Pope’s new cardinals stress peace, evangelization

Dec 7, 2024 | CNA Rome Newsroom,

ROME – Several new cardinals elevated by Pope Francis on Saturday have said they want their service to focus on promoting peace and facilitating a return to Christ through prayer and evangelization.

Speaking to journalists after the Dec. 7 consistory Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in which he got his red hat from Pope Francis, Cardinal Francis Leo of Toronto said his appointment was a “great surprise and shock,” and that he was not expecting the news at all.

“I went to kneel in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” he said. “If this was being asked, I gave my fiat like the Blessed Mother,” he said, expressing his willingness “to serve Jesus and the Church and his kingdom.”

Asked what he believes the Church’s biggest needs are, Leo said, “We need to get back to the basics in proclaiming Jesus and his Gospel in a clear way, a loving way, to help people come to know the person of Jesus, to belong to him and to live with him and in him.”

“Everything else will flow from the relationship with Jesus, which is a walk of faith,” he said, saying the Virgin Mary is “the one who helps us most” to proclaim Jesus.

“No one knows him and loves him and follows him more faithfully than her, so taking her lead and following her footsteps, speaking to people, proposing Jesus as the way, the truth and the life, there’s nothing more. Everything else will flow from that connection, that relationship with Jesus,” he said.

Leo also touched on the issue of secularization in Canada, and in society as a whole, saying there is a need for believers to learn the various kinds of prayer in the Church, and to begin praying sincerely.

He stressed the need for “strong families and strong parish communities, with a missionary aspect.”

“We know that our faith is nourished, and we pray, but how can we bring other people into the Church? We need to keep asking ourselves that question and try to find creative ways of reaching out to others and bringing them to Jesus, bringing Jesus to them,” he said.