How Can We Renew Hope in the Context of a New Missionary Drive? Leo XIV Charts the Course for the French Episcopate
Pope Leo XIV met with the French bishops at Saint Bernadette Hall in the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. The meeting opened the third day of his public schedule in France, after his arrival at the shrine the previous evening. The Pope’s meeting with the country’s bishops was presented as an opportunity to assess the state of the Church in France and suggest paths forward.
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Pope Leo XIV urged France’s bishops to renew the Church’s missionary work by proclaiming Christ, rebuilding hope and drawing on the country’s Catholic heritage. In an address at Lourdes, he also highlighted challenges involving secularism, education, abuse prevention, vocations, family life and divisions within the Church. 1
Meeting the French episcopate at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes on September 27, Leo praised France’s Marian tradition and its history of faith, holiness, culture and missionary activity. He called on bishops to face past failures truthfully, help heal wounds and persist in proclaiming the Gospel with courage and creativity. 1
Leo said the Church should have a voice in public life and defend its freedom to evangelize, educate and worship publicly under France’s system of laïcité. He encouraged bishops to help baptized people reclaim their faith heritage, and said the Church’s message of peace was needed amid polarization, declining social solidarity, violence, inequality and poverty. 1
He identified young people’s growing presence in the catechumenate, particularly among young adults, as a sign of hope. He urged bishops to welcome new Catholics into communities marked by charity and solidarity and provide strong formation rooted in Scripture. 1
Leo described education as a major challenge, affirming that Catholic schools should welcome people who do not share the faith while retaining their Christ-centered mission and commitment to the whole development of each student. He said students should not be marginalized because they believe in Jesus. 1
He thanked the bishops for measures addressing clergy abuse, including listening to victims, seeking truth and justice, making amends, and strengthening prevention and protection. He called for continued vigilance and said priests also need support and encouragement. 1
The Pope expressed concern about declining vocations to consecrated life, especially contemplative life, and the closure of established monastic communities. He connected vocations with the life of Christian families, urging support for families as places where faith, generosity, respect and solidarity are learned. 1
On divisions within the Church, Leo called for unity grounded in charity and shared faith—not uniformity—and said ideological divisions could weaken the Church’s witness. He described that unity as rooted in Church tradition, communion with legitimate pastors and the pope, and dialogue shaped by synodality. 1
Leo concluded by expressing confidence in the Church in France, pointing to its fraternal communities, engaged young people and inherited spiritual tradition as resources for continuing its mission. 1*
Christian hope and missionary renewal amid secularization
Christian hope is not optimism that secularization will quickly recede, but confidence in the risen Christ, whose promise of life reaches beyond the limits of this world. That hope sends the Church into mission: not to retreat in discouragement or treat people as targets, but to share Christ through prayer, witness, service, and patient encounter.
Secularization can unsettle Christian communities and make the future seem closed. The Church’s response, however, is not fatalism. Missionary renewal begins by returning to Christ, who is the source of hope and remains at work with his disciples; therefore evangelization is worthwhile even when results are not immediate or easily measured.
This renewal is nourished by Easter faith. In the Eucharist and the Church’s liturgical life, Christians encounter the death and resurrection of Christ and draw on the Holy Spirit for the work of evangelization. Prayer is not an escape from mission: it sustains the courage, patience, and fidelity that mission requires.
Mission also takes shape in solidarity with people’s real lives. Christians are called to share the joys, griefs, and struggles of those they meet, especially the poor and afflicted, and to make the Gospel visible through care and service. The Church’s hope is both a gift to receive and a task to share; it points to eternal life without dismissing the needs and hopes people experience here and now.
So missionary renewal amid secularization means becoming a Church that goes out: attentive to people, rooted in prayer and the sacraments, and unashamed to bear witness to Christ. Its confidence rests not in cultural influence or guaranteed success, but in the risen Lord, who accompanies his people and calls every baptized person to be a witness of hope.