Cardinal Farrell: Changing doctrine, structures is false ‘solution’ to problems in Church

February 06, 2026

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life began a three-day plenary assembly on February 4, only the third such assembly since the dicastery’s establishment in 2016, and the first such assembly since 2023.

The theme of the assembly is “‘Until Christ be formed in you’ (Gal 4:19): The formation of the laity in Christian life and the experience of World Meetings.”

Praedicate Evangelium, the 2022 apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, provides that all of a dicastery’s members “are convoked for the plenary session. It is to be held every two years ... Matters and questions of greater importance are reserved for the plenary session, according to the nature of the Dicastery. It is convoked, as needed, to deal also with matters of general principle or others that the head of the Dicastery deems necessary to address in this manner” (n. 26). The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life lists 25 members, 15 of them laity, on its website.

In his introductory address, delivered at the General Curia of the Jesuits in Rome, Cardinal Kevin Farrell offered an update on the dicastery’s activities before turning to the assembly’s theme.

Cardinal Farrell, the dicastery’s prefect since its inception, said that “even before synodal participation, that which is lacking today is faith! Today, in fact, we are standing witness to an alarming increase in the number of people who do not know Jesus Christ at all!”

“At the origin of Christian life, in fact, there is an encounter with the Person of Jesus Christ, an encounter that first changes the heart of people, then changes their mentality, then converts their daily behavior, and thus their whole life,” he continued “This is the dynamic of faith!”

Cardinal Farrell added:

Many today think that the solution to the problems of the Church is to change structures, or to change the principles of Catholic doctrine or morality. But this is a false solution. It will not be these “changes” that will bring people back to Mass, or cause vocations to flourish again, or bring young people back to the Church ...

I know well that there are no simple and immediate solutions. But it is important to encourage the episcopal conferences, the dioceses, the pastors, and all the People of God, to seriously ask themselves what to do to begin a new work of Christian formation for the men and women of today. This is what we propose to do with this Plenary Assembly.

Throughout history, it has often been the saints, and the movements of renewal born of them, who have initiated new “waves” of evangelization and Christian formation of the masses. Certainly, today too, we must pray that new saints will arise, who, with their zeal and creativity, will help the Church to bring many people closer to the faith. At the same time, we feel the responsibility, as a Church, to do our part, not to hold back, and to make our contribution, however small, to promoting a new impulse of evangelization, catechesis, and the formation of hearts, so that they may open to the faith and grow spiritually into the full maturity of Christian life.

 

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Further information:

• From 4 to 6 February, the third Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, 2/2/26)
• Introductory Address by Card. Farrell (Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, 2/4/26)