Pope Francis to publish document on youth synod

Vatican City, Feb 25, 2019 / 11:06 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Sunday that Pope Francis will publish in March a post-synodal exhortation on last October’s synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment.

The papal document, for which a title has not yet been announced, will be released March 25 during a papal trip to Loreto, Italy, the location of the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, where Pope Francis will present the document to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Loreto is a small town in north-eastern Italy, which since the end of the 13th century has been host to a building which tradition holds is the home where the Virgin Mary was born, raised, and greeted by the Angel Gabriel. The building is said to have been brought to Loreto by angels.

According to new norms promulgated last September to govern synods, the publication of a post-synodal papal document is not required to make a synod’s conclusions authoritative, though such documents have traditionally followed synodal sessions.

According to the new norms, Francis could have chosen to consider the final document of the synod assembly, as part of the Church’s ordinary magisterium if he gave it a particular level of papal approval.

Instead the Vatican has announced Francis will follow the Synod of Bishops on young people, held Oct. 3-28, 2018, with an apostolic exhortation.

The last post-synodal apostolic exhortation to be written was Amoris laetitia, which followed the 2014 and 2015 synods on the family.

The pope’s day-trip March 25 will include a stop at the John Paul II youth center in a town near by Loreto and a visit to the Loreto Basilica, where he will celebrate Mass inside the Holy House.

After Mass, Francis will sign the post-synodal exhortation before greeting the local community of Capuchins and the sick and infirm. He will give a short speech and lead the Angelus before departing for Rome after lunch.