Pope, in audience on Vatican II, reflects on the Church as the People of God

March 12, 2026

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV devoted his March 11 audience to the Church as the People of God—a people that everyone is called to enter.

The audience (video), which took place in St. Peter’s Square, was the ninth in the series and the third devoted to Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964).

“God, who created the world and humanity, and who wishes to save every man, carries out his work of salvation in history, choosing a real people and dwelling among them,” Pope Leo told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. “For this reason, He calls Abraham and promises him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.”

“With Abraham’s children, after freeing them from slavery, God makes a covenant with them, accompanies them, cares for them, and gathers them together whenever they stray,” the Pope continued. “Therefore, the identity of this people is given by God’s action and by faith in Him. They are called to become a light for other nations.”

Quoting Lumen Gentium, Pope Leo said that “all these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh.” The Pope explained:

Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this people in Himself and in a definitive way. It is a people now made up of members of every nation; it is united by faith in Him, by adherence to Him, by living the same life as Him, animated by the Spirit of the Risen One. This is the Church: the people of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ and who are themselves the body of Christ; not a people like any other, but the People of God, called together by Him and made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth. Its unifying principle is not a language, a culture, an ethnicity, but faith in Christ.

The Church, then, is “a messianic people, precisely because it has Christ, the Messiah, as its head,” the Pope said. “ Above any task or function, therefore, what really matters in the Church is to be grafted onto Christ, to be children of God by grace ... We are in the Church in order to receive life from the Father unceasingly and to live as His children and brothers and sisters among ourselves. Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity.”

Everyone, the Pope said, is called to enter into the Church:

The Church can never turn inwards on herself, but is open to everyone and is for everyone. If believers in Christ belong to it, the Council reminds us that “all men are called to belong to the new people of God. Wherefore this people, remaining one and unique, must extend to the whole world and to all ages, so that the intention of God’s will may be fulfilled, who in the beginning created human nature as one and wants to gather together his children who were scattered” (LG, 13).

Even those who have not yet received the Gospel are therefore, in some way, oriented towards the people of God, and the Church, cooperating in Christ’s mission, is called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere and to everyone (cf. LG 17), so that every person may enter into contact with Christ.

This means that in the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone, and that every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which he or she lives and works. Thus, this people shows its catholicity, welcoming the wealth and resources of different cultures and, at the same time, offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up.

“It is a great sign of hope—especially in our times, traversed by so many conflicts and wars—to know that the Church is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages and cultures live together in faith: it is a sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all his children,” the Pontiff concluded.

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Audiences in series “Vatican Council II through its Documents”

• Introductory catechesis (1/7/26)

On Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965):

• God speaks to men as to friends (1/14/26)
• Jesus Christ reveals the Father (1/21/26)
• A single sacred deposit: The relationship between Scripture and Tradition (1/28/26)
• The Sacred Scripture: the Word of God in human words (2/4/26)
• The Word of God in the life of the Church (2/11/26)

On Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964)

• The mystery of the Church, sacrament of the union with God, and the unity of all humanity (2/18/26)
• No audience on 2/25 (Pope, Roman Curia on retreat)
• The Church, a Visible and Spiritual Reality (3/4/26)
• The Church, people of God (3/11/26)

 

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Further information:

• General Audience (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 3/11/26)