Work to build communion, not another Babel, Pope tells Church in Asia

July 13, 2026

Pope Leo XIV exhorted the Church in Asia, and especially the bishops there, to implore God “that we may become builders of communion and not architects of this world’s Babylon; servants of the Kingdom to come, not builders of towers destined to collapse.”

The Pope’s exhortation came in a Latin-language letter to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, his special envoy to the 12th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. The assembly will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia, from July 20 to 26.

“Let us pray, think wisely and work constantly, placing God in the sight of our actions and man at the center of our choices,” Pope Leo wrote in his letter to Cardinal Gracias, who was archbishop of Bombay, India, from 2006 to 2025. “For in this way, the rejected stones—the poor, the sick, the migrants, the little ones—will be turned into cornerstones; then a common, firm and hospitable house will be born, where charity and truth meet and justice and peace are joined in embrace.”

The Pontiff added:

With a pastoral and paternal heart, we desire to exhort all to stop the work of building another Babel and to unite our forces to build true good, lest humanity and consequently even the Church lose their beauty and the world be able to recognize once again in the hearts of men the home and divine temple where Christ desires to dwell

The Pope’s letter, dated June 24, was released by the Vatican on July 11.

 

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Further information:

• Letter of the Holy Father to the Special Envoy to the 12th Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) [Jakarta, 20-26 July 2026] (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 7/11/26)
• Pope to Asia's Church: Be builders of communion (Vatican News, 7/11/26)