- 13 March, 2026
Vatican City, March 13, 2026: Pope Leo XIV urged communities to look to the Holy Family of Nazareth in order to rediscover their mission of welcoming others and embracing a path of service while addressing participants in the “Cathedra of Hospitality.”
“I encourage you to be educators in hospitality,” Pope Leo XIV said on Thursday in the Vatican when speaking to participants in the “Cathedra of Hospitality,” a cultural and educational initiative now in its fourth edition, held in Sacrofano, a town located north of Rome.
The event is organized by movements and Third Sector organizations in collaboration with Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University. It creates opportunities for dialogue and reflection on contemporary issues. The theme for this year’s gathering was “Youth and the Church: Hospitality that fosters belonging.”
In his address, the Holy Father shared reflections connected with the theme discussed during the “Cathedra.” He noted that the days of reflection were inspired by the understanding that the Christian vocation is directed toward building communion among people.
The Pope explained that communion develops through the ability to welcome others by offering listening, hospitality, and support.
The grace of an encounter
Pope Leo XIV said that genuine welcome begins with a relationship that emerges from the grace of an encounter. He added that the choice to dedicate the fourth edition of the “Cathedra” to young people fits precisely within this dynamic of encounter.
“In a time marked by profound cultural and social transformations,” the Pope said, “young people, who are naturally the future of society and of the Church, already constitute its living and generative present.”
The Holy Father pointed out that the questions and concerns of young people invite society and the Church to renew the style of relationships.
“Welcoming young people means, first of all,” Pope Leo said, “listening to their voices, meeting their gaze, and recognizing that, in their lives and in their languages, the Spirit continues to act and to suggest renewed paths of presence and care.”
Presence and care
The Pope reflected on two words—“presence” and “care”—which help explain the Christian understanding of hospitality.
“Each of us, from the first moment of life," he pointed out, "grows within a social reality,” referring to environments such as the family, the parish, the school, the university, and the workplace. These settings, he said, function as models of society where psychological, juridical, moral, pedagogical, and cultural dimensions come together, and they “are spaces of identity formation whose primary task is defined precisely by presence.”
“To be present in the lives of others,” Pope Leo XIV emphasized, “means sharing time, experiences, and meaning, offering stable points of reference in which others can recognize themselves and grow.”
“Looking to the Holy Family of Nazareth,” the Pope said, “every welcoming community can rediscover its own calling and learn to orient itself along the path of service.”
The experience of the Holy Family
Pope Leo referred to the Gospel episode in which Mary and Joseph lose Jesus and, after searching anxiously for three days, find Him again in the Temple. He said this story shows that the presence of another person is not automatic but requires a continuous search.
“It has happened to each of us,” the Pope observed, “to lose someone or something to which we were deeply attached. In that moment we realize how precious that presence was.”
He added that a similar experience can occur in the life of faith. “We often take for granted the presence of Jesus in our existence until suddenly it seems that He is no longer where we left Him.”
Called to seek Jesus
“We feel a sense of loss,” the Pope said. “In reality, it is not He who has been lost, but we who have moved away.”
When this occurs, Pope Leo explained, people are invited to search for Him with trust and with the courage to explore unfamiliar paths, viewing the world with renewed hope.
“In this way,” he said, “we will stop looking for a God made to our own measure and instead encounter Him where He dwells.”
According to Pope Leo XIV, seeking Jesus means moving from the security of personal convictions to the responsibility of encounter, learning to recognize and welcome the presence of God who is always “beyond.”
St. Joseph’s powerful example
“This is precisely what Saint Joseph did in safeguarding the family entrusted to him by the Lord,” Pope Leo said.
The Pope explained that Joseph shows that welcoming others involves not only presence but also care.
“To care,” Pope Leo said, “means to stand beside the other with attention, to respect their choices, and to take responsibility for them.”
He added that this attitude belongs first to God, whom the Bible presents as the guardian of His people. Likewise, the human family is also called to protect what has been entrusted to it.
“Thus Joseph,” the Pope observed, “shows us that presence and care are inseparable dimensions: one does not safeguard without being present, and one is not truly present without assuming responsibility for the other.”
Moving toward holiness
Pope Leo XIV concluded by saying that presence and care can serve as two guiding lights on the journey toward a form of hospitality that opens paths to holiness.
Thanking the participants for their quiet and dedicated commitment, the Pope encouraged them to continue their mission of promoting hospitality and to work together “to create environments capable of promoting goodness and fraternity in the Christian community and in society.”
Courtesy: Vatican News
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