The Pope has a new prayer on his lips this month, and it is for the people most of us walk past without a second thought. His monthly #PrayTogether intention for October asks Catholics to pray for men and women living with mental illness, the ones he says society too often looks away from.
In a short video shared from his official @pontifex account, Pope Leo XIV speaks softly, with his head bowed before a stained-glass window and a prayer book in his hands. The words are his own. “God of life,” he prays, “You know the innermost depths of our hearts, the light and shadows within us. Forgive us for the times we have looked the other way, feeding the stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illnesses.”
It is an unusually frank admission from a pontiff. He does not point fingers at others. He says “forgive us,” and he asks the Church itself to change. May the Church, he prays, be “an open house, a safe space where everyone has a place, a community that accompanies and never excludes, that listens without judging and draws near without fear.”
A Community That Never Excludes
That line lands hard because stigma around mental illness is still everywhere. People hide their struggles from friends, from employers, even from family. The Pope’s message says what they most need to hear: you belong here, you are not a burden, and no one is going to look away.
It is not the first time this week that the message of compassion has come out of Rome. Pope Leo recently opened the academic year at the Pontifical Universities with a call for peace and unity, telling students and professors that education is a vocation of service to humanity. The thread is the same: draw people in, don’t shut them out.
Royalty Echoes the Message
The timing is notable. Just this week, Queen Letizia of Spain gave young minds a royal voice on World Mental Health Day, putting the focus on the inner lives of young people. The Pope’s prayer widens that circle to everyone who wrestles with mental illness, young or old.
The video ends with an invitation that is simple and direct: “Let’s #PrayTogether.” The Pope’s Prayer Network is carrying the intention across the globe all month, asking the faithful to join in at popesprayer.va. For anyone who has ever felt unseen in their suffering, this is the Church’s answer. You are seen, and there is a seat saved for you.
Photo: @pontifex
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