- 08 October, 2026
Vatican City, October 8, 2026: Ten years after the publication of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia on love in the family, Pope Leo XIV has called on Bishops from around the world to share what has emerged in their local Churches and to courageously address the questions and difficulties facing families today.
Speaking on Wednesday, October 7, Pope Leo said the time has come to reflect on what has emerged from the document over the past decade and to renew the Church’s commitment to accompanying families amid the challenges and fragilities they face.
“I hope that, through the many stories you bring from your Churches and from different cultural contexts, a shared narrative of these ten years may gradually take shape, one marked by joy and hope, and that will enable us to face honestly the trials and difficulties that remain,” he said in his opening address for the meeting “Ten years after Amoris laetitia: proclaiming the Gospel with families today."
On March 19, 2026, Pope Leo XIV convoked a meeting at the Vatican with the heads of the Eastern Churches and the Presidents of the Bishops' Conferences on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia.
The meeting is taking place in the Paul VI Audience Hall from October 7 to 14, with plenary sessions, group work, prayer times and other activities. The proceedings will end with Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV and will also produce a summary report of what has emerged during the meeting.
Family as point of entry for economic, political questions
Pope Leo noted that his predecessors and the Church “have continued along the path indicated by the Second Vatican Council,” focusing on the importance of the family and marriage.
When the Council Fathers placed “the dignity of marriage and the family” within the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, on the Church in the modern world, “they recognized that family life offers a privileged point of entry into the great cultural, economic, social and political questions of our time, including the work of promoting peace among peoples.”
“The interdependence of these questions has become even more evident today," he said.
As the family remains key “to an approach that holds together the local and the global, guided by the search for a universal fraternity in Christ,” Pope Leo said those gathered at the meeting have an important responsibility.
Centrality of families in fulfilling Church’s mission
Reflecting on the Church’s pastoral concern for marriage and the family, Pope Leo said that “Amoris Laetitia marked an important stage”. He encouraged the participants to share the stories, fruits and questions that have emerged in local Churches over the past ten years as a result of the document.
In his March 19 message calling for the meeting, the Pope highlighted that “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.”
“Amoris laetitia invites us to take seriously this vocation and responsibility,” he insisted.
“Families themselves participate in the Church’s mission in the ordinary fabric of their lives, through love and fidelity, care and forgiveness, the education of children, their efforts in transmitting faith, attention to the elderly and the vulnerable, and the many ways in which they serve their communities and society. In all these ways, families bear witness to the Gospel and contribute to the life and mission of the Church.”
“With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, looking attentively at what has happened can help us recognize more deeply what Christ has been teaching His Church through these years,” the Pope urged, adding that it can also help see “where His Spirit is leading the Church today.”
Much can be learned from families
Pope Leo underlined that “as Pastors,” those gathered have the responsibility of “proclaiming the beauty of God’s plan for marriage and the family and His call for love and tenderness.”
He explained that this responsibility involves accompanying people in their lives as well as listening to them.
“The wisdom of the People of God reaches us through our common faith, which enlightens all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness and at times even apparent failure,” he underlined, adding that much can be learned from families.
Questions that need to be faced courageously
Pope Leo then reflected on questions that have emerged and that “deserve to be faced with courage”, including the growing distance “between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage.”
“Young people continue to long for love, fidelity and belonging, yet many find it difficult to embrace how such a vision of love can take shape in their own lives or to believe that a lifelong commitment is the condition for reaching what they desire,” the Pope explained.
“Economic insecurity, migration, violence, loneliness and other forms of emotional fragility also shape the choices people make and the possibilities they can imagine for their future.”
He asked questions that the Church needs to face, including “what are people truly seeking beneath these cultural changes?”, “What do their joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties reveal to us?” and “Where do our pastoral language and practices succeed in opening a path, and where do they fail to touch people’s hearts or assist their efforts to do what is good?”
Special attention needs to be given to fragility
Pope Leo pointed to “fragility” as an important element requiring attention, as it strongly shapes people’s lives and their relationship with God and the Church.
“The experience of fragility raises the question of whether we are able to remain close to one another when life no longer corresponds to what had been hoped for, and whether we can recognize the work of grace even in situations marked by limits, wounds and apparent failure,” the Pope emphasised.
He highlighted that families can teach something to everyone, as fragility is common to the human condition and to the life of the Church.
“We need grace, forgiveness and new beginnings to accomplish God’s will, and we learn that fidelity is itself a grace to be received and a path to be gradually renewed, often through trial,” he said.
In this regard, Pope Leo asked further questions about how the Church can help people accompany one another:
“What kind of Church, then, do people encounter precisely when they are most fragile? Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be encountered through the patience, closeness and mercy of our pastoral presence? How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching about the family?”
Listening to each other and Holy Spirit
Pope Leo called on the participants to “give such questions their full weight”, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak even through situations that may challenge them. He urged them to consider how “the salvific grace of Christ can reach our families today, particularly in their weakness and resilience, in their hopes and disappointments, in their longing for communion and their search for meaning.”
In this way, the Church can find renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, the Pope said, noting that the diversity of situations can be a gift for the discernment of the whole Church. He also asked that “discretion and confidentiality” be preserved during the meeting.
“Listening to one another, allowing what we hear to resonate within us, and remaining attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit can awaken the pastoral creativity we need in the face of new questions,” the Pope said.
“May the Lord give us the freedom to listen to one another, the wisdom to recognize His work among His people, and the courage to follow where He leads us, so that, each day, the Gospel may become ever more fully good news for families throughout the world,” Pope Leo concluded.
Courtesy: Vatican News
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