Pope Francis is reaching out to young people for the next round of church-wide consultations, soliciting their direct input for an upcoming meeting of the world's bishops on the plight of young Catholics today and their faith.

The Vatican on Friday issued the preparatory document for the 2018 synod, which comes as the church is still reeling from the fallout from the last synod and Francis' controversial outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

Organizers insisted young people will actually be involved in the synod process, which consists of bishops meeting behind closed doors to craft recommendations for a future papal document.

The Vatican plans to put a questionnaire on a Vatican website to solicit input from ordinary young people to help form the basis of a draft text.