A visit in early 2016 would come as the country continues confronting vices like corruption, which has implicated the president, and insecurity in states such as Michoacan and Guerrero, the latter being where 43 students were kidnapped and presumably killed by police acting in cahoots with criminals in September 2014.

The pope's three-city September tour—from Congress to the United Nations and from cathedrals to a prison—generated significant goodwill toward the Catholic Church, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

"I have never been at a church meeting where there aren't groups that get together and lobby for a particular direction and that's going on, I assure you," Archbishop Chaput said. "That's what happens when human beings get together."

Discussing a number of proposals he offered the synod fathers to think about, Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher said, "I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons because the diaconate in the church's tradition has been defined as not being ordered toward priesthood but toward ministry."

The lawsuit filed Oct. 1 contends that Trinity Health violates provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and the Rehabilitation Act by denying the full range of emergency care, including pregnancy termination when necessary.

California is the latest and largest U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide.