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Pope Leo Invites Church Leaders to Discuss Francis's Divisive Document
Confirmed
In Short: ROME — Ten years after Pope Francis issued the controversial document Amoris Laetitia, Pope Leo XIV is inviting church leaders to Rome to discuss its implementation.
ROME — Ten years after Pope Francis issued the controversial document Amoris Laetitia, Pope Leo XIV is inviting church leaders to Rome to discuss its implementation.
The document, released in 2016, sparked significant controversy within the Catholic Church, particularly for its suggestion that civilly remarried Catholics could receive Communion under certain conditions.
Vatican officials emphasized that the upcoming meeting, scheduled for Oct. 7-14, is not intended to rewrite or amend Francis’s document but rather to assess its impact.
Father Giacomo Costa, of the Vatican’s synod office, said the meeting is an opportunity to evaluate the current status of the document’s implementation.
Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary in the Vatican’s family office, noted that the discussion will be driven by the bishops’ reflections and experiences.
Vatican officials stressed that the meeting is not a continuation of the synod that led to the document’s creation, but rather an assessment of its impact.
The document covers a range of issues related to ministering to families today, but its suggestion that civilly remarried Catholics could receive Communion on a case-by-case basis has been particularly divisive.
Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France, where he drew large crowds, highlighted the church’s efforts to attract new members, particularly young adults.
In France, a rise in adult conversions has led church officials to view the country as a potential harbinger of a larger Catholic revival.
Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of creating a welcoming environment and better forming catechists to support new Catholics.
He also called for ongoing accompaniment of new Catholics to avoid a sense of isolation after their initial formation courses.
What this adds
The meeting in Rome is not intended to rewrite or amend Francis’s document but rather to assess its impact.
Background
Pope Leo XIV honored St. Francis of Assisi during a Sunday address in St. Peter’s Square, marking the eighth centenary of the saint’s death.
What's confirmed
- Mostly conservative Catholics said it had sown confusion among the faithful about the church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.
- On Friday, Vatican officials said it would be up to the 187 participants whether specific points of Francis’s document would be discussed and how, insisting there was no prewritten final document.
- “We can’t foresee what themes will emerge from the bishops’ reflections, from their experiences,” said Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary in the Vatican’s family office, which is organizing the meeting.
- Father Giacomo Costa, of the Vatican’s synod office, said the Oct. 7-14 meeting was not a continuation of the synod on the family that provided the consultation leading to Francis’s text or a chance to rewrite it.
- “This is not a continuation of the synod itself, but rather an opportunity to assess where we stand,” he told a Vatican briefing.
- “We don’t want to arrive at an artificial consensus,” he said, though he added a final summary was expected to be published.
- (Credit: Gregorio Borgia/AP.) ROME — Ten years after Pope Francis sent shock waves through the Catholic Church with his outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Leo XIV is inviting church leaders to Rome next week to understand how Francis’s document has been implemented.
- Vatican officials on Friday stressed that Francis’s 2016 text Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) isn’t up for rewriting, amending or scrapping.
- Francis’s document covers a host of issues relating to how the Catholic Church can better minister to families today.
- But when it was released after a yearslong consultation, Amoris Laetitia immediately sparked controversy because it opened the door to letting civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.
- RELATED: Footnotes and tea leaves with Pope Leo and Amoris Laetitia Francis didn’t create a church-wide pass for these Catholics, but suggested — in vague terms and a single, strategically placed footnote — that bishops and priests could do so on a case-by-case basis after accompanying them on a spiritual journey of discernment.
- Subsequent comments and writings made clear Francis intended such wiggle room, part of his belief that God’s mercy extends in particular to sinners and that the Eucharist isn’t a prize for the perfect but nourishment for the weak.
What's still developing
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- Though international pop star Céline Dion was touring through Paris the same nights as the pope, Leo drew a bigger crowd and a fervor tantamount to that of a rockstar at the Stade de France, inciting passionate cheers and more than a few teary eyes from the spectators.
- But Leo told the young people present, "You are the saints of France!"
- The pope's visit sent a message to the country's young Catholics "to not hesitate to say 'yes, I am Catholic' and to show one's faith rather than hide it away," said Elisabeth de Petiville, a 21-year-old student in Paris who attended the vigil.
- Louis-Gonzague Deyrieux, a 28-year-old student at the Catholic seminary of Paris, said that throughout France young people are "disappointed by the spiritual propositions in France and by the world, and so they are entering the church."
- Louis-Gonzague Deyrieux, a 28-year-old student at the Catholic seminary of Paris, poses for a photo at a prayer vigil presided over by Pope Leo XIV in Saint-Denis, France, Sept. 25, 2026. (NCR photo/Justin McLellan) But counter to the narrative anecdotally spread in the United States that young people are being drawn particularly to a more traditional form of Catholicism, "in France, there are traditional Masses and charismatic Masses, there are a lot of options, and so young people are looking, and they aren't judging, and they're choosing where they find Jesus," Deyrieux told NCR.
- At the Catholic University of Paris Sept. 26, Leo said that through the new Catholics entering the church, "the community of believers can renew its own journey of faith and experience the joy of the Gospel in a new way."
- Leo, however had his own recommendations, calling for the church to create a more welcoming environment, better form catechists and accompany new Catholics even after they join the church to avoid the "post-baptismal emptiness" of feeling alone once they complete their initial formation courses.
- "We must respect each person's pace, proceeding gradually and carefully with fraternal accompaniment," he said.
- 25, 2026, as part of the pope's four-day apostolic journey to France.
- Although the number of infant baptisms continues to slide in historically Catholic France, a rise in adults seeking to join the church has led church officials, including the pope, to look to the country famous for its policy state-sanctioned laïcité, or secularism, as a harbinger of a larger Catholic revival.