Pope Leo opens Vatican bishops’ meeting calling attention to the ‘fragility of families’

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV opened a Vatican meeting of the world’s bishops’ conference presidents and the heads of Eastern Catholic churches marking the 10th anniversary of “Amoris Laetitia” Oct. 7, saying “the beauty and fragility of families” today will be at the heart of the week’s discussions.

“During these days dedicated to prayer and reflection, we intend to place the beauty and fragility of families at the heart of our journey,” Pope Leo prayed as he opened the meeting in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

“Together, we seek to discern the direction in which the Holy Spirit is guiding us, so as to recognize, support, and promote the work He is already accomplishing within them and to value their precious contribution to the mission of the Church.”

The Oct. 7-14 closed-door meeting of bishops, convened by Pope Leo, is focused on marriage and family and marks the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love.”

Speaking in English from one of the many round tables in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall around which more than 150 bishops were seated, the pope encouraged the bishops to face the questions raised by the lived experience of families today, paying special attention to fragile situations.

Pope Leo pointed to the growing distance in many contexts “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,” he added.

The pope said that faith can enlighten all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness and at times even apparent failure, noting that the gap between the good we desire and what we are able to live is a reminder of the need for “grace, forgiveness and new beginnings to accomplish God’s will.”

“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 said

Pope Leo asked the bishops from across the world to reflect on what kind of Church people encounter precisely when they are most fragile.

“The Holy Spirit often speaks through the very situations that challenge us, and enlightens us that we may discover how God’s 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,” the pope said.

“Our 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.”

The bishops’ 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.

In his opening speech, Pope Leo reminded bishops not to speak to the press, asking them to “preserve the discretion and confidentiality that this time of listening and discernment requires.”

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’s Square and the publication of a final synthesis document of the week’s discussions.

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 “a fragile and irregular family situation.”

Alford said that this woman’s encounter with Jesus, which never would have taken place if it were not for her irregular family situation, ends with the unnamed woman becoming “not only the first public evangelist, but also, despite her disrepute, and perhaps precisely because of it, a very effective evangelist.”

“A 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,” she said.

The sister urged the bishops to search for ways to “encourage 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’s grace and experience a desire for holiness that is their very own.”

“Let 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’s grace and in experiencing the Christian desire for holiness,” she said.

The bishops’ 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’s right and left respectively as the pope delivered his opening remarks.

Pope Leo encouraged all the bishops participating in the meeting to listen to one another, adding that “remaining attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit can awaken the pastoral creativity we need in the face of new questions.”

“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,” he said.

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