At 11.30 today, a press conference was held at the Holy See Press Office, Via della Conciliazione 54, to present the meeting of the Holy Father Leo XIV with the Heads of the Eastern Churches and the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, entitled “Ten years after Amoris Laetitia: proclaiming the Gospel with families today”. The meeting will take place in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, from the afternoon of Wednesday 7 October to the late afternoon of Wednesday 14 October 2026. On the concluding day, Pope Leo XIV will preside over Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square at 10.00.
The speakers were Professor Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Lie – coordinator of families during the meeting; Professor Orietta Rachele Grazioli, lecturer of “Canon and comparative family law” at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences – deputy coordinator of experts during the meeting; and the Reverend Fr. Giacomo Costa, S.J., consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod, responsible for methodology during the meeting.
The following are their interventions:
Intervention by Professor Gabriella Gambino
Good morning,
Ten years on from the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Lætitia, the Holy Father Leo XIV has convened a meeting at the Vatican from 7 to 14 October 2026 with the Heads of the Eastern Churches and the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences from around the world. Around 248 bishops will be present, along with a number of families and experts.
Why this meeting? As announced in the Message of 19 March 2026, it is his wish “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 Lætitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches” (Leo XIV, Message on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Lætitia, 19 March 2026).
Ten years is a significant time to pause and reflect, and to listen to the bishops regarding the path that the local Churches are following with families. Our times are marked by rapid cultural and social changes, which make it increasingly difficult for families to live out and pass on the faith. In increasingly secularized societies, young people need to discover the beauty of the vocation to marriage so that they may live out their conjugal love in Christ, bear witness to it and pass it on to their children, and thus be part of a living Church. (cf. Leo XIV, Message on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Lætitia, 19 March 2026).
Certainly, the reality of family ministry across the five continents is more complex than ever and faces diverse situations and challenges regarding marriage and the family. Everywhere, however, the Church is aware of the irreplaceable role of the family in nourishing the life of the Church itself and in building societies that respect the human person. Families capable of passing on the faith are needed today so that tomorrow we may have a Church capable of nurturing vocations and evangelizing the world in a grassroots manner.
The title of the meeting, chosen by the Holy Father, expresses this awareness very clearly. The first part, “ten years after Amoris Lætitia”, refers to the Apostolic Exhortation that has guided the work of the Episcopal Conferences over recent years. The tenth anniversary serves as the starting point for our reflection, but at the heart of the meeting lies what is expressed in the second part of the title: “proclaiming the Gospel with families today”. The fundamental question, therefore, is how to vigorously renew pastoral care and involve families ever more deeply in the life and mission of the Church.
This question is necessary because, despite the path set out by the Second Vatican Council and by Amoris Lætitia, in many ecclesial contexts the family still risks being regarded today as a passive recipient of pastoral care: merely a sector of pastoral ministry entrusted to a committee in a parish or diocese. At a time of widespread de-Christianization, the Holy Father Leo XIV has repeatedly urged us to ensure that evangelization truly becomes an ecclesial endeavour, in which pastors and families feel jointly responsible and participate together in the proclamation of the Gospel (cf. Leo XIV, Message to the participants in the Seminar “Evangelising with the families of today and tomorrow. Ecclesiological and Pastoral Challenges”, 28 May 2025, published on 2 June 2025; Message for the 100th World Mission Day, 25 January 2026, no. 2).
I would also like to emphasize that the need for this direct consultation with the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences has emerged over the past ten years through dialogue with the bishops during their ad limina visits. For some time now, they have been expressing concern about the difficulties encountered in pastoral work and the challenges families face in their relationships and daily lives.
Some statistics, moreover, help to illustrate the scale of the cultural changes taking place: in Poland, the number of church weddings celebrated over the last five years has fallen by 45 per cent. In Australia, between 1970 and 2024, the figure dropped from 88 per cent to 16 per cent. These are signs which, across diverse contexts, highlight the urgent need to accompany the decision to marry and to provide more decisive support for the transmission of the faith within the family.
But what do we mean by “family ministry” when we accompany families? This question runs through the Church’s entire reflection on the family and her commitment to it. Amoris Lætitia has reaffirmed, following on from Familiaris Consortio, that Christian families, by virtue of the grace of the sacrament of marriage, are the primary subjects of family pastoral care. (Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Lætitia, 19 March 2016, no. 200).
This pastoral care should begin long before marriage and accompany people throughout their lives: the upbringing of children, the questions of young people, the decision to marry, the early years of married life, difficult times and moments of crisis.
The starting point for family pastoral care should be a question of vocation. The Holy Father said this to young people in Spain: “Marriage is also a vocation. Do not be afraid of marriage and starting a family!” (Leo XIV, Madrid, Plaza de Lima, 6 June 2026, Address at the Prayer Vigil with Young People).
It is an invitation that appeals to us too: family pastoral care begins when we help a young man or woman to view their own life as a calling.
Today we need a fresh perspective and a way of thinking capable of embracing the different stages of family life.
