Vatican launches Global Catholic Compact on the Family

By Vatican News staff reporter

The Vatican has launched the process of creating a Catholic Global Compact on the Family,  a shared programme of actions for promoting the family throughout the world in light of the Social Doctrine of the Church.  

The Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life (DLFV) released the plan on Friday, saying the initiative is to celebrate the current Amoris Laetitia Family Year proclaimed by Pope Francis. 

The process to create the Catholic Global Compact on the Family was launched in the past few weeks by the DLFV and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS), in collaboration with the International Center of Family Studies (CISF), based in Milan, Italy.  

A DLFV statement explained that the Compact involves the study and research centers on the family of Catholic Universities in the five continents. The Compact will collect information and research carried out on the cultural and anthropological importance of the family, focusing particularly on family relationships, the social value of the family and good practices of family policies at the international level.

Amoris laetitia (The Joy of Love) is the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis on the beauty and joy of love in the family.

Released on March 19, 2016, the document summarizes the reflections and insights of the synod fathers and participants in the two-part Synod of Bishops on the family held in the Vatican in October of 2014 and 2015.

On 19 March 2021, the Church celebrated the 5th anniversary of the publication of Amoris Laetitia.  On that day, Pope Francis launched the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, which will conclude on 26 June 2022 during the 10th Meeting of Families in Rome with him.

The Catholic Global Compact on the Family "will be presented as part of a closing event, before the World Meeting of Families".

As part of the ongoing celebration of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, the DLFV organized an online Forum from June 9-12 on the theme, "Where are we with Amoris Laetitia? Strategies for the pastoral application of Pope Francis' Exhortation". The 4-day initiative brought together the experiences and perspectives of the heads of offices of family pastoral ministry of bishops’ conferences, associations and international ecclesial movements, on the implementation of Amoris laetitia at the local levels.  The inputs were intended to help implement the application of the Apostolic Exhortation in a pastoral and missionary perspective.