Amoris laetitia

The text was released initially in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The English text runs about 250 small-format pages with nearly 400 footnotes. Its introduction and 9 chapters comprise 325 numbered paragraphs. Quotations are drawn from the writings of earlier popes, documents of the Second Vatican Council and regional episcopal conferences, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes what is thought to be the first reference to a film in a papal document, namely Babette's Feast (1987), along with references to works by Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Antonin Sertillanges, Gabriel Marcel, and Mario Benedetti.

Philosopher Michael Pakaluk affirms that Archbishop Victor Manuel "Tucho" Fernandez is one of the ghostwriters of the most controversial chapter of the exhortation. According to Pakaluk, a key passage "is lifted almost verbatim from a 1995 essay in theology by Archbishop Victor Fernandez -- raising troubling questions about Fernandez's role as ghostwriter, and the magisterial force of his ideas."

Introduction

Francis begins by noting a division of opinion during the synods: "The debates carried on in the media, in certain publications and even among the Church’s ministers, range from an immoderate desire for total change without sufficient reflection or grounding, to an attitude that would solve everything by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations." He did not propose to resolve those differences by imposing unity: "Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth..." (paragraph 3)

He warns the reader that the document addresses many issues in many different ways and therefore says: "I do not recommend a rushed reading of the text." He asks the reader to consider the text "patiently and carefully". (paragraph 7) One reviewer called it a rich reflection and a response to criticism of the 2015 synod's report, which opened with sociological concerns rather than Scripture.

This chapter is "a biblical meditation on key themes related to the topic of marriage and family life" and includes a section on the importance of work. In one view "it comes off as a collection of Scripture references that don't really hang together well" with "some good passages" like a discussion of Eve as helpmate to Adam.

Francis examines each phrase of St. Paul's passage on love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in detail.

Release

At a press conference sponsored by the Vatican Press Office, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., Archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, along with Franco Miano and Giuseppina De Simone, a married couple, both academics who had participated in the synods, discussed the document. Schönborn joked when reporters asked him about footnote 351, which discusses the controversial question of access to communion for those who have divorced and remarried: "I am surprised that everyone has read this footnote! But Pope Francis wishes to present an overall picture, not focus on this unique point". He said that "many expected a rule" to clarify which of the positions outlined at the synod the Pope supported, and that "they will be disappointed."

Schönborn also said that when the synod participants formed small discussion groups some of them began by sharing their own family histories and discovered that many of them had direct experience in their own families of marriages that fail to conform to the ideal, which he termed "patchwork families". He said his own experience–his parents divorced when he was about 14 years old–made him thankful that the text "goes beyond the artificial, superficial, clear division between 'regular' and 'irregular', placing everyone under the common lens of the Gospel, in accordance with the words of St. Paul: 'God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.'"

The summary provided by the Vatican Press Office did not include any contribution by the three other attendees.

Initial reactions

Initial reactions highlighted several of the issues of contemporary morality and church practice that had proved contentious during the synods' presentations and discussions, surrounding access to communion, divorce, sexual mores, and pastoral practice.

Since the release of Amoris laetitia, various media outlets reported what many were calling a potential change in Church teaching on the ability of remarried and civilly divorced to receive the Eucharist, to which they said Francis alluded in footnote no. 351, which reads (with footnoted body text in italics):

Because forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end.

351. In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium [24 November 2013], 44: AAS 105 [2013], 1038). I would also point out that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak” (ibid., 47: 1039).

Reports addressed the apparent contradictions between this footnote and Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortations Familiaris consortio and Reconciliatio et paenitentiae. When asked in a press conference how Francis' work related to Familiaris consortio, which states that remarried divorcees must live "as brother and sister" in order to take communion, Cardinal Schönborn said that the former builds on the earlier work: "there is no change, but there is development". Some traditionalists, notably Kazhakstani Bishop Athanasius Schneider and British advocacy group Voice of the Family, have criticized Francis' exhortation. Voice of the Family has called on him to "recognise the grave errors in the recently published Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, in particular those sections which will lead to the desecration of the Holy Eucharist and to the harming of our children, and to withdraw the Apostolic Exhortation with immediate effect." Edward N. Peters, a referendary of the Apostolic Signatura, wrote that Amoris laetitia "is not a legislative document, it contains no legislative or authentic interpretative language, and it does not discuss Canon 915." So, the canon was not changed: Catholics in irregular marriages should not receive Eucharist.

Dubia

In June 2016, a group of 45 Catholic scholars sent a letter to all the cardinals, asking Pope Francis to repudiate a "number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals".

