Remain ‘poor in spirit and therefore blessed,’ Pope tells Roma, Sinti peoples at Jubilee

October 21, 2025

Pope Leo XIV addressed the 1,500 participants in the Jubilee of the Roma, Sinti and Travelling Peoples and encouraged them to “remain itinerant in the Spirit, poor in spirit, and therefore blessed.”

The Roma and Sinti are traditionally itinerant ethnic groups.

“Be protagonists of the epochal change underway, walking together with other people of good will in the places where you live, overcoming mutual distrust, making known the beauty of your culture, sharing your faith, your prayers and the bread that is the fruit of honest labor,” Pope Leo added during the audience, which took place on October 18 in Paul VI Audience Hall.

After his address, the Pope answered questions from children. Asked, “How can we be better friends with Jesus?”, he spoke of the importance of sincere prayer. He also said:

Jesus, through the Church, presents himself to us, and therefore loving Jesus, being a friend of Jesus, means being a friend in the Church: and so life in the Church, the Sacraments, the Holy Mass. Seeking the Church’s help is also a very important path to always being a friend of Jesus.

 

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Further information:

• To Participants in the Jubilee of the Roma, Sinti and Travelling Peoples (Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 10/18/25)
• Rompere i muri della diffidenza (L'Osservatore Romano, 10/18/25)
• Jubilee of the Roma, Sinti and Travelling Peoples (Iubilaeum2025.va)
• Il Papa risponde alle domande dei più piccoli (L'Osservatore Romano, 10/18/25)