Top photo caption: The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican is framed by trees in this file photo. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a new a document Oct. 22, 2026, titled “Venite ad Me” on how to pass on the Christian faith in a time of “epochal change.” CNS photo/Paul Haring
By Courtney Mares, OSV News
VATICAN CITY OSV News – The Vatican’s doctrine office published a new a document Oct. 22 on how to pass on the Christian faith in a time of “epochal change” marked by a “crisis in the intergenerational transmission of the Christian faith.”
The document, titled “Venite ad Me,” meaning “Come to Me” in Latin, was issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by its prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández.
“Venite ad Me” was written in response to a request first made by the late Pope Francis toward the end of his life and was approved for publication by Pope Leo XIV during an Aug. 21 audience with Cardinal Fernandez and Msgr. Armando Matteo, the secretary for the dicastery’s doctrinal section.
The more than 25,000-word document is divided into eight chapters. It discusses “the crisis in the transmission of faith” amid cultural changes, the breakdown of the family, and new digital technologies, underlining the need to communicate the “kerygma,” or the essential proclamation of salvation offered by Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection.
While the impetus for the document came from his predecessor, the text also engages with ideas from Pope Leo’s first encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” on artificial intelligence.
The document explores the need for the Church to focus on evangelizing adults and catechizing children and teenagers in response to how in many parts of the world “ever fewer parents are fulfilling their responsibility to introduce their children to the living light of the Gospel message.”
The text also touches on the role of the liturgy, beauty and personal witness in passing on the faith and contains a number of personal testimonies ranging from a Colombian man who recounts escaping drug addiction and gang life through a Christian rehabilitation program to a Belgian who says he was struck by a prayer he came across on TikTok.
Described as “a set of considerations,” rather than a doctrinal note, the document asserts it was written to stimulate reflection in the Church and pastoral commitment regarding the transmission of the faith.
“The text examines a variety of points of view without, however, claiming to settle the matter, which remains open to further analysis and development. This means that these Considerations are not marked, as are other documents of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, by terminological precision and systematic treatment, but instead allow a more discursive style, as is especially evident in the section on personal testimonies mentioned above,” the text states in its introduction.
According to Vatican News, many bishops’ conferences contributed to the document, including by submitting the testimonies included in its final chapter.
The document identifies a “crisis in the intergenerational transmission of the Christian faith,” explaining that the family is the “first and most essential place for the transmission of the faith,” but adds that this transmission of the faith within families “has been interrupted in many parts of the world.”
“Venite ad Me” identifies the liturgy as a place where believers are formed from within and calls on pastors to “highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage.”
“The liturgy is living memory and tradition, generating and shaping Christians capable of bearing witness to the salvation they have encountered: by participating in liturgical prayer, one enters, in fact, into a history, into a shared memory that spans the centuries,” it says.
Noting that beauty can draw people to the faith, the text recommends that “special attention should be given to music,” not merely as “an aesthetic embellishment of celebrations but a missionary tool that works through attraction, making the glory of the Risen One perceptible especially where words struggle to reach.”
The document also highlights the role of the homily and discussed volunteer work as an opportunity to draw closer to the life of the Church. It includes a paragraph stressing the “need to expand opportunities for women to participate in the leadership of ecclesial processes,” noting that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has “studied this topic extensively and submitted its conclusions to the Holy Father through the Secretariat of the Synod.”
The document will serve as a starting point for thought by the International Theological Commission, who the text says will devote part of its work over the next five years to the cultural forms of transmitting the faith. Pope Leo appointed 24 new members to the International Theological Commission earlier in the week, just three days before “Venite ad Me” was published.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
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