Vatican City, Dec 28, 2025 / 09:49 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged Christian families to “cherish the values of the Gospel” and protect the “flame of love” in their homes against modern myths of success, power, and comfort that he said often leave people isolated and divided.
Speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square before the Angelus on Dec. 28, the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the pope reflected on the Gospel account of the family’s flight into Egypt and contrasted the trust of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with what he called the fear-driven cruelty of King Herod.
“It is a moment of trial for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Leo said, adding that “the bright image of Christmas is suddenly almost eclipsed by the disturbing shadow of a deadly threat.”
The pope described Herod as “a cruel and bloodthirsty man” who is “deeply lonely and gripped with the fear of being deposed.” After hearing from the Magi that the “king of the Jews” had been born, Herod “decrees that all children of the same age as Jesus should be killed,” the pope said.
“In Bethlehem there is light and joy,” Leo noted, recalling the shepherds who “have glorified God before the manger,” but he said “none of this can penetrate the armored defenses of the royal palace, except as a distorted echo of a threat to be stifled with blind violence.”
Against that backdrop, the pope said the Holy Family reveals “the only possible answer of salvation,” namely, “God who, in total gratuitousness, gives himself to men without reserve and without pretension.”
Leo pointed to St. Joseph’s obedience in protecting Mary and Jesus, saying that “the gesture of Joseph is revealed in all its redemptive significance.” He added: “In Egypt, the flame of domestic love, to which the Lord has entrusted his presence in the world, grows and gains strength in order to bring light to the whole world.”
Turning to families today, the pope warned that “the world always has its ‘Herods,’ its myths of success at any cost, of unscrupulous power, of empty and superficial well-being” and said societies often “pay the price in the form of loneliness, despair, divisions, and conflicts.”
“Let us not allow these mirages to suffocate the flame of love in Christian families,” he said.
Instead, Leo urged families to cultivate “prayer, frequent reception of the sacraments, especially confession and Communion, healthy affections, sincere dialogue, fidelity, and the simple and beautiful concreteness of everyday words and gestures.” He said such family life can make homes “a light of hope for the places in which we live; a school of love and an instrument of salvation in God’s hands.”
After the Angelus, the pope greeted pilgrims from several Italian parishes and groups. He also renewed his appeal for peace, asking Catholics to remember those suffering because of conflict.
“In the light of the Nativity of the Lord, let us continue to pray for peace,” he said. “Today, in particular, let us pray for families suffering because of war, especially for children, elderly, and the most vulnerable.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Happy feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – Pray for us.
“Protect the flame of love”, that enlivened in Gospel truth. Otherwise it dies on the vine until it falls from it.
Awareness of the massive assault by the friends of darkness against the family, and children is downplayed by progressive Catholics, refuted by the foes of purity and life. They form a symbiotic tandem feeding off each other’s evil. Cardinal Mario Caffarra, who when in this world was appointed by John Paul II as the founding president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.
Caffarra was strongly devoted to Christ, Church, and Our Blessed Mother. As a man devoted to family and our Blessed Mother he struck a letter correspondence with Sr Lucia ‘de Jesus Rosa’ dos Santos OCD, a Fatima visionary with the Marto children Francisco and Jacinta – of Our Lady.
Sr Lucia intimated that she understood from the Fatima appearances, and later as a contemplative, of her conviction that final contest with Satan would be over the family, and children. This, although it’s private revelation and not to be considered free of error – is nevertheless entirely consistent with events in the world and Church. In the world given to abortion, homosexuality, and transexual mutation of children.
Within the Church with a softening approach, including consideration of normalizing same sex adult relationships – which of itself infers to the entire spectrum of disordered sexual behavior.
Jorge Bergoglio, when pontiff dismantled with apparent vengeance the legacy of John Paul II. Pope Leo XIV has as his solemn, sacred mission the reinstitution of that legacy. He must make a clear break with the Bergoglian agenda. However it may be done with diplomacy and acumen, that mission is urgent.
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged Christian families to “cherish the values of the Gospel” and protect the “flame of love” in their homes against modern myths of success, power, and comfort that he said often leave people isolated and divided.
How about addressing the greatest cause of isolation and division-that marriage is a fragile and temporary arrangement that can be ended by one party, for any, all or no reason(s) at all, where more effort is put into the wedding than the marriage and how each divorce coarsens society at large with those notions?
Success-whatever that is, is necessary to some degree in marriage and family. Did I attain my goal of becoming a CFO? No, but then again, I’m not getting called at 2AM because the CEO had some goofy idea or paranoid concern. I don’t face the temptation to manipulate the numbers to meet Wall Street’s “expectations”. Along the way, I’ve learned conspicuous and certain things often come with hidden and uncertain costs.
I find this an odd complaint from a man at the absolute apex of his vocation.