Pope in dialogue with Rome's priests: Be friends, beware of envy and the internet
By Salvatore Cernuzio
The dialogue between Pope Leo XIV and the clergy of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday was an open and sincere one.
After delivering his address, the Pope engaged in a question-and-answer session with the priests, the contents of which were released the next day, on Friday, February 20.
There were four questions and answers, but the topics addressed were many, ranging from spiritual guidance, to concrete indications for ministry and pastoral work, to specific recommendations, such as not to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence.
Being role models for young people
The dialogue held behind closed doors was introduced by the Cardinal Baldo Reina, Vicar General of Rome, who presented four priests – representing four age groups - who were chosen to ask questions.
Among them was a young priest ordained by Pope Leo last May. He asked how young priests can support their peers in today’s world.
The Pope first urged them to keep their “eyes open” to the families from which many young people come from, which often have been through “very serious crises,” with absent parents or parents who are “divorced, remarried.”
Many young people “have also experienced abandonment,” so priests must “know their reality,” the Pope continued. “Be close to them in this sense, accompany them, but do not be just one of the young,” he said, adding that in this regard, “the testimony of the priest” is important, as it offers “a model of life.”
Isolation and terrible lives
The Pope also asked priests not to be satisfied with just the young people who continue to come to the parish: “We must organize, think, seek initiatives that can be a form of outreach.” “We must go ourselves, we must invite other young people, go out into the streets with them; perhaps offer different ways", activities such as sports, art, and culture, he insisted.
Getting to know others is the key element, according to Pope Leo, and knowledge comes through “a human experience of friendship” with young people who “live in isolation, in incredible loneliness.”
He highlighted how this loneliness has increased after the pandemic especially, but also because of the use of smartphones. “They live a kind of distance from others, a coldness, without knowing the richness, the value of truly human relationships,” the Pope explained.
Therefore, the Pope continued, we must understand how to offer young people “another type of experience of friendship, of sharing, and gradually of communion,” and from that experience “invite them also to know Jesus.”
Pope Leo XIV emphasized that this requires “time” and “sacrifice,” considering also that many of these young people are today trapped in “a terrible life” of drugs, crime, and violence.
Knowing the community one serves
Closeness and getting to know others are also the two paths the Pope indicates for pastoral work, in response to a parish priest’s question about how to be effective in this postmodern culture while avoiding returning to “anachronistic” approaches. The Pope said that the first step is “truly knowing the community where I am called to serve.”
He shared his own personal experience, as he has lived in Rome in several different periods of his life, and highlighted how every time he returned to the “Eternal city” the “streets are the same, the potholes are the same, but life has changed so much.”
Recalling his recent visit on Sunday, February 15, to a parish in the southern neighbourhood of Ostia, he highlighted how “to speak with these people, we must begin by knowing their reality as deeply as possible".
No to homilies prepared with Artificial Intelligence
The Pope therefore invited the priests to enter into real life and called for vigilance when confronted with artificial intelligence and internet use. He warned against “the temptation to prepare homilies with Artificial Intelligence”.
“Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die. The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity,” he said. Moreover, “to give a true homily is to share faith,” and AI “will never be able to share faith,” he insisted.
“If we can offer a service that is inculturated in the place, in the parish where we are working, people want to see your faith, your experience of having known and loved Jesus Christ.”
The deceptions of the internet
In this regard, “a life of prayer” is fundamental—not merely “the routine of reciting the breviary as quickly as possible,” but “time spent with the Lord,” the Pope explained.
With a “life authentically rooted in the Lord,” one can offer something different, he explained, adding that often “an illusion on the internet, on TikTok,” is to think one is offering oneself and gaining ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ in that way.
“It is not you: if we are not transmitting the message of Jesus Christ, perhaps we are mistaken, and we must reflect very carefully and humbly about who we are and what we are doing,” Pope Leo XIV emphasized.
“Invidia clericalis”
Another piece of advice the Pope offered the priests was to live in fraternity and friendship, developing interpersonal relationships among themselves. He warned them though about “one of the ‘pandemics’ of the clergy at the universal level,” which is “invidia clericalis,” clerical envy.
He explained it is when “a priest who sees that another has been called to be pastor of a larger, more beautiful parish, or called to be vicar,” and then the relationship breaks down and gossip arises, rather than building “bridges of friendships”.
“We are all human; there are feelings, emotions, many things, but as priests—and I hope already from the seminary—we can offer models of life where priests can truly be friends, brothers, and not enemies or indifferent to one another,” Pope Leo said.
Examples of priestly fraternity
In this regard, he recalled a “beautiful” example of priestly fraternity in Chicago, his hometown, where a group of priests decided to meet once a month, starting when they were still in the seminary. Some continued until they were over 90 years old and they would gather, pray, and study.
Studying and learning is another point the Pope stressed: “Study in our life must be permanent, continuous. When I hear someone tell me—this is true, a priest told me this—‘I have not opened a book since I left the seminary.’ My goodness, I thought, how sad!”
Leo XIV then invited the priests to be active. “Let us not be afraid to knock on another’s door, to take the initiative, to say to companions or a group of friends: why don’t we meet from time to time to study together, reflect together, have a moment of prayer and then a good lunch? The parish priest with the best cook can invite the others.”
At the same time, he emphasized it is important to identify people with whom to have “a fraternal relationship with a bit more depth.” In other words, “create situations to break this tendency that leads us to solitude and isolation from one another.”
Old age
Sharing joys, difficulties, and experiences helps to overcome crises and also prepares one to accept the time when “old age, illness, solitude” arrive.
“If one lives one's whole life as a journey that takes us forward, even with the weight of the years, often also—whether young or old—with illnesses and difficulties, one will have the ability, with God's grace, to accept the cross, the suffering that comes,” Pope Leo said.
In this context, he also addressed the issue of euthanasia, which is discussed in many countries and already legal in others, such as Canada. “If we ourselves are so negative about our life, and sometimes with less suffering than that borne by many people, how can we say to them: ‘No, you cannot take your life, you must accept it’?” Pope Leo asked.
Bear witness to the value of life
“We must be the first to bear witness to the fact that life has enormous value,” he added, underlining that gratitude, humility, and closeness are essential. “Surely we all know some elderly person, some sick person, priest, layperson, religious… who are living moments of great difficulty. Let us call them, let us go visit them. Let us also make an effort to help these people who are suffering,” he encouraged.
He also urged priests to get in the good habit again of bringing Communion and the Anointing of the Sick to parishioners who are ill. “Today, with fewer priests and more elderly, it has become: ‘Well, let’s send the lay people, they will do it.’ It is a beautiful service that lay people provide… But that does not mean that the priest can stay at home watching things on the internet while others are visiting,” he said.
Lastly, the Pope addressed elderly priests themselves: “Even if they are sick in bed, if they have lived a life truly of service and sacrifice, they know very well that their prayer can also be a great service, a great gift. Their life still has great meaning.”
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