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Fraternal correction, united prayer can help us grow in mutual love, Pope tells pilgrims
September 06, 2026
Pope Leo XIV said today that fraternal correction and united prayer can help Christians grow in mutual love.
Referring to Matthew 18:15-20, Pope Leo told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address (video) that “In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus suggests at least two ways for every Christian community to practice mutual love.”
“The first is to become capable of fraternal correction,” the Pope said. “This is a delicate art, too often forgotten, that calls for frankness and a gradual approach.”
Pope Leo explained:
Speaking honestly with one another—first face to face, then, if necessary, with two or three others, and finally, when required, with the whole community—means facing reality and transforming problems and conflicts into opportunities for growth. Complaining and speaking ill of others are easier, but they accomplish nothing and leave many situations paralyzed. The Gospel, instead, teaches us the freedom that comes through charity.
“There is also a second way of loving one another as brothers and sisters, which, for Jesus, transforms even our prayer: coming to an agreement,” the Pope continued. “Not only when there is a conflict, but also when asking God for some gift.”
The Pope commented:
The Lord says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19). This promise suggests that we can have shared desires, shared sorrows and shared hopes, and that through prayer we can grow in unity.
Without faith, each person might feel alone and become suspicious of others, seeing them as strangers and enemies. By grace, however, we are brothers and sisters who can live in harmony: meeting one another, forgiving one another and listening to one another in the Lord.
“Let us ask Mary, who, after the angel’s announcement, went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth to share the joy and the hardship of pregnancy, to teach us, too, the joyful debt of fraternal love,” the Pope concluded.
The Pope then recited, in Latin, the Angelus, the Minor Doxology (three times), and the prayer for the faithful departed, before imparting his blessing.
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