Leo XIV encourages Christian initiation, the participation of young people and families and training at all levels

Pope Leo XIV encouraged the care of the relationship between Christian initiation and evangelization, the participation of young people and families, as well as the formation of Catholics at all levels, during the Assembly of the Diocese of Rome held this Friday.

The event was held in the papal basilica of San Juan de Letán, the Cathedral of Rome, with the participation of the auxiliary bishops, priests, religious and laity of the Roman parishes.

In his initial greeting, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar of the Pope for the Diocese of Rome, said that “the Lord has sustained us and today we are here, ready to resume the path with renewed enthusiasm and with the strength of being a living and dynamic community, aware of having received many charisms.”

Going to the Pope, the purple expressed, on behalf of all present, his “maximum availability to put into practice what suggested and verifying it constantly during the pastoral year.”

Pope Leo XIV speech

In his speech, Leo XIV expressed his joy for being present in the Assembly and highlighted the importance of structures not becoming an impediment to living communion, but really helping to work together, in a synodal way, and becomes effective “community discernment and baptismal and pastoral co -responsibility.”

The Holy Father encouraged to discern on three main objectives.

1. Christian Initiation and Evangelization

“The first thing I suggest is the care of the relationship between Christian initiation and evangelization, taking into account that the request of the sacraments is becoming an increasingly practiced option,” said the Pope.

“Starting in Christian life is a process that must integrate existence in its various aspects, gradually enable the relationship with the Lord Jesus, make people trust the listening of the word, wish to live prayer and work in charity,” he continued.

In that sense, he encouraged to “experiment, if necessary, with new instruments and languages, involving families along the way and trying to overcome a school approach to catechesis.”

In this perspective, said Leo XIV, “it is necessary to carefully and care for those who express the desire of baptism in adolescence and adulthood. Vicariate offices in charge of it must work with parishes, paying special attention to the continuous formation of catechists.”

2. Participation of young people and families

A second objective, the Pope continued, “is the participation of young people and families, in what we find various difficulties today. It seems urgent to establish a solidarity, empathic, discreet pastoral, that does not judge, that you know how to welcome everyone and propose itineraries as personalized as possible, adapted to the different life situations of the recipients.”

“Since families have difficulty transmitting faith and could be tempted to avoid this task, we must try to accompany them without replacing them, making us partners on the way and offering tools for the search for God.”

This is, he stressed Leo XIV, “from a pastoral that does not repeat the usual, but offers a new learning; a pastoral that becomes a school capable of introducing into the Christian life, of accompanying the stages of life, of weaving significant human relations and, thus, of also influencing the social fabric, especially at the service of the poorest and most weak.”

3. Training at all levels

The third objective proposed by Pope León was “training at all levels. We live a formative emergency and we should not fool us thinking that it is enough to carry out some traditional activities to keep our Christian communities alive.”

“They must become generative: being a breast that begins in faith and a heart that seeks those who have abandoned it. In the parishes training is needed and, where there would be no, it would be important to introduce biblical and liturgical itineraries, without neglecting the issues that arouse the interest of the new generations, but that concern us all,” he said.

Among the issues for formation, the Pope suggested “social justice, peace, the complex migratory phenomenon, the care of creation, the good exercise of citizenship, respect in the life of a couple, mental suffering and addictions, and many other challenges. Certainly we cannot be specialists in everything, but we must reflect on these issues, perhaps listening to the many skills that our city can offer”.

All this, he said, “must be thought and become together, in a synodal way, as a people of God who, with the guidance of the shepherds, does not stop waiting and wishing that, according to the vision of the prophet Isaiah (cf. 25,6-10), everyone can sit at the table prepared by the Lord.”

To conclude, the Pope stressed that with these objectives you can mature in the mission and grow in the taste of announcing the gospel so that everyone knows Jesus. “That the Virgin of Trust and Hope, Safety of the Roman peopleour way accompanies us and guard, ”León concluded.