Pope Leo XIV has addressed a letter to the presbytery of the Archdiocese of Madrid on the occasion of the Presbyteral Assembly Convivium, held on February 9 and 10, in which he offers a profound reflection on the identity and mission of the priest in the current cultural and ecclesial context.
In his message, the Pontiff acknowledges the difficulties of the ministry in a society marked by secularization, polarization, and the loss of common references, but he also highlights the signs of a new spiritual search, especially among young people. In the face of the temptation to withdraw or to activism, Leo XIV calls for a priesthood rooted in intimacy with Christ, sustained by the Eucharist, faithful to the apostolic Tradition, and lived in presbyteral fraternity, proposing as the key not new models, but the renewal of the priesthood in its most authentic core: being truly alter Christus at the service of God and of men.
Here below are the words of the Pope:
Dear sons:
I am glad to be able to address this letter to you on the occasion of your Presbyteral Assembly and to do so from a sincere desire for fraternity and unity. I thank your Archbishop and, from the heart, each one of you for your availability to gather as a presbytery, not only to deal with common matters, but to support one another in the mission you share.
I value the commitment with which you live and exercise your priesthood in parishes, services, and very diverse realities; I know that many times this ministry takes place amid weariness, complex situations, and a silent giving of yourselves of which only God is witness. Precisely for this reason, I desire that these words reach you as a gesture of closeness and encouragement, and that this encounter foster a climate of sincere listening, true communion, and confident openness to the action of the Holy Spirit, who does not cease to work in your life and in your mission.
The time that the Church is living invites us to pause together in a serene and honest reflection. Not so much to remain in immediate diagnoses or in the management of urgencies, but to learn to read deeply the moment we are living, recognizing, in the light of faith, the challenges and also the possibilities that the Lord opens before us. On this path, it becomes increasingly necessary to educate the gaze and to exercise discernment, so that we may perceive more clearly what God is already working, many times in a silent and discreet way, in our midst and in our communities.
This reading of the present cannot do without the cultural and social framework in which faith is lived and expressed today. In many environments, we observe advanced processes of secularization, a growing polarization in public discourse, and the tendency to reduce the complexity of the human person, interpreting it from ideologies or partial and insufficient categories. In this framework, faith runs the risk of being instrumentalized, banalized, or relegated to the realm of the irrelevant, while forms of coexistence are consolidated that dispense with any transcendent reference.
To this is added a profound cultural change that cannot be ignored: the progressive disappearance of common references. For a long time, the Christian seed found soil that was to a large extent prepared, because the moral language, the great questions about the meaning of life, and certain fundamental notions were, at least in part, shared. Today that common substratum has been notably weakened. Many of the conceptual presuppositions that for centuries facilitated the transmission of the Christian message have ceased to be evident and, in not a few cases, even comprehensible. The Gospel does not encounter only indifference, but a different cultural horizon, in which words no longer mean the same thing and where the first announcement cannot be taken for granted.
However, this description does not exhaust what is really happening. I am convinced—and I know that many of you perceive it in the daily exercise of your ministry—that in the heart of not a few people, especially young people, a new restlessness is opening up today. The absolutization of well-being has not brought the expected happiness; a freedom detached from truth has not generated the promised fullness; and material progress, by itself, has not managed to fill the deep desire of the human heart.
Indeed, the dominant proposals, along with certain hermeneutical and philosophical readings with which the destiny of man has been wanted to be interpreted, far from offering a sufficient response, have frequently left a greater sensation of satiety and emptiness. Precisely for this reason, we observe that many people are beginning to open themselves to a more honest and authentic search, a search that, accompanied with patience and respect, is leading them back to the encounter with Christ. This reminds us that for the priest it is not a time for withdrawal or resignation, but for faithful presence and generous availability. All this arises from the recognition that the initiative is always the Lord’s, who is already at work and precedes us with his grace.