We all experience this: the Christian message in its fullness does not always reach children, young people and parents, who face growing difficulties in living out their Christian vocation, and this happens in every country in the world. As the Holy Father has reminded us once again, a faith that is lived out and ever more deeply rooted in families is key to addressing many of the crises that the Church and society are currently facing. (cf. Leo XIV, Address to the Bishops of the French Episcopal Conference, Lourdes, “Sainte-Bernadett”’ Auditorium at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, 27 September 2026).
For this reason, the proposed thematic programme, which will be presented to you, follows the various stages of family life, from proclaiming the vocation to marriage to young people, to accompanying families in times of difficulty.
Why is the meeting addressed only to the Heads of the Eastern Churches and the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, and not also to those responsible for family ministry?
Because they are entrusted with the responsibility of promoting and supporting pastoral work in their respective countries and local Churches. They have first-hand knowledge of the changes affecting families and the difficulties they face; they know which issues require greater attention and can share experiences and proposals. This is why the Holy Father wishes to listen to them directly and engage in dialogue with them as part of the discernment process.
Alongside the Heads of the Churches, a number of families will be present, chosen by certain bishops with due regard for geographical diversity. Among them, five couples will share their testimonies, which will form part of the listening process over the coming days. We will not disclose their names out of discretion and to safeguard the privacy of their personal and family testimonies.
Thus, for seven days, through prayer, mutual listening and dialogue, the participants will seek to identify the steps to be taken so that the Church may continue to proclaim the Gospel to families and with families today.
Thank you.
Intervention by Professor Orietta Rachele Grazioli
As Pope Leo XIV recalled in his letter of 19 March, announcing the event in which we will be involved from 7 to 14 October: “Our times are 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”.[1]
In this vein, the tenth anniversary of Amoris Lætitia represents a fruitful opportunity to focus ever more closely on the family as a vital setting and agent of evangelization. The post-synodal apostolic exhortation is a tool entrusted to the Church ten years ago as part of a journey that began long ago, as Pope Leo highlighted on the tenth anniversary, recalling its roots in the Second Vatican Council and in Familiaris Consortio (itself a Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation), which is now celebrating its 45th anniversary, a journey that continually progresses and unfolds in an ever-more-rapidly changing context.
Ten years is a time of transformation and rapid growth, especially today, but it is also a sufficiently long period to allow us to observe and listen to the constants and emerging contexts, as well as the pastoral creativity born of the entire text of Amoris Lætitia, obviously in different ways depending on the regions of the world.
The creativity of many families, as demonstrated over these ten years, helps both them and the Church as a whole in the missionary task of proclamation and witness: one cannot evangelize without engaging with the various contexts in which families live and operate, and with the gifts of Grace received in the sacrament of marriage.
It is not a matter of assessing a text, but of exploring more deeply the family and pastoral realities that have breathed life into this text in unique ways, just as the life of the Church is unique in the various parts of the world where she is present and rooted in the one Gospel.
Hence the approach chosen by the Holy Father for this meeting, in which two key words complement one another: listening and discernment. The Heads of the Eastern Churches, the Presidents of the national Episcopal Conferences, families and experts are asked to engage in mutual listening and to reflect on the insights it evokes, and to undertake synodal discernment regarding what steps have been taken and what remains to be done today, so that the Church may proclaim the Gospel with and to families in a changing world.
In this sense, the thematic programme is structured around the five themes already announced, which offer just a few points for listening and dialogue, corresponding to various aspects of the proclamation of the Gospel regarding marriage and the family – namely themes 2, 3 and 4: specifically, Theme 2 “Young people and the discovery of the vocation to marriage”, Theme 3 “Married life. The early years of marriage: a decisive time”, and Theme 4: “In the difficulties of life: accompanying and supporting”. Themes 1 and 5, which open and close the session, are devoted to the social and ecclesial context: Theme 1, “Families today: reality, beauty and challenges”, and Theme 5, “Christian families, agents of the Church’s mission”, which need to be contextualized. In this regard, the role of the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences will be crucial; in their leadership roles, they will give voice to the various local contexts. They will place themselves in a position to listen to families, experts and their brother bishops, so that they may grow together in a process of deep discernment.
The same task of listening and discernment will, in fact, also fall to the experts, who will make their specific expertise (theological, sociological, pastoral, canonical), their skills and their contexts available to all participants, in order to give voice to and summarise the issues that emerge from each person’s discernment.
It will be important to take note, as Pope Leo urged in his letter of 19 March, of the changes which, in the various local and ecclesial contexts, “continue to impact families” [2] and how families can, within those specific and concrete realities, participate in the mission of the Church
The objective is set out by the Pontiff himself when he states that the meeting is being convened “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 Læetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches”.[3]
With regard to the manner in which the meeting will take place and the requirements set out by Pope Leo in the convocation, where he observed: “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” [4], there are no expected or foreseeable outcomes at present, because it will be through listening, individual responses, mutual exchange and synodal discernment that the issues deemed most relevant in the various contexts will emerge.
