What Pope Leo XIV Wants for Christmas

He’s asking you to take one small step — today — to make peace with someone in your life before Christmas night.

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This week, our first American pope told a group of Italian youth exactly what he wanted for Christmas — asking them to give the world a gift that won’t fit under any tree.

It’s a story you likely haven’t seen on the nightly news, but it gets to the heart of what Pope Leo’s entire ministry is about.

He urged them, “Before the holy night of Christmas, think of someone with whom you can make peace.”

That simple gesture, he said, “will be a gift more valuable than those you can buy in stores, because peace is a gift that is truly found only in the heart”

Leo wasn’t asking for anything material — only the courage to mend what’s broken.

In fact, he called peacemaking the “Catholic action par excellence,” the ultimate witness to Jesus’s love.

For Pope Leo XIV, this Christmas wish is the same message he delivered on the day he became pope.

When he stepped out onto St. Peter’s balcony last spring, his first words to the world were “Peace be with all of you!”

From that moment, Leo set a tone of compassion and reconciliation. Now, seven months later, the American pontiff has one simple request: peace — in our world at large and in each of our hearts and homes.

In his meeting with the youth, Leo also stressed that peace isn’t just the absence of war, but “friendship among peoples based on justice.”

He noted that “we all desire this peace for nations wounded by conflict,” but emphasized that “harmony and respect begin in our daily relationships, in the gestures and words we exchange at home, at the parish, with schoolmates, in sports.”

World peace starts close to home: with how we treat those around us each day.

Now Pope Leo is urging everyone to act on this message without delay.

It might be worth it for us to consider how we can fulfill Pope Leo’s Christmas wish today.

That might mean picking up the phone to call a relative you haven’t spoken to in years, sending an overdue apology, or forgiving someone who hurt you — whatever it takes to make peace.

As Leo noted, the Nativity scene itself shows that “around the Lord… there is room for everyone!”

We honor that by making room in our hearts for those we’ve been at odds with. That simple act of reconciliation is the gift Pope Leo XIV wants most this Christmas.

Letters from Leo exists for one reason: to help all of us recognize the moment we’re living in — and to take part in it.

We’re open to anyone who wants to be informed and inspired by our pope — and to turn that inspiration into action that leaves America and the world more just, less cold, and more alive with hope.

The past few weeks all paid subscribers have been receiving the Letters from Leo Advent Reflection Series — a daily companion to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, and to reckon with what his arrival demands in a nation veering toward fascism.

Today is the last edition of our Advent Reflection Series. As a gift of gratitude to you and those you love, today’s reflection and tomorrow’s Christmas Day reflection will be available to all readers.

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Thank you for reading.

And now that’s it evening here in the United States, let me wish you and those you a love a Merry Christmas!