Pope Leo XIV: Live the faith without ‘hostility towards the world’

VATICAN CITY — Continuing his catechetical series on the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV called on the faithful not to live their faith with a spirit of “opposition” or “hostility towards the world,” while underscoring that a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture constitutes “a necessary condition for persevering in the Christian vocation.”

“The constitution Gaudium et Spes reminds us not to live the faith in a spirit of opposition or hostility towards the world, culture, and its human expressions,” the pontiff said during the general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 28.

He then cited a passage from the document that exhorts believers to “live in very close union with the other men of their time and [to] strive to understand perfectly their way of thinking and judging, as expressed in their culture.”

Before arriving at the platform set up in St. Peter’s Square, the pope spent about 15 minutes riding through the area in the popemobile. During the ride, he blessed around a dozen children who were brought to him from among the crowd.

Pope Leo XIV blesses a child during his weekly general audience in…