Pope at Audience: Jesus redeems darkest places of human existence.

Sept 2025 : Jesus’ descent into the “underworld” on Holy Saturday, after His Crucifixion and before the Resurrection, “is the most profound and radical gesture of God’s love for us”, Pope Leo XIV said in his catechesis at Wednesday’s General Audience.

Jesus, he said, not only died for us, but sought us when we were lost, descending into the place “where only the power of a light capable of penetrating the darkness can reach”. The Holy Father explained that in this context, the underworld is “not so much a place as a condition, where life is depleted, and pain, solitude, guilt, and separation from God and others reign”.

Descending into hell, Jesus entered “into the very house of death to empty it and free its inhabitants, taking them by the hand one by one. In this act, there is all the strength and tenderness of the Paschal message: death is never the last word”.

Pope Leo emphasised that “this descent of Christ” relates not only to the past, but is relevant today: Jesus, who entered into the underworld that is the state of the dead, can likewise into “the daily hell of loneliness, shame, abandonment and the struggle of life… to bear witness to the love of the Father”.

Jesus’ encounter with Adam in the underworld, Pope Leo said, is thus “the symbol of all the possible encounters between God and man”.

God leads man out of the darkness, “calling him by name” and leading him back to the light, “with full authority, but also with infinite tenderness, like a father with the child who fears he is no longer loved”.

He further said, “Holy Saturday is the day in which heaven visits earth most deeply”. The descent into the underworld shows us that “nothing can be excluded from His redemption, not even our nights, not even our oldest faults, not even our broken bonds. There is no past so ruined, no history so compromised that it cannot be touched by mercy”.

Holy Saturday, Pope Leo concluded, “is the silent embrace with which Christ presents all creation to the Father to restore it to His plan of salvation”.

Furthermore, Pope Leo have urged the Catholics across the globe will unite to pray the Rosary for peace in war-torn lands, especially during the month of October, which the Church dedicates to the Holy Rosary. Pope Leo XIV made the announcement at the Wednesday General Audience. He said the faithful in Rome will gather in St. Peter’s Square on October, 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM (18:00 Hours IST).

“I invite everyone, each day of the coming month, to pray the Rosary for peace—personally, in the family, and in community”, he said. The Pope also invited Vatican employees to pray the Rosary daily in St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:00 PM throughout October.

In his greetings to Portuguese pilgrims, Pope Leo lamented the “ruins wrought by murderous hatred”.

He invited Christians to share with others “the love of Jesus that illumines and lifts up humanity”.

The Rosary for Peace will be held during the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, which takes place on 11^th. and 12^th. October.

That day also marks the 63^rd. anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which Pope St. John XXIII opened on October 11, 1962.

The original image of Our Lady of Fatima will be in St. Peter’s Square for the Rosary prayer and the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality.

Team Maverick