The Pope’s pastoral ‘revolution’

Francis is trying to build a Church that is faithful to Christ’s teaching while ensuring that everyone can find a home, writes Michael Kelly

Within minutes of the publication of the Pope’s landmark document on marriage and the family, the British-based left-wing newspaper The Guardian uploaded a message on social media confirming that the Pontiff had not changed Catholic doctrine.

The tone of disappointment was evident, but the message also betrayed a stunning lack of understanding. Since his election more than three years ago, Francis has spent his time reinforcing Catholic tradition. Whether it is in asserting the right to life of the unborn or the fundamental understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman, the Pope has been unapologetic in contradicting the contemporary world.

His new Apostolic Exhortation is no different. In Amoris Laetitia Francis stoutly defends traditional morality. Sex is for marriage, marriage is lifelong and indissoluble and between one man and one woman.

But make no mistake, the document does mark somewhat of a revolution within the Church.

A Vatican reading guide, sent to every bishop in the world to accompany the document notes that Francis “encourages not just a ‘renewal’ but even more, a real ‘conversion’ of language”. Francis speaks of ‘irregular situations’ and asks bishops to be merciful in regard to people who find themselves in situations that the Church does not approve of.

Tone

Language is at the heart of the Pope’s reform. Critics have been quick to dismiss the change in tone and focus as ‘window dressing’, but anyone who is paying close attention knows that Francis’ shift is transforming the Church.

The Pope is trying to lead the Church to a greater pastoral emphasis. There’s always a tension within Catholicism between truth and mercy. Of course, they’re not in opposition – but the tension is real. The scriptures reveal to us Christ the teacher and the compassionate heart of Christ. But, the tension rests in the fact that it is the one and the same Christ. The same man who forgave the woman caught in adultery also told her to go and sin no more.

For Austen Ivereigh, author of the authoritative biography of Pope Francis – The Great Reformer – the key to the document is understanding that the Pope is changing the way the Church does business.

For Dr Ivereigh, decentralisation and collegiality is crucial to understanding Pope Francis. “True, neither words appears in the document, but the way Francis is exercising his authority in Amoris Laetitia is key to understanding what kind of teaching this is.

“Popes in the past used a synod report as a springboard for their own reflections – clarifying areas of dispute, reaffirming or explaining existing doctrine or practice.

“But Amoris Laetitia is expressly the fruit of the synod reports from 2014 and 2015, from which he quotes some 286 times, sometimes lifting entire paragraphs, and frequently taking a synod participant observation or insight and agreeing with it. Amoris Laetitia has many quotes from bishops’ conference documents around the world, making this not an edict, but the fruit of a dialogue.

“The traditional Catholic understanding of the papal magisterium is that it voices the Spirit-led consensus of the whole episcopate. By putting in place a careful, three-year process of discernment involving consultations of the faithful, two synods, and countless discussion and debate, Francis has enabled the Church to reach a consensus (which does not mean, of course, an absence of disagreement) of which this Apostolic Exhortation is the most important expression. Put simply, with Amoris Laetitia, the Church – not just the Pope – has spoken,” Dr Ivereigh insists.

He believes that Francis’ background as a Jesuit is also essential to understanding the text.

“A key part of synodality is the ancient spiritual art of discernment, developed in the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius, which Francis wants to introduce into the modus operandi of the Church. Discernment is the art of prayerfully reflecting on God’s presence or will in the daily reality of our lives, and – as the synod did – reading the signs of the times in light of the Gospel. It calls for a well-formed conscience, and an adult capacity to make decisions for the good in freedom – which was always the objective of Jesuit education.

“The structure of Amoris Laetitia is designed precisely to enable this process. Francis believes we cannot simply look around us with neutral eyes; we are always going to have a ‘hermeneutic’ (in the case of the news media, for example, it is the hermeneutic of politics and power). The Church, however, needs to look with the eyes of the Gospel: what do we know of what God wants for marriage and family? Hence Chapter One surveys marriage and family in Scripture (“The Bible is full of families, births, love stories and family crises”) to discover God’s will for humanity.

