www.therecord.com.au
14 April 2016
Edition #77
Amoris Laetitia a remarkable gift for the Church, says Archbishop Costelloe By Jamie O’Brien
ARCHBISHOP TIMOTHY Costelloe has last Friday welcomed the release of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation entitled Amoris Laetitia, The Joy of Love. The 263-page Exhortation details the Holy Father’s conclusions, following the two synods dedicated to the theme of the family: the Extraordinary Synod of 2014 and the Ordinary Synod of 2015. The Archbishop described the Exhortation as a remarkable gift for the Catholic Church throughout the world. “The Exhortation is explicitly addressed to the whole Catholic community, but will be of great interest to many other people as well, because it speaks of an emotion each one of us, as human beings, experiences,” he said. The Exhortation is made up of nine chapters, subdivided into 325 paragraphs, with 391 notes and the final prayer to the Holy Family. The Archbishop explained that the Pope has not changed any definitive Catholic teaching and indeed has no authority to do so. “What he has done is call for a process of careful and faithful discernment of each particular situation, in the light of the Church’s teachings,” Archbishop Costelloe said. “A key principle underpinning the Pope’s thought would appear to be the idea that, while it is never the role of the Church to abandon, side-step or water down the high ideals of the Christian life, it is the role of the Church to
Copies of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia are seen during the document’s release at the Vatican on 8 April. The exhortation is the concluding document of the 2014 and 2015 synods of bishops on the family. PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING.
accompany people on their journey of faith, supporting and encouraging them as they strive to live up to those ideals, while never condemning people who find it difficult to do so,” he said. A second key principle, continued the Archbishop, is closely aligned to the first, and appears to stress the distinction between objective morality and subjective responsibility. “While the demands of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church may be clear, the capacity of people to understand, accept and embrace these may be limited by a variety of complex factors. “In such situations, which are very common today, the Church is called to accompany people on what may be a
long journey of discernment, as they seek to respond to God’s will for them. “The Pope writes that ‘without detracting from the evangelical ideal, there is a need to accompany with mercy and patience, the eventual stages of personal growth as these progressively appear’,” (par 308). Speaking on the discernment of people living in what the Church has termed, ‘irregular situations’, and how they should be incorporated into the life of their local Catholic community, the Archbishop said that the Pope is clear that this is an urgent task. Continued on page 2