The Pope presided over the Mass on November 2, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, at the Verano Cemetery.
Pope Leo XIV began his visit with a prayer. He laid a bouquet of flowers in the Vatican colors in a silent gesture of remembrance for all the departed.
In his homily, Pope Leo XIV drew on the Gospel of the Beatitudes to turn our attention to the victims of today's conflicts.
POPE LEO XIV
At this moment, we want to pray for all those who have recently lost a loved one, especially for those from whom a loved one has been torn away by the senseless violence of war. May the tears of so many mothers, children, and elderly people touch the consciences of those who have the power to silence the weapons!
In this way, the pope sought to connect the suffering of families who have lost loved ones with the reality of conflicts that continue to claim victims around the world.
The other central theme of his reflection was the communion of saints, the spiritual bond between the living faithful and those who have already passed away, who guide the way to heaven.
POPE LEO XIV
Faith in Christ tells us that our bond with the faithful departed is not severed, but transformed. Through our prayers for the dead, we accompany our loved ones toward full communion with the Lord, that communion which we truly experience in advance here on earth, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Pope Leo XIV is attending the Verano for the second consecutive year. This is a tradition that Pope Francis revived in 2013 and that Pope John Paul II had inaugurated in 1979.
The cemetery owes its name to the ancient Campo de los Verani, a senatorial family from Rome.
Its transformation received a decisive boost under Pope Pius IX, who commissioned the construction of a large part of the complex.
The celebration on November 2 has a history dating back more than a thousand years. In the year 998, Saint Odilon of Cluny, a Benedictine abbot, decreed that his monasteries dedicate November 2 to praying for all the deceased.
