Pope Leo XIV: ‘Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few’

Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that holiness is a calling for everyone, not an achievement reserved for a select group, as he reflected on the Solemnity of All Saints during his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square.

“The Solemnity of All Saints, which we celebrate today, invites us to share in the joy of that countless family of men and women who, following the Lord Jesus, have made their lives a gift to God and to their neighbors,” the pope said.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi , Leo said the saints, along their different paths to holiness, “have longed for ‘the ocean of infinite love.’”

The pope noted that the Church celebrates not only canonized saints on Nov. 1 but also “the countless others who have not been formally recognized but are known to God.”

“It is indeed true that it is impossible to count this multitude of brothers and sisters, and not just in numerical terms,” he said. “Holiness, in fact, cannot be reduced to any calculation, for such is the good that all the saints have spread around them in the world.”

Leo said the saints brought forth “actions and choices of love that transcend the calculations of greed and the arrogance of evil, which at…