to, and protected.
We leave below the full message from Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
I greet you all with affection and gratitude, representatives of various conferences of religious men and women and of numerous institutes of consecrated life, apostolic and contemplative, gathered to reflect on a theme that is very dear to me: how to build communities where the dignity of every person, especially that of minors and the most vulnerable, is protected and promoted.
Dignity is a gift from God, who created human beings in his image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26). It is not something obtained by merit or by force, nor does it depend on what we possess or accomplish. It is a gift that precedes us: it is born from the gaze of love with which God has wanted us, one by one, and continues to want us. In every human face, even when marked by fatigue or pain, is found the reflection of the Creator’s goodness, a light that no darkness can extinguish.
The care and protection of human beings toward their neighbor are also the fruit of a gaze that knows how to recognize, of a heart that knows how to listen. They arise from the desire to approach with respect and tenderness, to share the burdens and hopes of the other. It is by taking charge of our neighbor’s life that we learn true freedom, that which does not dominate but serves, that does not possess but accompanies.
Consecrated life, an expression of the total gift of self to Christ, is called in a special way to be a welcoming home and a place of encounter and grace. Those who follow the Lord on the path of chastity, poverty, and obedience discover that authentic love is born from the recognition of one’s own limits: from knowing that one is loved even in weakness, and precisely this makes one capable of loving others with respect, delicacy, and a free heart.
I therefore appreciate and encourage your intention to share experiences and learning paths on how to prevent all forms of abuse and how to be accountable, with truth and humility, for the protection processes undertaken. I exhort you to continue with this commitment, so that communities become more and more an example of trust and dialogue, where every person is respected, listened to, and valued. Where justice is lived with mercy, the wound is transformed into an opening through which grace enters.
I also invite you to continue collaborating with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which promotes and accompanies with dedication the path of growth of the entire Church in the culture of protection.
I commend you to Christ, Shepherd and Spouse of the Church, and to the Most Holy Mary, Mother of every consecrated man and woman, and I send from my heart my blessing to all of you.