During his March 25 Wednesday audience, Pope Leo XIV reflected on how the Catholic Church was founded on the apostles and has a hierarchical order willed by God.
His reflection continued his weekly catechesis on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which he chose as a main focus for General Audiences this year.
“The Catholic Church is founded on the Apostles,” Pope Leo said, “whom Christ appointed as the living pillars of His mystical Body, and possesses a hierarchical structure that works in the service of the unity, mission and sanctification of all her members.”
Reflecting on Lumen gentium, Pope Leo said that the apostolic foundation of the Church continues through apostolic succession, by which the apostles’ mission is handed on in the Church.
“Since the Apostles are called to faithfully preserve the Master’s salvific teaching,” Pope Leo said, “they hand on their ministry to men who, until Christ’s return, continue to sanctify, guide and instruct the Church ‘through their successors in pastoral office.’”
The Holy Father emphasized that this hierarchical structure is not merely organizational but part of God’s design for the Church.
"The Council teaches that the hierarchical structure is not a human construct, functional to the internal organization of the Church as a social body,” Pope Leo stated, “but a divine institution whose purpose is to perpetuate the mission given by Christ to the Apostles until the end of time.”
He also noted how Lumen gentium presents the Church’s structure as originating in God’s plan of salvation and fulfilled through the work of the Trinity, saying the document “explains the fundamental structure of the Church, received from God the Father through the Son and brought to fulfilment by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”
Pope Leo also emphasized the “communal nature” of the apostolic mission, noting that bishops, along with priests and deacons, are entrusted with responsibilities that lead them to serve all the faithful, “so that, ‘working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, [they] may arrive at salvation.’”
Pope Leo concluded by urging the faithful to pray that the Lord raise up ministers for the Church who “are ardent with evangelical charity, dedicated to the good of all the baptized, and courageous missionaries in every part of the world.”