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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nVATICAN CITY \u2014 The Vatican meeting of the world\u2019s bishops\u2019 conference presidents and the heads of Eastern Catholic churches marking the 10th anniversary of \u201cAmoris Laetitia\u201d concluded on the evening of Oct. 14 with prayers for Pope Leo XIV\u2019s recovery from lung cancer surgery.<\/p>\n
Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, a consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod who helped to organize the meeting, said Oct. 14 that \u201caccompaniment\u201d was one of the key words in the week\u2019s discussions of marriage and family.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the significance of the experience at the event\u2019s final press conference, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, said that he is bringing with him from this meeting \u201ca renewed commitment to put the family at the center of the Church\u2019s pastoral mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201c\u2018Amoris Laetitia\u2019 10 years ago stimulated, provoked, an invitation for pastoral conversion, an attitude of listening to families, before judging, and also discerning situations with \u2026 open hearts, seeking the will of God, but also facilitating the meeting with God\u2019s mercy,\u201d Archbishop Scicluna said.<\/p>\n
In the closing session of the Vatican family summit, participants listened to a presentation of the meeting\u2019s synthesis report. Due to the personal request of Pope Leo prior to his surgery, the meeting\u2019s final synthesis report will not be made public until the pope has had time to personally review it. Father Costa said that the pope requested to postpone the meeting\u2019s final report, noting that Pope Leo \u201cwanted to listen to it and be able to offer his own word on it himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will read the fruits of your work and discussions, and offer my reflections in due course,\u201d Pope Leo wrote in a brief message to the participants signed on the day of his surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage you to begin to share with your Episcopal Conferences and Dioceses what you have lived and received, and to continue proclaiming the Gospel with families, drawing on the richness of \u2018Amoris Laetitia,’\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
The bishops, patriarchs, families and experts taking part in the meeting on marriage and family in Paul VI Hall met for more than 42 hours of discussions over the course of Oct. 7 to 14 on topics ranging from cohabitation of young couples to influencers on social media portraying \u201ctraditional\u201d families, often referred to as \u201ctrad wife\u201d culture.<\/p>\n
The topic of annulments, as well as Communion for the divorced and remarried, also came up on Oct. 12, the day that participants devoted to discussing how best to accompany and support families in the difficulties of life, which was overshadowed by Pope Leo\u2019s shocking announcement the day prior that he would be undergoing surgery.<\/p>\n
Addressing participants that morning, U.S. theologian Julie Hanlon Rubio said, \u201cIn preparing for this intervention, I heard heartbreaking stories. One person told me of his elderly mother suffering from dementia who, when offered Eucharist at Mass, shouted, \u2018No!,\u2019 and covered her mouth, because one thing she remembered was that, because her husband of 50 years had been previously married, she was not worthy to receive the Body of Christ,\u201d according to remarks posted on the meeting\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church can offer a challenging vision of marriage as intimate partnership oriented to love and justice that does not require perfection,\u201d she added. \u201cWhether they are single or married, with or without children; whether they are divorced, widowed, or remarried, we can meet them at the door with open arms, tell them that theirs is a challenging and necessary vocation, and assure them they are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the weeklong meeting, delegates reflected on the delicate first years of married life, a point Pope Francis emphasized in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation \u201cAmoris Laetitia.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his address on Oct. 10, Cardinal Jos\u00e9 Cobo Cano of Madrid warned that the Church should \u201cconsider whether we prepared couples more for a wedding ceremony than for married life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is not merely a matter of reviewing contents. It is a question of whether our pastoral care is organized primarily around the planned wedding ceremony or around the human, faith-based and vocation journeys we are called to accompany,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also emphasized the need for pastors to be present at significant moments in the first years of marriage \u201cwithout necessarily turning this accompaniment into a continuous program of meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sacrament has been celebrated, but now the spouses must learn to build and put roots in their married life. They must build a \u2018we\u2019 without erasing the \u2018I\u2019 and the \u2018you,\u2019\u201d Cardinal Cobo said.<\/p>\n
Following the intense work during the first days of the meeting, Oct. 11 was scheduled as a recess. However, Pope Leo\u2019s surgery announcement during his Sunday Angelus address shifted the pre-programmed schedule and shocked the participants.<\/p>\n
Reconvening on Oct. 12, while under the weight of Pope Leo\u2019s impending surgery, the bishops and patriarchs reflected on the challenges faced by families in difficult situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmoris Laetitia invited us to give priority to listening, to avoid judging too quickly, and to allow ourselves to be surprised by the action of God\u2019s grace in people\u2019s lives,\u201d Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, said in the day\u2019s opening address.<\/p>\n
Filipino Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan described ministering to families affected by extreme hardships, noting that the \u201cfragility of many families is not produced only by personal choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily life can also be wounded by poverty, migration, violence, addiction, imprisonment, injustice and precarious work. These realities can severely limit people\u2019s freedom and their capacity even to approximate the Christian ideal of family life,\u201d Cardinal David said in a video presentation.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the declining numbers of baptisms and marriages, Hanlon highlighted Pope Francis\u2019 call for a pastoral accompaniment that \u201cis ever ready to understand, forgive, accompany, hope, and, above all, integrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an era when influencers on social media show off their seemingly perfect \u2018traditional\u2019 families complete with homemade bread and chickens, Francis\u2019 integration of weakness is crucial,\u201d Hanlon said.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon, before continuing with reports on group discussions, Cardinal Farrell and Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, released a statement confirming that, because of Pope Leo\u2019s surgery, the synthesis report would not be made public; instead, they would present the report and relevant texts to him after his convalescence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will then proceed according to his instructions,\u201d the cardinals said.<\/p>\n
On the meeting\u2019s final day of plenary sessions and group work, Oct. 13, the assembly sent a message to Pope Leo ahead of his surgery in the afternoon, expressing their closeness, affection and prayers for his health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful to you for having wanted this Meeting and for encouraging us to listen to families and to the journeys of our Churches. As we continue our work, we feel your closeness and carry with us your concern for families throughout the world,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s discussions focused on Christian families and their significance in the Church\u2019s mission. In his address, Tanzanian Cardinal Protase Rugambwa of Tabora highlighted the need for couples and families to take \u201con a more active role in the formation of seminarians, deacons, and other pastoral workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe involvement of families as active subjects of pastoral action is supported very much by the concrete experiences they have gained as faithful and committed Christians, which can be utilized not only in their struggle to support the growth of the Church\u2019s mission but also in shaping the formation of those who are called to accompany them,\u201d Cardinal Rugambwa said.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo had been an active participant in the Vatican meeting up until he was admitted to the hospital. During the meeting\u2019s closing Mass the morning following the pope\u2019s surgery, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle read aloud a homily that had been prepared by the pope prior to the operation.<\/p>\n
Cameroonian Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, one of the bishops participating in the meeting, told OSV News that despite the pope\u2019s absence on the meeting\u2019s final days, those present in the assembly \u201cwere not discouraged, but we were very, very strongly united with him in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery morning before we started the meeting, we prayed for his health and for his quick recovery,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really didn\u2019t affect the meeting in the sense that it didn\u2019t kill our spirits, because we have hope in God and trust in his healing power. But at the same time, we missed him in the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank God that it was an early discovery,\u201d Archbishop Nkea said. \u201cSo, we are hoping that he will recover very fast, and he will get back to his duties because the whole world is waiting for him to get well.\u201d<\/p>\n