The Pontiff prayed the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square before traveling to Castel Gandolfo for three weeks of vacation.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said Christ remains the Church’s hope amid war, slavery, sin, and the wounds of history, urging Christians to learn from Jesus a “school of freedom” rooted in the cross.
Speaking at the July 5 Angelus in a sunny and hot St. Peter’s Square, the Pope reflected on the day’s Gospel, Matthew 11:25–30, in which Jesus praises the Father, “Lord of heaven and earth.”
“The Son of God made man reveals his love by including all creatures in this act of thanksgiving,” Pope Leo XIV said.
The Pope said the Gospel reveals God’s preference for the humble and the small.
“The simplicity of such a spontaneous and joyful gesture reflects God’s way of acting: he delights in revealing himself ‘to infants,’ while remaining hidden ‘from the wise and the intelligent,’” he said.
Those who are “filled” with their own ideas, the Pope said, fail to recognize Christ.
“Human wisdom thus becomes arrogance, and doctrine degenerates into pride,” he said. “By contrast, God’s true wisdom is revealed in the humility of the Incarnation, and
