Witnessing the Gospel through unity

By Andrea Tornielli

Peace and the unity of the Church have been the two recurring and foundational themes of the first year of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, who continues to ask for prayers for these intentions. If peace has imposed itself as an urgent priority because of the multiplication of senseless conflicts and the progressive erosion of international law, the unity of the Church is a thread that runs through the entire magisterium of the Bishop of Rome, born in Chicago and who became a missionary in Peru.

The way in which Pope Leo has repeated his appeals for the unity of believers in Christ is particularly significant and has nothing to do with a demand for ‘normality’ or a tranquility that dulls differences and perhaps waters down contrasts.

The Pope explained this clearly in his address to the Cardinals during the Extraordinary Consistory of 7 January 2026, when, presenting the conciliar perspective embraced by the pontificates of his predecessors, he spoke of attraction, citing these words of the late Pope Benedict XVI in Brazil.

“The Church,” Benedict said, “does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by “attraction”: just as Christ “draws all to himself” by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfils her mission to the extent that, in union with Christ, she accomplishes every one of her works in spiritual and practical imitation of the love of her Lord.”

Pope Leo, after recalling that his immediate predecessor Pope Francis “was in perfect agreement with this, and repeated it several times in different contexts”, added, “Today, I joyfully revisit this theme and share it with you. I invite us to pay close attention to what Pope Benedict signaled as the “power” that drives this movement of attraction. Indeed, this power is Charis, it is Agape, it is the love of God that became incarnate in Jesus Christ…”

In that discourse, Pope Leo XIV affirmed that “’the love of Christ urges us on’… The love of Christ urges us on because it possesses us, envelops us and captivates us. This is the power that attracts everyone to Christ… While unity attracts, division scatters. It seems to me that physics also confirms this, both on the microscopic and macroscopic levels. Therefore, in order to be a truly missionary Church, one that is capable of witnessing to the attractive power of Christ’s love, we must first of all put into practice his commandment, the only one he gave us after washing his disciples’ feet: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

The words of Jesus on this matter indicate the heart of the mission: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The unity of the Church is thus manifested in this capacity to live, by grace, new relationships with brothers and sisters. It is manifested in this capacity to love one another and to forgive each other, allowing the communion that, in authentically lived Christian experience, prevails over every difference and division to shine forth.

It is manifested in this capacity to overcome tensions and conflicts, recognizing that we are all called, all forgiven sinners in need of mercy and unworthy servants, all equally flooded by an infinite love that we have not deserved. It is manifested in the capacity to live synodality, which is nothing other than the concrete way of being in communion in the Church.

It is like this, only when it lives in this way—that the Christian community attracts. And it attracts when it is not self-centered, when it does not think it shines by its own light or imitates the marketing strategies of advertising agencies, when it does not fuel ideological polarization.

The Christian community attracts, and is thus missionary, when it reflects, through its unity, the light of Another, knowing how to offer to all that embrace of mercy which it itself has first experienced and continues to experience day by day in the encounter with Christ.

The unity of the Church is not conformity nor mere quiet coexistence, but the fruit of a love that surrounds us and seeks to radiate everywhere, making togetherness prevail over individual protagonism, communion over division, meekness over arrogance, words of peace over the language of hatred that unfortunately afflicts so much of the digital world.

The unity of the Church concerns not only Christians and not even only believers.

Pope Leo explained this in the Mass for the Beginning of his Petrine Ministry, expressing “the great desire” for “a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world,” inviting the world to look to Christ, to draw near to Him, to listen to “His one family: ‘in the one Christ, we are one.’ This is the path to follow together, among ourselves but also with our sister Christian churches, with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will, in order to build a new world where peace reigns!”

At a dramatic hour in the history of humanity, in a world torn apart by wars, the unity of the Church is a prophecy of peace for all.