Pope Calls Bishops To Meeting On Families

Pope Leo XIV has called for a meeting with the world’s presidents of bishops’ conferences to talk about ‘the family’ in relation to his predecessor’s 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage and family titled ‘Amoris Laetitia’.

The ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ signed by the late Pope Francis on March 19, 2016 after two back-to-back synodal meetings in 2014 and 2015, is considered a controversial document for stating that in certain cases divorced and civilly remarried Catholics (Catholics who are divorced and married to another spouse) could receive Holy Communion.

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

Hence, Pope Leo XIV’s call on the world’s bishops for a synodal discernment in Rome in October 2026 on how to proclaim the gospel to families.

The Lord, Pope Leo said, had entrusted families with the task of participating in the church’s mission to proclaim the gospel, including in spaces where the church can witness only through the lay faithful.