Pope summons presidents of episcopal conferences for meet on families in October
The announcement was made in a message released today on the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The initiative calls for synodal discernment in light of what is being accomplished in local Churches. Let us “learn to evoke the beauty of the vocation to marriage” while acknowledging its fragility. Without families, the Church cannot become “the salt of the earth”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Leo XIV released a message today, the day the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Joseph, on the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the document on conjugal love written by Pope Francis at the end of the Synod of Bishops, which in 2014 and 2015 dedicated two sessions to the theme of the family.
In it, the pontiff writes that, “In light of the changes that continue to impact families, I have decided to convene the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences from around the world in October 2026, in an effort to proceed, in mutual listening, to a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris Laetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches.”
The 2015 apostolic exhortation is a long and detailed text on the vocation to marriage in today's society, centred on a reinterpretation of Saint Paul's Hymn to Charity (1 Cor 13) in the actual lives of spouses and children’s education.
But Amoris Laetitia is also a document that sparked discussion within the Church due to Pope Francis's invitation to exercise "discernment" in the face of the individual situations of couples who find themselves in "irregular" situations after the failure of a previous marriage.
This included an invitation to the Christian community not only to accompany them with respect and openness, but, in some cases (as suggested in a note to the text), also “with access to the Sacraments” to be considered not as “a reward for the perfect, but a generous remedy and nourishment for the weak”.
Ten years later, Pope Leo calls on the faithful, first of all, to “give thanks to the Lord for the stimulus that has encouraged reflection and pastoral conversion in the Church, and 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.”
The pontiff notes that Amoris Laetitia was the fruit of a journey of listening to families, heeding “their joys and their hopes, their sorrows and their anguish”, whom Francis wanted to personally involve in the synodal journey.
Leo stresses his predecessor's call to develop ‘new pastoral methods’ for the family and to strengthen children's education, while inviting the Church to "accompany, discern and integrate fragility," to overcome a reductive conception of the norm.
For the pontiff, “To serve the mission of proclaiming the Gospel of the family to younger generations, we must learn to evoke the beauty of the vocation to marriage precisely in the recognition of fragility, so as to reawaken ‘trust in God’s grace’ and the Christian desire for holiness.”
To this end, “We must also support families, especially those suffering from the many forms of poverty and violence present in contemporary society.”
The pope goes on to thank the pastors, pastoral workers, associations of the faithful, and ecclesial movements involved in family ministry.
“Our era,” he tells them, “is marked by rapid changes which make it necessary, even more than ten years ago, to give particular pastoral attention to families, to whom the Lord entrusts the task of participating in the Church’s mission of proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel.
“There are, in fact, places and circumstances in which the Church ‘can become the salt of the earth’ only through the lay faithful and, in particular, through families.
“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.”
Hence, the pope is convening the new appointment next October, which he entrusts on today's feast to Saint Joseph, “guardian of the Holy Family of Nazareth.”
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08/04/2016 15:55
03/06/2016 14:00
