Women have the primary role in transmitting faith, Pope Francis has said. Speaking during Mass on Monday in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Pope said that “mothers and grandmothers are the ones who primarily [in primis] transmit the faith.” According to Vatican Radio, he added that faith is a gift passed from generation to generation through the “beautiful work of mothers and grandmothers and the fine work of the women who play those roles” in a family, “whether they be maids or aunts." He continued: "It occurs to me: why is it mainly women, who to pass on the faith? Simply because the one who brought us Jesus is a woman. It is the path chosen by Jesus. He wanted to have a mother: the gift of faith comes to us through women, as Jesus came to us through Mary." The Pope went on to say that "in our own day" we must consider whether women "really are aware of the duty they have to transmit the faith.”