This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the participants in the Fourth Cattedra dell’Accoglienza (“Welcome Conference”), promoted by the Fraterna Domus of Sacrofano, Rome.

The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present during the meeting:

Address of the Holy Father

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Your Excellencies, dear brothers and sisters,

I am pleased to meet you and to share with you some reflections on the theme you are considering as the “Cattedra dell’Accoglienza” (“Welcome Conference”), which arose from the spiritual experience of the Fraterna Domus Association, with the active support of other ecclesial and social entities.

These days of yours have been inspired by the awareness that the Christian vocation is oriented towards generating communion between people, and communion is born of the capacity to welcome others, offering listening, hospitality and assistance. A possible etymological root of the word “accogliere”, to welcome – the centre of all your activity - goes back to the Latin accipere, which means “to receive”, “to take with you”.

Indeed, at the heart of every authentic welcome is a relationship that stems from the grace of an encounter. We experience many types of encounters and therefore of welcome: the encounter with the people who love us, with our relatives, colleagues, and also with strangers, who are sometimes hostile. When an encounter is genuine, it can be transformed by personal experience and gradually become capable of involving others, giving rise to a communal experience.

Your decision to dedicate the fourth edition of the “Cattedra” to young people fits precisely in this dynamic of encounter. In a time of profound cultural and social change, young people, who are naturally the future of society and the Church, are in fact already its living and generative present. Their questions and concerns invite us to renew the style of our relationships. Welcoming young people means, first of all, listening to their voices, meeting their gaze and recognizing that, in their lives and in their languages, the Spirit continues to work and to suggest renewed paths of presence and care.

I would like to focus on these two words – presence and care – which help to illuminate the Christian meaning of welcome.

Each one of us, from the very first moment of life, grows within a social reality. The family, the parish, the school, the university, and work represent models of society where different elements intertwine: psychological, legal, moral, pedagogical, cultural. They are spaces of identity formation whose primary task is defined precisely by presence. Being present in the lives of others means sharing time, experiences and meanings, offering stable points of reference in which others can recognize themselves and grow.

Looking to the Holy Family of Nazareth – whose model inspires Fraterna Domus – every welcoming community can rediscover its calling and learn to orient itself on the path of service. The Gospel episode of Mary and Joseph losing Jesus and, distressed, finding him after three days in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:39-52) teaches us that the presence of the other is not automatic, but the result of constant searching. It has happened to each of us to lose someone or something we were very attached to. At that moment, we realized how precious that presence was.

This also happens in the life of faith: we take for granted the presence of Jesus in our existence, until unexpectedly it seems that He is no longer where we left Him. We feel a sense of loss. In reality, it is not He who is lost, but we who have strayed. When this happens, we are called to seek him with confidence, with the courage to travel unexplored paths, looking at the world with new eyes, filled with hope. In this way, we will stop looking for a God who suits us and instead encounter Him where He dwells. Seeking Jesus, therefore, means moving from the security of our convictions to the responsibility of encounter, learning to see and welcome the presence of God who is always “beyond”.

This is exactly what Saint Joseph did in caring for the family entrusted to him by the Lord. In him we recognize that welcoming is not only presence but also guardianship. Guardianship means being attentive to others, respecting their choices and caring for them. This attitude belongs first and foremost to God, whom the Bible shows as the guardian of his people. We recall the psalm that says: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand” (Psalm 121: 4-5). From this perspective, we understand that the human family is also called to preserve what has been entrusted to it: relationships, creation, and the life of our brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer and are most fragile. In this way, Joseph shows us that presence and guardianship are inseparable dimensions: it is not possible to guard without being present, and one is not present without assuming responsibility for the other.

These two words represent two lamps on your journey towards a welcome that can open paths to holiness, in a perspective that is never self-referential, but always relational and fraternal, as the Encyclical Fratelli tutti reminds us when it states: “Only a social and political culture that readily and gratuitously welcomes others will have a future” (no. 141) for the new generations.

Dear friends, thank you for your silent and discreet commitment. I encourage you to be educators of welcome. Cultivate the charism of welcome by listening to the Holy Spirit, whose fruit, as Saint Paul tells us, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22). In this way, you will be able to continue to create environments capable of promoting goodness and fraternity in the Christian community and in society. May Mary Most Holy and Saint Joseph watch over you and intercede for you. I bless you from my heart. Thank you.