Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia welcomes with deep joy the election of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.

We offer our heartfelt prayers as he takes up the mantle of leadership in service to the global Church and the human family.

Pope Leo XIV brings to the papacy the rich spiritual legacy of St. Augustine—whose life and teachings call us to seek truth in love, and to serve God through the service of others. Augustine’s reminder that “the measure of love is to love without measure” resonates deeply with our mission at JRS: to accompany, serve, and advocate for and with refugees, people seeking asylum, and those forcibly displaced.

In the footsteps of Pope Francis, who renewed the Church’s commitment to the poor and marginalised, we look with hope to Pope Leo XIV to continue this legacy of radical compassion, inclusion, and global solidarity. In a world marked by displacement and inequality, we pray that his papacy will be a beacon of justice, mercy, and reconciliation.

May the Holy Spirit guide Pope Leo XIV in his ministry. May his leadership inspire a Church ever more open to the stranger, the excluded, and those at the peripheries. And may his pontificate be marked by unity, renewal, and a deepening of the Gospel’s call to love in action.