I started reading Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia ("On the Joy of Love") last night. I had been looking forward to this new "apostolic exhortation" for some time. And for the most part I really enjoy it.
It's exceptionally long, as apostolic exhortations go -- over 250 pages. I haven't finished it, since it's taking longer to read, in its digital format, but I've read enough of it thus far to have a general feel for the document as a whole. And much of the material contained here simply reissues material that I've read from Pope Francis in other contexts after the Synod of the Family stuff was published. So as a whole, I'm fairly disappointed in that length. It's rather laborious. I'm not sure why the Holy See simply didn't refer to that material in footnotes. I wish they hadn't reproduced it whole-cloth here. I'm afraid the length will turn off so many readers. That's sad, given that the fresh stuff I've read thus far here is absolutely wonderful.
But let's be honest: That's a fairly small complaint, as Vatican documents go. It sadly does make a difference whether Amoris Laetitia will have a wide circulation, which will ultimately affect how readers understand what the Pope is exhorting here. Because it means so many people will rely on journalists to get their information about "The Joy of Love". That's only another way of saying, they'll get a slanted reading.
For example: I heard an "expert" on NPR on Friday discussing the document. When the interviewer asked what Amoris Laetitia has to say about "gay marriage", the "expert" said, and I quote here: "It leaves the matter open to the conscience of the individual in dialog with his priest". No. No, it doesn't. But that's only because Amoris Laetitia doesn't say much about gay marriage at all. In fact, from what I can find, it's really not discussed.
That absence is a far cry from the "expert" opinion that it's now a matter of conscience.
The point of the Synod, and the point of Amoris Laetitia as a whole, is that marriage must be strengthened. (For the record, the exhortation doesn't say much about "gay marriage" because "gay marriage" is a cultural phenomenon, not a theological one, in the eyes of the Holy See. That makes a difference that folks in journalism just don't seem to get because folks in our culture don't generally seem to get.)
Instead, Amoris Laetitia utilizes some of Pope John Paul II's language about marriage -- that the male-female, husband-wife union in love is an icon of the Trinity, imaging and revealing the inner life of God, indeed his own "very being" (see 10-11). Rome is still standing athwart the West's sexual revolution and gender revolution. The difficulty is the pastoral care of individuals, especially innocent victims in a failed marriage. There is much more happening in this lengthy document, but understandably our attention is on issues that are actually at the fray of the document itself (because this is where so-called culture "experts" want our attention to be placed).
What I most love about this document is how it completely demolishes all the Western cultural nonsense about individualism.
Paragraph 33 in particular.
It fairly well captures the rallying cry of the West -- that my desires are absolute, and that I chose to shape who I am -- even if that rallying cry is anything but Christian. Thus Francis, in paragraph 35:
The Pope is cautioning us about how we present our faith and treat other people. "We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. Then too, we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation" (36). As a result, there's been an "excessive idealization" that results in insensitivity toward sisters and brothers who find themselves in difficult situations (37).
But all that this document says -- even the stuff you'll hear about its "new" stance on divorce and remarriage -- is spoken out of the long-standing Christian moral commitment that conscience is shaped by doxology. Prayer shapes belief, shapes action. Formed properly, the moral agency of the individual is truly free and not controlled or coerced from without. However, it would not be hard for someone to interpret what Amoris Laetitia says as giving the conscience a certain autonomy and intrinsic justification. It just doesn't.
All in all, the Pope is warning us about how we center ourselves around our desires, obsessed with cultivating ourselves, our independence. "We treat affective relationships the way we treat material objects and the environment: everything is disposable; everyone uses and throws away, takes and breaks, exploits and squeezes to the last drop" (39). The social teachings of the Church on justice and fairness are frequent throughout the document. For example, "The lack of dignified or affordable housing often leads to the postponement of formal relationships" (44). "The verbal, physical, and sexual violence that women endure in some marriages contradicts the very nature of the conjugal union" (54). I could say lots more, but that's enough to hopefully get you interested in reading yourself.
What I most love about this document, though, is Francis' fundamental belief that grace and joy, not law and condemnation, is far more effective in achieving the Church's moral goals in the lives of individuals. For example, " ... we have often been on the defensive, wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without being proactive in proposing ways of finding true happiness" (38). Absolutely beautiful!
The Pope isn't doing what Luther did -- pitting grace against law (that's a theological mistake, anyway, and it unraveled a lot that Luther got right!) -- though I'm pretty sure lots of "experts" will read him that way. I think, instead, the Pope is doing what Barth did -- reversing the law-gospel order (to gospel-law) in order to be faithful to the biblical material itself. (Reread Exodus 20 and you'll see exactly what I mean. Grace (vv. 1-3) comes before law (vv. 4ff).)
Okay, so on to the stuff that I'm hearing in the news now: Divorce and remarriage. I simply haven't gotten far enough into the document to say much (that's Chapter 8, for those who want to jump ahead). So I'm going to wait to say anything. But here's the deal: The problem I've always had with the Catholic moral commitment to the indissolubility of marriage as a sacrament is a pastoral one. What do you do with the people who, after divorcing without an annulment, are actually penitent? Or what if they were the innocent victim in the separation from their spouse? Where's the mercy that is at the heart of the grace supposedly bestowed in the sacrament? I'm not sure you can get at sacramental mercy while talking about sacramental indissolubility in marriage. I'll be interested to see what Amoris Laetitia has to say about that. (Overcome that issue, and there's plenty more, but this is a big one for me.)
