What is the art of “pastoral evaluation”? Leo XIV explains it, as well as the kind of priest (and seminarian) Rome needs

(ZENIT News / Rome, 09.20.2026).- On the afternoon of Friday, September 18, Pope Leo XIV, Bishop of Rome, presided over the Assembly of the Diocese of Rome at the Cathedral of St. John Lateran. Drawing on the Gospel passage describing the encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Jesus, the Pope elaborated on a new dimension of pastoral programs: evaluation. He then went on to elaborate on the kind of priest Rome needs. Below is the English translation of the Pope’s address:

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Dear brothers and sisters,

I would like to begin again with you on Easter morning, in a garden and at an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene is there at dawn, whilst it is still dark, and the darkness in which she finds herself is not merely that of the night which has not yet ended. It is the darkness of one who has lost someone, of one who seeks and does not find, of one who bows down and weeps. The Gospel, however, does not leave her in mourning. A man, whom she mistakes for the gardener, approaches her and asks two questions: ‘Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ (Jn 20:15).

I would like these two questions, dear friends, to inspire the journey ahead of the diocese of Rome. Indeed, I believe that we can hear them addressed today to our Church and to the whole city: “Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” They concern the anxious search for hope that you perceive in the parishes, in gatherings and in the fabric of daily life, when you have listened to one another and to the people. Mary Magdalene is awake before dawn and has already run to the tomb, for within her there is life, there is anticipation! So too, in Rome, there are many people who start afresh every morning, but also parish communities, associations, movements, groups and ecclesial organisations that work generously in evangelization, charity, in serving liturgical prayer. Certainly, alongside this richness you have acknowledged certain struggles with honesty. It is the bewilderment of those who can no longer find where they can meet the Lord. An experience we share with many brothers and sisters, but one that we too sometimes go through. At times, the number of initiatives, activities and meetings multiplies, and we lose sight of the centre, the Gospel meaning of what we do.

And here, in the Gospel, a single word causes Mary Magdalene to turn: her name, “Mary!” (Jn 20:16). This is how we encounter Jesus Christ: by hearing Him call us by name, in the many ways in which this can happen. This is where every pastoral initiative must begin: not so much by asking “what” to do, but rather “whom” and “how” to encounter. In our communities, we can remain anonymous, invisible and misunderstood, or we can be seen, known and called by name. And those who truly encounter Christ, like Mary of Magdala, feel their hearts filled, and so they cannot stand still; they run and go forth to proclaim the Good News. “I have seen the Lord!” (v. 18), the woman tells the disciples. Not a memory, not a private matter, but a profound joy that gives rise to community.

For this reason, brothers and sisters, I am not delivering a new pastoral programme to you today. We are not starting from scratch, and nothing of what we have experienced should be consigned to the archives. Our work on “spiritual maladies” has taught us to recognize what, in our ecclesial life, needs to be healed, corrected or transformed. The Synodal Journey has taught us how to listen and discern together, as co-responsible for the one mission. Instead, I would like to propose that we develop a third dimension: that of pastoral evaluation.

To evaluate, in the light of the Holy Spirit, means to pause, to revisit what has happened, to recognize what has borne fruit, to understand what has not worked, and to seek the reasons for this together. It means, in a word, to seek the truth. I invite you to carry out this evaluation by involving the whole community and, as far as possible, by also listening to people who do not attend and who see things, so to speak, “from the outside”.

To help you carry out this pastoral evaluation, I would like to highlight a few points of focus, which I distinguish from one another but which constitute a single dynamic.

I

The first point: 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.

II

The second point: generating communities. From the Pasch of Christ, new, free and reconciled communities are born. 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. Let us commit ourselves to offering young people our time and a listening ear, both within and beyond our initiatives.

III

The third point: living in and serving the city. Rome is not the indifferent backdrop to our communities: it is the locus of our mission. The community brought into being by the Risen One cannot remain closed in on itself, but must share in people’s hopes, vulnerabilities and questions; and it must learn to recognize, in what happens in the city’s various neighbourhoods, the questions to which the Gospel can provide answers, if it is welcomed anew.

IV

To these three points for evaluation, a fourth can be added, which traverses them all: 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 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.

So that this does not all remain merely a good intention, the journey will have its own “rhythm”, and I thank the Cardinal Vicar and the other collaborators for having set out the stages that will be presented to you.

