Carolina Bellocq
Just a week after undergoing surgery, Pope Leo got into the popemobile to tour St. Peter's Square before Wednesday's general audience.
He blessed many babies who were brought to him, and at one point he stopped the car.
During the catechesis, he spoke about marriage and the love between spouses.
POPE LEO XIV
Not limited to erotic attraction, which it nonetheless encompasses, conjugal love involves the entire will of the spouses, enlivening the affections of their hearts and expressing itself through sentiments and gestures of tenderness. Embracing the good of the whole person of both man and woman, who are equal in dignity, this love pervades the entire life of the spouses.
Pope Leo XIV offered these reflections in light of the Second Vatican Council’s document Gaudium et Spes. He recalled that the fruitfulness of love between spouses is also expressed in the procreation of children, the most excellent gift of marriage.
POPE LEO XIV
ORIG. ITALIAN
36:38-36:52
By transmitting and educating human life, which must never be rejected, spouses become “cooperators with the love of God the Creator, and are, so to speak, the interpreters of that love.”
He also recalled a key teaching of the Church on this subject:
POPE LEO XIV
“From the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care”, renouncing “abortion and infanticide”; and that “the acts themselves which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accord with genuine human dignity must be honoured with great reverence.”
And before concluding, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the social role of the family, calling it “a school of deeper humanity” and “the foundation of society.” He asked those in positions of responsibility to support this reality.
POPE LEO XIV
Dear friends, this task is more urgent than ever before.
The audience continued with greetings and reflections in various languages, as is customary.
The only difference was that this time the greetings to the groups and special guests were shorter, a possible measure to ensure the pope’s rest and postoperative recovery.
