Within days of being elected pontiff, Leo XIV communicated unequivocally the importance of the Christian East, his concern about the humanitarian crises in the regions of the world where the Eastern churches are on the front line, and his commitment to advance Christian unity.
Eastern Catholics “could not have expected more from the first seven days of the pontificate,” said Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, from Rome on 15 May.
Pope Leo’s first public audience a day earlier was with thousands of Eastern Catholics in Rome for the three-day Jubilee for Eastern Churches, 12-15 May.
During the audience, held in Paul VI Hall, the pope thanked Eastern Catholics for their perseverance and witness and spoke about the depth and beauty of the Eastern Catholic traditions.
“Continue to be outstanding for your faith, hope and charity, and nothing else,” he said, asking their leaders to stay rooted in Gospel values and to resist worldly temptations.
He pledged the Holy See’s commitment to promoting peace and reconciliation and urged Eastern Catholics to remain in their lands of origin. He underlined the importance of the Eastern liturgical, mystical and ascetic traditions for the entire Catholic communion, exhorting Eastern Catholics to preserve and foster them. He also quoted his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who said Latin clergy who try to pull Eastern Catholics away from their tradition should cease exercising ministry.
“These were very, very strong words. Very clear words,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
Pope Leo XIV also spoke about the violence and suffering Eastern Christians are enduring in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern and Central Europe, and who “are being threatened with extinction in their home territory,” the archbishop said.
The pope met privately with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on 14 May and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena, after his inaugural Mass on 18 May. On the weekend after his election, he had a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president, the first head of state with whom he met privately.
His meeting with journalists and media professionals on 9 May was also significant for Eastern Christians, many of whom live in countries at war and where journalists “have been martyrs [and] have given their lives for expressing the truth,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
At least 113 journalists were killed while covering conflict in 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The majority were killed in countries where CNEWA works, including Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The highest number was recorded in Israel and the Palestinian territories, where 82 journalists were killed in the course of their work.
In Ukraine, since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2014, more than 20 journalists have been killed while “trying to bring the truth of the suffering of the innocent people to the attention of the world,” Archbishop Gudziak said.
He also expressed appreciation for Pope Leo’s motto: “In the One, we are one.”
“It is a very ecumenical, a very broadening, a very expansive understanding of Christ’s church that he is projecting,” he said. “In this, Eastern Catholics and Eastern Christians feel comfortable.”
“From the perspective of the Eastern Catholic churches,” the archbishop said, “the pope’s upbringing in Chicago, a cosmopolitan city full of Eastern Europeans, full of people from the Middle East,” is “very important.”
Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, was on pilgrimage in Italy with 80 pilgrims when Pope Leo was elected. They were on a bus headed from Assisi to Rome when they received news of white smoke and tuned in to watch the announcement.
“On the buses we chanted our prayer that God grant him many years in health and happiness and looked forward to the possibility of an audience with him, as one had been previously scheduled for the Jubilee for Eastern Churches, which coincided with the last three days of our pilgrimage,” he said.
All 80 participants in the pilgrimage of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh for the jubilee year attended the papal audience.
Bishop Pipta said he appreciated the pope’s “awareness of the varying situations facing Eastern Catholics around the world.”
“While not failing to share his concern … for Eastern Catholics who live out their faith in areas of the world where the majority of Catholics are of the Latin tradition, I was particularly struck by his sentiments toward those who face oppression, expulsion and even bloody martyrdom in the homelands of Eastern Catholics where Christianity is rapidly becoming a minority,” he said.
As part of the program of the Jubilee for Eastern Churches, which included the celebration of liturgies and services in the various Eastern traditions in the major basilicas of Rome, Metropolitan William Skurla, archbishop of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, led a Marian prayer service, the Akathist to the Mother of God, at the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
The Jubilee for Eastern Churches concluded with a Divine Liturgy at St. Peter’s Basilica on 15 May.