Pope: Sense of belonging more important than numbers of people in Church
By Vatican News
The January edition of the Italian magazine, Piazza San Pietro, is dedicated to the theme of peace and in it, Pope Leo XIV responds to Nunzia, a 50-year-old Swiss catechist who wrote him a letter detailing her struggle to get families involved in the parish.
Families and children are increasingly difficult to reach
In her letter Nunzia - who lives in Laufenburg, a small municipality with 620 inhabitants – explains how “in Switzerland, it is difficult to get parents involved and, sometimes, even children and young people to trust in God.”
“I sow seeds, but the seedlings struggle to grow. Children and families prefer sports and parties,” she writes, adding how families are often indifferent to religious practice and Churches seem to be increasingly emptier or populated by the elderly.
Nunzia ends her letter by asking Pope Leo XIV to pray for the young people entrusted to her care and for herself, so that she may not be discouraged.
Pope Leo’s response
In the same edition, Pope Leo acknowledges Nunzia’s concerns and places them in a wider context: “The situation in which you live is no different from that of other countries with ancient Christian traditions.”
The Pope invites us to look beyond the numbers of attendance: “The hours dedicated to catechesis are never wasted, even if there are very few participants.”
He also relaunches an ecclesial challenge: “The problem is not the numbers — which, of course, make one reflect — but the increasingly evident lack of awareness in feeling part of the Church, that is, of being living members of the Body of Christ, all with unique gifts and roles, and not merely users of the sacred, of the sacraments, perhaps out of mere habit.”
The Pope also offers an encouragement to Nunzia, and all who experience similar difficulties. “As Christians, we always need conversion. And we must seek it together,” he writes. He recalls that the true door of faith “is the Heart of Christ, always wide open.”
Pope Leo’s concluding appeal is rooted in the legacy of Paul VI: “What we can do is bear witness to the joy of Christ's Gospel, the joy of rebirth and resurrection.”
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