Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his weekly article.

FACTS

In a Spanish digital news service, I read that someone is calling Leo XIV  “the Pope of unity.”  And that seems to be one of his concerns, both internally within the Catholic Church and at the social and global levels. If we are not united, we destroy each other, and our pastoral work is not credible.

When I arrived as bishop in Tapachula, Chiapas, in 1991, I found a presbytery divided into three factions:  the younger ones, trained at the recently closed SERESURE (Southeast Regional Seminary), with a pastoral approach marked by social commitment. The older ones, almost all from the center of the country, with a pastoral approach more focused on worship. And the middle-aged ones, who didn’t know which way to lean. Over time, God helped us to become a very united presbytery, respecting legitimate differences but with a very cordial atmosphere. It was a pleasure to meet monthly.

When I arrived in the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas in 2000, I found a deeply divided society, both between Indigenous and mestizos, and between supporters of the armed struggle promoted by Zapatismo and their opponents. The most delicate division was between followers of my predecessor and those who rejected him, even among Indigenous people themselves. Those were very difficult years, as each church group fiercely defended its position. We were able to make some progress in the process of reconciliation, but it remains an unfinished task.

What I have experienced personally is happening in many other ecclesial spheres. Generally speaking, many of us enthusiastically accepted Pope Francis, but others, including cardinals, dismissed his choices and questioned his attitudes. This is the reality that Pope Leo XIV now needs to address, and hence his insistence that we work for unity internally, so that we can collaborate toward social unity and peace. He just emphasized this to the Italian bishops.

LIGHTNING

In his Pentecost Sunday homily, he expressed:  “The Spirit opens the boundaries of our relationships. Indeed, Jesus says that this Gift is the love between Himself and the Father, who comes to dwell within us. And when God’s love dwells within us, we are able to open ourselves to our brothers and sisters, to overcome our rigidities, to overcome fear of those who are different, to nurture the passions that rise within us. But the Spirit also transforms those more hidden dangers that contaminate our relationships, such as misunderstandings, prejudices, and exploitation.

The Holy Spirit matures within us the fruits that help us live authentic and healthy relationships: “love, joy and peace, magnanimity, affability, kindness, and trust.” In this way, the Spirit expands the boundaries of our relationships with others and opens us to the joy of brotherhood. And this is a decisive criterion for the Church as well; we are truly the Church of the Risen One and the disciples of Pentecost only if there are no borders or divisions among us, if in the Church we know how to dialogue and welcome one another, integrating our differences, if as a Church we become a welcoming and hospitable place for all.

The Spirit breaks down borders and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred, because “he teaches us everything” and “reminds us of the words of Jesus.” Therefore, the first thing he teaches, reminds us of, and imprints on our hearts is the commandment of love, which the Lord has placed at the center and summit of everything. And where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for the safe distances that distance us from our neighbors, for the logic of exclusion that we unfortunately also see emerging in political nationalism.   

Let us invoke the Spirit of love and peace, so that he may open borders, tear down walls, dissolve hatred and help us live as children of the one Father who is in heaven”  (8-VI-2025).

In his first meeting with the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, the first thing he addressed to them was precisely the need for unity:  “The first note, which is particularly close to my heart, is that of unity and communion. In the so-called ‘priestly’ prayer, as we know, Jesus asked the Father that his people may be one. The Lord knows well that only united to Him and to one another can we bear fruit and give the world a credible witness… The priest is called to be a man of communion, because he is the first to live it and nourish it continually.”

I ask for encouragement in priestly fraternity, which is rooted in a solid spiritual life, in the encounter with the Lord and in listening to his Word. Nourished by this lifeblood, we are able to live relationships of friendship, competing in mutual respect; we feel the need for one another to grow and nourish the same ecclesial tension. Walking together is always a guarantee of fidelity to the Gospel; together and in harmony, we strive to enrich the Church with our own charism, but keeping at heart the fact that we are the one body of which Christ is the Head.  (June 12, 2025)

ACTIONS

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us educate ourselves to build unity within our families and parishes, respecting one another in our differences, but accepting one another as brothers and sisters, members of the same ecclesial body.