Pope, at general audience, warns against pride

March 06, 2024

At his March 6 general audience, held in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis warned against pride, in the tenth talk in a series of Wednesday general audiences devoted to the virtues and vices.

“Today’s catechesis will be read by Monsignor [Pierluigi Giroli], one of my helpers, because I still have a cold and cannot read well,” the Pope said.

“In our catechesis on the virtues and the vices, we now turn to pride, the first of the capital sins and, for the ancient writers, ‘the queen of all vices,’” the Pontiff wrote, in the words of the Vatican’s summary of his remarks. “Indeed, the sin of pride hides an even greater sin: the absurd pretension to be like God.”

The summary continued:

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the sin of pride is punished on the very first level of the mountain of purgatory; a sign of how difficult it is to overcome, as well as the distance it creates between us and God. Sooner or later, “pride comes before the fall,” and this can lead, by God’s grace, to a salutary humility.

In the Magnificat, Mary sings of God who humbles the proud and exalts the lowly. Writing to his community that is wounded by infighting caused by pride, the apostle James echoes this stating, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(Jas 4:6).

May this Lenten season be an opportunity for us to conquer pride and embrace humility, so that we may draw ever closer to God and receive his grace in abundance.

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Previous audience in series:

• Safeguarding the heart (December 27, 2023)
• The spiritual striving (January 3, 2024)
• Gluttony (January 10, 2024)
• Lust (January 17, 2024)
• Greed (January 24, 2024)
• Wrath (January 31, 2024)
• Sorrow (February 7, 2024)
• Acedia (February 14, 2024)
• No audience on February 21 (Lenten retreat)
• Envy and vainglory (February 28, 2024)

 

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Further information:

• General Audience (March 6, 2024)