Ever since his election to the See of Peter, it has been clear that evangelization and the Church’s missionary dimension is a priority for Pope Leo XIV.
At the inauguration of his pontificate in May 2025, he called Catholics to build “a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world,” and at the Jubilee of Missions last October he said that “we are called to renew in ourselves the fire of our missionary vocation.”
Leo has tasked his leading prelates with promoting this missionary vision, writing in a letter last April to the College of Cardinals that he wants to focus further “on what emerged from the groups [of cardinals] regarding Evangelii Gaudium, especially concerning mission and the transmission of the faith.”
“It seems clear that Pope Leo places great importance on the perspectives of those cardinals who serve as diocesan bishops, especially those working on the front lines of evangelization,” Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo, told the Register in an email interview.
Cardinal Kikuchi, who is also the president of Caritas Internationalis, participated in the January and June consistories of cardinals. He said, “A Church that does not engage in evangelization, but only seeks to preserve
