Pope Leo XIV has issued a passionate appeal for the Catholic Church to reimagine its outreach to modern families, describing them as vital to the future of the faith.
Newsroom (June 02, 2025, 10:13, Gaudium Press) The Pope’s message marked the opening of a two-day seminar organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, titled “Evangelizing with Families Today and Tomorrow: Ecclesiological and Pastoral Challenges.”
The gathering brings together theologians, pastoral workers, and family ministers for the Jubilee for Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly. In his address, the Pope emphasized that families remain “the living members of the Mystical Body of Christ” and “the primary nucleus of the Church,” despite growing secularization and changing social norms.
The pope stated that “The profound thirst for the infinite present in the heart of every human being means that parents have the duty to make their children aware of the fatherhood of God. In the words of Saint Augustine: “As we have the source of life in you, O Lord, in your light we shall see light” (Confessions, XIII, 16).”
The pontiff identified a troubling paradox facing the Church today. While research shows increasing spiritual hunger among young people, many view the Church as irrelevant or unwelcoming. He attributed this partly to past failures in evangelization, noting that faith has too often been presented as “a burdensome list of rules rather than a living encounter with Christ.” Quoting St. Augustine, he warned against reducing Christianity to mere moralism, an approach he said has left countless families “shipwrecked on a sea of worldly concerns.”
Faith is primarily a response to God’s love, and the greatest mistake we can make as Christians is, in the words of Saint Augustine, “to claim that Christ’s grace consists in his example and not in the gift of his person” (Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum, II, 146)
“This effort requires that special attention be paid to those families who, for various reasons, are spiritually most distant from us: those who do not feel involved, claim they are uninterested or feel excluded from the usual activities, yet would still like to be part of a community in which they can grow and journey together with others. How many people today simply do not hear the invitation to encounter God?”
The Pope warned families about being “alienated by illusory lifestyles that leave no room for faith, and whose spread is facilitated by the wrong use of potentially good means – such as social media – yet prove harmful when used to convey misleading messages.”
Among the urgent challenges highlighted was the decline of sacramental marriage, with many young couples opting for cohabitation instead. The Pope stressed these couples need to witness “the beauty of sacramental grace” through the example of joyful Christian families. (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Familiaris Consortio, 1)
He reiterated the digital age’s complexities, noting how social media’s “misleading messages” require the Church to develop compelling counter-narratives of hope. The intergenerational transmission of faith emerged as another key concern, with the Pope calling grandparents and grandchildren to unite as “living stones” building domestic churches.
Calling bishops to become “fishers of families,” Leo XIV endorsed several innovative approaches. These include new search-and-welcome initiatives for alienated Catholics, parish-based mentoring programs where experienced couples guide newlyweds, and fresh catechetical methods that emphasize God’s love over legalistic formulations. Building on themes from his recent homilies, he urged laypeople to join clergy in this mission, reminding the faithful that through baptism all are called to be “priest, prophet and king” for their brothers and sisters.
While acknowledging the complex realities facing modern families, the Pope struck a hopeful tone, invoking Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia: “The Gospel of the family nourishes seeds waiting to grow and wilting plants needing care.” He cautioned against simplistic solutions, instead advocating for patient accompaniment that meets people where they are. “Each generation has unique questions,” he noted, “but Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
“What great need there is to promote an encounter with God, whose tender love values and loves the story of every person! It is not a matter of giving hasty answers to difficult questions, but of drawing close to people, listening to them, and trying to understand together with them how to face their difficulties….if we want to help families experience joyful paths of communion and be seeds of faith for one another, we must first cultivate and renew our own identity as believers.”
Pope Leo closed by imparting his apostolic blessing and promising prayers for all who work to “help families listen courageously to Christ’s proposal.”
- Raju Hasmukh
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