Pope on Amoris laetitia: What Church do people meet when most fragile?

By Isabella H. de Carvalho

Ten years after the publication of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation on love in the family, Amoris laetitia, the time has come to share what has emerged from this document in the Church across the world so that the Church can renew her commitment to accompany families with the challenges and fragilities they face today, said Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday, October 7.

“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 event is taking place in the Paul VI Audience Hall on October 7-14. It features plenary sessions, group work, prayer times and more. The proceedings will end with Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV and will also produce a summary report with what has emerged in these days. 

Pope Leo during the meeting “Ten years after Amoris laetitia”   (VATICAN MEDIA)

Family as point of entry for economic, political questions  

In Pope noted that his predecessors and the Church “have continued along the path indicated by the Second Vatican Council,” by 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 continues to be key “to an approach that holds together the local and the global, guided by the search for a universal fraternity in Christ,” those gathered at the meeting have an important responsibility, the Pope explained.  

Centrality of families in fulfilling Church’s mission

Within this path that the Church has walked in its pastoral concern towards the family and marriage, “Amoris Laetitia marked an important stage,” Pope Leo reflected. He encouraged all those gathered to share the stories, fruits and questions that have emerged over the last ten years in the local Churches as a result of this document.

In his March 19 message calling for this 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.”

Advertisement

“Amoris laetitia invites us to take seriously this vocation and responsibility,” he insisted.

The Paul VI Audience Hall   (VATICAN MEDIA)

“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

In this regard, the Pope 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 means accompanying people in their lives but also listening. “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

The Pope then reflected on many questions that have emerged that “deserve to be faced with courage,” such as 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.”

In this regard, he asked a series of questions that need to be faced such “what are people truly seeking beneath these cultural changes?”, “What do their joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties reveal to us?” or “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?”

The participants to the meeting “Ten years after Amoris laetitia”   (VATICAN MEDIA)

Special attention needs to be given to fragility

The Pope pointed out that an important element to focus on is “fragility,” as it strongly shapes peoples’ lives and 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 emphasized.

He highlighted that families can teach something to all as fragility is common to our 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.

Advertisement

In this regard, he asked another series of questions that the Church needs to reflect on to help 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?”

Pope Leo during the meeting   (VATICAN MEDIA)

Listening to each other and Holy Spirit

The Pope called on the participants to “give such questions their full weight,” allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to them even through situations that may challenge them, in order to see 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 manner, the Church can find renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, the Pope underscored, noting also the diversity of situations which can be a gift for the discernment of the whole Church. He also asked that “discretion and confidentiality” may be preserved during these days. 

“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.