Amoris Laetitia: Protagonist of the Magazine "Familia"

The Higher Institute of Family Sciences of the Pontifical University of Salamanca has published a study on Amoris Laetitia in the January 2017 issue of its semi-annual magazine “Familia.” Below are a presentation and a brief summary of the six contributions that compose this beautiful academic reflection on Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation.

1. Presentation of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia

Gonzalo Varela Alvariño

Doctor in Theology.

Professor of Fundamental Moral Theology and Moral Theology of the Person at the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

In the article presenting the Apostolic Exhortation, Professor Gonzalo Varela starts from the finding that Amoris Laetitia marks a milestone in the Church’s pastoral care for the family because it puts a double emphasis on its proposal: to rediscover the wealth of family ministry while focusing on the Church’s pastoral activity. She does this generously because, as the Pope says, “I thank God that many families, which are far from considering themselves perfect, live in love, fulfill their calling and keep moving forward, even if they fall many times along the way” (AL 57). For this reason, the author continues explaining that it is necessary to combine three verbs: accompanying, discerning and integrating, in the light of the “logic of pastoral mercy.”

Pope Francis’ Exhortation Amoris Laetitia marks a before and an after in the Church’s family ministry. This is an extensive Apostolic Exhortation that helps us to discover both the wealth of the pastoral care for the family and its necessary centrality in the Church’s pastoral action. The key words of the exhortation are “accompany”, “discern,” and “integrate”. These three actions, which take time, must be based on the “logic of pastoral mercy,” since mercy is not only the fullness of justice but also the brightest manifestation of God’s truth. Pope Francis trusts in “the joy of love” because love always finds the way.

2. The family in the magisterial-theological horizon in Amoris Laetitia

Angel Galindo García

Professor of Moral Theology of the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

Researcher at the Institute of History “Spanish National Church of Santiago and Montserrat” in Rome.

The study continues with an article by Professor Angel Galindo, who situates the family in the exhortation’s  magisterial-theological horizon. Starting from biblical and spiritual considerations on marriage and family, he justifies the connection between the theological foundation and praxis. He reviews the parts that specifically¸ directly and indirectly, touch on these two pillars. Furthermore, the article emphasizes fundamental issues (such as faith-family relations in the theological, anthropological, and social spheres) as well as the magisterial exhortation’s theological horizon and the three dimensions that compose it (ecclesiological, Christological, and Trinitarian).

As doctrine aimed at practice, Amoris Laetitia will be indispensable in the marriage preparation of tomorrow’s couples. This is a real handbook for couples who want to get marry in the faith of Christ. It is an exhortation oriented to pastoralism and reality that starts with that reality and the pastoral dimension. Its analysis follows a particular method. Searching for dogmatic heresies when approaching it is a big mistake because there are several theological methods and statutes in the theological and magisterial reflection.

3. Amoris Laetitia: Legal-canonical references and pastoral projection

Lourdes Ruano Espina

Doctor in Law.

Professor of Ecclesiastical Law.

Faculty of Law, University of Salamanca.

Another step in the kaleidoscopic look proposed in this issue is presented by Dr. Lourdes Ruano, professor of Salamanca University. Along with highlighting some of the document’s historical keys (2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops), the author reflects on the magisterial principles and the deriving pastoral lines which, according to her, respond to the challenges and needs of the family in the 21st century. She notes how the exhortation is connected, in the context of the Year of the Jubilee of Mercy, with the complexity and difficulty of the challenges faced by married couples and the family in today’s society. In fact, as Pope Francis says: “As Christians, we can hardly stop advocating marriage simply to avoid countering contemporary sensibilities, or out of a desire to be fashionable or a sense of helplessness in the face of human and moral failings” (AL 35). The article concludes by listing the legal references and the canons in question, but it does not constitute or imply a legislative document or a new canonical norm.

After the two years of reflection and work of the two Synods of Bishops, held in Rome in 2014 and 2015, the Holy Father published the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which is addressed to the entire Church. This is a vast and reflective document, in which the Pope has established the magisterial principles and the pastoral lines that are the most suitable for meeting the family’s challenges and needs in the present context. The exhortation takes on particular significance in the context of the Year of the Jubilee of Mercy, as it intends to present the beauty of marriage and the family in the light of God’s Word, not as an inescapable reality, but as an achievable, albeit sometimes difficult, goal. In this paper, some legal references and quotes of canons are briefly analyzed.

4. Love as leitmotif of pastoral care of the family in Amoris Laetitia

Maria Teresa Cid Vazquez

Doctor in Law.

