Mental Health Sunday is part of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops' National Catholic Mental Health Campaign and falls on Oct. 11 this year.
Every year, Catholics are invited to pray for those struggling with mental health and reflect on how to better engage the issue, which affects many people around the world, on Mental Health Sunday, which falls on Oct. 11 this year.
Mental Health Sunday is part of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops' (USCCB) National Catholic Mental Health Campaign, a year-round initiative of the U.S. bishops that encourages the faithful to respond and bring awareness to the growing mental health crisis in the country.
While the campaign is a year-round initiative, a special emphasis is placed on the issue Oct. 10–18. During that week, the Novena for Mental Health is prayed. The novena begins on World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10), includes Mental Health Sunday — which takes place on the Sunday that falls within the time frame of the Novena for Mental Health — and ends on the feast of St. Luke (Oct. 18), the patron saint of healthcare.
The novena includes themes related to mental health to reflect on and uses a pray, learn, act structure, which means that each day includes a prayer, a section where participants can learn about mental health issues and about those suffering, and a call to action where participants are encouraged to get involved or do more to spread awareness.
The petitions in the novena include praying for the removal of stigma, the mental health ministry, families, youth and young adults, childhood, the effects of racial discrimination, poverty, suicide awareness, and grief.
In preparation for Mental Health Sunday, parishes and dioceses are being encouraged to launch a mental health resource or provide resources in the narthex after Masses, take part in the novena as a parish community, invite parishioners to bring their petitions about mental health issues to pray as a community, include mental health issues during the Prayer of the Faithful at all Masses, or offer a blessing for those who work in mental health ministries.
The Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, is answering this call through the launch of its Mental Health Ministry, which will be introduced to the diocesan community on Oct. 10. Bishop Earl Fernandes will celebrate Mass at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus and will recognize individuals with mental health challenges, caregivers, and mental health professionals.
Pope Leo XIV also called upon the faithful to join in prayer during the month of October for mental health ministry.
"Melancholy, bad character, confusion of senses — today, we understand that behind these old labels lies a deep, silent suffering not only of those affected by mental disorders but also of their loved ones and their communities," Pope Leo said in a video released Oct. 1 on X.
He added: "We live in a world full of tensions, and even as solutions grow so does the number of people in crisis. This October, let us pray for the mental health ministry — an urgent and ever-more-needed service in our Church and in the world."
In the full video shared on the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recited an original prayer written specifically for this month's prayer intention. The prayer can be found here.
Catholic organizations are participating in efforts to recruit and train poll chaplains, who serve an unofficial peacekeeping role at voting locations.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, people of various faiths are training to serve their communities as poll chaplains — an unofficial role that seeks to offer a peaceful presence at voting locations to ease tensions and ensure every person's voting rights are respected.
Poll chaplains, sometimes called peacekeepers, volunteer outside of polling locations to help provide nonpartisan election information to voters, seek to mediate tensions that arise, and peacefully intervene and document attempts to intimidate voters or infringe on voting rights.
Even though a poll chaplain is not an official Church or government position, Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said during a virtual conference in late September that Catholics should be proactive in the democratic process, which includes the protection of voting rights with the help of nonpartisan poll watchers and poll chaplains.
We are in an especially fraught and significant moment in our nation's history, with active, and, at times, successful attempts to gerrymander the vote or suppress turnout in areas that might not be favorable to a preferred candidate."
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger
Archdiocese of Detroit
"We are in an especially fraught and significant moment in our nation's history, with active, and, at times, successful attempts to gerrymander the vote or suppress turnout in areas that might not be favorable to a preferred candidate," Weisenburger said.
"The Church is well within its theological mandate to be an instrument of activity, seeking out voters and registering them to vote, especially in areas that are being targeted for voter suppression or where tactics of intimidation might be used to discourage voting," Weisenburger said at the Participation, Dignity, and Elections conference on Sept. 16.
