Ten years after the publication of Amoris laetitia, what assessment can we make of this text that has shaped the Church’s pastoral ministry?
Following Alain Thomasset, S.J.’s contribution, which highlighted the fruitfulness of the apostolic exhortation’s pastoral insights, we now turn to Laetitia Calmeyn, professor of moral theology at the Collège des Bernardins, consultant to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and member of the editorial board of the NRT.
Her analysis proposes a re-reading of Amoris laetitia through the lens of the connection between kerygma, discernment, and sacramental life. By reminding us that the sacraments are not a reward for the perfect but rather aids offered to believers on their journey, she shows how Pope Francis’s exhortation invites us to better articulate pastoral accompaniment, spiritual growth, and the logic of grace. Ten years after its publication, Amoris laetitia thus appears as a call to rediscover the Gospel of the family in the light of mercy and sacramental life.
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The pastoral renewal of Amoris laetitia, initiated ten years ago, stems from a deeper understanding of the kerygma, which leads to an articulation of mercy, law, and discernment.
After recalling how the kerygma continually transforms Christian life, we will see that this perspective naturally extends into a reflection on sacramental life. Indeed, while discernment aims to recognize the action of grace in concrete situations, it is also important to understand how the sacraments accompany this spiritual growth, support human freedom, and increasingly conform believers to Christ. The sacramental question thus emerges as one of the prime areas for deepening the theological logic underlying Amoris laetitia.
I The Kerygma, Mercy, and Discernment at the Heart of Pastoral Care
The pastoral reflection developed in Amoris laetitia is rooted in the proclamation of the salvation offered by Christ. In meditating on Psalm 128, Pope Francis presents the family not as an abstract ideal but as the concrete setting where God carries out his work of salvation despite human frailties (AL 8–30 ; 58 ; 200). This perspective aligns with what Saint John Paul II called “the Gospel of the family”: proclaiming the grace already at work in people’s lives.
In this light, the kerygma takes center stage. The heart of the Christian faith consists in the encounter with the saving love of Christ. To accompany is to be a privileged witness to this encounter. The companion is therefore called to ongoing conversion: to learn to listen more deeply, to see things differently, and to discern God’s salvation more profoundly in order to proclaim it. There is no situation or suffering that Christ did not take upon himself on the cross. Our faith invites us to contemplate how the Lord goes before us to those he entrusts to us. For it is in the light of this salvation that a pastoral path opens up for each of us (AL 58 ; 312) . Thus, Pope Francis has called for a pastoral conversion that concerns the entire Church, which—in the light of the Savior—is called to become more of a place of welcome and integration, capable of “enlarging the space of her tent” (cf. AL 96 ; 299 ; 312).
This approach does not alter the Church’s doctrine, but renews the way we encounter people, grounded in evangelical mercy. From a biblical perspective, there is no opposition between law and mercy: the law is given to lead to life and finds its fulfillment in the action of the Spirit. Discernment, therefore, does not consist in classifying the situations people experience according to abstract categories, but in recognizing how God’s grace acts in a particular life and what good becomes possible here and now (AL 300 ; 303 ; 305) .
This approach is in keeping with the tradition of the “law of graduality” recalled by Saint John Paul II (Familiaris consortio 34). This is never a matter of gradualism in the moral norm, but rather the recognition of the progressive nature of spiritual growth. Christian life—that of both the person being accompanied and the one doing the accompanying—thus appears as a journey of ongoing conversion, accompanied by God’s grace, which leads each person toward an ever-deeper communion with the Lord (AL 95 ; 308).
II The Sacraments in the Service of Spiritual Growth
How do the sacraments accompany people in this spiritual growth and their gradual conformity to Christ?
