Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the Dicastery for Evangelisation to assist Catholic communities worldwide in addressing the crisis of spiritual poverty among young people. Source: Vatican News.
Pope Leo XIV met yesterday with participants in the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for Evanglisation – Section for Fundamental Questions of Evangelisation in the World.
He recalled that 33 million people visited Rome during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, thanking the Dicastery for coordinating efforts to welcome such a large number of the faithful.
Calling it “a time of grace,” the Pope said the Jubilee was lived in Rome through pilgrimage to the four papal basilicas, as well as in local Church communities, where Catholics recognised our deep desire for hope.
Pope Leo noted that the proclamation of the Gospel is not a utopian proposal but a witness that attracts others through the call to love and truth.
“Evangelisation asks that it continue to be the fundamental motivation of every action of the universal Church and of local communities,” he said. “Only in this way is faith rediscovered again and again in its beauty and able to express its credibility in the best way.”
He pointed to the crisis of faith evident especially in Western countries, which has led to religious indifference.
The real risk for humanity, he added, is that indifference leads to failure to seek answers to existential questions, such as our search for meaning.
The Church’s mission, said the Pope, is to help humanity build upon reliable foundations, so that our future may be filled with “peace, justice, freedom, and fraternity”.
Many young people are waking up to their hunger for spirituality, he noted, urging the Church to respond to that desire by continuing to find new ways to preach the Gospel.
“The new generation is not closed off to the Gospel,” he said. “On the contrary, many, when they rediscover it, want to know it better, because they perceive that within it lies the secret to being truly happy.”
Since methods of evangelisation are constantly changing, Pope Leo said Catholic communities must listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, so that he may lead many people to Christ and his saving love and word.
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Pope: Catholic communities must evangelise youth amid spiritual poverty (By Devin Watkins, Vatican News)
