Since Pope Leo’s papacy began in 2025, his leadership has been marked by a focus on moral authority, social justice, and urging believers to “read the signs of the times”—to interpret current social, cultural, and global events through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—and to understand how God is working in the present moment.
Speaking with young people on March 28, 2026, Pope Leo encouraged all to be a “witness of hope” for those who suffer. Our words and actions of hope, healing, and love “are not improvised nor do they come from ourselves: they are born from a deep relationship with God.”
Striking a clarion call to put our faith into action, Pope Leo stated: “The world needs your witness to overcome the drifts of our time and face its challenges, and above all to rediscover the sweet taste of love for God and neighbor.”
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis reflected on the local and global seismic changes in our culture, technology, media, economics, communication, political, and ecological systems. “The situations that we are living today pose new challenges which, at times, are also difficult for us to understand. Our time requires us to live problems as challenges and not as obstacles.” Calling us to engage, he declared, “The Lord is active and at work in our world.”
In this time of epochal change, we cannot keep doing the same things, in the same way. We are being called to engage in previously unimaginable coalitions, united by God’s forgiving and reconciling love. Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo, and many secular leaders of our day, call us be creative and discerning as we seek new ways to respond to the challenges of our time.
This reimagination and realignment is happening through a powerful national Catholic movement in the United States: The Season of Faithful Witness. Bringing together key Catholic organizations, each powerful and effective on their own, this collaboration invites us to renewed prayer and faithful witness throughout the country.
The Season of Faithful Witness is calling individuals, parishes, and communities to live their faith through visible, collective public witness. More than a series of events, “it is a prophetic wave of faith in action.” Beginning in Lent, this movement will continue through Corpus Christi, June 7, 2026.
Throughout Lent in the Twin Cities there have been weekly gatherings to pray the Rosary at The Whipple Federal Building— the regional ICE headquarters for a five-state area and site of both immigrant detention facilities and an immigration court. Catholics prayed and sang in neighborhood processions in north and south Minneapolis. On Palm Sunday, Christians gathered for a march from Central Village Park to the St. Paul Capital, waving palms and singing prayers. Basilica acolytes led a procession during Holy Week to pray the Stations of the Cross in a park in South Minneapolis—ending with prayer at the site of Alex Petti’s death. Look for upcoming information about an outdoor procession and prayer on Corpus Christi—the Feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ.
As we respond to this moment we are living—a moment of profound moral significance for our country and our Church—The Season of Faithful Witness offers Catholics across the country “a shared framework for prayer, discernment, and peaceful public witness rooted in the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching.”
Catholics and people of goodwill are called to moral courage, public solidarity, prayerful presence, and commitment to human dignity. We are “invited to participate in prayerful and peaceful acts of public witness that are rooted in our Catholic tradition and that affirms human dignity and the sanctity of family life.”
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You) Pope Leo calls us to “unleash a torrent of moral energy.” Together, let us accept this call and act with renewed, active, and public commitment to social justice, human dignity, and love for those in need. Together, let us affirm the essential role of the Catholic faithful to build a civilization of love.
Janice Andersen, Director of Christian Life