Professor of CEU San Pablo University of Madrid

The fourth article, signed by Professor María Teresa Cid, focuses, as the title indicates, on love as the leitmotif of family ministry. The author explains that Amoris Laetitia does not present a pastoral program for family ministry but general guidelines for its practice and the horizon of great pastoral challenges. In this sense, it is conjectured that the essential element that should constitute its pivot is love, learning it, and its form for human desire. The verb to conjugated is “accompany,” in the vocation to love as well as in growth and maturity within the family and the married couple. In the words of the Holy Father: “We need to find the right language, arguments and forms of witness that can help us reach the hearts of young people, appealing to their capacity for generosity, commitment, love and even heroism, and in this way inviting them to take up the challenge of marriage with enthusiasm and courage” (AL 40). Lastly, the lack of accompaniment and the urgent need for it have been analyzed in view of conveying a message that is really true to the spirit of the Gospel.

According to the exhortation, only in the light of true and genuine love can a person learn to love and build a real home for human desire. The document realistically indicates the lack of accompaniment and the urgent need for it. The guiding thread is the “desire for true love;” this implies accompanying the journey of the vocation to love while promoting the growth and maturity of the love of couples and families.

It is urgent to promote the family as well as to enlighten and strengthen the desire for it, so that society and the Church may increasingly become like families. In this sense, “today, more important than the pastoral care of failures is the pastoral effort to strengthen marriages and thus to prevent their breakdown” (AL 307).

5. Strengthening the education of children

Maria Eugenia Gomez Sierra

Ph.D. in Philosophy and Education Sciences.

Associate Professor of Pedagogy of Religious Education at the Elementary and Primary Levels, and Professor of Foundations of Theology at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In the reality of family life, that is, by approaching the exhortation to the daily lives of families, Professor Maria Eugenia Gomez reflects on how to strengthen children’s education. She highlights the role of education as a process that facilitates the development of the personality of children and the contribution that the family makes in this special field. The family’s role in socialization and in the transmission of values constitute the ecological niche where maturity through interpersonal relationships and ethical, moral, and spiritual growth are generated. Last but not least, the family is at the service of the construction of pillars of freedom for young people and tomorrow’s adults. Therefore, renewal and individual results depend on the climate of trust and security that only a strongly united family can offer. In this regard, the Pope writes: “no one can think that the weakening of the family as that natural society founded on marriage will prove beneficial to society as a whole. The contrary is true: it poses a threat to the mature growth of individuals, the cultivation of community values and the moral progress of cities and countries” (AL 52).

Education is a process that encourages the child to develop his or her own personality. It is not limited to a particular area; yet, there are elements that specifically contribute to reaching it, and the family is one of them. The family is the main context in which any person grows and where his/her value is recognized, with its potential and its defects, without any external interests that affect interpersonal relationships. Personality development is a permanent task that requires reliable accompaniment, and daily living provides the resources needed to grow. In the family, through examples, values and ideals are taught that help their children to respond to deep questions, to learn to discern between good and evil, and especially to lay the first foundations of freedom, understood as personal conquest. A strongly united family is the best channel for the mutual interaction in emotional ties that help the person to reach the maximum development, to which each one is called: the spiritual person, the new person.

6. Marriage and care for disabled children and the elderly: A commentary on the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of the Holy Father Francis

Maria del Pilar Quiroga Mendez

Doctor in Psychology.

Professor in charge of the Faculty of Psychology (UPSA).

On the psychological level, Professor Maria del Pilar Quiroga focuses her reflection on the spouses and care for disabled children and the elderly, a socio-demographic reality that is causing growing concern. In both spheres, the family finds itself faced with all the responsibilities described in the previous article and with the consequences of these situations of dependency that generate growing stress, although they may be an opportunity for growth. The author discusses in detail these fundamental aspects of psychological and spiritual health within the family context.

The Pope observes that “led by the Spirit, the family circle is not only open to life by generating it within itself, but  also by going forth and spreading life by caring for others and seeking their happiness […] The family lives its spirituality precisely by being at one and the same time a domestic church and a vital cell for transforming the world” (AL 324). Now, all this is advanced by a message that does not pretend to be intrusive or confusing, since “we have been called to form consciences, not to replace them” (AL 37). The Pope presents us the issues of the family with a vision that is far from pessimism: “families are not a problem; they are first and foremost an opportunity” (AL 7). Now, marriage is a privileged way to live the faith and transform the world: when caring for others, we find the fruit of this love between wife and husband, whom God has called to bear life and to care for it. The commitment to building, with Him, a world in which no one feels alone is one of the Pope’s most fascinating messages: “to want to form a family is to resolve to be a part of God’s dream, to choose to dream with him, to want to build with him, to join him in this saga of building a world where no one will feel alone” (AL 321).