Holy Mass in the Church of St. Anne in the Vatican

On Sunday, September 21, 2025, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in the Parish of St. Anne in the Vatican. In his homily Pope Leo spoke on “the stark alternative between God and wealth, asking us to take a clear and coherent position.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am particularly pleased to preside at this Eucharist in the Pontifical Parish of Sant'Anna. I greet with gratitude the Augustinian religious who serve here, especially the parish priest, Fr. Mario Millardi, as well as the new Prior General of the Order, who is here with us today, Fr. Joseph Farrell. I also wish to greet Fr. Gioele Schiavella, who recently celebrated the venerable age of 103.

This church stands in a special location, which is also key to the pastoral ministry carried out there: we are, so to speak, "on the border," and almost all those entering and leaving Vatican City pass by St. Anne's. Some pass through for work, some as guests or pilgrims, some in a hurry, some with trepidation or serenity. May everyone experience that here are doors and hearts open to prayer, listening, and charity!

In this regard, the Gospel just proclaimed challenges us to carefully examine our relationship with the Lord and, therefore, with one another. Jesus presents a stark alternative between God and wealth, asking us to take a clear and coherent position. "No servant can serve two masters," therefore "you cannot serve both God and money" (cf. Luke 16:13). This is not a contingent choice, like so many others, nor an option that can be revised over time, depending on the situation. We need to decide on a true lifestyle. It's about choosing where to place our heart, clarifying whom we sincerely love, whom we serve with dedication, and what is truly our good.

This is why Jesus contrasts wealth with God: the Lord speaks this way because he knows we are needy creatures, that our lives are full of needs. From the moment we are born, poor and naked, we all need care and affection, a home, food, clothing. The thirst for wealth risks replacing God in our hearts when we believe it will save our lives, as the dishonest steward in the parable believes (see Luke 16:3-7). The temptation is this: to think that without God we could still live well, while without wealth we would be sad and afflicted by a thousand needs. Faced with the test of need, we feel threatened, but instead of asking for help with trust and sharing in fraternity, we are led to calculate, to hoard, becoming suspicious and distrustful of others.

These thoughts transform our neighbor into a competitor, a rival, or someone to be exploited. As the prophet Amos warns, those who want to turn wealth into an instrument of domination are eager to "buy the poor with money" ( Amos 8:6), exploiting their poverty. On the contrary, God allocates the goods of creation to everyone. Our need as creatures thus attests to a promise and a bond, for which the Lord personally cares. The psalmist describes this provident style: God "looks down on the heavens and the earth"; He "raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the dunghill" ( Ps 113:6-7). This is how the good Father acts, always and towards everyone: not only towards those who are poor in earthly goods, but also towards that spiritual and moral misery that afflicts the powerful as well as the weak, the poor as well as the rich.

The word of the Lord, in fact, does not pit men against each other in rival classes, but spurs everyone to an interior revolution, a conversion that begins in the heart. Then our hands will be open: to give, not to take. Then our minds will be open: to plan a better society, not to seek out bargains at the lowest price. As Saint Paul writes, "I urge, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in authority" ( 1 Tim 2:1). Today, in particular, the Church prays that the leaders of nations may be freed from the temptation to use wealth against humanity, transforming it into weapons that destroy peoples and monopolies that humiliate workers. Whoever serves God becomes free from wealth, but whoever serves wealth remains its slave! Whoever seeks justice transforms wealth into the common good; whoever seeks dominion transforms the common good into the prey of their own greed.

The Holy Scriptures shed light on this attachment to material goods, which confuses our hearts and distorts our future.

Dear friends, I thank you for your various contributions to keeping this parish community alive and for your generous apostolate. I encourage you to persevere with hope in a time seriously threatened by war. Entire populations are being crushed today by violence and, even more so, by a blatant indifference that abandons them to a fate of misery. Faced with these tragedies, we do not wish to be submissive, but to proclaim with our words and deeds that Jesus is the Savior of the world, the One who frees us from all evil. May his Spirit convert our hearts so that, nourished by the Eucharist, the supreme treasure of the Church, we may become witnesses of charity and peace.

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