IN THIS document Pope Francis does not focus on Church doctrine in the abstract but on how it can be used to help the lives of ordinary believers. The document is called ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ the joy of love. It is an exercise in authentic, compassionate pastoral care, in the service of the people. It says much about the dramatic transformation of the modern papacy.
Over a period of approximately two centuries Catholicism shifted from seeing the papacy as a doctrinal court of final appeal to seeing it as the chief expositor and arbiter of doctrinal orthodoxy. Consequently, most Catholics presume that the authoritative articulation of doctrine belongs among the Pope’s most essential responsibilities. This explains, in part, the heightened anticipation surrounding the promulgation of the document. Some feared a dramatic change in Church doctrine; others prayed for it. Neither group got what they wanted. This is not that kind of document, largely because this is not that kind of pope.
What we have in Amoris Laetitia is the work of a pastor, pure and simple. Pope Francis is a pastor who recognizes Church leadership’s past tendency to offer eloquent, confident and authoritative answers to questions no one is really asking. He understands that the first task of the pastor is to engage in sympathetic understanding by engaging the world of those he serves. He readily admits that Church teaching has too often failed to take into account the concrete concerns of believers. ‘Concrete’ is the keyword. He uses some form of it 20 times in this document. Unlike some of his recent predecessors, he understands that the Christian life is not lived in the realm of pious platitudes and romanticized narratives about the sublime beauty of spiritual marriage.
This document is leavened throughout with acknowledgements of some of the most pressing challenges facing married couples, parents and families today – economic hardship, forced migration, lack of affordable housing, domestic violence, pornography, deprivation of women’s rights, technological distraction, a ‘culture of the transitory’ that undermines the pursuit of authentic relationships, and even the simple exhaustion of parents. Francis wants us to know that he understands how difficult it is to live out the obligations of marriage, parenthood and family with any degree of authenticity and integrity in the world today.
A second task for the wise pastor is to offer spiritual nourishment and encouragement to those he serves. Pope Francis begins Amoris Laetitia with a survey of biblical teaching on marriage in which the Bible, in his view, offers not a set of abstract claims but a ‘concrete source of comfort and companionship.’
Dedicated to the topic of love in marriage, this extraordinary document begins with an extended reflection on that staple of wedding liturgies, 1 Corinthians 13 (“Love is patient; love is kind…”). It provides an inspirational meditation on key phrases in that famous text that sensitivity explores the surprising demands and delights of earthly Christian love. At every point, there is an emphasis on the practical and the need to take people where they are.
It commits itself, above all, to a faithful listening to, and accompaniment of, God’s people on their pilgrim journey toward that final marriage banquet to which all are invited.
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