Visiting Wellington on a four-day pilgrimage Bishop McKenna said God played an important part in that process, echoing the words of Pope Francis who has been in the United States, Cuba and parts of South America recently.

"The Catholic Church is a family and there is a little church, the domestic church of the family," he said. 

"Building bridges, not walls in families is our biggest priority. 

"It's the key to human life."

On the spate of family and domestic violence in communities he said bringing families together and sharing the word of God was a critical theme he talked about.

"But it's also important to recognize that nobody is perfect," Bishop McKenna said, before adding we were all different and healing was key.

The bishop then held a prayer pilgrimage to celebrate the sesquicentenary of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst. 

He presented father Carl Mackander and the St Patrick's parish a stone from the Cathedral of St Michael and John's Cathedral at Bathurst. 

The 20-centimetre stone made into a bronze plaque was being taken to each of the 17 parishes on his pilgrimage.

"They speak of the living stone part of which built the church," the bishop said.

St Patrick's parish priest Fr Carl acknowledged the community's welcoming of the bishop and said it was a high honour for those who could not get to mass anymore to be there.

Bishop McKenna also used the stopover to congratulate Sister Marjorie who on Thursday celebrated 59 years as a Bride of Christ.

"She has spent the last 25 years here and knows everybody," the Bishop said.

The bishop said marriage and family would be the main subjects ahead of the Synod Pope Francis would host this weekend.

"With the reform of the process of annulment I have closed the door on the administrative path through which divorce could enter," the pontiff told reporters as he flew home from his tour of Cuba and the United States.

The Ordinary Synod on the Family, to be held at the Vatican from October 4 to 25, will mull changes in the Roman Catholic Church's approach towards Catholics who divorce and then remarry in a civil ceremony.

The synod comes two months after the Pope said divorced people who had remarried "are still part of the Church" and should not be treated as if they have been excommunicated or cast out.