At his first Wednesday general audience after undergoing surgery, Pope Leo
By Isabella H. de Carvalho
“The first thing I would like to say to you is: thank you! Thank you for the support of your prayers. Thank you to God for his generosity. Let us all renew our trust in the goodness and mercy of God,” Pope Leo XIV said Oct. 20 in St. Peter’s Square, during his first Wednesday general audience after undergoing surgery.
Pope Leo
The family is the foundation of society
Pope Leo continued the cycle of catechesis on the Documents of the Second Vatican Council and reflected on the Pastoral Constitution of 1965. Gaudium and Spes (meaning “joy and hope”) on the Church in the modern world.
This week he focused on marriage and family, emphasizing the need to protect and preserve them as they are crucial to society.
The teaching of Gaudium and Spes on marriage and the family highlights “the social function of the family, defined as “a deeper school of humanity” and “the foundation of society” and calls “all those who have social responsibilities, particularly in the political and cultural spheres, to fulfill their duty to “work effectively for the good of marriage and the family”,” he underlined.
“This task is more urgent than ever,” the Pope said.
Pope Leo XIV at the General Audience (VATICAN MEDIA)
The well-being of society is linked to marriage and the family
In his catechesis, Pope Leo emphasized that the Church is well aware of the value and importance of the family, recalling the pastoral concern shown by different popes on this subject.
In this regard, he also referred to the recent meeting he convened at the Vatican to reflect on the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitiaon the occasion of the tenth anniversary of its publication. The event took place from October 7 to 14 and brought together the heads of the Eastern Churches and the presidents of the episcopal conferences.
Return to the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, Pope Leo
Spouses become one
Gaudium and Spesexplained the Pope, proposes a renewed conception of marriage “as an “intimate partnership of married life and love””, based on “the human act by which the spouses give and accept each other mutually”.
“The mutual gift of man and woman, so that they are no longer two but one flesh, underlies the demand for “total fidelity” and “indissoluble unity” of spouses, which is expressed in a living way in the procreation and education of children,” he continued, adding that spouses are called to love one another as Christ loves his Church.
The Pope then focused on marital love which, he stressed, “is not limited to erotic attraction, which it nevertheless encompasses.” Marital love, he said, “involves the entire will of the spouses, animating the affections of their hearts and expressing itself through feelings and gestures of tenderness.”
This love fully embraces the man and the woman, “who are equal in dignity”, then permeates their entire life, expressing itself in “acts specific exclusively to marriage”, he noted, adding that this “unique intimacy” then promotes the “mutual gift of self”.
People gathered in St. Peter’s Square (VATICAN MEDIA)
Responsibility to pass on life
Furthermore, the Pope emphasized that marital fertility is expressed through the gift of having children.
“By transmitting and educating human life, which must never be rejected, spouses become ‘cooperators of the love of God the Creator and are, so to speak, the interpreters of this love,'” he said.
Parents are then called to be “guided by good judgment concerning their own good and that of their children”, with the help of God and with a conscience conforming “to divine law”, as interpreted by the Church in the light of the Gospel.
Pope Leo then emphasized that “when it comes to harmonizing marital love with the responsible transmission of life,” we must “preserve the full meaning of mutual gift and human procreation in the context of true love.”
This means that “from its conception, life must be guarded with the greatest care”, renouncing abortion and infanticide, and that “the very acts which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accordance with true human dignity must be honored with great respect”, he explained.
The Pope concluded by praying that the Holy Family of Nazareth “will enlighten us on our path and protect families throughout the world.”
Maltese representatives at the General Audience
Participants in the general audience included Frank Zammit, Ambassador of Malta to the Holy See, who accompanied the Maltese Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Alisson Zerafa Civelli, as well as 6 regional presidents and the 68 mayors of Malta and Gozo, to meet the Pope.
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