Polish Bishops’ Document of Pastoral Guidelines for the Exhortation Amoris Laetitia

During their recent Plenary assembly, the Polish Bishops adopted “Pastoral Guidelines for the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.”

The document—a note published by the Bishops’ Press Office explains— “consists of four parts. The first one shows the basic accents of Pope Francis’ teaching in the context of previous popes. In the second chapter entitled “The ‘Joy of Love’ in Marriage and the Family,” the Bishops recall the rich experience of the Church in Poland in the pastoral care of the engaged, spouses and families.”

The third chapter “indicates in the pastoral ministry of the engaged, spouses, and people who find themselves in difficult and irregular situations.” “In the pastoral care of the engaged, young people must be helped to discover the value and richness of marriage. It is necessary to recall the importance of virtue, especially of purity, which is the condition for the authentic development of spousal love,” we read in the document. The fourth chapter bears the title “A Call for Pastoral Discernment and the Logic of Integration in the Light of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia.”

In the conclusion, the Bishops note the necessity to elaborate a new Directory for the Pastoral Care of Families for the Church in Poland “on that basis, it will be possible to prepare diocesan or metropolitan instructions and to create centers to serve married couples and families. At the same time, —they add—it is necessary to develop a program and define how priests will be prepared to accompany the faithful and discern their specific situations. We must characterize the pastoral ministry with closeness, a respectful and compassionate look that simultaneously heals, liberates, and encourages growth in Christian life.”