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Detroit
"Inviting and training people to be nonpartisan poll watchers or poll chaplains, and to stand firm in the face of intimidation [is also part of that mandate]," the archbishop said.
The conference, organized by Catholics in Communion, included panels about voter support, electoral participation, political polarization, and the Church's relationship to democracy, along with other subjects related to elections.
"Democracy can be a vehicle for God's care for the human family, but it requires a state that understands its limitations and is not overreaching in its responsibility to create public good order," Weisenburger said.
"It requires citizens and freely created associations and groups to recognize the responsibilities and duties that flow from freedom," he said. "It requires a Church that is willing to boldly proclaim the Gospel and apply that Gospel to the task of building a just and thriving society."
"May we all embrace that responsibility so that our Democratic Republic of the United States can be such an instrument of God's care for us all," the archbishop said.
Poll chaplains train for midterms
Various organizations have been recruiting and training people to serve as poll chaplains for the 2026 midterm elections. It is a role that has developed within faith communities in the past few election cycles.
The Rev. Jim Wallis, an evangelical preacher who directs Georgetown University's Center on Faith and Justice, told EWTN News that the center has trained more than 1,000 of numerous faith backgrounds to serve as poll chaplains for the November elections through the coalition Faiths United to Save Democracy. The last scheduled training is on Oct. 15.
"This isn't political or partisan for us," he said. "It's really theological."
Wallis, who works to articulate the moral and theological framing for why poll chaplains go to voting locations, said the mission is rooted in Genesis 1:26, when God says, "Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness," which expresses the inviolable dignity of every person.
"This foundational biblical teaching about the dignity of every human being made in the image of God is fundamental to all of our human rights, civil rights, and voting rights," he said. "... To suppress a vote is to assault the image of God."
Wallis said the center trains people of all faiths and participants include Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists. He said they have trained a "good mix" of laypeople and clergy, which include Catholic priests. Clergy are encouraged to wear religious garb.
Apart from the usual de-escalation training, Wallis expressed concerns about what he called "threats" from President Donald Trump's administration to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the National Guard to polling locations.
"Polling places have lots of people," he said. "There's partisan actors, there's poll workers. The administration has suggested there be people monitoring elections. … [The chaplains are] a calming presence, they're often a trusted presence and they're there to intervene if necessary if intimidation occurs."
One of the Catholic activist groups involved in recruiting poll chaplains is the Franciscan Action Network (FAN), which alone has recruited 321 volunteers, which include friars, sisters, and lay Franciscans, along with other lay Catholics and Christians.
Robert Christian, director of strategy for FAN, told EWTN News that poll chaplaincy is "deeply compatible with our mission and Franciscan values," noting that the order is "known for their commitment to peace."
"Free, fair, peaceful elections allow for the peaceful resolution of differences," Christian said.
He said "every single person has dignity" and a "right to participate economically, socially, and politically." Within FAN's network, he said there's strong care for "the integrity of elections" and volunteers "want to do their part to make sure everyone feels comfortable showing up on Election Day and [don't] have to worry about their vote being counted or being turned away."
Christian said the training focuses mostly on partisan tensions boiling over into the voting line or conflicts between poll workers and a voter. He also said talks about federal intervention, such as ICE agents stationed near voting locations, have caused people to be "nervous."
"There have been growing concerns around democratic norms and people accepting the outcome of elections," Christian said. "... It's a pretty tense atmosphere in the lead-up to the elections."
The 2026 midterm elections are less than one month away on Nov. 3. Every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection and there are 35 Senate elections. Many states have local elections and ballot referendums, and there are 36 gubernatorial elections.
"Circumstances of a person's birth should not determine the respect for one's inherent God-given dignity or the opportunities an individual is able to access," Archbishop Christophe El-Kassis said.
The Holy See's permanent observer to the U.N. raised global development, poverty, and women's equality as topics of concern during the 81st General Assembly.
Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, the Holy See's apostolic nuncio to the U.N., called for "true equality" for women, and for global economic and technological advances to prioritize the human person and the common good during remarks delivered at the Oct. 6 session.
