The pope told the seminarians that the call of God is gratuitous and not based on any merit of theirs, adding that their presence is a sign of hope for the Church in that God continues to call.
On Sept. 3, Pope Leo XIV received at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace a group of seminarians from two Italian seminaries, thanking them on behalf of the Church for “the ‘yes’ you have spoken and continue to speak each day.”
“It is neither easy nor a given in today’s world, and the Church knows this well,” he stated during the audience granted to delegations from the Pius XI Pontifical Apulian Regional Seminary in Molfetta and the Interdiocesan Seminary of Aversa.
Both seminaries are celebrating significant anniversaries this year. Molfetta is commemorating the centenary of its new premises — commissioned by Pope Pius XI, after whom the seminary is named — while Aversa is celebrating the tercentenary of the opening of its current facility.
Leo XIV also expressed his gratitude to the families present. “A vocation never arises without a suitable context; it often requires a home, and parents who pray and know how to let their children go. My gratitude, and that of the entire Church, goes out to you, dear families,” he noted.
The pope also highlighted God’s freedom, from which every vocation springs. “There is no competition, no ranking, nor is it written that he chose the best: He chose those he willed. In a world so intent on celebrating personal self-fulfillment, it is important to remember that none of you, nor any of us, is here because we earned it, but solely through a free choice by God the Father, a sign and guarantee of a gratuitous love that always precedes us and never disappoints,” he emphasized.
“The Lord continues to call, in every age of history and in every place.”
Pope Leo XIV
He also affirmed that the mere presence of these individuals with a priestly vocation in the seminary constitutes a sign of hope for the entire Church, a hope that, as he explained, stems not from “vague optimism,” but from the “certainty that the Lord continues to call, in every age of history and in every place.”
The pope also emphasized that the effort to live the spiritual life is sustained by “the beauty of fraternity and shared mission.”
“Jesus does not call just one man, but twelve, with personalities that are very different and by our standards, sometimes unexpected. The Lord gathers them and keeps them together so that they may learn that the Church is lived in communion: it belongs to none of us, and we are all called to love and serve it as one body,” he explained.
Addressing the formators, he asked them to be the “first teachers of that care and fraternity which are manifested in authentic, personal, and communal relationships, grounded in truth and charity.”
The pope made it clear that the mission of future priests will be to bring the Gospel to the people of their communities, that is, “to families struggling to get by; to young people who, barely twenty years old, pack their bags to look for work; to the elderly living in solitude; to the marginalized; to those who have lost a sense of purpose in life.”
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.
