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.
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