El-Kassis, who was appointed to the position in July, spoke during the U.N.'s Third Committee, which focuses on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues, as well as the Second Committee, which focuses on economic and financial issues.
Drawing from Pope Leo XIV's statement that "development is truly human when it places people at the center instead of the accumulation of wealth," El-Kassis noted that eradicating poverty must come with the development of a system that does not treat the poor "merely as passive recipients of assistance."
"Instead, they should be active participants and protagonists in the measures and programs designed to help them in their own lives," he said. "To achieve the objectives of poverty eradication, full employment and decent work, and social integration, as set out in Copenhagen and reaffirmed in Doha, will require sustained cooperation, creativity and a renewed commitment to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development based on human dignity."
U.N. headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. | Credit: Gabriele Maltinti/Shutterstock
During another session on sustainable development and global economic change, El-Kassis called for the world's economy to embrace "fairer and more inclusive international financial architecture."
"The circumstances of a person's birth should not determine the respect for one's inherent God-given dignity or the opportunities an individual is able to access," he said. "Similarly, the economic circumstances of a country should not limit its ability to meaningfully participate decisions that shape its development."
El-Kassis similarly quoted Leo's encyclical Magnifica Humanitaswhen speaking about women and emphasized that "equality for women cannot be achieved as long as violence against women remains widespread." The Holy See's U.N. representative further decried human trafficking and said other technological and medical developments have enabled forms of exploitation, including surrogacy.
The Holy See reiterated its opposition to surrogacy, arguing that it treats gestation as "a negotiable service," which violates the dignity of both the child and the mother.
The bishop died in a local hospital "surrounded by close family and friends," current Bishop Emilio Biosca Agüero, OFM Cap, said.
Bishop Emeritus Frank Dewane, who led the Diocese of Venice in Florida for nearly two decades until his retirement earlier this year, died on Oct. 7 at 76 years old.
His death was confirmed in a news release by current Bishop Emilio Biosca Agüero, OFM Cap, who was appointed to that role in May.
"It is with profound sadness, yet with faith in the promise of the Resurrection, that I announce the passing of the Most Reverend Frank J. Dewane, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Venice in Florida," Agüero said.
Dewane died at 3 a.m. at Sarasota Memorial Hospital "surrounded by close family and friends," the prelate said. A cause of death was not immediately given.
Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 9, 1950, Dewane was ordained in that diocese on July 16, 1988. Prior to his ordination he worked for NBC in Moscow and also worked at a subsidiary for Pepsi in New York.
Among his roles prior to his consecration as bishop, Dewane served as a member of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York and as the undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
He was named a coadjutor bishop of the Venice Diocese in 2006 by then-Pope Benedict XVI and was ultimately installed as bishop there on Jan. 19, 2007. He retired from that role on May 13 after nearly 20 years of service there.
Among his other roles in the U.S. Church were chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' domestic justice committee as well as on the bishops' ad hoc Committee Against Racism.
Near the end of his tenure, in 2025, he spoke out against what he described as the "corrosive" rhetoric of U.S. federal officials who were intending to build a detention facility in the Everglades meant to house immigrants in the country illegally.
"Decency requires that we remember individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives," the bishop said at the time.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks at Benedictine College, the Archdiocese of Chicago urges Illinois' governor to opt in to an education tax program, and more in this week's education roundup.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett gave the keynote address at the dedication of Benedictine College's Independence Hall library Sept. 26.
"My hope is that this library will help the students of Benedictine College defend the American project today," Barrett said during her remarks, according to a Sept. 28 press release. "And I hope that it will bring them together to discuss new ideas, forge friendships and, importantly, learn to disagree respectfully. In a time of hyper-polarization, many have limited interactions with those whose beliefs they do not like. But citizens must learn to disagree about ideas without making enemies of the people who hold them. The success of the American project depends on it."