In the last months of 2016, the debate over Amoris laetitia continued. Four cardinals (Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller, Joachim Meisner) formally and privately asked Pope Francis for clarifications. They submitted five "dubia" (doubts), and requested a yes or no answer. Pope Francis declined to answer and the cardinals went public. Their questions focus on chapter 8 of the apostolic exhortation, "whether there are now circumstances under which divorced and remarried persons can receive communion, whether there are still “absolute moral norms” that prohibit Catholics from taking certain acts, and how the pope understands Catholic teaching on the role of conscience in making moral decisions."

Some Catholic prelates and scholars, including cardinals Paul Josef Cordes and Renato Martino, bishops Athanasius Schneider and James Conley, German philosopher Robert Spaemann, have expressed support for their initiative. Cardinal George Pell asked: "How can you disagree with a question?" In December 2016, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, cardinal Gerhard Müller, while declaring that it was not the role of the Congregation to engage in the controversy, indicated that he does not believe that the doctrine on communion can change.

Oxford philosopher John Finnis and theologian Germain Grisez also expressed their concern in a detailed letter, requesting the pope to condemn eight positions against the Catholic faith "that are being supported, or likely will be, by the misuse" of Amoris laetitia.

However, according to close Pope Francis adviser, Antonio Spadaro, the controversial questions on communion were already answered. Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge declared that prelates supporting the dubia are pursuing a "false clarity that comes because you don't address reality".

According to Ross Douthat, with the "dubia", the Roman Catholic Church has "entered terra incognita."

Implementation

On a practical level, divergences of interpretation appear among bishops. Some bishops issued guidelines for their diocese insisting that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics remain ineligible for the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist unless they live in continence, while other bishops opened up the possibility of access to these sacraments. In a private letter to the bishops of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis wrote that he agrees with the latter interpretation.

In January 8, 2017 the two bishops of Malta released guidelines "for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia." The guidelines were published by the Vatican semi-official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano six days later. The Maltese bishops stipulate that, after a serious process of discernment, divorced and civilly remarried couples may receive the Holy Communion if they feel "at peace with God." These guidelines were immediately criticized by conservatives as a "meltdown" or a "disaster." At the same time, bishop Steven Lopes issued a pastoral letter going in the opposite direction, admitting divorced and civilly remarried couples to Absolution and Communion only if they are "committed to complete continence." According to bishop Lopes, "conscience" cannot justify access to Communion for the remarried. Members of Veri Catholici, an international association of faithful, released an "open letter" on January 25 referring to the new guidelines as "abominable" and allowing Holy Communion to be "crucified and tortured once again in the mouths and hearts of the filthy, impenitent adulterers and fornicators." The authors of the letter defended their stance by citing the Gospel of Matthew, Book of Revelation, Council of Trent, and a document written by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1994.

In reaction to pastoral guidelines allowing Communion, three Kazakhtan bishops issued a joint statement imploring prayer that Pope Francis will "confirm the unchanging praxis of the Church with regard to the truth of the indissolubility of marriage." In this appeal to prayer, they affirm that some of the recent "pastoral guidelines contradict the universal tradition of the Catholic Church."

Cardinal Caffarra, one of the authors of the dubia, sustains that after Amoris laetitia "only a blind man could deny there’s great confusion, uncertainty and insecurity in the Church.” However, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, maintains that Amoris laetitia is "very clear" on doctrine and that it has not changed the Church's discipline.

On February 1, 2017, the majority of the German Bishops' Conference published guidelines which were considered to the be the broadest interpretation of Amoris Laetitia and stated that it allowed communion for the divorced and remarried in only certain cases which involved difficult situations. However, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Italian journal Il Timone that he did not agree with this interpretation and stated Catholics who are divorced and remarried may be admitted to Communion only if they are living “in complete continence.”

On February 14, 2017, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts which interprets Church law, sought to further quell tensions by publishing a 30 page booklet stating that Chapter 8 of Amoris laetitia only allows Communion for the divorced to civilly remarry so long as the situation is "non-legitimate" and outside of traditional boundaries of the Church's marriage. Coccopalmerio stated that while the divorced and remarried can receive Communion as long as they want to change their situation, they cannot receive it if they act on their desire.

Selected quotations by topic

Pastoral care

Francis states an overriding principle of pastoral care: "A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in 'irregular' situations, as if they were stones to throw at people's lives. This would bespeak the closed heart of one used to hiding behind the Church’s teachings, 'sitting on the chair of Moses and judging at times with superiority and superficiality difficult cases and wounded families'". (paragraph 305)

"...we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation. Nor have we always provided solid guidance to young married couples, understanding their timetables, their way of thinking and their concrete concerns. At times we have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families. This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God's grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite." (paragraph 36)