"Even today," he warned, "there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure."

These are contexts, he highlighted, "where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied."

"Yet, precisely for this reason," he said, "they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed."

"A lack of faith," Pope Leo underscored, "is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."

Today, he observed, "there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman."

Acknowledging this happens "not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians," Pope Leo warned that, as such, they "end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism."

With this in mind, Pope Leo reassured the congregation, "This is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world in which, as Pope Francis taught us so many times, we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour."

"Therefore," he continued, "it is essential that we too repeat, with Peter: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"

He said it is essential to do this, first of all, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a "daily journey of conversion."

Then as a Church, we are to do the same, he reminded them, "experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all."