Vatican plans October conference on Amoris Laetitia as synodal implementation advances

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Vatican plans October conference on Amoris Laetitia as synodal implementation advances
The General Secretariat of the Synod approved an implementation roadmap for 2026, 

with June and October gatherings set to advance the controversial synodal process worldwide.



Synod on Synodality members during the 2023 season, in the Paul VI Hall, Vatican City
Michael Haynes

Apr 22, 2026
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican has approved plans for two major gatherings tied to the Synod on Synodality’s implementation, including a conference on the family in light of Amoris laetitia – Pope Francis’ 2016 controversial document challenging the teaching on Communion for the divorced and “remarried.”

On April 17, the General Secretariat of the Synod convened online and approved the general structure of a draft document for the implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality, while also announcing two forthcoming meetings – one from June 23-25 and another from October 7-14 – intended to prepare “continental evaluation assemblies” planned for early 2028 and to facilitate future consultation with bishops worldwide “on the theme of the family in the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia.”

Details of the program were officially announced by the General Secretariat of the Synod and the Vatican’s official press organ, L’Osservatore Romano, only three days after the meeting, on April 20.

The online meeting was opened with a moment of prayer led by Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, rather than by Secretary General Cardinal Mario Grech, who was present at the event.

Soon after, Grech outlined the next steps in the synodal process. First, Grech announced a meeting from June 23 to 25 “to prepare the continental evaluation assemblies scheduled for the first quarter of 2028.”

Pope Leo XIV will take part in one session of the proceedings.

The participants will include a representative of the Council of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, the presidents of the continental episcopal conferences, and the presidents of two national episcopal conferences, namely those of the United States and Canada.

These “continental evaluation assemblies” are expected to be meetings in which participants will assess whether and how the synodal process has been implemented in their respective regions of the world, in order to understand how to correct or further develop what has been done so far.

These meetings will take place almost simultaneously with the extraordinary consistory that Pope Leo XIV has planned in Rome for June 26-27, during which the cardinals are expected to discuss issues of particular interest to the Pontiff, including the liturgy, the governance of local Churches, evangelization, and the Church’s “synodal conversion.”

Grech then announced the next step in the program of synodal implementation. As Pope Leo XIV had already announced on March 19, a conference will be held in the Vatican from October 7 to 14 with the presidents of the bishops’ conferences from around the world to determine how to implement family pastoral care in the light of Amoris laetitia.

Preparations for the event have been entrusted by the Pope to the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, with a request for “organizational and methodological support” from the General Secretariat of the Synod. The dicastery is led by Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, one of the most active exponents of Bergoglianism, and known – among other things – for having publicly praised Father James Martin’s 2017 book calling for the building of bridges with LGBT communities.

It is not clear whether the presidents of regional, national, and/or continental episcopal conferences will take part.

Amoris laetitia, one of the most controversial documents of the Francis pontificate, represents a rupture within Church teaching by initiating a doctrinal shift in the way the moral standing of so-called “irregular” couples is assessed – couples cohabiting more uxorio, divorced and civilly “remarried,” and same‑sex “couples.”

As stated in L’Osservatore Romano, “the note [from the General Secretariat of the Synod] specifies that this is not a synodal assembly, but a consultation meeting of the Bishop of Rome with the presidents of the episcopal conferences.”

The third point of the meeting concerned the presentation and the approval “in its general structure” of a document drafted by the Jesuit Giacomo Costa, a consultant of the General Secretariat and special secretary of the XVI Assembly of the Synod, regarding the “path of implementation of the Synod.” The document will be published, after revision by the Ordinary Council, “by the beginning of the summer.”