Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV greets newlyweds at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican after his weekly general audience June 25, 2025. Pope Leo shared advice with young people on authentic true love and marriage in a new book foreword, published Oct. 6, 2026, to the YOUCAT book on love and relationships. CNS photo/Vatican Media
By Courtney Mares, OSV News
ROME OSV News — Pope Leo XIV offers his advice to young people on finding authentic true love and commitment in marriage in a new book foreword published Oct. 6.
“Your heart longs for love. A love that is deep, self-sacrificing and enduring. This longing is no accident. It is a sign that you are made for love,” Pope Leo wrote in the foreword to a fresh edition of “YOUCAT: Love Forever,” a new catechetical resource on love and relationships.
The Pope’s words on love and marriage were published by Vatican News on the eve of the start of a weeklong meeting at the Vatican of the presidents of the world’s Catholic bishops’ conferences and the heads of the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. The Oct. 7-14 gathering, convened by Pope Leo, will focus on marriage and family and marks the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love.”
In his foreword, Pope Leo described authentic love as more than an intense feeling or romantic attraction.
Love can “strike the heart like an arrow — intensely and swiftly,” he wrote, but true love is “deep commitment to the other, a decision, a journey and a covenant for life.”
The Pope said that lasting relationships are built on mutual trust and the willingness to embrace the “forever” that is “the beating heart of every vocation to family life and religious consecration.”
“Love asks first: ‘How can I love as Christ loved?’ (cf. Jn 15:12) and puts the question ‘What do I get out of it?’ last,” Pope Leo wrote.
“When a man and a woman give themselves wholly to one another in love, then God comes alive in their midst,” the Pope underscored.
The book, “YOUCAT: Love Forever,” is part of the YOUCAT series, a catechetical initiative designed to present Catholic teaching in a Q&A format accessible to young people. The book’s first edition, published in May, included a foreword by the late Pope Francis. The new edition of the book includes Pope Francis’ words in an epilogue.
“Love Forever” was developed through an international network of young Catholics, marriage mentors, priests and theologians. Young people from more than 30 countries contributed testimonies to the book, which has official Church approval.
The book, published by Ignatius Press in English, is aimed at young adults, engaged couples preparing for marriage, newly married couples, pastoral workers, mentors and catechists.
“God calls you, dear young people, to this great love. Do not be afraid of its depth! For the love to which you are called is strong enough to overcome difficulties, and great enough to sustain you throughout your whole life,” Pope Leo wrote in the new foreword.
“May you, like Mary, the Mother of beautiful love, respond with trust and courage to the most beautiful of all vocations: the vocation to love,” he said.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
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