Pope Leo XIV conducted a pastoral visit to the Santa Maria della Presentazione parish in Rome's Torrevecchia neighborhood. This visit was the Pope's fourth to a Roman parish since mid-February, occurring during the season of Lent. The Pope was greeted by parishioners, including children preparing for First Communion, scouts, and youth groups. The visit included the participation of Cardinal Baldo Reina and Cardinal Francesco Montenegro.
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Pope Leo XIV conducted a pastoral visit to the Santa Maria della Presentazione parish in Rome's Torrevecchia neighborhood on March 8, 2026.1
This marked his fourth parish visit since mid-February and penultimate during Lent.1
The Pope was greeted by parishioners, families, children preparing for First Communion, scouts, and youth groups, alongside Cardinal Baldo Reina and Cardinal Francesco Montenegro.1
He met with children and young people, answering questions on faith and support during hardships.1
Pope Leo urged them to reject violence, bullying, and division, emphasizing that everyone can be a "builder of peace and reconciliation."1
He encouraged reconciling with friends and opening hearts to Jesus through prayer, referencing a book on vocation.1
The Pope greeted families facing economic difficulties and ill parishioners.1
He spent time with the elderly and sick, thanking them warmly and joking about the cardinals' presence resembling a "small conclave."1
Concelebrating Mass with Cardinal Reina, Pope Leo reflected on the Gospel of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.1
He linked it to local challenges like marginalization, social hardships, youth uncertainties in work and housing.1
The parish was called to embody Christ's closeness, acting as a welcoming mother that listens without judgment.1
He urged trust in the Lord's accompaniment and Lenten renewal of Baptism's grace.1
Pope Leo thanked Caritas volunteers for aiding the elderly, ill, migrants, refugees, and poor.1
He stressed every person's inherent dignity as children of God.1
How does the Catholic Church define every person’s role in peacebuilding?
The Catholic Church teaches that every person plays an essential role in peacebuilding, rooted in personal moral conversion, the promotion of justice and charity, active nonviolence, and concrete actions that foster solidarity and the common good. This universal responsibility begins in the heart, extends to families and communities, and involves all—believers and non-believers—in constructing a "culture of peace" through daily choices and institutional contributions.
The Church's social doctrine emphasizes that peace is not merely the absence of war but "the tranquillity of order," requiring the safeguarding of human dignity, free communication, and fraternity. It is "the fruit of justice and the effect of charity," built day by day as all recognize their duty to promote it.
Peace is built up day by day in the pursuit of an order willed by God and can flourish only when all recognize that everyone is responsible for promoting it. In this way it can spread to families and to the different associations within society until the whole of the political community is involved.
Authentic peace demands changes in personal conduct, with individuals developing moral attitudes like justice, honesty, and truthfulness. Everyone, especially those in positions of responsibility, must serve as the "watchful conscience of society."
The Church's social teaching addresses every person, calling consciences to fulfill obligations of justice and charity. It proclaims a holistic view of human affairs and denounces sin, such as injustice and violence, while directing action toward protecting the vulnerable.
Christians, in particular, receive this doctrine first, inspiring evangelization, catechesis, and formation tailored to each vocation. Lay faithful bear distinctive secular responsibilities in politics, economics, and administration, enacting the Church's mission by putting social teaching into practice.
The first recipient of the Church's social doctrine is the Church community in its entire membership, because everyone has social responsibilities that must be fulfilled.
Every person is called to peacemaking modeled on Christ's Beatitudes: the meek, merciful, pure in heart, and those hungering for justice. Pope Francis describes this as an "art" of peace involving daily living as "effective leaven," alongside an "architecture" shaped by institutions but driven by peoples.
Negotiation often becomes necessary for shaping concrete paths to peace. Yet the processes of change that lead to lasting peace are crafted above all by peoples; each individual can act as an effective leaven by the way he or she lives each day.
This includes co-responsibility—avoiding childish reliance on leaders—and acting as Good Samaritans to include the fallen, fostering fraternity over hatred. Political, religious, business, and media leaders must apply the Beatitudes, choosing solidarity over conflict.
Peace emerges "from below," through local actions, dialogue, and nonviolent resistance to revenge. Popular movements exemplify this by serving the common good creatively. All are urged to encounter the impoverished, work side-by-side despite differences, and value others' contributions.
Pope Leo XIV echoes this: "Non-violence, as a method and a style, must distinguish our decisions, our relationships and our actions," supported by Gospel and social doctrine for believers and non-believers alike. Solidarity across groups—poor with poor, rich with poor, nations with nations—is essential for resolving problems and achieving world peace.
History and practical experience have taught us that authentic peace takes shape from the ground up, beginning with places, communities and local institutions.
In today's conflicts, trafficking, and inequalities, individuals resist indifference through prayer, awareness, and proximity, embodying Christ's peace ("Peace be with you"). Peacemakers "dirty their hands" for reconciliation, treating every person justly as a child of God.
Pope Benedict XVI stressed personal conversion to goodness, banning fear through integral disarmament reaching "men's very souls."
In summary, the Church defines every person's role in peacebuilding as transformative: from inner moral renewal to outward solidarity, nonviolence, and institutional engagement, ensuring peace as a divine gift actualized by human effort for the dignity of all. This draws from magisterial sources like the Compendium, Catechism, Fratelli Tutti, and recent papal messages, prioritizing personal agency within communal justice.