Pope Leo calls bishops to Rome to discuss families, ‘Amoris laetitia’ in October

VATICAN CITY — Ten years after Pope Francis issued a controversial document on families, Pope Leo XIV will meet with bishops from around the world to discuss the text’s application for today.

Amoris laetitia, Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family, followed two contentious synods at the Vatican dominated by debate over divorce.

Pope Leo on Thursday announced that he is calling the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to Rome in October for “synodal discernment” on how “to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris laetitia.”

The meeting is not part of the Synod on Synodality, which will conclude a three-year implementation phase with an assembly in October 2028.

Francis published Amoris laetitia in 2016 following separate synods on the family in 2014 and 2015. The two month-long assemblies prominently featured debates over divorce, and Francis’ post-synodal document sparked controversy with a footnote that said “in certain cases,” divorced-and-civilly remarried Catholics could receive Communion.

Previous popes had said such Catholics could not receive Communion unless they lived as brother and sister.

In his March 19 message, Pope Leo said societal changes make pastoral attention to families even more necessary than 10 years ago.

Amoris laetitia is “a luminous message of hope regarding conjugal love and family life,” and “we ask God for the courage to persevere on this path, always welcoming the Gospel anew in the joy of being able to proclaim it to all,” he said.

Leo recalled the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that the family is “‘the basis of society,’ a gift from God and ‘a school for human enrichment.’”

Since Vatican II, he added, “the two Apostolic Exhortations, Familiaris consortio — issued by St. John Paul II in 1981 — and Amoris laetitia (AL), have both strengthened the Church’s doctrinal and pastoral commitment to the service of young people, married couples and families.”

The Lord has entrusted families with the task of participating in the Church’s mission to proclaim the Gospel, including in places where the Church can witness only through the lay faithful, the pope said.

“For this reason, the Church’s commitment in this area must be renewed and deepened, so that those whom the Lord calls to marriage and family life can, in Christ, fully live out their conjugal love, and that young people may feel attracted, within the Church, to the beauty of the vocation to marriage,” he said.

The pontiff also pointed out ”valuable teachings that we must continue to examine today” from Amoris laetitia, including how to live through family crises, that love in marriage “always gives life,” and the need for new pastoral methods.