Vatican City - “We are not celebrating a paper anniversary!” With these words, Leo XIV opens the Apostolic Letter “A Fidelity That Generates the Future,” published for the sixtieth anniversary of two key decrees of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council: Optatam totius (on priestly formation) and Presbyterorum Ordinis (on the ministry and life of priests), promulgated respectively on 28 October 1965 and 7 December 1965.
The Pope adopts a clear approach: not to commemorate a memory, but to relaunch a task. The heart of the Letter is the word fidelity, understood as grace and as a journey; not an abstract spiritual idea, but a concrete discipline that concerns formation, fraternity, synodality, mission, and above all the human and spiritual quality of those called to the ordained ministry.
An anniversary that questions the present
Leo XIV situates the anniversary within the Jubilee Year and interprets it as an opportunity for discernment: over sixty years, “humanity has lived and is living through changes” that require a coherent updating of conciliar teaching. Vatican II, he recalls, arises from “a single ecclesial breath”: a Church called to be sign and instrument of unity, and at the same time urged to renew itself, because the renewal of the entire ecclesial body depends largely on the quality of the priestly ministry animated by the Spirit of Christ. Hence the operational invitation: to resume reading the two decrees not only in academic settings, but within Christian communities, seminaries, and all places of formation. What is at stake is not an internal clerical debate; it concerns the entire People of God, because the figure of the presbyter affects communion, the credibility of proclamation, and the stability of communities.
Vocation as encounter, fidelity as living memory
In the first part, Leo XIV returns to the origin: every vocation is born from a personal encounter with Christ and from the word that calls: “Come and follow me.” Fidelity over time is strengthened when the priest does not “forget” that first event - here “forgetting” signifies the loss of living memory, almost something let fall - but safeguards it as a memory that continues to generate decisions, especially in times of trial. To this end, he underscores the importance of spiritual accompaniment and of an experienced guide in the life of the Spirit - an essential aspect too often neglected amid the frenzy of daily ministry. Vocation, he insists, is not coercion; it is a free and gratuitous gift, growing as self-giving to God and to His People. In this framework, the Pope retrieves a line dear to Benedict XVI: God “awaits our yes,” and that yes must be safeguarded within a dynamic of permanent conversion.
Formation: integral, ongoing, capable of healing fragilities
The most structural point of the Letter concerns formation. Leo XIV returns to Optatam totius on a fundamental passage: formation cannot be exhausted in the seminary period; it must become ongoing formation, capable of renewing human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions. This is not simple professional updating; it is “living memory” of the call, lived within a shared journey. The Pope does not avoid the most painful aspects: the crisis of trust caused by abuses and the need for formation that ensures human maturity and spiritual solidity. He also addresses a phenomenon often treated superficially: those who, after years or decades, leave the ministry. Here the Letter urges a change of perspective: avoiding the reduction of everything to a legal dossier, and learning instead to read personal histories, motivations, and wounds with attention and true compassion, raising the quality and seriousness of formative paths. This urgency is all the more evident given that, in recent years, many priests - including within societies of apostolic life - have left the ministry after suffering pressures and serious forms of abuse of conscience and spiritual abuse. These responsibilities cannot be glossed over: they weigh on the conscience of the Church and, sooner or later, we will be called to account for them before God.
Leo defines the seminary as a “school of affections”: the place where one learns to love “as Jesus does,” working on motivations, integrating what the person is, and bringing fragilities to light, so that nothing is discarded, but everything may be assumed and transfigured. The goal is a presbyter who acts as a bridge - not an obstacle - to the encounter with Christ: human, capable of authentic relationships, and able to live with credibility even the demands of celibacy. This is a decisive point: without true affective formation, abuses - sexual or psychological - are not curbed, nor are murmuring, gossip, and suspicion uprooted - realities that today pollute many seminaries and, by extension, mark the presbyterate.
Presbyteral fraternity: sacramental gift, verifiable commitment
With Presbyterorum Ordinis in the background, Leo XIV returns to a point often neglected in practice: the presbyter remains a disciple among disciples, a brother within the People of God, because baptismal dignity precedes any function. On this basis, the Council situates the specific bond of the presbyterate: a sacramental fraternity, not reducible to mere emotional climate or organizational project. A concrete consequence follows: priestly communion requires overcoming individualism and making the relational dimension of ministry tangible. The Pope goes beyond general statements and addresses often-removed practical issues, from economic equalization between poorer parishes and more affluent communities, to social security protection in cases of illness and old age, to care for lonely, isolated, and infirm confreres. Fraternity thus becomes a verifiable criterion, passing through administrative choices and structural decisions that truly protect the life of the presbyterate. Looking at Western contexts, he describes a typical fragility of our time: priests less supported by a “cohesive and believing” social fabric, more exposed to loneliness that extinguishes apostolic zeal. Hence his call for possible forms of common life among priests, as a realistic safeguard and a daily school of spiritual life.
