Pope Leo reflects on inculturation, offers Our Lady of Guadalupe as example
February 26, 2026
In a Spanish-language message to a conference in Mexico on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Leo XIV reflected on inculturation and upheld Our Lady of Guadalupe as its model.
Reflecting first on the Incarnation, Pope Leo wrote that God “wanted to reveal himself not as an abstract entity or as a truth imposed from without, but by progressively entering into history and dialoguing with human freedom.” Evangelization “consists first of all in making Jesus Christ present and accessible. Every action of the Church must seek to introduce the human being into a living relationship with Him.”
“However, the proclamation of the Good News always takes place within a concrete experience,” the Pope continued. “It follows, then, that the cultural reality of those who receive the proclamation cannot be ignored, and it is understood that inculturation is not a secondary concession or a mere pastoral strategy, but an intrinsic requirement of the Church’s mission.”
The Pope explained:
To inculturate the Gospel is, from this conviction, to follow the same path that God has traveled: to enter with respect and love into the concrete history of peoples so that Christ can be truly known, loved and welcomed from within his own human and cultural experience. This implies taking on the languages, symbols, ways of thinking, feeling and expressing themselves of each people, not only as external vehicles of proclamation, but as real places in which grace wishes to dwell and act.
Inculturation, however, does not entail the uncritical acceptance of cultures. The Pope cautioned:
It is necessary to clarify that inculturation does not equate to a sacralization of cultures or to their adoption as a decisive interpretative framework for the Gospel message, nor can it be reduced to a relativistic accommodation or a superficial adaptation of the Christian message, since no culture, no matter how valuable, can simply identify itself with Revelation or become the ultimate criterion of faith.
To legitimize everything culturally given or to justify practices, worldviews or structures that contradict the Gospel and the dignity of the person would be to ignore the fact that every culture—like every human reality—must be illuminated and transformed by the grace that flows from the paschal mystery of Christ.
Thus, inculturation “is a demanding and purifying process, through which the Gospel, remaining whole in its truth, recognizes, discerns and assumes the semina Verbi [seeds of the Word] present in cultures, and at the same time purifies and elevates their authentic values, freeing them from that which obscures or disfigures them,” the Pope added. “These seeds of the Word, as traces of the previous action of the Spirit, find in Jesus Christ their criterion of authenticity and their fullness. From this perspective, Our Lady of Guadalupe is a lesson in divine pedagogy on the inculturation of salvific truth.”
Applying this lesson to today’s circumstances, Pope Leo wrote that the transmission of faith should be considered “not as a fragmentary repetition of contents or as a merely functional preparation for the sacraments, but as a true journey of discipleship ... For this reason, catechesis becomes an indispensable priority for all pastors.”
The Pontiff’s message, dated February 5, was released by the Vatican in Spanish on February 24. The Vatican subsequently released an Italian translation.
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