During his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Leo asks for prayers for his imminent Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, and recalls two upcoming beatification celebrations as well as the liturgical memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, a saint who he said teaches us how to be led by Christ in our daily lives.

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St. Charles Borromeo was born in 1538. He was the son of noble parents, born into luxury, but early on, he made it clear that worldly wealth did not appeal to him. Charles desired to serve the Church, and asked his father to give away the majority of his inheritance to the poor. 

Although Charles could not fully escape his class, he used the privileges afforded to him to benefit the Church. At the age of 22, his uncle was elected as Pope Pius IV, and Charles served as a papal diplomat and supervisor of major religious orders. His chief forms of relaxation were music and literature, and he considered renouncing even these pleasures to join a monastery, but found himself urgently needed during the Council of Trent. 

In 1545, the Church had begun its 19th ecumenical council, but they experienced many delays. The twofold mission of Trent was to clarify Catholic doctrine against Protestant objections, and reform longstanding problems within the Church. As a papal representative, Charles participated in the conclusion of the Council in 1563, when he was only 25. He also helped assemble the comprehensive summary, the Roman Catechism, or Catechism of the Council of Trent. 

After this, Charles was rewarded with more responsibilities — he was named an archbishop and cardinal only months later. When he took over the diocese of Milan, he found virtually no administration or leadership, and got to work establishing schools, seminaries, and centers for religious life. These drastic reforms made him some enemies, and a group of disgruntled monks even tried to kill him, but Charles miraculously survived. 

Charles’ efforts were especially fruitful. He initiated the work of the Confraternity for Christian Doctrine and the first “Sunday School” classes. He also welcomed English Catholics who fled to Italy to escape anti-Catholic laws. 

Diligence, frequent travel, and his ascetic lifestyle eventually took their toll, and Charles died at the age of 46 on November 3, 1584. He was canonized 26 years later, in 1610, and is the patron of catechists and catechumens. 

Last week, I had the privilege to lead a pilgrimage to Rome for the Los Angeles chapter of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, and we had the honor to meet Pope Leo XIV during his general audience. 

Nearly 20 years ago, I helped to form CALL as a way to bring Latinos together to share their faith and grow in their commitments to spreading the Gospel in our society. It has been wonderful to watch the organization flourish over the years and to see the difference its members are making in their homes, parishes, and communities.

CALL’s purpose is rooted in the ancient truth restated by the Second Vatican Council: that we are all called to holiness, and that the laity have a duty to continue the mission of Jesus on earth, to sanctify the world, infusing every aspect of our society and culture with the spirit of the Gospel.

I write about the duty of the laity in my new pastoral letter, “The Wonder of America,” which I had the honor to present to the pope in a private audience while I was in Rome. 

In reflecting on the Virgin Mary’s apparitions in Mexico City in 1531, I came to a deeper understanding of the figure of St. Juan Diego, an ordinary layman, a man of faith, with family commitments and responsibilities in his parish. Our Lady entrusted this humble man to carry out the task of opening the door of faith to the peoples of the vast continents of the New World. 

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the story of how a saint is made, of how Juan Diego learned that he is a child of God, made in his image, and called to follow Jesus and become a saint. 

There is lots of talk these days about artificial intelligence, “transhumanism,” and “posthumanism.” Leo writes about these currents of thought in “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”). 

The idea is that human nature can be “perfected,” that our human limitations and weaknesses can be overcome, that even our morality can be transcended, through the application of science and technology. 

To me, these ideas profoundly misunderstand the truth that Jesus revealed about the human person. 

It is true: we are made to be perfected; we are made to transcend our mortal bodies and live for all ages. We are made for greater things — to become holy, to become saints. But this is meant to come about, not by the works of our own hands, but by the workings of God’s grace in our souls. 

This is the beautiful truth that Jesus revealed, the truth we remember in November, this month of “all saints” and “all souls.” 

In my pastoral letter, I quote the “Catechism”: “The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father’s only Son.”

Being human is a vocation; it is a calling, a mission. God creates us to share in his life, to be holy as he is holy, to live as his image in the world, as his sons and daughters. This is why we are here. Every one of us. This is the beautiful possibility that we have in our lives. 

And the path we follow is the one Jesus sets before us: to share in his life and mission, to walk according to his teaching, and to strive every day with the help of his grace to become more like him.

“We are God’s children now,” St. John wrote, “What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

We shall be like him! This is the promise of our faith. 

The Church’s sacraments are greater than any technology we could devise. Only the sacraments truly give us the power to transcend and perfect our humanity. 

As Jesus humbled himself to share in our humanity, through baptism he makes us children of God and partakers of the divine nature.

In every Eucharist, he continues this work of transformation, changing us little by little and more and more into his likeness, just as he changes the bread and water into his body and blood.

The truth that we celebrate in November is that we are born in time but made to dwell with God for all eternity in heaven. We are born with limitations, vulnerable to suffering and sin, but capable of transcending our limits through grace, capable of heroic deeds of self-sacrifice and love. All souls are made to be all saints.

Pray for me and I will pray for you. 

And let us ask Blessed Mary to help us to become the saints we are made to be.