Pope in Pompeii: May God calm fratricidal hatred and enlighten world leaders
By Devin Watkins
Pope Leo XIV marked the first anniversary of his pontificate on Friday, May 8, with a visit to the southern Italian cities of Pompeii and Naples.
The Pope celebrated Mass in the square in front of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary and recalled that he was elected Pope on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
“I therefore had to come here, to place my service under the protection of the Blessed Virgin,” he said in his homily. “Moreover, having chosen the name Leo places me in the footsteps of Leo XIII, whose many merits include the development of an extensive Magisterium on the Holy Rosary.”
Pope Leo reflected on the legacy of St. Bartolo Longo and his wife, Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, who together laid the foundations for the Shrine on Mount Vesuvius, where an eruption buried a great civilization in 79 AD.
The Pope recalled the words of his predecessor, St. John Paul II, at the Shrine in 2003 at the end of the Year of the Rosary.
“Today, as in the times of ancient Pompeii,” said Pope Leo with JPII, “it is necessary to proclaim Christ to a society that is distancing itself from Christian values and is even losing the memory of them.”
Turning to the mystery of the Annunciation, the Holy Father noted that the Hail Mary is an invitation to joy, since the angel Gabriel’s words reminded Mary that God’s caress of mercy has come in Jesus into our world wounded by sin.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, he added, leads the Church along the path to welcome Jesus, as her “Here I am” gave birth both to Jesus and to the Church.
“This moment in history has a sweetness and a power that draw the heart and lift it to that contemplative height where the prayer of the Holy Rosary takes root,” he said, recalling that the prayer of the Rosary is rooted in salvation history.
When we pray the Rosary, he said, we renew our love for God, as all acts of love toward Our Lady lead us “back to Jesus and brings us to the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of all Christian life.”
“The Rosary has a Marian form, but a Christological and Eucharistic heart,” he noted, recalling that many generations of Christians have been shaped by the Rosary.
The prayer of the Rosary, added the Pope, is capable of reaching mystical heights while containing a treasury of the most essential Christian theology.
“For what is more essential than the mysteries of Christ, than His holy Name, pronounced with the tenderness of the Virgin Mother?” he said. “It is in this Name, and in no other, that we can be saved.”
Pope Leo XIV went on to say that the Rosary points our hearts to the needs of the world, especially the importance of the family and the desire for peace.
He recalled the many wars still being fought in our world, saying they call for renewed commitment, which is both political and economic, as well as spiritual and religious.
“Peace is born within the heart,” said the Pope. “We cannot resign ourselves to the images of death that the news presents to us every day.”
Pope Leo invited everyone to pray the Rosary for peace, so that God’s divine power of love may save the world.
“Through [Mary’s] intercession,” he said, “may there come from the God of peace an overflowing outpouring of mercy, touching hearts, calming resentment and fratricidal hatred, and enlightening those who bear special responsibilities of government.”
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