Pope lauds 'sense of mystery' in Eastern Catholic liturgy (Vatican Press Office)

“The Church needs you,” Pope Leo XIV said to May 14 audience of participants in the Jubilee of the Eastern Catholic churches.

“I am happy to be with you and to devote one of the first audiences of my pontificate to the Eastern faithful,” the Pope said. He spoke of “your glorious history and the bitter sufferings that many of your communities have endured or continue to endure.”

More specifically, the Pope spoke about the beauty of the liturgy celebrated in the Eastern churches. “We We have great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies,” he said.

Taking note of the conflicts that threaten Christians in many of the Eastern churches, the Pope said: “The Church will never tire of repeating: let weapons be silenced.” He paid tribute to those who search for peace, and also to “those Christians—Eastern and Latin alike—who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them.”

Pope Leo recalled the strong stand that his namesake, Leo XIII, had taken in support of the Eastern Catholic churches. He cited with approval the words of Leo XIII that “preserving the Eastern rites is more important than is generally realized,” and that Latin clerics who seek to entice Catholics away from the Eastern churches should be “dismissed and removed from office.”