Ten Years After Amoris laetitia: A Renewal Underway

The tenth anniversary of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris lætitia is an opportunity to reflect on how this text by Pope Francis is a source of inspiration and renewal, particularly with regard to family ministry, but also more broadly for all pastoral ministry. In his message for this occasion, Pope Leo XIV described this exhortation as “a luminous message of hope concerning conjugal and family love,” “a precious teaching that we must continue to explore in depth today.”

First, we must briefly mention how much this exhortation has sparked a surge of renewal and strengthening in pastoral care for families, in all their diversity. Many dioceses have found in it encouragement for the development and care given to marriage preparation, follow-up with couples, and the formation of pastoral workers. Family ministry has emerged as a crossroads for all areas of pastoral ministry (baptisms, catechesis, youth ministry, diaconal ministry…), a central place for proclaiming the Good News. It has also provided encouragement to develop a pastoral approach centered on welcoming, accompanying, and discerning the needs of people in complex family situations (cohabiting couples, divorced and remarried individuals, etc.), whether they are baptized or seeking to enter the Church. The recent increase in the number of catechumens, which has challenged every diocese, has compelled those providing accompaniment to reflect on the wide variety of family situations they encounter. The personal and pastoral accompaniment and discernment of these individuals, in the diversity of their states of life, has brought to light realities that until then may have gone unnoticed. Amoris laetitia offers valuable resources for addressing these situations and welcoming these people with all their frailties.

The exhortation calls for adopting pastoral attitudes that correspond to the guidelines provided by Evangelii gaudium for proclaiming and welcoming the Good News: “closeness, openness to dialogue, patience, and a warm welcome that does not condemn” (EG 165). Proclaiming the centrality of the kerygma requires “that it express God’s saving love, which precedes moral and religious obligations; that it not impose the truth but appeal to freedom; and that it possess certain elements of joy, encouragement, and vitality” (EG 165). Moreover, promulgated during the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy, AL takes mercy as its central theme, for “the Church is first and foremost called to be a true witness to mercy, professing and living it as the center of the Revelation of Jesus Christ1 .”

Amoris laetitia invites us to adopt “the gaze” and attitudes of Jesus toward those we encounter (AL 60), He who is “the face of the Father’s mercy.” In this sense, the Pope urges us to engage with the concrete reality of real families rather than remaining stuck in an overly abstract Christian ideal (AL 36). All pastoral ministry is thus called to accompany and support people’s growth starting from where they are. This consideration of the history and growth of love within families is a call to “missionary conversion” (AL 201), to a pastoral approach that does not remain fixated on conformity to rules or desired ideals, but seeks to accompany all families, regardless of their situation, to encourage and care for them. Pastors and pastoral workers cannot “be satisfied with merely applying moral laws to those in ‘irregular’ situations” (AL 305), nor can they make “judgments that are too harsh or impatient” (AL 308). “The point is to welcome them and accompany them with patience and sensitivity” (AL 294). The watchword is indeed “to include everyone” to help each person find their own way of participating in the Church community. The Pope clarifies:

Strengthened by this invitation to follow the example of Christ—who “accompanied the people he met with ‘truth, patience, and mercy,’ while proclaiming the demands of the Kingdom ” (AL 60), the exhortation offers those living in complex family situations (particularly divorced persons who are remarried or in a new union) paths of personal and pastoral accompaniment and discernment aimed at a greater integration of these individuals into the Church, including access to the sacraments, on a case-by-case basis (AL 300, 305). This approach of accompaniment and “personal discernment” within the internal forum—to discern the truth of the situation and see to what God is calling each person—goes hand in hand with “pastoral discernment” on the part of pastors and their teams for its validation and implementation; this approach was validated by the Rescript of Pope Francis dated June 17, 2017, which affirms that “there is no other interpretation” of Chapter VIII. Such a call to examine individual situations is based on a renewed trust in the enlightened conscience of the faithful and in the work of grace within each person (AL 37, 303). Pope Leo XIV thus recalled that the goal was to “move beyond a reductive conception of the norm.”

This approach, which calls upon mercy and discernment in unique situations, stems from the great tradition of moral theology. Let us briefly mention the “law of graduality” (AL 293–295), already highlighted by John Paul II in Familiaris consortio 9 and 34, which, without changing the norm, takes into account the necessary learning process according to each person’s circumstances and possibilities; the need to discern situations in all their diversity (AL 296–300), already mentioned in FC 84; the consideration of mitigating circumstances (AL 301–303, cf. CEC 1735 and 2352) and the reminder of the necessary discernment of conscience in heeding the moral law (AL 304–3062). Need we recall that the morality of an act can be judged “in the final analysis” only by the enlightened conscience of the person himself or herself3.

The novelty of the exhortation lies in the application of these principles to the access of divorced and remarried persons to the sacraments, on a case-by-case basis. The encouragement “toward responsible personal and pastoral discernment of particular cases should recognize that, since ‘the degree of responsibility is not the same in every case’ (Relatio finalis 51), the consequences or effects of a norm need not always be the same” (AL 300). Indeed, in a doctrinally significant passage, the Pope states:

The note here indicates that this assistance may include the sacraments.

Indeed, it is grave and manifest sin that severs communion with God and prevents the sinner, whoever they may be, from receiving the Eucharist (CIC 915). If, as the Pope indicates, not all so-called “irregular” marital situations are necessarily classified as grave sin, severing communion with God (AL 301), then a more nuanced discernment (carried out in the “internal forum”) may, in certain cases, allow access to the sacraments. On this subject, the Pope also invites us to follow the path of charity. He reminds confessors that the confessional is not a torture chamber and that the Eucharist is not reserved for the perfect but is a remedy and nourishment for the weak (note 351). Regarding access to the sacraments, while the customary practice has been to examine people’s objective situation (such as the irregular situation of “divorced and remarried” persons, for example)—as noted by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts cited in note 345— the Pope now asks that we no longer be content with this external examination but rather exercise judgment in the “internal forum,” at the level of the conscience of individuals and pastors.

Pastoral leaders are thus tasked with “accompanying those interested on the path of discernment in accordance with the Church’s teaching and the bishop’s guidelines” (Relatio finalis 85, AL 300). A process of personal and pastoral discernment is therefore offered to those who wish to be more fully integrated into the life of the Church, particularly with regard to access to the sacraments. In practical terms, nearly thirty dioceses in France have issued diocesan guidelines organizing these processes of welcome, accompaniment, and discernment. The arrival of many catechumens only reinforces this need. The challenge remains the training of mentors and the provision of information to the communities.