Reach out, welcome those seeking God, don't judge, pope tells Rome Diocese

ROME (CNS) -- In a big city like Rome, where poverty and crime are growing and people increasingly feel the Catholic Church is detached from their daily lives, a new approach to pastoral ministry and outreach is need, Pope Leo XIV said.

"We must not be content with repeating the same things as always," the pope told members of the Rome diocesan assembly -- priests, deacons, religious and lay representatives of Rome parishes -- gathered in the Basilica of St. John Lateran Sept. 19 for a prayer service marking the beginning of a new pastoral year.

With more young people and families distancing themselves from the church, the pope said, something must change.

"It seems urgent to me to shape a pastoral approach that is compassionate, empathetic, discreet and non-judgmental -- one that knows how to welcome everyone and can offer pathways that are as personalized as possible, suited to the different life situations of those we serve," Pope Leo said.

Religious education is essential, he said, but it cannot be the "academic style of catechesis" used in the past.

Parishes "must become generative: a womb that initiates people into the faith, and a heart that seeks out those who have abandoned it," the pope said.

People want to know more about the faith, the Bible and the liturgy, and they should find opportunities to learn in their parishes, he said. But parishes also cannot ignore "issues that stir the passions of the younger generations, but which concern us all: social justice, peace, the complex phenomenon of migration, care for creation, responsible citizenship, respect in relationships, mental suffering and addiction, and many other challenges."

"Of course, we cannot be experts in everything, but we are called to reflect on these themes," he said, including by tapping into experts in the city.

The synodal process launched by Pope Francis demonstrated what people want and need from the church and how the church might better respond, the pope said.

"Through the synodal process," he said, "the Spirit has stirred the hope of an ecclesial renewal -- one capable of revitalizing communities so that they may grow in the evangelical way of life, in closeness to God, and in their presence of service and witness in the world."

On a practical level, the pope said, that means priests must listen to the people in their parishes, acknowledge their gifts and encourage them to place their talents at the disposal of the whole community.

It also means that every parish must have a parish council and that deaneries and other structures in place to promote cooperation throughout the diocese are taken seriously.

"The risk is that these structures may lose their true function as instruments of communion and become reduced to occasional meetings, where some topic is discussed together only to then return to thinking about and living out pastoral ministry in an isolated way -- within the confines of one's own parish boundaries and established patterns," he said.

"I urge you to make these bodies true spaces of community life, where communion is actively practiced," he said, by being "places of dialogue in which communal discernment and shared responsibility, both baptismal and pastoral, can truly take shape."