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Vatican to Release Document on Faith Transmission in October

6:03 AM ETConfirmed

Faith Desk

In Short: The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will release a new document titled 'Venite ad Me' in mid-October, focusing on the transmission of the faith.

According to a Vatican source, the document will reflect a wide variety of concerns and contexts regarding the transmission of the faith, noting that in many parts of the world, the faith is transmitted with increasing difficulty.

In preparing the document, the Vatican consulted bishops' conferences from around the world, ensuring a strongly universal character.

The document's title, 'Venite ad Me,' is Latin for 'Come to Me,' emphasizing the call to embrace the faith.

Pope Leo XIV, in his weekly General Audience, reflected on the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes, highlighting the importance of human work and scientific progress in God’s plan for creation.

A new Vatican note calls for renewed formation in interreligious dialogue while affirming religious differences and Christian identity.

The document, titled 'A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate,' was published Sept. 16.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, revealed news of the document to the Register May 15, saying that the forthcoming text is being prepared 'in dialogue with the Dicastery for Evangelization.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• Vatican City, September 23, 2026: Human work and scientific progress are not opposed to faith but can participate in God’s plan for creation, Pope Leo XIV said during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, reflecting on the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et spes.
• The Pope concluded by recalling the Second Vatican Council’s invitation “to share the bread of knowledge and know-how, so that every person and every people may develop their potential, and together, with God’s help, we may build a better future.” Catholic Connect is a platform for Catholics in India to stay better connected with the Church in multiple ways.
• The document's second chapter is about the "human community," and this theme, the Pope said, has "even greater urgency" today.
• Pope Leo continued his reflection on the Vatican II document dealing with the Church and the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, in the general audience of September 16.
• History, even recent history, clearly confirms this truth; we must therefore never tire of reiterating, in the words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, that “the subject and goal of all social institutions is and must be the human person which for its part and by its very nature stands completely in need of social life” (GS, 25).
• Pope Leo XIV on Thursday reminded members of the Vatican’s doctrine office of the urgency of offering clear doctrinal guidance in response to new challenges, especially in a context marked by declining religious belief.
• Receive the most important news from EWTN Vatican via WhatsApp.
• The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is preparing a major new document on the transmission of the faith, drawing on a wide-ranging consultation with episcopal conferences across the globe.
• Cardinal Fernández said the document’s origins date back in part to Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).
• Under Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Fernández’s DDF has published far fewer major texts than under Pope Francis, who originally appointed the Argentinian to head the influential office in 2023.
• “Each morning, mountains of correspondence arrive at my office,” he said.
• He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register.

What's still developing

• VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Progress in science and technology is not contrary to belief in God, and Christians should be actively involved in shaping that progress so that it serves human dignity and the common good, Pope Leo XIV said.
• “Today, in the face of those who foment divisions and stir up conflicts, believers of different traditions — and above all their leaders — while remaining aware of their irreducible differences, are called to seek, with clarity and hope, the conditions necessary for peaceful coexistence,” states a new joint note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
• “In stark contrast to those rigid attitudes that seek to resolve conflicts by force, it is time to promote a new ethic of dialogue: a culture of complexity, flexibility, and friendship,” the document states.
• “It is no longer a matter of fearing or keeping one’s distance from the ‘other believer’ — another civilization, another way of thinking — but of daring the encounter.” One of the document’s proposals is to give greater recognition to concrete initiatives undertaken by local Churches.
• “It is not, therefore, a matter of renouncing the truth but of proclaiming it in a manner befitting the Gospel: with esteem, listening, and charity,” the document states.
• “It is no longer sufficient to proclaim the importance of dialogue; it must now be lived, providing the faithful with the tools to participate in it in an informed, critical, and serene manner,” the document states.
• VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians can help overcome the many distortions and lies about the true dignity of every human person and, in doing so, promote and defend human life, Pope Leo XIV said.
• “This dignity is entrusted to the responsibility of each person: at the same time, it also demands solidarity and mutual care, overcoming the many falsifications and manipulations that still disfigure our perception of it and hinder its realization,” he said, continuing his series of talks on documents from the Second Vatican Council.
• VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV at his Wednesday general audience urged people to take responsibility for the dignity of each human person and to embrace an identity centered on gift of self.
• Peter’s Square, the pope continued his catechetical cycle dedicated to the Second Vatican Council’s constitution Gaudium et Spes, whose first chapter addresses the dignity of the human person.
• The Vatican has released a document marking the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra aetate, praising the ecumenical efforts which the text engendered and calling for a renewed “shift in mindset” to produce a “new ethic of dialogue”.
• The newly released Note marking the anniversary of Nostra Aetate was approved by Pope Leo XIV on June 22 and jointly issued by three offices of the Roman Curia: the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

Sources

• EWTN Vaticanlink
• Ewtnnewslink
• National Catholic Registerlink
• The Catholic Weeklylink
• The New Yorkerlink
• Catholicconnectlink
• Aleteialink
• Ncregisterlink
• Detroitcatholiclink
• Ewtnnewslink
• OSV Newslink
• Catholicstarheraldlink
• Thecatholicheraldlink
• Cruxnowlink
• WarpBeat — background on Vatican to Release Document on Faith Transmission in October link
• Vatican News — video link