Pilgrims of Hope: A Leader's Reflection on the Papal Visit

By Nathan Chan, leader at East London Citizens

I have been involved with community organising in schools and parishes for the past seven years, and never did I once anticipate that this work would lead to an invitation for a meeting with Pope Francis. We were of course incredibly saddened to hear of his passing, and subsequently our planned visit to the Vatican was left hanging. By the grace of God, and the swift appointment of Pope Leo XIV, he was willing to honour his predecessor’s commitments. On the day of his general audience, Pope Leo delivered a catechesis on a passage from Mark 5:21-43, where Jesus raises a dead girl back to life and heals a woman who had been sick for twelve years. Despite their social dispositions - the dead girl’s father, a prominent leader of a Jewish synagogue, and the sick woman deemed ritually unclean - it is their faith that leads them to crowded streets where they encounter Jesus. In both instances, Jesus grants healing and attributes this healing to their faith. It is their faith that compels them to move, to take action. While we know full well that God has the power to heal, one must note how faith plays a significant role in allowing space for God’s healing power to manifest.

Now, we at Citizens UK had no foreknowledge that Pope Leo would be teaching on this passage on the day of our meeting. Yet, it made for some profound reflections on the work for social change that our schools and parishes have been actively involved in. During his introduction, Pope Leo stated, “A very widespread ailment of our time is the fatigue of living: reality seems to us to be too complex, burdensome, difficult to face. And so we switch off, we fall asleep, in the delusion that, upon waking, things will be different.” On hearing this, it became evident to me that the work of community organising as an expression of Catholic Social Teaching is one of the most effective approaches to responding to the circumstances Pope Leo describes.

I’m blessed to find myself in a situation where I work in both primary and secondary schools - serving as a teacher at St Antony’s Primary and a Chaplain at St Bonaventure’s Secondary (schools tightly linked to our local parish St Antony’s in Forest Gate, Newham) where the Catholic faith is the foundation a young person’s education is built on. Between the schools, I’m able to witness their ‘faith in action’ through campaign work (Living Wage, Affordable Housing, Youth Safety) across the generations, and was especially proud that my pupils were able to partake in this experience. Along with the other schools and parishes represented, we shared with Pope Leo the successes of our work in social justice. In turn, we received his blessing and public endorsement of Citizens UK as a Catholic movement. For Christ’s appointed vicar of the global church, this recognition was profoundly felt amongst our delegation.

Pope Leo closed with this encouragement, “Let us learn from that woman, from that father: let us go to Jesus: He can heal us, He can revive us. Jesus is our hope!” No doubt, this hope is alive in our young people who are dedicated to living out their faith in service to those trapped in the poverty, deprivation and injustices that plague our societies: was it simply happenstance that our aspiration for this meeting coincided with the Jubilee Year, where Pope Francis called us to become ‘Pilgrims of Hope’? Personally, I believe it was divine providence; and that our work of embedding Catholic Social Teaching, through community organising in our schools and parishes, fulfils this calling.

A link to Pope Leo’s catechesis on the day can be found here: