We learned more about how Pope Leo XIV intends to implement the reforms his predecessor introduced when the Vatican released a “thematic framework” for the meeting this autumn of the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences, as well as their Eastern rite counterparts. They will discuss the reception of Pope Francis’ 2016 post-synodal exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.
Three things about the framework and this forthcoming meeting stand out: the priority afforded pastoral experience; the absence of any reference to the hostility with which Amoris Laetitia was greeted in certain sectors of the church; and the underlying assumption of a synodal church that is shaping this meeting and, indeed, the life of the universal church.
“The starting point of the meeting is a gaze upon reality enlightened by the Gospel and rooted in Christ,” the document states. “Following the path traced by Amoris Laetitia, it becomes essential to appreciate ‘those signs of love which in some way reflect God’s own love’, accompanying persons ‘patiently and discreetly’ (AL 294). This calls for attentive listening to the concrete lives of families and to the experience of those who accompany them, recognizing together both the beauty of love as it takes shape in daily life and the fragilities that often affect it, including precarious employment and housing, illness, the challenges of raising children, emotional loneliness, and the care of family members with disabilities, the elderly, or those who are not self-sufficient.”
This framing highlights the ascent of pastoral theology in the life of the church that we discussed in a different context a few weeks ago. We need to move past the idea of two camps, one that insists the church begins its teaching with transcendent and unchangeable norms versus the other that begins with the lived reality of the people we serve. The church attends to the “signs of the times” not as sociologists but as evangelists looking for signs of God’s grace in the lived circumstances of the Christian faithful. It is not an either/or but a both/and: We look at reality, but we do so through the lens of the Gospel and the teachings of the church.
The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which worked on this framework, has been highlighting pastoral theology since Cardinal Kevin Farrell took its helm in 2016 and this approach is on display here. The document has a section on the special need to accompany married couples in their first few years of marriage. The document attends to the need to reach young people, asking: “What language, experiences, and educational and spiritual pathways help children, adolescents and young people today to recognize the value of marriage?” And the document, like Amoris Laetitia, does not give up on those whose marriages have failed. “Failure, fragility, the gap between the ideal and reality, and the complexity of life situations also become places in which the work of God’s grace may be recognized and where persons can be accompanied with respect, patience and hope,” it states.
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With thanks to National Catholic Reporter and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
