“When we know that something is essential, we immediately seek it out for those we love,” said Leo XIV during Mass celebrated on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, during which he baptized 20 children of Vatican employees in the Sistine Chapel. He assured that the faith that parents offer their children through baptism is “more than necessary.”
Beneath Michelangelo's famous frescoes, a few tears were shed during the Mass celebrated on Sunday morning by Pope Leo XIV. In the room where he had been elected by his brother cardinals eight months earlier, the head of the Catholic Church baptized 20 children of Vatican employees, a tradition established by Pope John Paul II in 1981, which has been held in the Sistine Chapel since 1983.
In his brief homily, the Pope recalled that Jesus, baptized by his cousin John the Baptist in the Jordan River, “makes this gesture a new sign of death and resurrection, of forgiveness and communion.”
This gesture, he emphasized to the parents and godparents, is continued in the sacrament of baptism of children: “because God loves them, they become Christians, our brothers and sisters.”
In baptism, children “are transformed into new creatures,” said the Pontiff. “Just as you, their parents, gave them life, you now give them the meaning of that life: faith."
“When we know that something is essential, we immediately seek it for those we love,” emphasized Leo XIV, affirming that it would never occur to them to keep food or clothing from their children.
“If food and clothing are necessary for life, faith is more than necessary, because with God, life finds salvation,” he reflected.
The Pope then spoke of the day when these children will "become too heavy to carry in your arms,” and then the day “when they will be the ones supporting you.”
He assured parents that it was this divine love that was manifested in their choice to baptize their children, and that it would continue to be manifested throughout their lives.