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, also delivered remarks. "We change the world one soul at a time, and one citizen at a time," he said. "It happens here every day at Benedictine College … If we could judge the world and its future by what happens here at this college, we can have a very warm spot in our heart and a very bright sense of hope."
Other speakers at the event included the college's president, Stephen Minnis; Michael Kuckelman, chairman of the board of directors; Kimberly Shankman, dean and provost of the college; recent alumni Jeffery Schremmer and Arturo Hernandez; and Abbot James Albers of St. Benedict Abbey, who led prayers.
Chicago Archdiocese urges Illinois to join federal education tax credit program
The Archdiocese of Chicago is calling on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to opt the state in to a new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program that could bring up to $2 billion in additional education funding to Illinois schools.
"Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Treasury released draft guidelines for the Education Freedom Tax Credit program. They offer a clear opportunity for Illinois to join the program and open the door to much-needed education funding for all schools in the state," the archdiocese said in an Oct. 2 press release.
Under the program, individuals could receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700, while couples filing jointly could receive up to $3,400, for donations to recognized scholarship-granting organizations. The program would not require state or local funding or taxes.
Most of the funding generated through the program would support public school students, while some could provide scholarships for students attending Catholic and other nonpublic schools, according to the archdiocese. The funding also could support tutoring, education technology, school supplies, and transportation.
"If our state does not opt-in, polls indicate that up to $1 billion in Illinois donations would flow to other states, funding that could benefit our own students. It is imperative that Gov. Pritzker opt Illinois into the program to help secure this new funding source for our state's students," the archdiocese said.
Bishop David M. O'Connell, CM, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Catholic Education, similarly called the federal scholarship tax credit "a transformative opportunity for children across the country" in an Oct. 2 statement.
Australian Catholic school system to cut ties with religious order after abuse scandal
The Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia is considering severing the national network of Catholic schools' connection with the Christian Brothers after a fallout over the compensation of sexual abuse victims.
Edmund Rice is seeking to part ways with the order that runs the 61 schools in its network as the relationship between the organization and the religious order have "become strained," according to an ABC News report.
The move comes after the Christian Brothers attempted to avoid paying sex abuse survivor claims by transferring over $50 million worth of property assets to Edmund Rice over a decade in symbolic $1 dollar transfers.
Students protested the university's handling of alleged sexual assaults involving members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024.
Catholic clergy at Cornell University issued a pastoral letter encouraging students to engage in "difficult public discussions" with charity and courage, after campus protests over the university's handling of alleged sexual assaults involving members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024.
The Cornell Catholic Community, led by Associate Director Deacon Matthew Hall and priest-chaplains Father Daniel McMullin and Father David Cataline, said in an Oct. 7 statement that campus ministry is offering prayer, pastoral care, and support to students affected by sexual violence.
A former Cornell student's civil lawsuit alleges fraternity members sexually assaulted her at the Ithaca, New York, campus, leading to scrutiny of Cornell's disciplinary process. New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened a criminal investigation into the handling of allegations.
The pastoral letter, "Salt, Leaven, and Light," reflects on Catholic teaching concerning marriage and sexuality, the theology of the body, the principles of Catholic moral reasoning, the relationship between freedom and authority, and the vocation of Christians to contribute to the moral life of the communities in which they live and work, the statement said.
"We are not called to retreat from difficult conversations because our neighbors do not yet speak the language of Catholic theology," the pastoral letter said. "Much less are we permitted to stand aloof, as if their plight were not our problem. We are called to help our neighbors see more clearly what they may already see in shadow: that human beings are endowed with an infinite dignity; that sex is sacred; that our choices have real moral meaning; that some things are objectively good and some objectively evil; and that freedom is not simply the power to choose whatever we want, but the capacity to choose what is truly good."
The letter further offers students nine suggestions for "Seasoning, Leavening, and Enlightening Cornell" amid the ongoing scandal, including prayer before speaking, knowing the Church's teachings on sexual ethics and consent, rejecting relativism, using personal influence for good, and entering the public square only "when you have something true and charitable to say."