“Also key to discernment is starting from realities – to ‘seeing’ the current moment. Chapter Two, therefore, uses the synod’s consideration of the present-day experiences and challenges of families, which creates a ‘reality-check’: this will not be a document that starts from concepts and abstractions or theories, but the truth of people’s lives.

“Amoris Laetitia is the product of the most important listening exercise in the modern Church by the world’s largest civil-society organisations,” according to Dr Ivereigh.

Francis is ultimately trying to make the Church’s teaching about marriage and the family relevant to modern society without watering it down. He knows that this teaching is vital, but he also knows – thanks to the consultation process – that this teaching is often poorly understood or poorly followed (or both).

Anyone who has ever lived as part of a family – and I’m assuming that’s virtually everyone – knows that life is lived not in abstract black and white, but in various shades of grey.

Pope Francis knows that too, and his new 60,000 word document – The Joy of Love – is an appeal to Church leaders to set aside narrow judgmentalism in favour of an approach that is more welcoming and understanding of the situations people find themselves in.

The Pope is frank in his assessment. “Many people feel that the Church’s message on marriage and the family does not clearly reflect the preaching and attitudes of Jesus,” he writes. And he’s right. Which is not to say that the Pope is insisting that the Church is wrong in what it says, but his message is that the Church is often wrong in the way it says it and that some of the language used alienates people.

Hopeful

Those hopeful that Pope Francis was about to dismantle 2,000 years of Catholic teaching around marriage and sexuality will be disappointed. But that was never going to happen. Despite the hype, Pope Francis is a Catholic and is unapologetic in proposing a traditional Catholic understanding of marriage and sexuality. In Catholic tradition, the role of the Pope is to confirm the Faith, not turn it on its head. But make no mistake, there is a revolution in this document, subtle as it may be.

One of the remarkable things about Pope Francis is his ability – in fact his desire – to hold things in tension.

In one section he urges Catholics to look to the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as an icon of the perfect family. But, a few sentences later rails against the “excessive idealisation” of the perfect family.

Meaning

He praises the Church’s ban on artificial birth control, before admitting that 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”.

When dealing with couples who live together without getting married or couples in a gay relationship, the Pope refers to these as “imperfect situations”. Some will find this language judgemental, in reality, it’s a theological way of saying that human life in complicated.

Pope Francis knows that there is no such thing as the perfect family. And for him, that’s okay. But this does not mean setting aside the idyllic, he makes it clear that the ideal is something to strive for, but it’s not something to be idolised.

In language that will challenge many, Francis goes farther. He says that the Church must not “disregard the constructive elements in those situations which do not yet or no longer correspond to her teaching on marriage”.

That’s code for an acknowledgement that, for example, same-sex marriage may not be something that the Church can ever accept, but that the Church does need to be realistic in acknowledging that there may be things in that relationship that are good for people. At the same time, he says that for the Church same-sex partnerships are not analogous to marriage.

On the vexed issue of whether or not Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried should be allowed to receive Holy Communion, Francis is vague.

He says that people in this situation must be “more fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible” without elaborating on what exactly he means. However, crucially, he does make it clear that “they are not excommunicated” and they should not be treated as such.

His ambiguity recognises the divisions that are within the Church on the issue.

The overarching challenge from the Pope is to build a Church that is more understanding of the complexity of reality around human sexuality. He also wants a Church that is willing to journey with people rather than merely laying down the law. In a vision that he has returned to again and again, he urges the faithful to remember that the Church must act as a “field hospital” for those who are wounded rather than a museum for the saintly. It’s a compelling vision, and one that Francis hopes will give fresh impetus to a Church that often appears jaded by the pace of change.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has become somewhat of a champion for those Catholics who feel that the Pope is dismantling Catholicism, dismisses the idea that the document makes a radical shift.

“Such a view of the document is both a source of wonder and confusion to the faithful, and potentially a source of scandal not only for the faithful but for others of goodwill who look to Christ and his Church to teach and reflect in practice the truth regarding marriage and its fruit, family life, the first cell of the life of the Church and of every society,” he said.

Overall, the document will reassure Catholics who were fearful that Francis wanted to give the shop away. At the same time, those thirsting for change will be delighted that the Pope is downplaying the rigid language of sterility. For a Pope charged with bringing unity to a diverse Church, that’s quite the achievement.