WISDOM OF Pope Leo XIV Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! The Constitution of the Second Vatican Council Lumen gentium (LG) on the Church dedicates an entire chapter, the fifth, to the universal vocation to holiness of all the faithful: every one of us is called to live in the grace of God, practising the virtues and imitating Christ. Holiness, according to the Conciliar Constitution, is not a privilege for the few, but a gift that requires every baptized person to strive for the perfection of charity, that is, the fullness of love towards God and towards one’s neighbour. Charity is, in fact, the heart of the holiness to which all believers are called: infused by the Father, through the Son Jesus, this virtue “rules over all the means of attaining holiness and gives life to these same means” (LG, 42). The highest level of holiness, as in the early days of the Church, is martyrdom, the “supreme witness of faith and charity” (LG, 50: for this reason, the Council text teaches that every believer must be ready to confess Christ even unto blood (cf. LG, 42), as has always been the case and continues to be so today. This readiness to bear witness is realized every time Christians leave signs of faith and love in society, committing themselves to justice. All the Sacraments, and in a pre-eminent way the Eucharist, are nourishment that fosters a holy life, assimilating every person to Christ, the model and measure of holiness. He sanctifies the Church, of which He is the Head and Shepherd: holiness is, from this point of view, His gift, which is manifested in our daily life every time we receive it with joy and respond to it with commitment. In this regard, Saint Paul VI, in the General Audience of 20 October 1965, recalled that the Church, to be authentic, requires that all the baptized must “be holy, that is, truly worthy, strong and faithful children of hers”. This is realized as an inner transformation, whereby the life of every person is conformed to Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:29; LG, 40). Lumen gentium describes the holiness of the Catholic Church as one of her constitutive characteristics, to receive in faith, inasmuch as she is believed to be “indefectibly holy” (LG, 39): GENERAL AUDIENCE St. Peter’s Square Wednesday, April 8, 2026 Continuing series of Catechesis by Pope Leo XIV dedicated to Vatican Council II and its documents to “rediscover the beauty and importance of this ecclesial event.” Quotation from General Audience January 7, 2026 The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 7. Holiness and evangelical counsels in the Church
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