"Prelims are upon you. The last thing you need is national news cameras filming B-roll as you try to go about your day. Nor do you need 29 paragraphs of extra reading," the letter said.
"For some of you, the events of these weeks will cause particular bitterness, anxiety, and sadness, as they bring to mind your own experiences of sexual violence, accusations, sins, and other painful experiences. We know too well what it means to call this life a 'vale of tears.' But God 'comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.' (2 Cor 1:4) Let us bear gently and kindly with one another. Please know of my prayers for you," the letter said.
Hall said in an email sharing the pastoral letter: "We must enter the discourse as Christians: prayerfully, thoughtfully, charitably, and with confidence that the Catholic faith has something true and beautiful to say to the whole world."
"We do not want our Catholic students to retreat from difficult conversations," Hall said. "We want our students to have the intellectual and spiritual resources to enter those conversations charitably and courageously. We need to be able to affirm what is true, recognize human dignity, and help one another pursue what is genuinely good."
On Oct. 9, the memorial of St. John Henry Newman, patron of Catholic communities at secular universities, the Cornell Catholic Community will observe a day of prayer, the statement said.
Father Ignacio Larrañaga was described as a mystic "who, through his warm words and profound contemplative experience, taught millions of people how to pray and live in intimacy with the Father."
Father Ignacio Larrañaga Orbegozo, a Capuchin priest and founder of the Prayer and Life Workshops, has formally begun his journey toward beatification and canonization. On Oct. 6, the Mexican Archdiocese of Guadalajara opened the diocesan phase of his cause.
During the ceremony held at the archdiocesan curia, the "nihil obstat" ("no objection") from the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints was read, along with the decree from Guadalajara Cardinal Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega, ordering the opening of the process.
During the Oct. 6, 2026, ceremony initiating the cause for the beatification and canonization of Father Ignacio Larrañaga, Bishop Juan Manuel Muñoz Curiel calls for following his example. | Credit: Archdiocese of Guadalajara Press Office
The decree noted that the archdiocese has the authority to conduct this cause, as Larrañaga passed away within its territory in 2013. In accordance with the 2007 Vatican instruction Sanctorum Mater, which governs diocesan procedures for canonization causes, it is generally the responsibility of the bishop of the diocese where the servant of God died to conduct this stage of the process.
'A tireless seeker of God'
Representing Robles Ortega, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Manuel Muñoz Curiel of Guadalajara also took part in the event. During his remarks, he remembered Larrañaga as a "tireless seeker of God."
He further described him as a "mystic of our time who, through his warm words and profound contemplative experience, taught millions of people how to pray and live in intimacy with the Father."
"He knew how to translate sublime Franciscan mysticism into a simple, accessible method so that the ordinary person could encounter the Lord face-to-face," Muñoz Curiel stated.
However, he clarified that the aim of initiating Larrañaga's cause is not to "raise a man to the altars to be admired from afar" but rather to remember that the call to holiness is a "vocation for every baptized person, as he himself used to teach us."
Muñoz Curiel stated that life was remarkable not because Larrañaga "was free of difficulties but because, amid his weaknesses and the exhaustion of his tireless apostolic work, he knew how to entrust himself with total confidence to the hands of the Father."
Inspired by this testimony, the prelate invited those present to "break free from spiritual mediocrity and courageously embrace our own vocation to holiness" and asked God that, "if it be for his greater glory and the good of the Church, he might deign to glorify his servant Ignacio."
What happens next in the process?
As the first procedural step, Monsignor Óscar Sánchez Barba, the diocesan postulator for the cause, formally presented an initial list of 50 witnesses from 10 countries, as well as 47 books and booklets written by Larrañaga, along with other documents and publications regarding his life and work.
