On October 8, 2013, Pope Francis announced that in October 2014 there would be an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on topics related to the family and evangelization. Subsequent communications made clear that the Extraordinary General Assembly would be followed by an Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015, on the same topics.
Vatican City, June 27, 2014, Luca Marcolivio -- In order to restore to Christians the beauty of the family, the Church must first of all become credible again. Speaking with journalists, at the end of the press conference to present the Instrumentum laboris, in view of the forthcoming Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the subject The Pastoral Challenges on the Family in the Context of Evangelization (October 5-19), Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, clarified some aspects regarding this widely debated and greatly awaited event.