In a message to French elected officials, Pope Leo insists on the need for Christian political leaders to turn to Jesus, to live their faith without compromise and bear witness to Him in order to face modern challenges and make the world a better place.
By Christopher Wells
“The salvation that Jesus obtained through His death and resurrection,” Pope Leo said on Thursday, “encompasses all dimensions of human life, such as culture, the economy and work, family and marriage, respect for human dignity and life, health, as well as communication, education, and politics.”
Speaking with elected officials from the French department of Val-de-Marne, Pope Leo said their Jubilee “journey of faith” to Rome will help them return to their daily commitments “strengthened by hope” and “better equipped to work towards building a more just, more humane, and more fraternal world – which can be nothing more than a world ever more imbued with the Gospel”.
Turn to Jesus and seek His help
In the face of the “excesses” of Western society, the Holy Father insisted that Christians “can do no better… than to turn to Christ and ask for His help in carrying out our responsibilities.”
Pope Leo explained that by embracing Christ, civil leaders will not only find “personal enrichment,” but will be better able to benefit those they serve.
Precisely because of the virtue charity infused at Baptism, which leads to social and political charity, Christian leaders are prepared “to face the challenges of the present world,” insofar as they really live out and bear witness to their faith, the Pope said. He warned that “the promotion of ‘values’, however evangelical they may be” if they are “emptied” of Christ, “are powerless to change the world.”
‘Strengthen yourselves in the faith’
At the same time, Pope Leo acknowledged that it is not easy for elected officials to carry out their duties in accordance with their faith, especially in western societies, “where Christ and His Church are marginalized, often ignored, and sometimes ridiculed”.
Nonetheless, he encouraged them to unite themselves “more and more to Christ, to live in Him and bear witness to Him”, reminding them that for Christian politicians there can be no separation in their personality between their Christianity and their public role.
“You are therefore called to strengthen yourselves in the faith,” he said, and “to deepen your understanding of the doctrine—especially the social doctrine—Jesus taught the world, and to put it into practice in the exercise of your duties and in the drafting of laws”.
Noting that that teaching is rooted in human nature and the natural law “that all can recognize”, he encouraged Christian politicians to “not be afraid to propose and defend it with conviction”, adding “it is a doctrine of salvation that aims at the good of every human being and the building of peaceful, harmonious, prosperous, and reconciled societies.”