It's exceptionally long, as apostolic exhortations go -- over 250 pages. I haven't finished it, since it's taking longer to read, in its digital format, but I've read enough of it thus far to have a general feel for the document as a whole. And much of the material contained here simply reissues material that I've read from Pope Francis in other contexts after the Synod of the Family stuff was published. So as a whole, I'm fairly disappointed in that length. It's rather laborious. I'm not sure why the Holy See simply didn't refer to that material in footnotes. I wish they hadn't reproduced it whole-cloth here. I'm afraid the length will turn off so many readers. That's sad, given that the fresh stuff I've read thus far here is absolutely wonderful.
But let's be honest: That's a fairly small complaint, as Vatican documents go. It sadly does make a difference whether Amoris Laetitia will have a wide circulation, which will ultimately affect how readers understand what the Pope is exhorting here. Because it means so many people will rely on journalists to get their information about "The Joy of Love". That's only another way of saying, they'll get a slanted reading.
For example: I heard an "expert" on NPR on Friday discussing the document. When the interviewer asked what Amoris Laetitia has to say about "gay marriage", the "expert" said, and I quote here: "It leaves the matter open to the conscience of the individual in dialog with his priest". No. No, it doesn't. But that's only because Amoris Laetitia doesn't say much about gay marriage at all. In fact, from what I can find, it's really not discussed.
That absence is a far cry from the "expert" opinion that it's now a matter of conscience.
The point of the Synod, and the point of Amoris Laetitia as a whole, is that marriage must be strengthened. (For the record, the exhortation doesn't say much about "gay marriage" because "gay marriage" is a cultural phenomenon, not a theological one, in the eyes of the Holy See. That makes a difference that folks in journalism just don't seem to get because folks in our culture don't generally seem to get.)
Instead, Amoris Laetitia utilizes some of Pope John Paul II's language about marriage -- that the male-female, husband-wife union in love is an icon of the Trinity, imaging and revealing the inner life of God, indeed his own "very being" (see 10-11). Rome is still standing athwart the West's sexual revolution and gender revolution. The difficulty is the pastoral care of individuals, especially innocent victims in a failed marriage. There is much more happening in this lengthy document, but understandably our attention is on issues that are actually at the fray of the document itself (because this is where so-called culture "experts" want our attention to be placed).
What I most love about this document is how it completely demolishes all the Western cultural nonsense about individualism.
Paragraph 33 in particular.
It fairly well captures the rallying cry of the West -- that my desires are absolute, and that I chose to shape who I am -- even if that rallying cry is anything but Christian. Thus Francis, in paragraph 35:
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. We would be depriving the world of values that we can and must offer. It is true that there is no sense in simply decrying present-day evils, as if this could change things. Nor it is helpful to try to impose rules by sheer authority. What we need is a more responsible and generous effort to present the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and the family, and in this way to help men and women better to respond to the grace that God offers them.Let that sink in.
The Pope is cautioning us about how we present our faith and treat other people. "We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. Then too, we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation" (36). As a result, there's been an "excessive idealization" that results in insensitivity toward sisters and brothers who find themselves in difficult situations (37).
But all that this document says -- even the stuff you'll hear about its "new" stance on divorce and remarriage -- is spoken out of the long-standing Christian moral commitment that conscience is shaped by doxology. Prayer shapes belief, shapes action. Formed properly, the moral agency of the individual is truly free and not controlled or coerced from without. However, it would not be hard for someone to interpret what Amoris Laetitia says as giving the conscience a certain autonomy and intrinsic justification. It just doesn't.
All in all, the Pope is warning us about how we center ourselves around our desires, obsessed with cultivating ourselves, our independence. "We treat affective relationships the way we treat material objects and the environment: everything is disposable; everyone uses and throws away, takes and breaks, exploits and squeezes to the last drop" (39). The social teachings of the Church on justice and fairness are frequent throughout the document. For example, "The lack of dignified or affordable housing often leads to the postponement of formal relationships" (44). "The verbal, physical, and sexual violence that women endure in some marriages contradicts the very nature of the conjugal union" (54). I could say lots more, but that's enough to hopefully get you interested in reading yourself.
What I most love about this document, though, is Francis' fundamental belief that grace and joy, not law and condemnation, is far more effective in achieving the Church's moral goals in the lives of individuals. For example, " ... we have often been on the defensive, wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without being proactive in proposing ways of finding true happiness" (38). Absolutely beautiful!
The Pope isn't doing what Luther did -- pitting grace against law (that's a theological mistake, anyway, and it unraveled a lot that Luther got right!) -- though I'm pretty sure lots of "experts" will read him that way. I think, instead, the Pope is doing what Barth did -- reversing the law-gospel order (to gospel-law) in order to be faithful to the biblical material itself. (Reread Exodus 20 and you'll see exactly what I mean. Grace (vv. 1-3) comes before law (vv. 4ff).)
Okay, so on to the stuff that I'm hearing in the news now: Divorce and remarriage. I simply haven't gotten far enough into the document to say much (that's Chapter 8, for those who want to jump ahead). So I'm going to wait to say anything. But here's the deal: The problem I've always had with the Catholic moral commitment to the indissolubility of marriage as a sacrament is a pastoral one. What do you do with the people who, after divorcing without an annulment, are actually penitent? Or what if they were the innocent victim in the separation from their spouse? Where's the mercy that is at the heart of the grace supposedly bestowed in the sacrament? I'm not sure you can get at sacramental mercy while talking about sacramental indissolubility in marriage. I'll be interested to see what Amoris Laetitia has to say about that. (Overcome that issue, and there's plenty more, but this is a big one for me.)