Through an established tribunal, the list of witnesses will be interviewed and the texts examined in order to subsequently produce a document known as the "positio," which will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
Auxiliary Bishop Juan Manuel Muñoz Curiel of Guadalajara signs documents at the Oct. 6, 2026, ceremony initiating the cause for the beatification and canonization of Father Ignacio Larrañaga. | Credit: Archdiocese of Guadalajara Press Office
If, following the study at the Vatican, it is determined that Larrañaga lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree and the pope authorizes the corresponding decree, the servant of God will be considered "venerable."
To subsequently advance toward beatification, the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession will be required.
Who was Ignacio Larrañaga?
Larrañaga was born on May 4, 1928, in the province of Guipúzcoa in Spain's Basque Country.
In 1940, at the age of 12, he entered the Capuchin Seraphic Minor Seminary in Alsasua and later continued his formation in Fuenterrabía. He subsequently entered the Capuchin novitiate in Sangüesa, where he made his first religious profession in 1948.
The following year, he took the religious name Friar Jesús María de Azpeitia and continued his theological studies in Pamplona, ??where he was ordained a priest on Dec. 20, 1952.
It is said that "from the beginning of his priesthood, he felt a strong desire to dedicate himself to evangelization and, especially, to deepening his practice of contemplative prayer."
This led him to travel to the Americas. He arrived in Chile in September 1959, where he "participated in popular missions, visited families, and preached in parishes."
In 1955, he was appointed director of the Center for Franciscan and Pastoral Studies for Latin America (CEFEPAL). From there, he promoted Franciscan "Fellowship and Renewal Weeks," initiatives that subsequently spread to various countries across Latin America and Europe.
From 1970 onward, Larrañaga was deeply engaged in work as a preacher and spiritual guide. He traveled to numerous countries in the Americas and Europe, conducting courses and gatherings focused on spirituality.
In 1974, he launched the "Encounters with the Experience of God" in Brazil, which were gatherings centered on silence, prayer, reflection, and listening to the word of God. These encounters began to spread widely.
In Santiago, Chile, in 1984, he developed Prayer and Life Workshops. These workshops were designed to teach the laity various methods of prayer and to help them deepen their Christian lives.
Over the years, the workshops spread across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 2022, they received approval from the Holy See as an International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right.
During his final years, Larrañaga continued to travel, offering retreats and formation gatherings.
In October 2013, he traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, to participate in one of these gatherings. He passed away in the early hours of Oct. 28 at the age of 85 after 60 years of priesthood.
Regarding Larrañaga, Muñoz Curiel stated: "His work continues to convey that invitation to discover God as Father and to live out one's faith through a deep, trusting, personal relationship with him."
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Dominican Sister Helen Alford, a prominent social scientist, addressed a Vatican conference on the 10th anniversary of the controversial document.
VATICAN CITY — Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family, is consistent with the Church teaching and practice that came before it, Sister Helen Alford, OP, said at the opening of a Vatican meeting about the papal document on Wednesday.
Like an earlier document on the family by St. John Paul II, Amoris Laetitia was an innovative response to the challenge of following the moral law "when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly," Alford said.
Amoris Laetitia sparked intense debate following its publication in 2016, especially after the bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region interpreted it as allowing, following a process of accompanied pastoral discernment, access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist for some Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried "when a person judges that he or she would fall into a further fault by harming the children of the new union."
In 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed that this interpretation forms part of the authentic magisterium after being incorporated into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Holy See's official bulletin.
Earlier this year, Pope Leo called the presidents of bishops' conferences and heads of Eastern Churches, together with some married couples and theological experts, to spend a week at the Vatican in "synodal discernment" on families and the challenges they face today, including "abandonment, separation, and divorce," in the light of Amoris Laetitia.
The 'law of gradualness'
Alford's address on the first day of the Oct. 7–14 meeting of bishops followed an opening prayer and a speech by Pope Leo XIV, who also said there is continuity in the teaching on marriage from Pope John Paul I through Pope Francis.
Like Leo, Alford, too, connected the two recent apostolic exhortations on the family: St. John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio and Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia.
