Evangelizing with Families
-
December 27, 2025As we celebrate today the Feast of the Holy Family, I want to share with you parts of the message of Pope Leo XIV to the participants in a seminar last June 2-3, 2025, organized by the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, with the theme, "Evangelizing with the Family of Today and Tomorrow."
Pope Leo highlighted the Church's concern for "Christian families as living members of the Mystical Body of Christ and the primary nucleus of the Church, to whom the Lord entrusts the transmission of faith and the Gospel, especially to the new generation." He observed that there is a growing search for spirituality which is very evident in young people; they long for an authentic relationship with God and with one another. This is also evident in our parish of St. Paul the Apostle. I usually join the youth night events and other gatherings of our youth, and one thing that is so amusing is their thirst for intimate worship of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament during adoration. Pope Leo said, "It is important that the Christian community be farsighted in discerning the challenges of today's world and in nurturing the desire for faith present in the heart of every man and woman."
The family, as the "nucleus of the Church," has so much to offer in order to nurture the faith of young people, as well as to sustain it in ways that are aligned with the Gospel values. Pope Leo also gave special attention to families who, "for various reasons, are spiritually most distant from us: those who do not feel involved, uninterested, or feel excluded, yet would still like to be part of a community in which they can grow and journey together with others." Despite the desire to belong and be counted on, there are instances that prevent them from knowing more deeply the richness and gifts of the Church. Among these are "fathers, mothers, young people... who find themselves alienated by illusionary lifestyles that leave no room for faith, and whose spread is facilitated by the wrong use of potentially good things like social media, yet which prove harmful when used to convey misleading messages."
Young people are in need of a "concrete and clear way" to help them understand and dig more deeply the richness of our faith. Parents are in need of support in "creating the right conditions for their children to encounter Jesus." Pope Leo reminds us that the Church's hierarchy, alongside the laity, should cast their nets into the sea and become fishers of families—couples, young people, children, women, and men of all ages and circumstances—in order to have an encounter with Jesus."There will be difficult situations," he said, "but do not be discouraged even if families today have many problems, because 'the Gospel of the family also nourishes seeds that are still waiting to grow, and serves as the basis for caring for those plants that are wilting and must not be neglected.'" (Amoris Laetitia, 76). Towards the end, Pope Leo had this challenge: "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."