ROME — Pope Leo XIV summoned Catholic bishops to Rome for a special meeting on ministering to families and wrote a message marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis' 2016 document The Joy of Love. "On this tenth anniversary, we give thanks to the Lord for the stimulus that has encouraged reflection and pastoral conversion in the Church, and ask God for the courage to persevere on this path," Pope Leo XIV said.

The Joy of Love was published in 2016 and sparked controversy by opening the door to letting civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion. Pope Francis suggested in footnote No. 351 that bishops and priests could allow civilly remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments in certain cases after accompanying them on a spiritual journey of discernment. "In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments," Francis wrote.

Church teaching holds that unless civilly remarried Catholics obtain a church annulment declaring their first marriage invalid, they are not permitted to receive the sacraments. Francis also wrote that "the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord's mercy" and "the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak."

Within the first year of its publication, four conservative cardinals formally asked Pope Francis to clarify questions raised by the text. The cardinals argued that church doctrine holds that civilly remarried Catholics without an annulment are living in sin and cannot receive the sacraments. Pope Francis did not reply to the four dubia.

Bishops from Buenos Aires issued criteria for applying Chapter VIII of The Joy of Love that allowed civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion if they were not responsible for their first marriage's failure. Pope Francis ordered the Argentine criteria published as an official act of the Vatican. "The document is excellent and clearly sets out the meaning of Chapter VIII. There are no other interpretations," Francis said.

The Maltese church issued guidelines stating that a Catholic in a new civil union who believes after a path of spiritual discernment that he or she can be at peace with God cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Pope Leo XIV cited Chapter VIII of The Joy of Love in his message without explicitly referring to access to the sacraments or footnote No. 351. Leo summoned the presidents of bishops' conferences to Rome for a meeting in October to decide next steps to minister to families in light of The Joy of Love and current local church practices.