Amoris laetitia (The Joy of Love) is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis addressing the pastoral care of families. Dated 19 March 2016, it was released on 8 April 2016. It follows the Synods on the Family held in 2014 and 2015.
The exhortation covers a wide range of topics related to marriage and family life as well as the contemporary challenges faced by families throughout the world. It encourages both pastors and laypeople to accompany and care for families and others in situations of particular need. Amoris laetitia also includes an extended reflection on the meaning of love in the day-to-day reality of family life.
Controversy arose following the publication of Amoris laetitia regarding whether Chapter 8 of the exhortation had changed the Catholic Church's sacramental discipline concerning access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist for divorced persons who have civilly remarried.
Background
Catholic teaching on marriage Doctrine
The Catholic Church holds that marriage is a sacrament creating an indissoluble union between one man and one woman. While the Catholic Church allows for the possibility of separation from a marriage in certain cases, it does not recognize the validity of a subsequent marriage unless a declaration of nullity has been obtained regarding the first marriage or the first spouse is deceased. Any sexual act outside of marriage is considered a grave sin, and if the subjective elements of full knowledge and deliberate consent are present in an individual committing such an act, the individual would be deemed to have committed a mortal sin and would be deprived of access to Holy Communion until they have received sacramental absolution.
Canon law
The 1917 Code of Canon Law stated:Bigamists who, in violation of the rights of their lawful partner, live in concubinage with another party, are after having been admonished without avail to be punished with personal interdict or with excommunication.Canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that persons "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion". In 2000, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (PCLT) released a declaration which states that canon 915 applies to the divorced and civilly remarried. According to the PCLT, this prohibition "is derived from divine law" and based on the canonical notion of "scandal", which exists even if this kind of behaviour "no longer arouses surprise". Given the divine nature of this prohibition, "no ecclesiastical authority may dispense the minister of Holy Communion from this obligation in any case, nor may he emanate directives that contradict it". If the divorced and civilly remarried are not able to separate for serious reasons, such as the upbringing of children, and they assume the task of living in full continence, they can only receive the Communion privately ("remoto scandalo"), in order to avoid scandal.
Magisterial development
On 11 April 1973, Cardinal Franjo Šeper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), wrote to the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (in the U.S.), "In regard to admission to the Sacraments the Ordinaries are asked on the one hand to stress observance of current discipline and, on the other hand, to take care that the pastors of souls exercise special care to seek out those who are living in an irregular union by applying to the solution of such cases, in addition to other right means, the Church's approved practice in the internal forum (probatam Ecclesiae praxim in foro interno)." Following a request for clarification, on 21 March 1975, then Archbishop Jean Jérôme Hamer, secretary of the CDF, wrote, "I would like to state now that this phrase [probata praxis Ecclesiae] must be understood in the context of traditional moral theology. These couples [Catholics living in irregular marital unions] may be allowed to receive the sacraments on two conditions, that they try to live according to the demands of Christian moral principles and that they receive the sacraments in churches in which they are not known so that they will not create any scandal".
In 1981, Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio, which states, "the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried". The exhortation continues, "Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.
Two articles of the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church address the reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion by divorced persons who are civilly remarried. Article 1650 states, "they cannot receive Eucharistic Communion as long as this situation persists". Article 1650 continues, "Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence". Article 2390 states that outside of marriage, the sexual act "constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion".
In 1993 German bishops Walter Kasper, Karl Lehmann, and Oskar Saier had a letter read in the churches of their dioceses saying this question of Communion for divorced Catholics "in complex, individual cases" needed to be addressed. These bishops are said to have supported Cardinal Bergoglio for the papacy in 2005. When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected the group disbanded, but when Bergoglio was elected in 2013 Kasper returned to prominence on this issue.
In 1994, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a letter which states that divorced and civilly remarried persons cannot receive the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion unless, where they cannot separate due to serious reasons, such as the upbringing of children, "they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples. The letter also states that even if a divorced person is subjectively certain in conscience that their previous marriage had never been valid, this determination can only be made by a competent ecclesiastical tribunal.
In his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II states: "those who 'obstinately persist in manifest grave sin' are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion".
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI released the apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis. Benedict XVI "confirmed the Church's practice, based on Sacred Scripture (cf. Mk 10:2- 12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, since their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union of Christ and the Church signified and made present in the Eucharist". With regard to divorced persons living in new unions, Benedict XVI states, "Finally, where the nullity of the marriage bond is not declared and objective circumstances make it impossible to cease cohabitation, the Church encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship in fidelity to the demands of God's law, as friends, as brother and sister; in this way they will be able to return to the table of the Eucharist, taking care to observe the Church's established and approved practice in this regard".
2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family
The 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family addressed the Catholic Church's pastoral care of families. With regard to the access of divorced persons living in new unions to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, the relatio (final document) of the 2014 Synod states:
With regard to the pastoral care of divorced persons living in new unions, the relatio of the 2015 Synod states,
Schönborn said that when the 2015 synod participants formed small discussion groups some of them began by sharing their own family histories and discovered that many of them had direct experience in their own families of marriages that fail to conform to the ideal, which he termed "patchwork families". He said his own experience – his parents divorced when he was about 14 years old – made him thankful that the text "goes beyond the artificial, superficial, clear division between 'regular' and 'irregular', placing everyone under the common lens of the Gospel, in accordance with the words of St. Paul: 'God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.
Redaction Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández took part in the redaction of the document.
Content The text of Amoris laetitia was released in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The English text runs about 250 small-format pages with nearly 400 footnotes. Its introduction and 9 chapters comprise 325 numbered paragraphs. Quotations are drawn from the writings of earlier popes, documents of the Second Vatican Council and regional episcopal conferences, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes references to works by Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Antonin Sertillanges, Gabriel Marcel, and Mario Benedetti.
Introduction
The introduction to Amoris laetitia begins with Pope Francis recalling the Synods' examination of the situation of families in today's world and calls for "a broader vision and a renewed awareness of the importance of marriage and the family". (paragraph 2) He says that the document addresses many issues in different ways and therefore says: "I do not recommend a rushed reading of the text". He asks the reader to consider the text "patiently and carefully". (paragraph 7)
1. In the Light of the Word This chapter is "a biblical meditation on key themes related to the topic of marriage and family life" and includes a section on the importance of work.
2. The Experiences and Challenges of Families Here the Pope considers the contemporary realities of family life, acknowledging the unique challenges faced at the present time, including phenomena like migration, lack of housing, inattention to persons with disabilities, lack of respect for the elderly, and "the ideological denial of differences between the sexes". He concludes that only by adopting a point of view of realism can we avoid an abstract and artificial notion of marriage which has little to do with the lived experiences of families in today's world. 3. Looking to Jesus, The Vocation of the Family Chapter three deals with the vocation of the family according to the Catholic tradition and the Gospels. It stresses the sacramental nature of marriage, its indissolubility, and its role in the transmission of life. Pope Francis states that the family is an image of the Trinity, Christ's love for the Church, and "the espousal of our human nature by the Son of God". (paragraphs 71 and 73) This chapter touches on "imperfect situations" and "wounded families" and calls pastors "to exercise careful discernment of situations". (Familiaris consortio, 84) 4. Love in Marriage Pope Francis examines each phrase of St. Paul's passage on love in 1 Corinthians 13:4–13:7 in detail. The progressive "transformation of love" that takes place throughout the marriage is a point of focus, stressing that the ideal represented by the union cannot happen at once, and it is observed that longer lifespans necessitate a renewal of commitment.