Synodality: conversion of relationships and processes
In the Letter, the most delicate issue at the level of ecclesial governance concerns synodality. Leo XIV revisits the coordinates of Presbyterorum Ordinis - the relationship with the bishop, communion among presbyters, collaboration with the laity - and states without mitigation that “there is still much to be done,” because synodality requires a true conversion of relationships and processes. Not a simulated synodality - often brandished rhetorically by some bishops today - but real listening that begins, first of all, with one’s own priests. Here emerges a precise critique of a pastoral model that concentrates everything on the presbyter: exclusive leadership, centralization of community life, responsibilities loaded onto a single person. The Pope points instead toward a more collegial governance, founded on cooperation among presbyters, deacons, and laity, with genuine recognition of charisms and competent use of the resources of the faithful in worldly contexts. This perspective does not weaken ordained ministry; it safeguards its identity, frees it from the logic of “doing everything,” and thus renders it more credible evangelically.
Mission: an identity “for,” beyond efficiency and escape
If fidelity is the guiding thread, mission is the proving ground. Leo XIV summarizes priestly identity around an “being for”: introspection alone does not confer identity; rather, it leads to a command - “go out,” toward God and toward the people. The Pontiff identifies two mirror temptations of our time: efficiency-driven activism that measures spiritual life by the quantity of activities, and a quietism that withdraws from the challenge of evangelization. The proposed path is a daily fidelity to the mission received at ordination, unified by pastoral charity, which becomes a criterion of discernment and balance. The consequences are practical: prayer, study, and fraternity are not removed from self-giving, but belong within its paschal horizon. The Pope also addresses an unavoidable theme: media exposure and the use of social networks. He does not demonize the tools, but calls for rigorous discernment, guided by a Pauline principle as a rule of personal governance: not everything benefits, not everything builds up.
“In every situation, presbyters are called to give an effective response, through the witness of a sober and chaste life, to the great hunger for authentic and sincere relationships present in contemporary society, bearing witness to a Church that is ‘an effective leaven of bonds, relationships, and fraternity within the human family,’ ‘capable of nourishing relationships: with the Lord, among men and women, within families, in communities, among all Christians, among social groups, among religions.’ To this end, priests and laity – together - must undertake a true missionary conversion that orients Christian communities, under the guidance of their pastors, ‘to the service of the mission that the faithful carry out within society, in family and working life.’ As the Synod observed, ‘it will thus appear more clearly that the Parish is not centered on itself, but oriented to mission and called to support the commitment of many people who, in different ways, live and witness their faith in their profession and in social, cultural, and political activity,’” writes the Pope.
The future: a “vocational Pentecost” and bold proposals for the young
The final part of this remarkable Apostolic Letter is distinctly programmatic. Leo XIV hopes that the anniversary will become a true vocational Pentecost, capable of giving rise to vocations that are holy, numerous, and persevering. Yet he does not stop at calling for “more vocations”: he asks for a concrete verification of the generativity of pastoral practices, questioning whether what is proposed and lived today truly fosters mature responses. In many regions, the vocational crisis demands courage: proposing demanding and liberating choices to young people, and building contexts of youth and family pastoral care “imbued with the Gospel,” where total self-giving can take shape without being suffocated. Leo XIV again calls for a stable and shared commitment: to pray and work so that vocations are cared for, welcomed, and guided, through serious paths and communities truly capable of accompaniment. In closing, Prevost gathers everything into the lexicon of communion: a united Church as a sign for a reconciled world; and the entrustment to Mary Immaculate and to the holy Curé of Ars, with the phrase that seals the Letter spiritually: “The Priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus,” a Eucharistic love that dispels habit, discouragement, and loneliness.
Leo XIV’s message to priests
In “A Fidelity That Generates the Future,” Leo XIV offers concrete criteria for reading the priestly ministry: the crisis of the ordained ministry cannot be addressed through superficial measures, nor resolved by relying solely on structural reforms. What is required is a fidelity capable of holding together three levels: the root, namely the encounter with Christ safeguarded as living memory; the form, that is an integral and ongoing formation producing maturity and healthy relationships; and the mission, a synodal and fraternal service that frees the presbyter from loneliness, self-referentiality, and performance-driven logic.
fr.L.V.
Silere non possum