Pope calls for evaluation of Diocese of Rome’s activities, advises priests to ‘do less, and do it better’

September 21, 2026

Pope Leo XIV challenged the priests of the Diocese of Rome to “do less and do it better” at the beginning of the diocesan pastoral year.

Addressing the diocesan assembly in the Lateran Basilica on the evening of September 18 (video), Pope Leo called for a year of pastoral evaluation to determine which activities are truly necessary and effective in light of the Church’s mission.

The Pontiff offered four criteria of evaluation:

• “Encountering Christ and helping others to encounter Him”: “The Church does not exist for her own sake, but to lead every person to an encounter with the Lord; and so it is not enough to ask whether an activity is well organized, whether it is well attended, or whether it has been running for many years; we must ask whether it truly leads to Christ, whether it brings the Gospel into contact with the real lives of the people.”
• “Generating communities”: “Let us have the courage to focus on what is essential, to make room for genuine relationships, within which people feel part of a community: they feel welcomed, accompanied, valued and jointly responsible.”
• “Living in and serving the city”: “Rome is not the indifferent backdrop to our communities: it is the locus of our mission.”
• “The formation of the People of God”: “Do our activities encourage growth in faith? Do they form missionary disciples? Do they help to develop ecclesial responsibility? Do they foster a mature faith, capable of translating into concrete choices of life and service?”

The Pope added:

The heart of the method that I am proposing to you is, however, a very simple question: “why?”. It is a matter of pausing together and asking ourselves, for everything we do: why do we do it? What Gospel-inspired intention drives us? What real need are we seeking to meet? In what way does this choice correspond to the mission of the Church?

Then comes the second step: why do we achieve these results and not others? Why do some initiatives foster journeys of faith whilst others remain isolated? Why do some people participate whilst others remain on the sidelines? From the encounter between the reasons behind our choices and the reasons for their effects, authentic discernment arises, enabling us to recognize what should be retained, valued, corrected, abandoned or initiated.

 

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Further information:

• Diocesan Assembly (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 9/18/26)
• Assembly of the Diocese of Rome in the presence of the Holy Father Leo XIV, in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran (Holy See Press Office, 9/18/26)
• Pope calls Diocese of Rome to pastoral evaluation: ‘Do less and do it better' (Vatican News, 9/18/26)