If we were to speak of a hope, it would be to weave together all those threads that listening and mutual dialogue will create, so that every single local context represented may take a step forward on the journey to support the family as the “salt of the earth”: a step that will be neither small nor great, but will certainly be possible and concrete according to each context’s own reality and according to what resonates within each person first, and then in the assembly’s synthesis.
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[1] Leo XIV, Message of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Lætitia, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/pont-messages/2026/documents/20260319-messaggio-amorislaetitia.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
Intervention by the Reverend Fr. Giacomo Costa S.J.
I would like to focus briefly on the method of the Meeting, bearing in mind that the method is closely linked to its objective.
We can regard this Meeting, in a sense, as a sort of evaluation assembly. It is an expression we are using during the implementation phase of the 2021–2024 Synod. A synodal process, in fact, does not end with the approval of a Document. A Document is not the end point: it must become part of the life of the Church and allow itself to be tested by experience. The Churches are called to translate its guidelines into their various contexts, to experiment with different approaches, to assess their fruits and difficulties, and then to come together to reflect on what has been experienced. In this perspective, evaluation does not mean passing judgement on the text – whether to praise or criticise it – but to learn from the experience gained since its publication, in order to recognize where the Spirit is leading the Church and what new steps He is asking us to take. This is the rationale behind the evaluation assemblies planned as part of the Synod’s implementation process up to 2028. But it is also an approach that is becoming increasingly widespread in the life of the Church at all levels: within the bodies of the Holy See, in the Episcopal Conferences and in many other ecclesial assemblies. Coming together, listening to people’s experiences, re-examining them together and identifying the next steps is increasingly becoming the standard way of proceeding.
Ten years on from the publication of Amoris Lætitia, we intend to do something similar, naturally in the specific format of this Meeting. It is not, first and foremost, a matter of commenting on the Exhortation once again, but of re-examining a story: what Amoris Lætitia has set in motion in the life of the Churches and families, what we have learnt, the difficulties encountered, and the new questions that have arisen. Telling this story is in itself a way of understanding it: through the narrative, transformations, fruits and questions emerge that a mere assessment of the text’s application might fail to recognize. Ten years on, the question is not what Amoris Lætitia says, but what we have learnt by seeking to live it out. The aim set out by Pope Leo XIV is to proceed, through mutual listening, to a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken today to proclaim the Gospel with families.
The composition of the Assembly also reflects this objective. All the Episcopal Conferences and the Eastern Churches will be represented; only in very few cases, due to objective difficulties, will the President be replaced by a delegate. As Dr. Gambino has already mentioned, families, bishops and experts from various cultural and ecclesial contexts will also be present.
This same approach shapes the programme of work. Following the proclamation of the Word and the opening addresses, the early afternoon will be devoted to a time of reflection and prayer, led by Sr. Helen Alford, OP. This is a way of setting the tone for the Meeting right from the start: it is not enough simply to gather information and compare positions; we must be open to listening to the Word, to one another, and to what the Spirit may bring to light through dialogue. Prayer, therefore, will not merely serve as a backdrop to the proceedings: it is part of the method by which we will work. Prayer and silence will also accompany the following days.
During the five thematic days already outlined by Professor Grazioli, contributions from families, bishops and experts will offer diverse experiences and perspectives; the main focus, however, will be on the participants’ work.
In the working groups, we will use Conversation in the Spirit, alternating between speaking, listening and silence. Through three rounds – sharing each person’s experience, reflecting on what has been heard from others, and jointly exploring what has emerged – participants will seek to highlight points of convergence, as well as differences, tensions, unresolved issues and possible steps to be taken. We shall not seek to erase differences in order to reach a consensus: even a better-understood divergence can be a fruit of listening. Each group will present a brief report to the Assembly, which will be taken up and explored in greater depth during the plenary dialogue. This Meeting is not a Synod, of course, but it consciously adopts the method developed through the synodal experience of recent years and now tried and tested by many participants within their own Churches.
The fruits of the five days will be compiled into a summary report of the journey undertaken. This is not a new Final Document replacing the Apostolic Exhortation, but a summary of what the Assembly has recognized through listening and discernment. A commission, which will also include representatives from the Assembly, will ensure that the text faithfully reflects what has emerged; the report will then be discussed by the Assembly itself before being entrusted to the Holy Father. This, too, is an expression of a synodal method.
The summary report, whilst being a working document, will also be made public. In any case, the work will not end with the report. The Presidents will be able to take what has emerged back to their respective Episcopal Conferences and, together with them, promote the appropriate steps in the various contexts. This is also why they have been invited: they have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote these processes within the Churches of their countries.
And here we return to the meaning of an evaluation. After ten years, we do not simply wish to measure the gap between a text and its implementation. We wish to listen to what the experience of the Churches and families enables us to understand better today: what has come to fruition, what remains difficult, which questions we cannot avoid, and which steps we are called to take. For this reason, the true outcome of the Meeting will not be the report we produce, but the processes it will set in motion within the Churches.
