Pope Leo XIV told the faithful not to live their Christian faith in a spirit of « opposition » or « hostility toward the world » during his general audience in St. Peter's Square on October 28. The Pope said a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture is « a necessary condition » for persevering in the Christian vocation.
Continuing his catechesis on the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope quoted the document's call for believers to live in close union with the other people of their time, seeking to understand « their way of thinking and feeling, whose expression is culture ». He said the Church must also be credible when it bears witness to the faith before the world and communicates it to others.
Leo XIV recalled that the Catholic Church has long accompanied the preaching of the Gospel by founding schools of every kind, aimed at promoting the human, cultural and spiritual formation of men and women on all five continents. The council text, he noted, calls for teaching to be oriented toward a certain unity of knowledge, even though the transformations of modern life can make that task more difficult. Christians, he said, should first strive to achieve this unity of wisdom within themselves.
The Pope stressed that revelation provides answers to the great questions of existence, but this does not exempt believers from patient intellectual and cultural formation. Human and scientific knowledge, he said, should advance at the same pace as the content of faith, which must deepen continually with age and level of study. Cultural expressions, in his view, help open minds to fundamental questions about the meaning of the world and human existence, preparing the way to welcome the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Leo XIV grounded the relationship between faith and culture in the Incarnation, describing faith as an « incarnate reality » closely woven into the culture in which it lives. He said faith is also called to become culture, reaching people within their living environment of words, traditions, religious sense, art, poetry, thought and science. Quoting Saint John Paul II, he said that « a faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully received, not entirely thought through, and not faithfully lived ». He added that Christian faith is not identified with any specific culture, which allows the Church to discover in diverse cultures whatever is good, beautiful and true in order to embody and transmit the message of the Gospel.
The Pope also recalled that Gaudium et spes urges the international community to guarantee everyone access to fundamental cultural goods, overcoming obstacles such as illiteracy and lack of education. He underlined that it is the duty of all to ensure that the necessary participation of women in cultural life is recognized and promoted.
In his greetings to Italian-speaking pilgrims, the Pope noted that the Solemnity of All Saints, which the Church celebrates on Sunday, November 1, is only a few days away. He invited the faithful to contemplate the immense multitude of men and women who have reached holiness, presented to the Church as a prophetic sign of future life, which he said already begins through Christian commitment and witness in earthly life. On November 2, the Pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed at the Verano Monumental Cemetery, Rome's oldest and largest cemetery, beginning at 4:00 p.m. local time. The site preserves remains of a necropolis dating to the early centuries of Christianity, including the catacombs of Santa Ciriaca.