Opening the Diocese of Rome’s new pastoral year on September 18, 2026, Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of clergy and lay leaders at the Basilica of St. John Lateran to adopt a shared method of pastoral evaluation, explicitly granting them permission to do less and do it better.
Gathered inside the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, the pontiff addressed hundreds of diocesan leaders representing the territory’s 334 parishes across 340 square miles. Rather than handing down a new pastoral program, Pope Leo proposed a framework focused on listening, discernment, and verification.
The gathering brought together clergy, pastoral workers, and laity, opening with testimony from a young woman, a couple, and a member of the local Caritas team. The Pope thanked the assembly for their dedication, acknowledging the good doesn’t make any noise; the Lord knows it, and today I, too, wish to acknowledge it
to warm applause.
Mary Magdalene at the Empty Tomb as a Diocesan Blueprint
To frame the new pastoral year, Pope Leo drew from the Easter morning narrative of Mary Magdalene in the garden, presenting two fundamental questions addressed to both the Church and the city of Rome: Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
These inquiries target the anxious search for hope perceived across local parishes and environments of daily life.
While recognizing the vitality of local parishes, associations, and movements engaged in evangelization and charity, the Pope cautioned against the trap of multiplying activities while losing sight of the evangelical center. Authentic pastoral action must begin by asking whom and how to encounter, ensuring individuals in church communities are known and called by name rather than remaining anonymous.
Three Priorities for Church Evaluation in Rome
The proposed evaluation framework rests on three distinct areas designed to examine the daily life of Roman parishes. These priorities establish a dynamic method for local congregations to review their ongoing commitments.
- Meeting Christ and helping others to meet him: Assessing activities based on whether they genuinely connect the Gospel to concrete lives rather than measuring success purely by organization or attendance numbers.
- Generating community: Offering relational environments where people feel welcomed, accompanied, and responsible, with specific attention directed toward listening to young people.
- Inhabiting and serving the city: Treating Rome as the active mission field where the Church shares local expectations and fragilities.
Cutting across all three areas is the ongoing formation of the People of God. The Pope emphasized that activities must foster mature faith, missionary discipleship, and concrete choices of service.
Building on Prior Diocesan Reflection and Synodal Listening
The current initiative connects directly to earlier efforts within the diocese. The diocese’s extensive examination of its spiritual illnesses originated from a report formally delivered in 2018, which prompted a multiyear process directed toward more creative and liberating pastoral action.
Pope Leo noted that this path has been further shaped by the ongoing synodal process, teaching communities how to listen and discern together as co-responsible partners. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome and archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, attended the assembly alongside the Pope.
The art of pastoral evaluation does not ask you to do more; on the contrary, it gives you permission to do less — and to do it better.
Pope Leo XIV
Caritas Legacy and Prefectural Fraternity Among Clergy
To prevent the verification process from becoming an administrative burden, the pontiff urged priests to listen before responding and to recognize lay charisms. He reminded them that presiding does not mean doing everything,
but rather generating communion. He also encouraged Rome’s prefectures to serve as spaces of genuine priestly fraternity.
The assembly concluded by invoking the memory of Don Luigi Di Liegro, the Roman priest who founded the city’s Diocesan Caritas and dedicated his life to serving the poor and marginalized.