I therefore ask you to give yourselves the time to walk together – not just for a year, but on a journey – so that this may be a genuine discernment and not merely another initiative added to the rest. The Bishop is not asking you to plan new activities: he is proposing a shared method of listening, discernment, evaluation and conversion. The content and priorities remain the responsibility of your communities, within the five areas of catechesis and Christian initiation, young people, the family, charity and vocations, because the aim is to share a pastoral style, not to standardize experiences. And in this, the Prefectures are called increasingly to become places of encounter, dialogue and shared pastoral planning.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is true: a method, by itself, has never converted anyone. So, to ensure that what I have proposed to you does not remain abstract, I would also like to remind you of a particular person. Indeed, I have joyfully approved the decision to take the necessary steps to initiate the diocesan inquiry into the life, virtues and reputation for holiness of Don Luigi Di Liegro, a priest of this Church, who died on 12 October 1997. The gift he offers to our journey does not lie primarily in the works he carried out: Don Luigi, before building anything, wanted to “see”. In 1969, he commissioned a study on the religiosity of the people of Rome, because he had learnt that there can be no embodiment of the message without listening to reality. In his final address, a few weeks before his death, Don Luigi said to his staff: “Discernment is this question: Lord, where are you?”.

Dear friends, this makes us think about Mary Magdalene’s question at the tomb of Jesus. It is the question that we set out from again today. Which signs of the Kingdom and which appeals of the Holy Spirit emerge today from the life of Rome, and what form does the Church need to take to recognize them and to serve them? Keeping this question alive within us will help us to be a Church in solidarity with the destiny of this city, in touch with its sufferings, its hopes and its transformations.

I would now like to say a few words about the ordained ministry in Rome. First, however, I wish to say “thank you”, and not merely as a formality. Thank you to the Cardinal Vicar, the auxiliary Bishops, the Prefects and all those who serve in the offices of the Vicariate. Thank you to the parish priests and parish vicars; to the elderly and infirm priests; to the chaplains in hospitals, prisons, schools and universities; to the priests who have come from other Churches and other countries, who serve in this city as if it were their own. Thank you to the permanent deacons and their families. Thank you to the men and women religious; to those who, in silence, support Rome through their intercession; and to those who encounter it every day in schools, hospitals, shelters and the suburbs. Thank you to the catechists, educators and those working in charitable ministries. We know this: good deeds make no noise; the Lord knows them, and today I too wish to acknowledge them. Thank you!

I also know that pastoral service today is more demanding than it was in the past. I urge you not to bear these burdens alone. And I say to you quite clearly that the art of pastoral evaluation does not ask you to do more: on the contrary, it gives you permission to do less and do it better. If pastoral evaluation were to become yet another burden on your shoulders, we would have betrayed its very purpose.

I would therefore like to offer you some reflections on the kind of priests Rome needs. A priest should be a man who listens before replying, who discerns before deciding. A person who remains in the presence of the Lord, for he cannot lead others to an encounter that he is not himself experiencing. The question “why?” is first and foremost a personal one for him: why am I a priest? Does my daily life still correspond to the reason why the Lord called me by name? The priest does not concentrate all responsibility upon himself. He recognizes charisms, forms consciences, and enables the lay faithful to share responsibility: not out of a lack of strength, but out of fidelity to the nature of the Church. A community in which everything depends on the parish priest is a fragile community, and presiding does not mean doing everything. It means fostering communion, drawing on the energies of others, connecting people and situations, and safeguarding unity. Ultimately, the priest becomes part of, and longs to belong to, a community capable of understanding its own neighbourhood, of sharing in its sufferings and hopes, and of taking responsibility for the lives of everyone, even those who do not cross the threshold of the church.

This is the form that charity takes in pastoral leadership, and it is what prevents a parish from retreating into self-preservation.

No one is called to live through all this alone. The presbytery is not merely the sum of priests who meet for organizational reasons: it is a fraternity, and it is the first place in which to assess whether what we do truly fosters communion. I hope that the Prefectures will be, before anything else, places of genuine priestly fraternity, where one can speak openly of one’s struggles without feeling ashamed, rather than merely instruments of coordination. Alongside you, the deacons remind the Church as a whole that she exists to serve; and the men and women religious, through the selfless dedication of their lives, remind Rome that no amount of efficiency can save humanity and that primacy belongs to God.

A special thought goes to our seminarians. Dear young people, you are preparing to become priests for this diocese. I invite you to take part, even now, in this journey of self-examination, learning to make it a way of life throughout your years of formation. And allow yourselves to be formed both by books – which are necessary for encountering good teachers – and by the faces of the poor, the sick and the people of our parishes. To you and to your formators I express my gratitude and my trust. Young people do not commit themselves to a role, but follow men and women who appear content with who they are.

I know that this journey of discernment will require patience, and perhaps even the courage to let go of something we are attached to. But it is the same courage shown by Mary of Magdala, who had to let go of her desire to hold on to the Lord in order to run, instead, and proclaim Him. From this pastoral discernment, I hope, will emerge a phase of sharing renewed experiences, followed by the building of a shared journey that will prepare us, together, for the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033.

Dear brothers and sisters of Rome, do not be afraid to let yourselves be called by name once more! The living Lord allows Himself to be encountered by those who, like Mary at the dawn of Easter, still have the courage to seek him, even in tears, even in the darkness. May the Mother of God, Salus Populi Romani, who was the first to believe and who brought Christ into the world, accompany you. And may my blessing be upon all of you, your communities and this city.

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