Allow God’s mercy to renew your hearts, Pope tells participants at world conference on mercy

June 08, 2026

In a video message to the Sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said that “it is a source of great joy and true hope when we experience how merciful God is towards each one of us and how good it is for us to renew our trust in his mercy.”

“Today’s world, with its many fears and anxieties, tensions and wars, presents an increasingly urgent need for peace in the hearts of both individuals and peoples,” Pope Leo said in his message, released by the Vatican on June 7. “Amid the vortex of violence that poisons relationships and destroys lives, the mercy of God asks to be allowed into our hearts with its amazing power of renewal.”

The Pope added:

Dear friends, God never tires of showing His mercy. His love, as the Psalmist says (cf. Psalm 136), endures forever, and how much our world is crying out for mercy at every level! But the peace that we so deeply desire cannot be attained without mercy. Let us therefore join our trust in the infinite mercy of God with our own personal commitment to build a more welcoming and merciful society, beginning with our families.

The World Apostolic Congress on Mercy is taking place on June 7-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, the city where St. Faustina Kowalska received the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and where the first image of Divine Mercy was painted in 1934. In his message, Pope Leo welcomed the presence of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the congress and noted that the congress was “greatly desired” by Pope St. John Paul II.

The first congress was held in 2008, three years after St. John Paul’s death; the congress typically takes place every three years.

 

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Further information:

• Video Message of the Holy Father on the Occasion of the 6th World Apostolic Congress on Mercy on the Theme “Let Us Build the City of Mercy” [Vilnius, Lithuania, 7–12 June 2026] (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 6/7/26)
• Sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy