Ashley Noronha, joining Morning Air from Rome, spoke with John Morales about Pope Leo’s most recent address after the Angelus on Sunday. He reflected on the Gospel of Luke 10:1-12, 17-20, where Jesus sends His seventy-two disciples ahead of Him to prepare the way. In his catechesis, the Holy Father emphasized the difference between passive religiosity and active discipleship. God is not looking for box-checkers. He needs “laborers”, true witnesses of the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel scene is a call to mission. Jesus sends His disciples in pairs, telling them that the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Pope Leo underlined that this is still true today. The Church does not lack problems or critics, but rather, it lacks men and women willing to roll up their sleeves and evangelize, not just with words, but with their lives.
Instead of lamenting the decline of culture or the moral failures of others, the pope invited Catholics to focus on action. Talk is cheap. Action is expensive. He urged the faithful to be courageous enough to change the world around them, no matter how daunting the challenge. It is easy, he said, to be discouraged by what’s broken. But the mission of the disciple is not to complain—it is to proclaim Christ by transforming suffering into hope and apathy into love.
Ashley highlighted a powerful example that illustrates this message: the story of Venerable Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận. In 1975, just before the communist regime took over Saigon, Cardinal Van Thuan was appointed archbishop. He was soon arrested and spent thirteen years in prison, nine of them in solitary confinement.
Yet, rather than give in to despair, he saw his imprisonment as a mission field. “I am not here by chance,” he once wrote. “It is here that God wants me to live my vocation.” Cardinal Van Thuan found a way to carry out his ministry even behind bars. He composed messages of hope, faith, and love, which were smuggled out and circulated among Vietnamese Catholics. His devotion to the Eucharist sustained him—he celebrated Mass with smuggled crumbs of bread and drops of wine in the palm of his hand.
His cause for canonization continues today, and he remains a powerful witness to finding joy in suffering and turning isolation into communion. His example, Ashley said, is a model for anyone facing circumstances that feel unchangeable. Like the 72 in the Gospel, Cardinal Van Thuan accepted the call to prepare the way for Christ, even in the darkest of places.
Pope Leo’s message, rooted in both Scripture and lived witness, is clear: now is the time for laborers. Not observers. Not spectators. We need faithful men and women who let their lives speak. The harvest is still great, and those willing to work for the Kingdom are more needed than ever.