(LifeSiteNews) — When Pope Leo XIV was first appointed a cardinal, he emphasized the clergy’s role in being a living sign of Christ’s faith.

In a 2023 interview with the Augustinian General Curia, Pope Leo XIV, then the newly appointed Cardinal Robert Prevost, stressed the importance of leaders in the Catholic Church being a living witness of their Catholic faith.

“To be a good shepherd means to be able to walk side by side with the people of God and to live close to them, not to be isolated,” Pope Leo said, explaining that this is an aspect that Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized.

The newly appointed cardinal explained that Pope Francis desired “bishops who live in relationship with God, with their brother bishops, with priests and especially with the People of God in a way that reflects the compassion and love of Christ, creating community, learning to live what it means to be part of the Church in an integral way that necessitates a lot of listening and dialogue.”

“But if I had to point out one trait above all others, it is that he must proclaim Jesus Christ and live the faith so that the faithful see in his witness an incentive to them to want to be an ever more active part of the Church that Jesus Christ himself founded. In just a few words: to help people come to know Christ through the gift of faith,” he declared.

Leo revealed that the mission of the Catholic Church “has been the same for 2,000 years, when Jesus Christ said: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.'”

Later in the interview, Leo discussed the growing division within the Catholic Church, warning that either extreme is dangerous, and the faithful must cling to Holy Mother Church.

“It is a real challenge, especially when polarization has become the modus of operating in a society that, rather than seeking unity as a fundamental principle, goes instead from extreme to extreme,” he explained.

“Ideologies have acquired greater power than the real experience of humanity, of faith, of the actual values we live by,” he warned.

Leo explained that while some believe unity must be “uniformity,” this is not the case. Likewise, he warned that “nor can diversity be understood as a way of living without criteria or order.”

“The latter lose sight of the fact that from the very creation of the world, the gift of nature, the gift of human life, the gift of so many different things that we actually live and celebrate cannot be sustained by making up our own rules and only doing things our way,” he explained.

Leo also emphasized the importance of St. Augustine, one of the Catholic Church’s first bishops.

“When I think of St Augustine, his vision and understanding of what it means to belong to the Church, one of the first things that springs to mind is what he says about how you cannot say you are a follower of Christ without being part of the Church,” he said. “Christ is part of the Church. He is the head.”

“So people who think they can follow Christ ‘in their own way’ without being part of the body, are, unfortunately, living a distortion of what is really an authentic experience,” Leo explained. “St Augustine’s teachings touch every part of life and help us to live in communion.”

“Unity and communion are essential charisms of the life of the Order and a fundamental part of understanding what the Church is and what it means to be in it,” he declared.