Bishop Peter Doyle, who chairs the Bishops' Committee for Marriage and Family Life, is in Rome with Cardinal Vincent Nichols contributing to the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
The international meeting focuses on marriage and family life and is titled: "The vocation and the mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world". It runs from 4-25 October 2015.
Here are Bishop Doyle's reflections after the Opening Mass as he looks ahead to the three weeks of discussions.
