Vatican publishes Preparatory Document for October Meeting on 'Amoris Laetitia'

Vatican, July 7, 2026: The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, together with the General Secretariat of the Synod, has released the Thematic Framework, the Preparatory Document for the Meeting convened by Pope Leo XIV, which will take place in the Vatican from 7–14 October 2026. The gathering will bring together the Heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences.

The document has been sent to the Heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris and the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, while also being made publicly available today.

The Thematic Framework has been prepared to guide and support the work of the Meeting that Pope Leo XIV will hold with Church leaders in the Vatican from 7 to 14 October 2026.

The Holy Father first announced the Meeting in his message of 19 March 2026, issued to mark the tenth anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia

Recognising the continuing changes affecting families across the world, Pope Leo XIV expressed 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 laetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches.”

At the conclusion of the extraordinary Consistory on 27 June, the Pope once again highlighted the importance of the family, saying: “Where the family is supported and accompanied, there grows a school of relationships, solidarity and hope; where it is wounded or isolated, the whole of society bears the consequences.”

During the same occasion, he also announced that several families would participate in the Meeting, sharing their own lived experiences.

During the gathering in Rome, bishops from around the world will reflect on the themes outlined in the Thematic Framework and listen carefully to one another. The aim is that, upon returning to their local Churches, they will renew, together with families, a shared pastoral commitment to supporting the family, human life and the vocation to marriage.

The Meeting is intended to offer a genuine opportunity for encounter, listening and discernment by welcoming the lived experiences of families, sharing practical testimonies, reflecting on pastoral initiatives through which the Church accompanies families, and engaging in dialogue with experts.

To support this process, the Episcopal Conferences and the Eastern Catholic Churches are invited to begin reflecting on the proposed themes in the months leading up to the Meeting, placing particular emphasis on listening to families within their local Churches.

The journey is therefore deeply pastoral, placing families at its centre not only as recipients of the Church’s pastoral care but also as active participants in her mission, through whom the Gospel is lived out in daily relationships, decisions, struggles and hope.

Although the gathering is not an Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, it will follow a synodal style because, as Pope Leo XIV stated at the conclusion of the Consistory, it shares the spirit of the Synod’s implementation process, characterised by listening, prayer and discernment.

Courtesy : Vatican News