\u201cI am close to all the Lebanese people at this time of grave trial,\u201d the pope said on March 11.<\/p>\n
VATICAN CITY \u2014 Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday remembered Father Pierre El Raii, a Maronite priest who died after being wounded in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon, and described him as \u201ca true shepherd\u201d who remained with his people despite the war.<\/p>\n
El Raii was killed on March 9 while going to the aid of a parishioner wounded in a earlier attack, according to Father Toufic Bou Merhi, a Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, who spoke with Vatican media.<\/p>\n
At the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter\u2019s Square, Leo commented on the March 11 funeral of El Raii and the war affecting villages in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am close to all the Lebanese people at this time of grave trial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Arabic, \u2018El Raii\u2019 means \u2018the shepherd,\u2019\u201d the pope said. \u201cFather Pierre was a true shepherd who always remained close to his people, with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As soon as he heard that some parishioners had been wounded by a bombing, he rushed to help them without hesitation. May the Lord grant that his blood shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his appeal, Leo also called for prayers for peace in Iran and throughout the Middle East, \u201cespecially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMay our prayer be a comfort to those who suffer and a seed of hope for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A Church open to others<\/p>\n
In his audience catechesis, the Holy Father reflected on the nature of the Church and emphasized that it \u201ccan never turn inwards on herself\u201d but must be \u201copen to everyone and \u2026 for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone, and every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which he or she lives and works,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Although believers in Christ belong to the Church, the Second Vatican Council reminds us that \u201call men are called to belong to the new people of God,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
In his talk, Leo continued his reflection on the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, focusing on the document\u2019s second chapter, devoted to the people of God \u2014 one of the central parts of ecclesiology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church is one but includes everyone,\u201d he said to thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n
Henri de Lubac and Vatican II<\/p>\n
The pope quoted Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century and a key figure of the Second Vatican Council, to describe the Church: \u201cThe unique Ark of Salvation must welcome all human diversity into its vast nave.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this reason, he noted that the people of God \u201cshows its catholicity, welcoming the wealth and resources of different cultures and, at the same time, offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pope said that the Church is a people in which \u201cwomen and men of different nationalities, languages, and cultures live together in faith.\u201d For this reason, he presented it as \u201ca sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all his children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Christian, the pontiff emphasized, is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in the environments in which he or she lives and works.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven those who have not yet received the Gospel are therefore, in some way, oriented towards the people of God,\u201d he affirmed.<\/p>\n
Christ gathers the new people<\/p>\n
During the catechesis, Leo XIV highlighted that the history of the ancient people of Israel constitutes a preparation for the new covenant that God establishes in Jesus Christ. Quoting Lumen Gentium, the pope recalled that \u201call these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that it is Christ who, \u201cin giving his body and his blood, unites this people in himself and in a definitive way.\u201d This people is now composed of men and women from every nation and \u201cis united by faith in him, by adherence to him, by living the same life as him, animated by the Spirit of the Risen One.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this way, he continued, the Church is born \u2014 understood as the people of God \u201cwho draw their existence from the body of Christ and who are themselves the body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not a people like any other,\u201d he emphasized, but a community called together by God and made up of people from all the peoples of the earth.<\/p>\n
Its unity \u201cis not a language, a culture, an ethnicity, but faith in Christ.\u201d As the Council says, the Church is \u201cthe assembly of all those who in faith look upon Jesus,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The pontiff also explained that the Church is \u201ca messianic people,\u201d because it has Christ, the Messiah, as its head.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbove any task or function, what really matters in the Church is to be grafted onto Christ,\u201d he said. This, he explained, is the only \u201chonorary title we should seek as Christians\u201d: to live as children of the Father and as brothers and sisters among ourselves.<\/p>\n
Consequently, he affirmed that the fundamental law governing relationships within the Church is \u201clove,\u201d as it is received and experienced in Christ.<\/p>\n
Leo concluded his catechesis by highlighting the prophetic value of the Church in today\u2019s world. The Church, he said, \u201cis a great sign of hope \u2014 especially in our times, traversed by so many conflicts and wars \u2014 to know that the Church is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages, and cultures live together in faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by\u00a0ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n