Rome (Italy). On 14 September 2025, Pope Leo XIV celebrated his 70th birthday, his first as Pontiff. The Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, together with her Council, reached him with a letter of good wishes, accompanied by the prayers of all the FMA of the world:
With a heart full of gratitude, we thank Pope Leo for having accepted the call to be the Vicar of Christ, Bishop of Rome, Pastor and Guide of the people of God, and for the paternal benevolence he has shown to our Institute.
With prayer and filial affection on your birthday, we invoke the Holy Spirit Consoler upon you and your mission, so that He may enlighten and support you.
As our Founders have taught us and our hearts as Daughters of Mary Help of Christians desire, we continue to faithfully live the magisterium of the “sweet Christ on earth”.
From our heart, ad multos annos, Pope Leo!
To the wish of Mother, published on the social channels of the FMA Institute and much shared, were added those of various Provinces, people, and members of the Salesian Family, with expressions of great affection and gratitude.
Numerous messages were received by Pope Prevost, born in Chicago on 14 September 1955, including from civil and ecclesial bodies, authorities, and children with their drawings. As it was Sunday, there could be no more beautiful celebration than the banners and cheering of no fewer than two marching bands and the crowd, gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus, who greeted them thus:
“Beloved, it seems you know that I turn seventy today. I give thanks to the Lord and my parents and I thank those who had a remembrance in prayer. Many thanks to everyone!”
The Pope then experienced another brief but significant moment at the end of the Commemoration of the martyrs and witnesses of the Faith of the 21st century in the Basilica of Saint Paul, with the Cardinals and some personalities in the Hall of the Art Gallery where –as reported by the Holy See – in addition to the cutting of the cake and the toast, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, addressed him some words of good wishes. Expressing gratitude, the Holy Father underlined the coincidence with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, “From the beginning of my vocation, I have always responded ‘not my will, but yours, Lord’.”
