Pope Stresses the Need for Jobs, Stability, and Dignity

Vatican City, November 8, 2025: At the Jubilee Audience, Pope Leo XIV addressed participants in the Jubilee of Work, urging for “a collective commitment” to create employment opportunities that promote stability and dignity. He emphasised the need to ensure that “young people can realise their dreams and contribute to the common good.”

Addressing around 45,000 faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the World of Work, Pope Leo XIV extended a warm welcome and highlighted that “work must be a source of hope and life, allowing the expression of individual creativity and capacity for good.”

Promoting Professional Development

The Pope called upon institutions and civil society to foster conditions for professional growth, particularly among younger generations.

“I hope,” he said, “for a collective commitment from institutions and civil society to create valid employment opportunities that offer stability and dignity, ensuring especially that young people can realise their dreams and contribute to the common good.”

Poland’s World of Work Pilgrimages

Addressing pilgrims from Poland, Pope Leo recalled the country’s long-standing tradition of “World of Work pilgrimages.” He noted that this tradition stems from the teachings of Saint John Paul II and his encyclical Laborem Exercens, written during a time of significant technological change, including the rise of automation.

In the document, Saint John Paul II emphasised that the Church “considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations where that dignity and those rights are violated, and to guide changes that ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

Hoping is Witnessing

During his catechesis, Pope Leo reflected on Saint Paul’s invitation to the Christians of Corinth to “consider their calling” and to “see how God has brought together people who otherwise would never have met.” In referencing Saint Paul’s words to the Corinthians, he reminded the faithful that “those who are more humble and less powerful have now become precious and important.”

Pope Leo added that “God’s criteria, with an emphasis on the least, are an ‘earthquake’ that does not destroy but reawakens the world.”

He concluded by reflecting on “the word of the Cross,” which, he said, “awakens the conscience and reawakens the dignity of each person.” The Pope urged the faithful to live with hope, explaining that “to hope is to bear witness—to testify that everything has already changed, that nothing is as it was before.”

Pope Stresses the Need for Jobs, Stability, and Dignity

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