They both, she said, include the idea of the "law of gradualness." In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said John Paul II proposed it "in the knowledge that the human being 'knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth.'"
Sister Helen Alford, OP, delivers a meditation during the opening session of a weeklong meeting on Amoris Laetitia on Oct. 7, 2026, in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall. | Credit: Vatican Media screenshot
Alford, quoting Pope Francis, said that "this is not a 'gradualness of law' but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law. For the law is itself a gift of God which points out the way, a gift for everyone without exception; it can be followed with the help of grace."
Both popes, the sister said, "are concerned to maintain the ideal, 'law [which] is a gift of God which points out the way,' as well as to recognize that many are not able to fully 'understand, appreciate, or … carry out the objective demands of the law."
She pointed out that 35 years separates Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia, during which time the lived situation of Christian families has seen many developments.
"As in other cases, such as in the social teaching of the Church, when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly, it can be necessary to find new ways of putting together both the 'objective demands of the law' (AL, 295) and the 'law of gradualness' (FC, 34) that many experience in trying to enter into it. Both Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia try to do this in their different historical contexts," she said.
"Let us not forget," the sister added, "that St. Thomas Aquinas and all the tradition that goes back to him would say that the law of God reaches its greatest expression in the new law, the law of the Gospel: the grace of Jesus."
The purpose of the meeting
"In this meeting … we are called to proclaim the Gospel both of and to families," the Dominican sister said. "It implies that the family is integral to the proclamation of the Gospel. The family both actively proclaims the Gospel and is in need of receiving the proclamation of the Gospel."
Alford said the stress and brokenness often present in family life and marriage are an opportunity for greater holiness and trust in God. In order to unite their suffering with Christ's, families need to hear the good news of the Gospel.
"Many families in situations of suffering and need could derive great help in facing their trials from hearing the good news proclaimed to them, receiving the new perspective the Gospel gives us on life and, thereby, the grace of the sacraments," she said. "The very stresses, tensions, and brokenness in family life can be borne with more fortitude and with the hope that they can be worked through by uniting them to the sufferings of Christ."
"As Pope Francis says, 'In the darkest hours of a family's life, union with Jesus in his abandonment can help avoid a breakup,'" she said, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 317.
"The beauty of the vocation to marriage is to be found through and with and in its fragility, not least because weakness can reawaken trust in God, and trust in God awakens the desire for holiness," Alford said. "This, in a nutshell, is the Gospel of and to the family that we are talking about."
Helping young people choose marriage
Alford's talk also touched on the relational gaze of Jesus and its importance for recognizing and "seeing" the relationships that make up our lives, which are not visible like physical objects, yet, like the air we breathe, are really there.
She also spoke about the importance of helping young people enter into marriage with the proper outlook and tools to confront its difficulties.
"In the highly unstable world we live in today, if we are going to help young people have the courage to enter into marriage, and to give them the capacity to cope with the stresses they are going to meet, they will need to 'see' their relationships and think about their marriage and family life in a relational way," she said.
"Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives," she added, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 324.
She encouraged the meeting's participants 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," Alford said.
Opening a Vatican meeting marking 10 years since Amoris Laetitia, the pope said the Church must learn from families marked by hardship, loneliness, and fragility.
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday urged bishops from around the world gathered at the Vatican for a meeting on the family to face with "courage" the challenge of learning from and responding to families marked by hardship and "apparent failure."
"The wisdom of the people of God reaches us through our common faith, which enlightens all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness, and at times even apparent failure," the pope said in his opening address to the gathering, being held in the Paul VI Audience Hall and scheduled to conclude Oct. 14.
The closed-door assembly, which is not open to journalists, is expected to produce a synthesis document without doctrinal authority that will later be presented to the pope.
The meeting is part of the synodal evaluation assemblies proposed at the conclusion of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality process.
Ten years after the two synods on the family and the widespread debate sparked by Amoris Laetitia, 154 bishops and cardinals, 53 priests and lay faithful, and 11 invited families began a series of meetings Wednesday aimed at assessing the current situation and evaluating the reception of Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family.
