Pope Leo XIV says "encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of forgiveness" and Highlights the Holy Family
.png)
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS LEO XIV
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE MEETINGS PROMOTED
BY THE LATIN AMERICAN EPISCOPAL COUNCIL (CELAM),
THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE
AND THE JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE
at the Vatican on Friday, September 19, 2025
____________________________________
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.
Good morning. Sorry I'm a little late, thank you for your patience. We're only going to share a few moments, but it's a pleasure.
I am pleased to welcome you today to Peter's home, the home of the Church, where we should all feel like one great family gathered around the fire of his love. You have dialogued over these days following a synodal method, reflecting on some current issues affecting family life. Living synodality in the family requires "walking together," sharing sorrows and joys, engaging in respectful and sincere dialogue among all its members, learning to listen to one another and to make the family decisions that are important for everyone.
Following this theme, and as our beloved Pope Francis would say , I propose three words to reflect on together: jubilee , hope and family .
In the Old Testament, Jubilee evoked a return: a return to the land, to the original condition of free men, to the origins of God's justice and mercy (cf. Lev 25). Today, we must read this return as a call to return to the center of our lives, to God himself, to the God of Jesus Christ.
The Jubilee also invites us to reflect on our roots: on the faith received from our parents, on the persevering prayer of our grandmothers as they recited the rosary beads, on their simple, humble, and honest lives that, like leaven, sustained so many families and communities. In them, we learned that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6). In Him, we find our true joy: the joy of knowing we are at home, in the place where we belong.
The Jubilee of Hope is a journey toward the encounter with that Truth which is God himself. At the beginning of his mission, Jesus describes this Jubilee as a year of grace (cf. Lk 4:19), and after the Resurrection, he calls the disciples to "return to Galilee" (cf. Mt 28:10). We must not fall into the danger of basing our lives on human security and worldly expectations. In the social sphere, we could translate this temptation as the attempt to "get by," as the recently canonized Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati said (cf. Letter to Isidoro Bonini , February 27, 1925). We are also aware that today there are real threats to the dignity of the family, such as problems related to poverty, lack of work and access to health systems, abuse of the most vulnerable, migration, and war (cf. Francis , Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia , 44-46). Public institutions and the Church have a responsibility to seek ways and means of promoting dialogue and strengthening those elements in society that favor family life and the education of its members (cf. St. John Paul II , Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis , 8).
In this context, we can understand the family as both a gift and a task. It is crucial to foster co-responsibility and the leadership of families in social, political, and cultural life, promoting their valuable contribution to the community. In every child, in every husband and wife, God entrusts us to his Son, to his Mother, as he did with Saint Joseph, to be, together with them, the foundation, leaven, and witness of God's love among humanity. To be a domestic Church and a home where the fire of the Holy Spirit burns, spreads its warmth, contributes its gifts and experiences for the common good, and calls all to live in hope.
Saint Paul VI , in his famous homily at Nazareth , exhorted us to follow the example of the Holy Family, accompanying and supporting others in silence, work, and prayer, so that God may fulfill in them the plan of love he has reserved for them. This is the love that is embodied in every life born to the faith from baptism and anointed "to proclaim this year of grace" to all, who will encounter Jesus in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of forgiveness, who will follow him in his mission as a priest, as a Christian father, or as a consecrated person, until the definitive encounter, until the goal of our hope.
Dear brothers and sisters, the conclusion of this reflection must be a call to commitment and to that overflowing joy that filled the disciples upon encountering the Risen Jesus and led them to proclaim his name throughout the earth. Saint Augustine defined this “jubilation” as a rejoicing that cannot be expressed in words and that is proper, especially, to the Ineffable One (cf. Commentary on Psalm 94:3). May our families be that silent song of hope, capable of spreading the light of Christ with their lives, “so that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth and no periphery be deprived of its light” ( Francis , Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , 288).
I entrust all of you to the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the perfect model that God offers in response to the desperate cry for help of so many families. By imitating her, our homes will be living torches of God's light. May the Lord bless you. Thank you very much.
The Lord be with you.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Bless you Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you very much. Congratulations on your work.
Comments