Pope calls for ‘unmasking’ the contradictions of the world, such as seeing war as a solution

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for “unmasking the contradictions” of the contemporary world and said that believers are called to take on “the burdens of their brothers and sisters, especially those who are crushed by injustice, discrimination, and violence.”

The pontiff made this appeal during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 2, during which he inaugurated a new series of catecheses dedicated to the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes , one of the Church’s most significant responses to the challenges and expectations of the modern world.

The document of the Second Vatican Council, approved and promulgated on Dec. 7, 1965, highlights, as Leo explained, the essentially pastoral nature of the Church, born of “a renewed fidelity to the mystery of Christ who, by becoming incarnate, chooses to share our life.”

For this reason, he recalled that the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes opens with the famous statement that the Church makes her own “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted.”

This commitment, the pontiff added, calls Christians “to leave…