The document generated significant debate after its publication because it opened the possibility, in certain cases, for some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.
The pope made no direct reference to that issue during his address, which he delivered in English following a time of prayer.
Leo XIV said the lives of families pose to the Church "questions that deserve to be faced with courage" and highlighted several situations that concern him.
"In many contexts, a growing distance has emerged between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage," he said.
"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 continued.
"Economic insecurity, migration, violence, loneliness, and other forms of emotional fragility also shape the choices people make and the possibilities they can imagine for their future," he added.
'What are people truly seeking?'
Focusing on contemporary challenges, the pope encouraged bishops to listen to families and stressed that the Church still has much to learn from them.
In that context, he posed a series of questions that he said should accompany the meeting's work, which is being conducted according to the synodal method and conceived as a space for listening and discernment.
"What are people truly seeking beneath these cultural changes? What do their joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties reveal to us? Where do our pastoral language and practices succeed in opening a path, and where do they fail to touch people's hearts or assist their efforts to do what is good? What is the lived experience of families teaching us — an experience from which we have not yet fully learned? What can we offer as formation for healthy and holy family life? In particular, what can we learn from parents as they seek to accompany their children and young people in such contexts?"
'Fragility deserves special attention'
The Holy Father also emphasized that "fragility deserves special attention" because it can "profoundly shape the way people see themselves, their future, and even their relationship with God and with the Church."
"We all know the gap between the good we desire and what we are able to live. We need grace, forgiveness, and new beginnings to accomplish God's will, and we learn that fidelity is itself a grace to be received and a path to be gradually renewed, often through trial," he said.
He added that recognizing this "shared challenge" should shape the way members of the Church accompany families. He then posed additional questions to participants.
"What kind of Church, then, do people encounter precisely when they are most fragile? Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility, and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be encountered through the patience, closeness, and mercy of our pastoral presence? How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel's teaching about the family?"
The pope urged participants to give these questions the attention they deserve.
"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," he said.
In the final portion of his address, Leo XIV called for the meeting's work to unfold in a spirit of authentic "evangelical freedom" and encouraged participants to share honestly both the joys and challenges experienced in their local Churches.
Confidentiality requested
The pope also underscored the importance of prayer during the gathering and expressed hope that the meeting would help develop a shared assessment of the past decade of family ministry in the Church.
Finally, he asked all participants to exercise "discretion" and preserve "the confidentiality that this time of listening and discernment requires."
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
The government has debated expanding its medical assistance in dying program for those suffering solely from mental health issues.
The Canadian government will not expand its broadly popular assisted suicide program for individuals suffering solely from a mental illness, Minister of Justice Sean Fraser said on Oct. 7.
The announcement brings an end to several years of debate and speculation regarding whether the country would allow doctors to help kill individuals who are suffering from mental health issues but who are not terminally or seriously ill.
Fraser told media at the Canadian House of Commons on Oct. 7 that the country would not move forward with the proposed expansion.
"While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time," he told media.
The country's euthanasia program is one of the most permissive in the world. In 2023 euthanasia accounted for roughly 1 out of every 20 deaths there.
The MAID program is nominally limited to those suffering from what the government describes as a "grievous and irremediable medical condition," though the condition need not be fatal or terminal.
The government had previously debated expanding the program to those suffering from mental health issues, though postponed the question in 2024 after a parliamentary report said the nation was "not ready" for the expansion.
Fraser said on Wednesday that upcoming legislation would indefinitely extend the ban on mental health-related euthanasia.
Assisted suicide has expanded at the regional level in the country. In 2024, for instance, the provincial government of Quebec said it would begin allowing assisted suicide in the form of "advance requests," where individuals can be euthanized at a time when they are unable to give consent so long as they agreed to the procedure at some point in the past.
In 2024, meanwhile, a watchdog report found that hundreds of violations of the country's euthanasia rules had gone unreported to law enforcement.
