ROME (OSV News): “Your heart longs for love. A love that is deep, self-sacrificing and enduring,” Pope Leo XIV wrote in the foreword to a fresh edition of YOUCAT: Love Forever, a new catechetical resource on love and relationships published on October 6.
Fifteen years after the first edition was published, the text was specifically prepared for anyone looking young adults, engaged couples preparing for marriage, newly married couples, pastoral workers, mentors and catechists.
“This longing is no accident. It is a sign that you are made for love,” Pope Leo wrote.
The pope’s words on love and marriage were published by Vatican News on the eve of the start of a weeklong meeting at the Vatican of the presidents of the world’s Catholic bishops’ conferences and the heads of the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches.
The October 7-14 gathering, convened by Pope Leo, will focus on marriage and family and marks the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia [The Joy of Love].
In his foreword, Pope Leo described authentic love as more than an intense feeling or romantic attraction.
Love can “strike the heart like an arrow—intensely and swiftly,” he wrote, but true love is “deep commitment to the other, a decision, a journey and a covenant for life.”
The pope said that lasting relationships are built on mutual trust and the willingness to embrace the “forever” that is “the beating heart of every vocation to family life and religious consecration.”
Pope Leo wrote: “Love asks first: ‘How can I love as Christ loved?’ [cf. Jn 15:12] and puts the question ‘What do I get out of it?’ last.”
The pope underscored, “When a man and a woman give themselves wholly to one another in love, then God comes alive in their midst.”
The book, YOUCAT: Love Forever, is part of the YOUCAT series, a catechetical initiative designed to present Catholic teaching in a Q&A format accessible to young people. The book’s first edition, published in May, included a foreword by the late Pope Francis. The new edition of the book includes Pope Francis’ words in an epilogue.
Love Forever was developed through an international network of young Catholics, marriage mentors, priests and theologians. Young people from more than 30 countries contributed testimonies to the book, which has official Church approval.
“God calls you, dear young people, to this great love. Do not be afraid of its depth! For the love to which you are called is strong enough to overcome difficulties, and great enough to sustain you throughout your whole life,” Pope Leo wrote in the new foreword.
“May you, like Mary, the Mother of beautiful love, respond with trust and courage to the most beautiful of all vocations: the vocation to love,” he said.
On October 6, the YOUCAT Foundation hosted a presentation for YOUCAT Love Forever in Rome, attended by several guests: Regina Lynch, Executive President of Aid to the Church in Need; Verónica Katz, head of the Spanish Local Group and Consultation Process for YOUCAT Love Forever; Bernhard Meuser, creator of YOUCAT and coordinator of the project and the editorial work on YOUCAT Love Forever; and Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press and YOUCAT’s publishing partner since its inception.
