Pope urges world’s cardinals to shift from maintenance to mission

April 15, 2026

In a letter to the world’s cardinals, Pope Leo XIV called for a “shift from a pastoral approach of maintenance to one of mission”: a mission that is “Christ-centered and kerygmatic, “born of an encounter with Christ that is capable of transforming lives and spreading through attraction rather than conquest.”

In his letter, dated April 12 and released April 14, Pope Leo expressed his gratitude for the cardinals’ contributions to the January extraordinary consistory. In their discussions, the cardinals voted to focus on synodality and evangelization, with the latter discussion inspired by Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis’s 2013 apostolic exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world.

“Your contributions [to the consistory] make it clear that this Exhortation continues to be a significant point of reference,” Pope Leo wrote. “In addition to introducing new content, it refocuses everything on the kerygma as the heart of our Christian and ecclesial identity.”

The Pontiff continued:

You emphasized how this perspective challenges the Church at every level. On a personal level, it calls every baptized person to renew their encounter with Christ, moving from a faith merely received to a faith truly lived and experienced. This journey affects the very quality of spiritual life, expressed in the primacy of prayer, in the witness that precedes words, and in the coherence between faith and life.

At the community level, it calls for a shift from a pastoral approach of maintenance to one of mission. This requires communities to be living agents of the proclamation—welcoming communities that use accessible language, attentive to the quality of relationships, and capable of offering places for listening, accompaniment and healing. At the diocesan level, the responsibility of Pastors to resolutely support missionary boldness emerges clearly, ensuring that such boldness is not weighed down or stifled by organizational excesses, but is guided by a discernment that helps us to recognize what is essential.

The Pope added that three of the cardinals’ suggestions “deserve to be welcomed and reflected on further”:

• “the need to relaunch Evangelii Gaudium through an honest assessment of what has actually been embraced over the years and what, by contrast, remains unfamiliar or unimplemented, with particular attention to the necessary reforms of the processes of Christian initiation”
• “the importance of valuing apostolic and pastoral visits as authentic opportunities for kerygmatic proclamation and for a growth in the quality of relationships”
• “the similar need to reassess the effectiveness of ecclesial communication, including at the level of the Holy See, from a more explicitly missionary perspective”

The next extraordinary consistory of cardinals will take place on June 26 and 27.

 

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Further information:

• Letter of the Holy Father to the Cardinals (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 4/14/26)