The Pope convened the chairmen of the Bishops' Conference and other officials to discuss family matters.

On March 19, 2014, Pope Leo X will release an exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (Latin for "love in the family"). The exhortation was inspired by meeting of the Synod of Bishops that took place in 2014 and 2015, making it 10-years old this year. Pope Leo XIV praised the exhortation as a “Shining light of hope for those with questions or concerns about marital love, and the Family.”

According to His Holiness the Pope, the 2016 Exhortation “has encouraged reflection and pastoral change within the Church” and “includes many insights worth contemplating today.” He has called for an upcoming meeting in October. His Holiness observed that we live in a time of “rapid change” — especially regarding families.

In response to these developments, the Pope has declared his intention to gather the presidents of Bishops’ Conferences for a meeting in Rome in October 2026.

The Pope noted that it will be an opportunity for "mutual listening" and "to undertake a synodal discernment with respect to necessary actions for the proclamation of the Gospel to contemporary families taking into account Amoris Laetitia and with respect to current initiatives being carried out in the local Church."

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In letters written by Pope Leo, Amoris Laetitia was defined as two of apostolic exhortations since the Second Vatican Council that “reaffirm the Church’s theological and pastoral commitment” to support families, the other being Familiaris Consortio by Pope John Paul II published in 1981.

According to Pope Leo, Pope Francis acknowledges that "the whole people of God" must engage in "mutual listening" as they navigate the changing "anthropological and cultural," which is affecting them all, particularly with respect to the family. This understanding led Pope Leo to hold the Synods of Bishops on this topic and, ultimately, to produce Amoris Laetitia.

According to Pope Leo, Pope Francis observed that: It isn't possible to have a meaningful conversation about the family unless you engage the family in the conversation and take into account their joys, hopes and happinesses, as well as their sorrows and pain.

He acknowledged and thanked God for the inspiration that has led to contemplative and spiritual renewal in the Church. He emphasized that the family is the basis of society and that it is also the source of "educational enhancement for humanity," which is found in the Second Vatican Council Document's Gaudium et Spes.

"The Pope stated that Christian spouses, through the sacrament of marriage, establish a type of 'domestic church,' which plays a crucial role in educating and passing on the faith.

Nonetheless he said, over the last several decades the world has changed tremendously and therefore in 2015, Pope Francis invited the Synod of Bishops to listen to the Holy Spirit along with families hopes, joys, sorrows, and struggles.

Announcing the principles of family life to the younger generations.

According to Pope Leo, Amoris Laetitia offers deep engagement with the idea that God loves and is merciful to people through their families, even when they are going through something difficult; the need formarriage to always create life as a desire of God’s creation; and the demand for new ways of providing family support so that parents have help to care for children and experience the depth of spirit within the family.

He encouraged the Church to look for new ways to "highlight how lovely marriage is with an understanding and acceptance of its weak points" so that we can fulfill the Church's role of teaching the Gospel of Family to future generations through their own experiences.

He stated, "It is imperative that we provide support to families, particularly those enduring the various manifestations of poverty and violence that exist in today's society.

The letter sent by Pope Leo XIV discusses Amoris Laetitia as a call for the Church’s re-dedication to the family and to helping married couples live out their “full experience of the conjugal love” that God has called them to have, while at the same time, encouraging young people to recognize the splendour of the vocation of marriage as an important part of being a Christian in the Church today and in the future.

Amoris Laetitia, said Pope Leo, offers valuable teachings on the biblical hope of God’s loving and merciful presence amid family crises; the call for marriage to always give life within the family; and the need for contemporary pastoral methods that help parents educate children and find depth of spirituality in their family life.

He called on the Church to find new ways to “evoke the beauty of the vocation to marriage precisely in the recognition of fragility,” so as to serve the mission of proclaiming the Gospel of the family to younger generations.

“We must also support families, especially those suffering from the many forms of poverty and violence present in contemporary society,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV concluded his letter onAmoris Laetitiaby urging the Church to renew and deepen her commitment to the family, so that married couples may “fully live out their conjugal love, and that young people may feel attracted, within the Church, to the beauty of the vocation to marriage.”