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“Work must be a source of hope and life, allowing individuals to express their creativity and their capacity to do good,” explained Leo XIV during his jubilee audience on November 8, 2025, organized as part of the Jubilee of the World of Work. The Holy Father drew his brief meditation on hope from the testimony of Blessed Isidore Bakanja (1885-1909), a young Congolese martyred by his Belgian employer and beatified in 1994 by John Paul II.
Pope Leo visited Africa many times when he was Prior General of the Augustinians, and has a deep appreciation for the continent. Today he focused on its “witness to Christian hope.”
He recalled that Isidore Bakanja, born in 1885 “when his country was a Belgian colony,” did not attend school but “became friends with Catholic missionaries, Trappist monks, who told him about Jesus.” This mason apprentice "agreed to follow Christian teaching and be baptized at around the age of 20.
Despite appalling working conditions as a farm laborer under the rule of very violent Belgian colonists, ”his witness became increasingly luminous.“
His employer ”could not stand his faith and authenticity," the Pope explained. “The master hated Christianity and the missionaries who defended the natives against the abuses of the colonizers. But Isidore continued to wear his scapular around his neck with the image of the Virgin Mary until the end, enduring all kinds of mistreatment and torture without losing hope,” said Leo XIV.
Imitating Christ in the gift of life
As he was dying, after being whipped until he bled -- thus reliving in a certain way the passion of Christ -- the young Congolese asked “the Trappist fathers not to hold a grudge and even promised to pray, in the afterlife, for those who had reduced him to this state.”
This attitude responds to the “word of the Cross,” reflected Leo XIV, seeing in this example “a word lived out, which breaks the chain of evil."
The pontiff noted that “the ancient Churches of the North of the world receive this testimony from the young Churches, which urges them to walk together towards the Kingdom of God, which is a Kingdom of justice and peace.”
"Africa, in particular, calls for this conversion, and it does so by offering us many young witnesses of the faith."
"To hope is to bear witness that the earth can truly resemble heaven,“ concluded Leo XIV, seeing in this ”the message of the Jubilee."
The Pope's greeting to workers
Among those attending this Jubilee audience were more than 10,000 pilgrims gathered in Rome for the Jubilee of the World of Work. Originally scheduled for last May, the event was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis and the conclave.
Addressing the Polish faithful, the Pope praised the “long tradition” of “pilgrimages of the world of work in Poland.” He recalled that “their inspiration comes from the teachings of St. John Paul II and his encyclical Laborem Exercens, as well as from the work of Blessed Father Popiełuszko,” referring to the efforts of the Church in Poland to defend workers' rights in the face of the Marxist ideology that was then prevalent in the country.
“Return to these sources to face the ‘new things,’ drawing on the Christian vision of human work,” insisted Leo XIV. The expression “new things” refers to Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), the first papal text dedicated to the defense of workers.
“Work must be a source of hope and life, allowing individuals to express their creativity and their capacity to do good,” Pope Leo XIV also reminded various Italian organizations. “I call for a collective commitment on the part of institutions and civil society to create valid opportunities that can offer stability and dignity, ensuring above all that young people can realize their dreams and contribute to the common good."
He also greeted the participants in the Jubilee of Italian Historical Reenactments, who displayed their flags and medieval costumes in St. Peter's Square, forming a sort of guard of honor for the Pope as he ascended the steps. Leo XIV urged them to be aware that “the great values of the Christian faith are the foundation of the nation's culture, art, and civil and religious tradition.”
