The news was confirmed by the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, in statements to the National Catholic Register. The Argentine prelate explained that the text is being prepared together with the Dicastery for Evangelization and that it follows an extensive consultation carried out with episcopal conferences from different continents.
Although Fernández did not offer a specific date for its publication, he made clear that it is currently the main doctrinal document in preparation within the Vatican body.
Rome acknowledges the seriousness of the crisis of faith
According to the prefect of the DDF, the origin of this initiative stems in part from Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, published in 2013.
Fernández recalled that the Argentine pontiff placed great importance on popular piety and the family as fundamental spheres for transmitting the faith. However, he acknowledged that this transmission has broken down in many places, especially in deeply secularized societies.
The concern has been repeatedly expressed by numerous bishops during their ad limina visits to the Vatican. Many prelates conveyed to Rome the growing problem of entire generations of baptized young people who no longer receive solid Christian formation or maintain any connection to sacramental life.
This issue particularly affects Europe and much of Latin America, where the weakening of religious practice and the loss of Catholic identity have been advancing for years.
A global consultation to understand the problem
The project began to take shape in various internal meetings of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, known as Feria IV, in which cardinals and bishops who are members of the body participated.
Subsequently, consultations with specialists were carried out and an initial draft was prepared. Later, the Vatican decided to significantly expand the process with a consultation directed at all episcopal conferences, as well as experts and research centers.
“The response has been enormous,” Fernández assured, acknowledging that the dicastery has been surprised by the quantity and extent of the responses received.
The prefect even admitted that considerable time will be needed to properly study all the material sent from different parts of the world.
The crisis is not experienced the same way in all countries
Fernández insisted that the future document cannot be prepared solely from a European or Italian perspective, since the crisis in the transmission of the faith presents very different characteristics according to each region.
“North Africa is not the same as Mali; Turkey is not the same as Pakistan,” the cardinal explained. He also pointed out that within Europe there are very different realities between countries such as Poland and Germany or between Italy and England.
In Latin America, he added, the ecclesial situation in Argentina cannot be compared with that of Colombia, Brazil, or Peru.
For this reason, the Vatican considers that the document will not offer “unique recipes” or universal solutions, but rather general pastoral guidelines that can serve as inspiration for local Churches.
The Vatican also looks at the challenge of artificial intelligence
The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith also revealed that the body will soon have to focus on the reception of the future encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, which is expected to address the impact of artificial intelligence.
Fernández noted that the Vatican considers both the problem of the transmission of the faith and the cultural and anthropological challenges arising from contemporary technological development as priorities.
Since Pope Leo XIV’s arrival at the pontificate, the DDF has significantly reduced the pace of publication of major doctrinal texts compared to previous years.
“Every morning, mountains of correspondence arrive”
The Argentine cardinal also described the enormous workload that the doctrinal body of the Holy See faces daily.
“Every morning, mountains of correspondence arrive at my office,” he stated. “Just quickly reviewing all of that takes several hours.”
These statements reflect the accumulation of doctrinal, pastoral, and disciplinary problems that continually reach the Vatican in a context marked by the accelerated secularization of the West, catechetical confusion in numerous countries, and the growing difficulty in transmitting the Catholic faith to the new generations.