Papal tribute to Hans Urs von Balthasar
June 10, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: In his June 9 homily at Mass for participants in the Jubilee of the Holy See (CWN coverage), Pope Leo XIV described Father Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) as a “great contemporary theologian.”
Citing Balthasar’s The Moment of Christian Witness, the Pontiff preached:
The fruitfulness of the Church is the same fruitfulness as Mary’s; it is realized in the lives of her members to the extent that they relive, “in miniature,” what the Mother lived, namely, they love according to the love of Jesus. All the fruitfulness of the Church and of the Holy See depends on the Cross of Christ. Otherwise, it is only appearance, if not worse.
A great contemporary theologian wrote: “If the Church is the tree that grew from the tiny mustard seed of the cross, this tree is destined to produce mustard seeds in turn, and therefore fruits that repeat the shape of the cross, because it is precisely to the cross that they owe their existence.”
Later in his homily, Pope Leo referred to the Marian and Peter principles of the Church, a concept developed by Balthasar and later cited by St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis.
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