Thus, what type of priests Madrid needs—and the whole Church—in this time is taking shape. Certainly not men defined by the multiplication of tasks or by the pressure of results, but men configured with Christ, capable of sustaining their ministry from a living relationship with Him, nourished by the Eucharist and expressed in a pastoral charity marked by the sincere gift of self. It is not a matter of inventing new models or redefining the identity we have received, but of proposing again, with renewed intensity, the priesthood in its most authentic core—being alter Christus—, allowing Him to configure our life, unify our heart, and give form to a ministry lived from intimacy with God, faithful giving to the Church, and concrete service to the people entrusted to us.
Dear sons, allow me today to speak to you about the priesthood using an image that you know well: your Cathedral. Not to describe a building, but to learn from it. Because cathedrals—like any sacred place—exist, like the priesthood, to lead to the encounter with God and reconciliation with our brothers, and their elements contain a lesson for our life and ministry.
By contemplating its facade, we already learn something essential. It is the first thing that is seen, and yet it does not say everything: it indicates, suggests, invites. So too the priest does not live to exhibit himself, but neither to hide. His life is called to be visible, coherent, and recognizable, even when it is not always understood. The facade does not exist for itself: it leads to the interior. In the same way, the priest is never an end in himself. His entire life is called to refer to God and to accompany the passage toward the Mystery, without usurping his place.
Upon reaching the threshold, we understand that it is not fitting for everything to enter the interior, for it is sacred space. The threshold marks a passage, a necessary separation. Before entering, something remains outside. The priesthood is also lived in this way: being in the world, but not of the world (cf. Jn 17,14). At this crossroads are situated celibacy, poverty, and obedience; not as a negation of life, but as the concrete form that allows the priest to belong entirely to God without ceasing to walk among men.
The cathedral is also a common home, where all have a place. So the Church is called to be, especially for its priests: a house that welcomes, protects, and does not abandon. And so presbyteral fraternity must be lived; as the concrete experience of knowing oneself at home, responsible for one another, attentive to the brother’s life, and ready to support one another. My sons, no one should feel exposed or alone in the exercise of the ministry: resist together the individualism that impoverishes the heart and weakens the mission!
As we walk through the temple, we notice that everything rests on the columns that support the whole. The Church has seen in them the image of the Apostles (cf. Ef 2,20). Neither does priestly life sustain itself, but in the apostolic witness received and transmitted in the living Tradition of the Church, and guarded by the Magisterium (cf. 1 Co 11,2; 2 Tm 1,13-14). When the priest remains anchored in this foundation, he avoids building on the sand of partial interpretations or circumstantial emphases, and relies on the firm rock that precedes and surpasses him (cf. Mt 7,24-27).
Before reaching the presbytery, the cathedral shows us discreet but fundamental places: in the baptismal font the People of God is born; in the confessional it is continuously regenerated. In the sacraments, grace is revealed as the most real and effective force of priestly ministry. For this reason, dear sons, celebrate the sacraments with dignity and faith, being aware that what takes place in them is the true force that builds the Church and that they are the ultimate end to which all our ministry is ordered. But do not forget that you are not the source, but the channel, and that you also need to drink from that water. For this reason, do not cease to confess, to always return to the mercy that you announce.
Next to the central space, various chapels open up. Each one has its history, its patronage. Despite being different in art and composition, all share the same orientation; none is turned toward itself, none breaks the harmony of the whole. So it is also in the Church with the different charisms and spiritualities through which the Lord enriches and sustains your vocation. Each one receives a particular way of expressing faith and nourishing interiority, but all remain oriented toward the same center.
Let us look at the center of everything, my sons: here it is revealed what gives meaning to what you do every day and from where your ministry springs. On the altar, through your hands, Christ’s sacrifice is actualized in the highest action entrusted to human hands; in the tabernacle, He whom you have offered remains, entrusted again to your care. Be adorers, men of deep prayer, and teach your people to do the same.
At the end of this journey, to be the priests that the Church needs today, I leave you with the same advice from your holy compatriot, St. John of Ávila: «Be entirely his» (Sermon 57). Be holy! I entrust you to Our Lady of the Almudena and, with a heart full of gratitude, I impart the Apostolic Blessing, which I extend to all those entrusted to your pastoral care.
Vatican, January 28, 2026. Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor of the Church.
LEÓN PP. XIV