(OSV News) — As Catholics from around the world gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said the world’s growing need for peace cannot be separated from mercy, urging believers to become witnesses of God’s compassion in a time marked by war, violence and uncertainty.
In a video message released June 7 at the opening of the congress, the pope said today’s world, shaped by “fears and anxieties, tensions and wars,” faces an increasingly urgent need for peace both in individual hearts and among nations.
“The peace that we so deeply desire cannot be attained without mercy,” Pope Leo said.
The June 7-12 gathering has drawn some 7,000 pilgrims — clergy and lay faithful from around the world — to the Lithuanian capital, a city closely linked to the origins of the Divine Mercy devotion. Organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, the congress is being held under the theme “Building the City of Mercy.”
Pope Leo: God never tires of showing his mercy
During the opening days of the congress, participants attended the inaugural Mass with Corpus Christi procession led by Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius and concelebrated by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the apostolic nuncio to Lithuania and formerly the personal secretary for Pope Benedict XVI. Conferences dedicated to the theme of mercy and peace, and prayer gatherings at key sites connected to the Divine Mercy message were also part of the day.
In his message to the congress, Pope Leo described mercy as a force capable of transforming both individuals and society.
“God never tires of showing his mercy,” he said. “How much our world is crying out for mercy at every level.”
The pope called on participants to unite their trust in God’s mercy with a personal commitment to build a more welcoming and merciful society, beginning in their own families and communities.
The choice of Vilnius as host city carries particular significance. It was there that St. Faustina Kowalska received revelations connected to the Divine Mercy devotion and where the first image of the Merciful Jesus was painted in 1934 under the guidance of Blessed Father Michal Sopocko, her confessor.
A city with mercy rooted in its mission
Archbishop Grušas, welcoming pilgrims to the congress, said the city continues to carry a mission rooted in that spiritual legacy. “A city of mercy is built whenever forgiveness triumphs over resentment, whenever the vulnerable are protected, whenever those who suffer are not left to face their struggles alone, whenever truth is united with love, and whenever Christians become living witnesses of hope,” he said during the opening events.
Lithuanian Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome and special papal envoy to the congress, said that “In a world marked by divisions, wars, judgments and hardness, the Christian is called to be a living sign of mercy in forgiveness, in listening, in patience, in closeness to those who suffer.”
For Sister Michaela Rak, founder of the Blessed Father Michal Sopocko Hospice in Vilnius, the message of mercy that emerged from the city remains urgently relevant today. “What is mercy? To look with the same love of the heart at the one who is my enemy, who rejects me, who hurts me, and at the one who loves me,” she told OSV News.
“If people lose this source of mercy, then we have a world of war, hatred and exploitation,” she said. “We must look at Vilnius as the City of Mercy from which this spark must go out to the whole world.”
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Katarzyna Szalajko writes for OSV News from Warsaw, Poland.
