Cohabiting couples can be enlightened to the truth and beauty of Christian marriage by Catholics who bear witness to the sacrament in their own lives, Pope Leo XIV said in an address to a seminar organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. Leo says many young people are “longing for authentic relationships and guides in life,” and that the soaring numbers “who choose cohabitation instead of Christian marriage in reality need someone to show them [a better option] in a concrete and clear way.” Quoting Pope St Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, he added: “This love makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.”