Dear brothers and sisters,

I am pleased to join the virtual event organized by the Presidency of CELAM to mark the Holy Year. It is certainly a welcome opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the gift that the Lord gives us through his Church. The Jubilee should be for us primarily “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ of our salvation” (Francis, Bull Spes non confundit, 1), an opportunity for reconciliation, grateful remembrance and shared hope, rather than a mere external celebration. In planning the Jubilee events, Pope Francis sought to highlight the universality of the Church, which is manifested in so many vocations, ages and situations in life: families, children, adolescents, young people, older adults, ordained ministers and lay people, servants in the Church and in society. That same universality, which does not standardize but welcomes, dialogues and is enriched by the diversity of peoples, includes in a special way you, the Indigenous Peoples, whose history, spirituality and hope constitute an irreplaceable voice within the ecclesial communion.

In this regard, I think it is important to understand that when we pass through the Holy Door, rather than performing a symbolic gesture by entering a beautiful temple, what we want is to enter, through faith, into the very source of divine love, the open side of the Crucified One (cf. Jn 20:27-29). It is in this faith that we are a people of brothers and sisters, one in the One (cf. Saint Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 127:4). It is from this truth that we must re-read our history and our reality, in order to face the future with the hope that the Holy Year requires of us, despite our labours and tribulations (ibid., 5.10).

This perspective can help us in our reflection, for as Indigenous Peoples, we are strengthened by the certainty that there is only One who is the origin and goal of the universe (cf. Rom 11:36), the First in all things (cf. Col 1:18); the origin of all goodness, and therefore the primary source of all that is good, including in our peoples. It is from this certainty of faith that our joyful thanksgiving springs forth as we enter through the Holy Door of the Heart of Christ: “Blessed be the God, who … chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world … to be his sons” (cf. Eph 1:3-5). This is the aim of our hope, not only for some but for all, even those once considered enemies: “Philistines, Syrians, Ethiopians”, “Egypt and Babylon” (vv. 3-4), the great occupying powers, “were born in her” (Ps 87:5). Saint Augustine said: “some of which are named that all may be understood” (Commentary on Psalm 87,5).

Unfortunately, as human beings, this is not the only meaning of “original” that we have to confront. The long history of evangelization experienced by our indigenous peoples, as the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean have so often taught, is fraught with “lights and shadows”. Saint Augustine applies this to the servants of the Gospel, saying: “If [a man] is good, he clings to God and works with God, but if he is bad, God produces through him the visible form of the sacrament, but God himself gives the invisible grace. Let us all hold this view, and let there be no divisions among us” (Letter 105, 12). In this way, the Jubilee, a precious time for forgiveness, invites us to “forgive our brothers from the heart” (cf. Mt 18:35), to reconcile ourselves with our own history and to give thanks to God for his mercy towards us.

Thus, recognixing both the highlights and the wounds of our past, we understand that we can only be a People if we truly surrender ourselves to God’s power, to his action in us. He, who has planted the “seeds of the Word” in all cultures, makes them blossom in a new and surprising way, pruning them so that they bear more fruit (cf. Jn 15:2). My predecessor, Saint John Paul II, affirmed this: “The power of the Gospel everywhere transforms and regenerates. When that power enters into a culture, it is no surprise that it rectifies many of its elements. There would be no catechesis if it were the Gospel that had to change when it came into contact with the cultures” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi tradendae, 53). Hence, in dialogue and encounter, we learn from different ways of seeing the world, we appreciate what is unique and original in each culture, and together we discover the abundant life that Christ offers to all peoples. This new life is given to us precisely because we share the fragility of the human condition marked by original sin, and because we have been touched by the grace of Christ, who shed every last drop of his blood for us, so that we might have “life in abundance” (cf. Jn 10:10), healing and redeeming all those who open their hearts to the grace that was given to us.

You are now gathering to explore all these things in greater depth, so I do not want to conclude without mentioning a term that my predecessor, Pope Francis, loved so much: parrhesia, that evangelical boldness, that stepping outside of oneself to proclaim the Gospel without fear and with freedom of heart, which “tells the whole truth because it is consistent” (Daily Meditation, 18 April 2020).

In the assembly of nations, indigenous peoples must present their own human, cultural and Christian wealth, courageously and freely. The Church listens and is enriched by their unique voices, which have an irreplaceable place in the magnificent choir where we all proclaim: “Lord God eternal, we sing to you joyfully, our praise to you” (cf. Hymn of the Te Deum). And in this common praise, we also remember the Gospel’s call to avoid the temptation to put at the centre anything other than God — be it power, domination, technology or any created reality — so that our hearts may always remain oriented towards the one Lord, the source of life and hope.

Therefore, for those of us who, by God's mercy, call ourselves Christians, all our historical, social, psychological, or methodological discernment finds its ultimate meaning in the supreme command to make known Jesus Christ, who died for the forgiveness of our sins and rose again so that we might be saved in his Name, already on this earth, and then worship him with our whole being in the glory of Heaven.

Entrusting your work to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, Star of Evangelization, who in an admirable way showed us how Jesus Christ “made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (cf. Eph 2:14), I invite you to renew your commitment to the Lord’s command: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20), spreading the joy that comes from having encountered his Divine Heart.

Vatican, 12 October 2025, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Aparecida.

LEO PP. XIV

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 16 October 2025