In his recent remarks to a group of journalists, new Pope Leo XIV affirmed that true family is based on a stable marriage between one man and one woman. Contrary to far too many things which Pope Francis said, that doesn't need any clarification.

Bravo, our Most Holy Father. While the Church must be (and is, whether one thinks so or not) open to all, and indeed must minister to all, well, sometimes that ministry calls for unequivocal statements of fact. No one is helped, not any one of us, by failure to acknowledge basic truth. Marriage and family are what they are, not what you may wish them to be.

Yes, the Church must minister to all. Yet ministry cannot be mere affirmation; who needs a Church or family or friends at all to approve what we as individuals already want to do? If we're going to do whatever we want anyway, who needs a Pope? Who needs the permission of anyone else to do what they're so certain is right? I don't argue for the right to do things which I know I'm within my rights to do. I do them. Ministry is for the areas where we need guidance, where we need improvement. Improvement begins with seeking to do the just and true.

As such, to do its work, the Church must speak to Truth. Leo XIV is doing exactly that.