Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe met with Pope Leo XIV last weekend.
Archbishop Costelloe has travelled to Rome to participate in Pope Leo XIV’s global Vatican summit for presidents of Bishops’ Conferences running from October 7 to October 14, 2026.
Speaking for The Record, Archbishop Costelloe said the meeting took place in the Papal Library of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
“This was one of a number of meetings which the pope had accepted for that morning with a wide variety of individuals and groups,” Archbishop Costelloe explained.
“During our meeting I was able to assure him of the affection, support and prayer of the people of our archdiocese and of Australia more generally,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe also noted that he and the Holy Father spent time discussing some important issues in the Church in Australia at the moment, including the potential of the International Eucharistic Congress, to be held in 2028 in Sydney, to renew our understanding of the great mystery of the Eucharist in our individual and community lives.
“The Holy Father confirmed his hope to travel to Australia for this event. Naturally I assured him that we would welcome him enthusiastically if he were also able to visit us in Perth,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“My visit to the Holy Father confirmed my belief that our communion with the Pope, both as individuals and as the Catholic community of our Archdiocese, is an indispensable dimension of our fidelity to the Lord, who guides and governs his Church through the presence of the Holy Spirit,” Archbishop Costelloe concluded.
Convened by Pope Leo XIV, the eight-day Vatican gathering focuses on synodal discernment regarding family ministry and proclaiming the Gospel to contemporary families, marking the 10th anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia or The Joy of Love.
In representing Australia, Archbishop Costelloe will report on the pastoral implementation of the Apostolic Exhortation across the Church in Australia, looking at the pastoral care, realities, and spiritual beauty of family life in the modern world.
Published a decade ago by Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, the Apostolic Exhortation on “love in the family,” was inspired by the Synods of Bishops of 2014 and 2015.
In a letter published on Wednesday, March 19, Pope Leo XIV praised the document as a “luminous message of hope regarding conjugal love and family life.”
The 2016 Exhortation “encouraged reflection and pastoral conversion in the Church,” the Pope wrote, and “offers valuable teachings that we must continue to examine today.”