Pope Leo XIV Calls World Bishops To Parley About Families In October

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’.

‘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 that 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 in these times, in light of ‘Amoris Laetitia’.

History indicates that since Vatican II, Pope St John Paul II’s ‘Familiaris Consortio’ of 1981, and Pope Francis ‘Amoris Laetitia’ (2016), have strengthened the Church’s doctrinal and pastoral commitment to the service of young people, married couples, and families.

The Lord, Pope Leo said, has 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.

“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 of marriage,” he said.

For all its controversy, Pope Leo noted that ‘Amoris Laetitia’ offers valuable lessons that require continued review. These include ‘how to live through family crises, that love in marriage is life-giving, and the need for new pastoral methods.