CNA Explains: What Is the Catholic Church’s Newly Announced 2028 ‘Ecclesial Assembly’?

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, March 19, 2025

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency’s senior Vatican correspondent. After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, she earned a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri. In 2016, she moved to Rome, Italy, where in her spare time she enjoys reading and going on adventures with her husband and son.

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2025 / 14:15 pm – The Vatican announced on Saturday its latest plans for the Synod on Synodality’s ongoing implementation — a multiyear “accompaniment and evaluation process” leading to a Church-wide assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

CNA explains more about the process and why it has been initiated:

Implementation phase

Initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, the Synod on Synodality was a multiyear, worldwide process of the Catholic Church focused on exploring the question “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together’?”

The synod went through diocesan, national, and continental stages in phase one, the “consultation” phase. Two global, monthlong assemblies were held at the Vatican in October 2023 and October 2024 as part of the next “discernment” phase. …