Pope Leo: The World Is in Ashes — But We Are Not Meant to Stay There

In a searing Ash Wednesday homily, Leo warned of a world ablaze with war, ecological collapse, and spiritual decay — and called us to a Lenten conversion that doesn’t end in ashes but in resurrection.

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At Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome’s Santa Sabina Basilica, Pope Leo XIV traced crosses of ash on foreheads and delivered a stark message to a troubled world. The ashes on our heads, he suggested, carry “the weight of a world that is ablaze.”

He listed what’s burning: “the ashes of international law; ecosystems; critical thinking; the sacred.”

Wars reduce cities to cinders; treaties lie in tatters; forests burn and ice caps melt; even our sense of truth and the sacred is eroding. Leo’s imagery paints a world not just in flames, but already in ashes — a grim inventory of global decay.

Repentance, Not Ritual

Yet Leo did not leave us in despair. His homily pivoted from devastation to urgency: Lent’s call to repentance, he said, is not mere ritual but a radical conversion of heart and society.

Instead of pointing fingers outward, Leo demands we examine ourselves.

We must “call death for what it is” — name the violence, injustice, and indifference in our world and in our hearts — and then turn away from it.

“We recognize our sins so that we can be converted; this is itself a sign and testimony of Resurrection.” That is, repentance itself is a sign of hope — a refusal to accept ashes as our final state.

Leo lamented that few leaders ever admit they were wrong. But he also sees hope in the young, who refuse to live amid the ashes.

He praised young people who “understand clearly that it is possible to live a just lifestyle” and won’t be complacent amid corruption. He challenged them to lead an exodus from cynicism and despair. Opposing today’s idols, he adds, requires “daring to be free” and journeying together toward change. Their restless longing for justice is a sign that a different future is possible.

Rising from the Ashes

At the heart of Leo’s Ash Wednesday message is a promise: we are not meant to remain in ashes.

Lent is a season of truth-telling about our mortality and our world’s sins — but also a season of expectant hope. If we embrace sincere penance and conversion, “we will not remain among the ashes, but will rise up and rebuild.”

The ashes imposed on Ash Wednesday are not the final word; they are the soil for a new beginning.

Leo’s homily is a prophetic wake-up call: Ash Wednesday isn’t for wallowing in doom — it dares us to imagine resurrection.

Yes, the global landscape is bleak — war rages, ecosystems collapse, and spiritual decay spreads.

But Leo reminds us that Lent is a springtime of the soul, when God’s grace can spark renewal in the places that seem burned out.

Yet through it all, the pope speaks with moral clarity and emotional resonance; he does not minimize the crises we face. He places responsibility on all of us — especially people of faith — to repent and to hope.

We mark ourselves with ashes and name the death around us, yet do so believing new life is possible. The world may be in ashes, but if we take Pope Leo’s Lenten challenge to heart, we will not stay there.

This Lent, he urges, is the time to rise from the ashes and rebuild a world where peace, creation and the sacred can flourish once more.