Apostolic exhortation

The Catholic Church's impact on the family is described by Pope John Paul II as, "...it is above all the Church as mother that gives birth to, educates, and builds up the Christian family by putting into effect in its regard the saving mission which she has received from her Lord." That's from Familiaris Consortio, paragraph 49.

And Pope Francis in his 2016 Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitiae says, quote, the church is a family of families constantly enriched by the lives of all those domestic churches.

That's in paragraph 87.

The church is a family of families.

Also, the family builds up society, the broader community, the village.

St. John Paul II, in his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation, again, Familiaris Consortio, says, quote, The family has vital and organic links with society since it is its foundation and nourishes it constantly through its role of service to life.

It is from the family that citizens come to birth and it is within the family that they find the first school of the social virtues that are the animating principle of the existence and development of society itself.

Okay, that's a sort of long-winded way of saying society is made up of families.

Doctrine is just a teaching.

You can write down a teaching like St. Paul VI did in 30 pages, okay? But I think that Francis wants to come away from that, okay? And he wanted to actually, I mean, if you read the subtitle of the Apostolic Exhortation, it's on love in the family.

So what the Pope set out to talk about is the joy of love on love in the family so you have sections in here where he talks for instance about emotions where he says that emotions are morally neutral still very difficult to understand for some people very challenging but he says that and he says oh emotions are when he talks about the couple he says emotions are um like he's doing psychoeducation in a teaching document.

And it's really important to him in this document, education of the children, very important to him.

For Vatican Radio, this is Nathan Morley reporting.

[news jingle] The Ecclesial Encounter 10 Years After Amoris Laetitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today, which was convened by Pope Leo XIV to mark the tenth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation, concluded at the Vatican earlier this week.

The gathering brought together the presidents of bishops' conferences, the heads of the Eastern Churches, married couples, and experts to reflect on how the Church can better accompany families today.

Among those taking part in the meeting was Professor Stanislaus Chu Ilo, a research professor at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University in Chicago.

And finally, back in Rome, bishops from around the world have concluded a major Vatican meeting focused on marriage and family life.

The gathering began October 7th, and was convened by Pope Leo to mark the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis's 2016 Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family.

The week-long meeting brought together presidents of bishop conferences, leaders of the Eastern Catholic churches, married couples, theologians, and experts on family ministry.

Among the topics discussed were declining marriage rates, couples living together before marriage, the challenges facing newly married couples, and how the church can better support families dealing with difficult circumstances.

This is a theologian saying this nonsense.

"The Vatican's ongoing summit, held from October seventh to the fourteenth, designed to examine what the church has, quote, 'learned' from a decade of, quote, 'trying to live Pope Francis's Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.'" The church has nothing to learn from anybody but the Holy Ghost, and revelation, public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, so I don't know what else, what we're, we're supposed to learn here.

[sniffs] The church, the church is a divine institution guided by God to get people to heaven.

It's not guilty of marginalizing anybody, because if it's marginalizing people, then it's cr- then it's engaging in a grave error and a sin.

Like you said, Tom, when we start choosing prayer and God, there's a fruit, there's a grace involved, those signal graces we mentioned.

And Pope Francis wrote about this in his Apostolic Exhortation that's called Call to Holiness.

He wrote Call to Holiness, it's a beautiful document.

And there's a quote from that, it says, the phrase comes from the church's understanding that holiness is not reserved for a few saints, but it's the mission of all the faithful.

The family has always held an important place in the pastoral concern of the successor of Peter and of the bishops who assist him through their participation in the Synod of Bishops.

[clears throat] The Synod of nineteen eighty took up a desire already expressed by Pope John Paul I during his brief pontificate, eventually leading to Saint John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio.

At the beginning of his own pontificate, Pope Francis once again placed the family at the heart of a synodal process, recognizing the need to continue the Church’s discernment in the face of profound changes affecting an area so closely linked to her mission in the world today.

That journey led, ten years ago, to the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

In this regard, the Church has continued along the path indicated by the Second Vatican Council.

When the Fathers of the Council placed the dignity of marriage and the family at the beginning of the second part of Gaudium et Spes, they recognized that family life offers a privileged point of entry into the great cultural, economic, social, and political questions of our time, including the work of promoting peace among peoples.

This history of more than half a century places upon our meeting a particular responsibility as shepherds, as the synodal vocation of the whole Church continues to unfold.

Within this history, Amoris Laetitia marked an important stage, and the ten years since its publication have become part of the life of our particular churches.