Pope Leo XIV spoke today with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on Addiction-Related Situations in Latin America in a private audience in the Vatican.
The pope made some hard hitting remarks about the need for families to be a bulwark against the scourge of drug use:
There is no better defence against drugs than a good family.
Today, we bear witness to the pain of many broken families, whether due to drug use, violence, the criminal recruitment of a child, poverty or the lack of opportunities that push people to the margins of society. Saint John Paul II asked us to make the Church “the home and the school of communion”. And Pope Francis reminded us that Jesus wants us to “touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others”. Herein lies the very heart of the mission you are carrying out: that the Church may be a family, especially embracing those who suffer.
Finally, I would like to express a wish to you: that the Church may be a family for all those who have been left by the wayside. Like the Good Samaritan, who became a neighbour to the fallen man, let us not pass by; let us build a Church that stops, draws close, is moved with compassion, binds wounds, nourishes and becomes a home’
You can read his full comments here
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/august/documents/20260827-incontro-cal.html