Vatican Doctrine Office Urges Renewed Gospel Proclamation in New Document
"Venite ad Me" says passing the faith from parents to children has broken down in many places and calls for evangelizing adults, not only children.
VATICAN CITY —
The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a document Thursday, Oct. 22, calling Catholics to a fresh effort to proclaim the Gospel as the passing on of the faith falters in much of the world.
The text, titled “Venite ad Me: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change,” was approved by Pope Leo XIV on Aug. 21. It is signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the dicastery's prefect, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of its doctrinal section, according to Vatican News.
Vatican News reported that the document centers on the “kerygma,” the basic first proclamation of the Gospel. It says faith passes on chiefly as a shared way of life in the church, not mainly as information. Because handing down the faith within families has been disrupted, it calls for evangelizing adults as well as teaching children and teens.
The text notes that conversions and returns to the church are rising in some highly secularized places. But it warns that many newly baptized people soon drift into practical indifference, describing “a parallel difficulty concerning the perseverance of neophytes.” It urges congregations to welcome and walk alongside new members.
The document also points to secularization, a culture built on individual autonomy, and digital technology as pressures that push faith into private life. It quotes Pope Leo: “The challenge, therefore, is not technological, but anthropological.”
The dicastery describes the text as “considerations” rather than a doctrinal note. It has eight chapters, and its last chapter collects testimonies, sent in by bishops, from people who came or returned to faith.
