On the solemnity of Saint John the Baptist, patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta, His Holiness Leo XIV addressed the members of the Order in a message marked by faith, clarity, and spiritual depth. Far from worldly discourses or hollow flattery, he recalled the heart of the Maltese mission: to serve the poor while defending the Catholic faith, in a spirit of prayer, discernment, and fidelity to the Gospel.
The Pope first set things in their proper place: the Order of Malta is not a mere NGO, nor a philanthropic enterprise, but a religious order with a spiritual vocation, rooted in the historic motto "Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum" – to defend the faith and to serve the poor. Charity disconnected from faith becomes sterile; faith without charity grows cold. One nourishes the other.
In a powerful statement, Leo XIV affirms that love for the poor is a path of union with God:
"If you bend down with love for the one who is rejected, it is not a humiliating abasement, it is a joy. For this love, which you give, returns to you in their gratitude. And this gratitude, far from being a human pride, is a reflection of the very love of God."
In his message, the Holy Father addressed the ongoing reforms within the Order, with the adoption of a new Constitutional Charter. He welcomed this work of restructuring, but recalled its essential condition: a reform without interior conversion is merely an administrative change. Any true transformation, especially in a religious order, must begin with prayer, silence, and interior life. In other words: it is the heart that must be reformed, before the statutes.
It is from this perspective that Leo XIV highlighted the crucial role of the professed – the First Class members – called to live the evangelical counsels radically. He exhorts them to reject lukewarmness, to flee the illusions of the world, and to remain faithful to their religious vocation:
"The risk of secularization is real. It is not an empty word. It is a way of living without Christ, even within structures that are nevertheless consecrated to Him."
The Pope also warned against a more subtle danger: that of doing good, but without God. A kind of worldly efficiency, a secular charity, which forgets the true engine of Catholic action: the Holy Spirit. He warned against the "appearance of good" which can hide pride, self-seeking, or compromise with the world. To illuminate this, he recalled the temptation of Christ in the desert, when Satan promises Him the kingdoms of the world in exchange for a single act of worship. "Jesus does not compromise. He does not make a pact with the world. He remains faithful to the Father, at all costs."
This discernment – knowing whether one is acting under God's inspiration or under the influence of another spirit – is, according to Leo XIV, a priority. He invites the members of the Order to pray to the Holy Spirit, to remain vigilant, and to ask themselves at every step:
"Am I serving God, or am I serving myself?"
Finally, the Holy Father expressed his joy at seeing the reawakening vitality of the Order: the presence of new novices, the return to a more authentic community life, brothers desiring to live the radicality of their vocation. This spiritual youth, this rebirth of religious vocations within the Order, is in his view a sign of hope, but also a challenge: to form hearts, not merely heads.
He therefore encourages formators to place prayer at the center of everything: personal and communal prayer, sustained by silence, liturgy, adoration, and fraternal life lived concretely. For it is in this crucible that souls are formed, capable of bearing witness, with strength and gentleness, to divine mercy.