The pontiff said people can feel less free to be themselves even as autonomy is increasingly treated as absolute.

Pope Leo XIV warned Wednesday of a “paradox” in Western societies where a growing emphasis on individual freedom coexists with an increasingly widespread fear of being judged.

Speaking to bishops from various countries who are friends of the Focolare Movement, the pontiff warned of the effects of individualism in the West, “where the once-stable networks of family, friendship, and community are giving way to greater fragmentation.”

In this context, he said, freedom “is increasingly presented as absolute autonomy — the ability to pursue happiness without any moral, natural, or even human limits,” as he noted in his recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

“And yet we observe a paradox,” he continued. “For all the emphasis on individual freedom, people today frequently feel less free to be their genuine selves or follow their highest ideals out of a hidden fear of being judged or of not fitting in.”

Unity as an answer to polarization

During his address, the pope called for a renewed commitment to unity as a response to the divisions afflicting the contemporary world.

Highlighting the contribution of the movement founded by Chiara Lubich, he said that “in an age sadly marked by increasing polarization, Our Lord enabled her to give witness to both the sense and service of unity, thus becoming a sign for her own and for future generations.”

“If that was Chiara’s task 40 years ago, it is ours even more urgently today,” he said. “I think of the difficult social situations, the circumstances, the divisions which some of you, my brothers, endure in your countries, situations such as prejudice, racism, religious intolerance, even violence.”

Leo said the loss of openness to others “exacerbates a sense of disunity” and ultimately deprives people “of the happiness for which we were created, since we are made in the image of the Triune God, who is himself a communion of persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Addressing the participants as heirs to Lubich’s spiritual legacy and ministers of the Church in a fragmented world, the pope urged them to bear witness to the unity of the human family.

“The answer to the sad divisions that plague our world lies not in forming more committees or launching more projects but in going back to the source of our unity in the Holy Trinity,” he said.

‘We must become contemplatives’

“Indeed, we must become contemplatives!” the pope told the bishops, encouraging them to strengthen their interior lives.

He urged them to do so “with generous and sustained prayer before Our Lord in the tabernacle, with a calm and attentive celebration of the Office and holy Mass, and finally by frequent contemplation of the indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity in the depth of our being.”

“In this way, you will be witnesses to each other and to those you serve of that unity which builds lasting peace,” he said.

Reform of the Focolare Movement

This was not the first time Leo had received members of the Focolare Movement, also known as the Work of Mary, which Lubich founded in 1943. In March, he met with representatives of the ecclesial movement following the conclusion of its general assembly.

Present in 182 countries, the movement has about 110,000 active members and approximately 2 million supporters and adherents, according to figures published on its official website.

The Holy See approved the Work of Mary in 1962. Its General Statutes were subsequently approved in 1990 by the then-Pontifical Council for the Laity, whose functions are now part of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.

In recent years, the movement has also faced allegations of abuse. Revelations that a former consecrated member in France had sexually abused minors prompted the organization’s leaders to commission an official investigation by an independent body, the British firm GCPS Consulting.

A report published in March 2022 as a result of that investigation detailed confirmed cases of sexual abuse as well as instances of spiritual and power abuse identified through testimony gathered during the inquiry.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.