Pope Leo XIV leads a prayer Oct. 7, 2026, as he opens the weeklong Vatican meeting of presidents of bishops\u2019 conferences marking the 10th anniversary of \u201cAmoris Laetitia\u201d (\u201cThe Joy of Love\u201d). In his opening remarks, the pope spoke about the pastoral responsibility of the Church to find renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, offering sacramental graces and accompanying families today. (OSV News photo\/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPope Leo asked the bishops from across the world to reflect on what kind of Church people encounter precisely when they are most fragile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holy Spirit often speaks through the very situations that challenge us, and enlightens us that we may discover how God\u2019s mercy and 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,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur task, therefore, is not only to interpret these realities but to let them question us and motivate our pastoral responsibility, so that the Church may find renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, offering sacramental graces, accompanying families, and making visible the tenderness with which Christ continues to walk among his people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bishops\u2019 family summit is divided into five daily themes for discussion, ranging from discerning the vocation to marriage to accompanying and supporting the difficulties of life. Families from five continents will also share their testimonies with the bishops.<\/p>\n
In his opening speech, Pope Leo reminded bishops not to speak to the press, asking them to \u201cpreserve the discretion and confidentiality that this time of listening and discernment requires.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the meeting is taking place behind closed doors, the Oct. 7 opening session was broadcast via livestream by Vatican Media and the final day of the meeting on Oct. 14 will include a closing Mass in St. Peter\u2019s Square and the publication of a final synthesis document of the week\u2019s discussions.<\/p>\n
The afternoon opening session on Oct. 7 featured a meditation by Dominican Sister Helen Alford, the president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who reflected on how the Gospel account of the Samaritan woman at the well is a biblical example of someone living in \u201ca fragile and irregular family situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alford said that this woman\u2019s encounter with Jesus, which never would have taken place if it were not for her irregular family situation, ends with the unnamed woman becoming \u201cnot only the first public evangelist, but also, despite her disrepute, and perhaps precisely because of it, a very effective evangelist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA story that is more connected with proclaiming the Gospel to and through a person in a fragile family situation, with all the beauty that this story holds, could hardly be imagined,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The sister urged the bishops to search for ways to \u201cencourage young people to take up the great challenge of marriage and family life, embracing it in the full knowledge that they will experience great fragility as part of the process of realizing its beauty, and that in that fragility, they will find new and unexpected sources of God\u2019s grace and experience a desire for holiness that is their very own.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us join Jesus in calling them to rise to the challenge, like Jesus called the Samaritan woman, of proclaiming the Gospel to others, precisely in the recognition of their fragility, so as to call others to join them in trusting in God\u2019s grace and in experiencing the Christian desire for holiness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The bishops\u2019 meeting is jointly organized by the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life and the General Secretariat for the Synod. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the family dicastery, and Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, sat at Pope Leo\u2019s right and left respectively as the pope delivered his opening remarks.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo encouraged all the bishops participating in the meeting to listen to one another, adding that \u201cremaining attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit can awaken the pastoral creativity we need in the face of new questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMay 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n
![](\"https:\/\/thedialog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/21085440\/Padua-9-18-26-Digital-L-Board-1.png\"\/)
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/thedialog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SITS.Leaderboard.png\"\/)
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\nkabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Leo XIV leads a prayer Oct. 7, 2026, as he opens the weeklong Vatican…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thedialog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/08122139\/20261007T1509-BISHOPS-FAMILY-MEETING-BEGINS-1827913-scaled.jpg\" "\\"POPE")
<\/a>