Christopher West
Two days ago following Mass, a fellow parishioner asked for my perspective on Pope Francis’s oh-so-controversial document The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia). He seemed already to have drawn negative conclusions based on voices within the Church that have voiced little other than concern about the document.
I urge my readers yet again, please read the document for yourself. It is so, so rich. It offers a beautiful affirmation of Catholic teaching on sexuality, marriage and the family (including John Paul II’s Theology of the Body) and a challenge to present that teaching to those who fall short of it (uhem, that would be all of us…) with the same kind of understanding, patience, and mercy that Christ showed the woman at the well (married five times previously and at the time she met Christ was with another man to whom she was not married).
I understand people’s concerns with the document, to a certain extent. There is some language here and there that is vague and open to misinterpretation. At the same time, there is language that is also very clear that the pastoral “discernment” of irregular situations that he’s calling for is not a license to diminish the teachings of the Church.
Francis is quite clear that discernment of irregular situations if it is to be carried out correctly, presupposes (1) humility, (2) discretion and (3) love for the Church and her teachings (see section 300). Hence, any pastor whose “discernment” is in opposition to Church teaching is not carrying out an appropriate discernment.
Later he says, “In order to avoid all misunderstanding, I would point out that in no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God’s plan in all its grandeur… A lukewarm attitude, any kind of relativism, or an undue reticence in proposing that ideal, would be a lack of fidelity to the Gospel … To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to the human being” (307).
I do wonder if those who keep claiming Francis is somehow changing Church teaching (both those who would rejoice in the change and those who would decry it) have read this and various other similar statements within the document.
Read the full article at The Cor Project.
This commentary was reprinted with permission from CorProject.com
