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Pope Francis says that priests and bishops must call on the expertise and mission of married couples and families, just as the spouses Aquila and Priscilla were valuable collaborators for St. Paul.
"To bring God's love to families and young people, who will build the families of tomorrow, we need the help of the families themselves, their concrete experience of life and communion," the Pope said in a video message to a forum dedicated to looking at the implementation of Amoris Laetitia five years after its publication.
Amoris Laetitia is the Holy Father's document that followed upon two synods of bishops on the family.
"We need spouses alongside the pastors, to walk with other families, to help those who are weaker, to announce that, even in difficulties, Christ is present in the Sacrament of Marriage to give tenderness, patience, and hope to all, in every situation of life," Pope Francis insisted.
In a time of declining marriages, the Pope said that youth must witness the love of spouses.
And he noted that this collaboration between married couples and clergy was an integral part of the evangelization efforts of the early Church, as we see in the Bible.
Perhaps many tend to think of sharing the Gospel as a task primarily suited for priests and religious, but Pope Francis said that married people, like priests, have a particular mission to evangelize.
He said:
Pope Francis compared the complementarity in the roles of male and female to the complementarity that should be found between married couples and clergy.