Pope Francis echoes a consistent insight of Catholic tradition: the sacraments are not rewards granted to the perfect, but remedies and aids intended to support believers on the path of conversion (AL 305, note 351). This statement is part of an ancient tradition that St. Thomas Aquinas already expressed when he presented the sacraments as means of healing and growth in the life of grace1. But sacramental grace never takes the place of human freedom; rather, it heals it, strengthens it, and opens it more fully to communion with God. This is why Pope Francis considers human subjectivity as well as the factors that may hinder it (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1735).
Furthermore, the connection between the pastoral practice emerging from Amoris laetitia and the action of the Trinity is worth noting. The Holy Spirit, who acts through the grace of the sacraments, makes it concretely possible for people to respond (through fidelity, perseverance, growth, and the transformation of trials: see AL 73, 308, 317) at the frontiers and at the heart of the Church, where the Spirit is poured out “in the midst of human weakness” (AL 308) .
To further this reflection, it is valuable to consider in a positive light how the sacraments engage human freedom and enable every person, regardless of their situation, to grow in grace. Without attempting to address all the sacraments here, we can first turn to the one that constitutes, in a sense, the heart of all sacramental life: the Eucharist.
The Eucharist
The Eucharistic celebration excludes nothing from human existence; on the contrary, it embraces the entire creation as well as all our actions, directing them toward their fulfillment in God. It thus opens the way to ever greater freedom, received as the fruit of the grace of salvation.
From the opening sign of the cross, which already marks our participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ, to the final sending forth that calls us to bear witness to the Gospel in the world, the liturgy leads the believer on a true spiritual journey. The penitential rite disposes the heart to receive the Word of God so that it may take flesh in our lives and illuminate them from within. The Liturgy of the Word thus calls for a gradual conversion of life to the Gospel. The Eucharistic offering, for its part, reveals the true meaning of self-giving, which can only be understood in the light of Christ’s self-giving. Finally, Communion manifests and brings about the union of the faithful with Christ and with his Body, which is the Church. Each of these stages imparts its own grace while calling for the believer’s free response, so that human freedom is gradually transformed and strengthened by grace.
Benedict XVI developed this dimension in particular in Sacramentum caritatis. The Eucharist, he writes, possesses an intrinsic power of transformation that progressively configures the faithful to Christ (Sacramentum caritatis 70–71). It is not only the culmination of the Christian life; it is also its living source.
Thus, receiving Christ also allows us to discover what, in our lives, still stands as an obstacle to a deeper communion with him. The awareness of a sin or an obstacle to communion cannot be interpreted as exclusion; it is a grace of truth that opens a path to conversion, reconciliation, and integration. Saint Paul already wrote: “Let a person examine themselves before eating this bread and drinking from this cup” (1 Cor 11:28). Commenting on this passage, Pope Francis reminds us that discernment concerns not only our personal relationship with the sacrament but also the ecclesial communion it signifies: “The Eucharist requires integration into a single ecclesial body” (AL 186).
Receiving the Body of Christ therefore implies recognizing that same Body in the ecclesial community and allowing oneself to be transformed by the charity it communicates.
Marriage
Sacramental marriage expresses the total and irrevocable self-giving of the spouses as they participate in the covenant between Christ and the Church. This reality finds its source and fulfillment in the Eucharist, since it is from Christ’s Paschal gift that the spouses draw the grace for their own commitment.
This leads us to reflect on the faith required for the celebration of sacramental marriage. In his addresses to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, notably in 2011 and 2013, Benedict XVI drew attention to the question of the link between the spouses’ faith and the validity of their consent. Does not a manifest and widespread lack of faith affect the matrimonial intention itself? Without calling traditional doctrine into question, he invited reflection on the relationship between the spouses’ personal faith and their capacity to truly desire what the Church intends to accomplish when she celebrates marriage.
This concern, taken up in Amoris laetitia, sheds light on the current development of catechumenal programs for engaged couples. These programs are not merely intended to impart doctrinal knowledge, but to foster genuine spiritual maturation leading to the acceptance of marriage as a vocation and a path to holiness (AL 205–211).
When a valid sacramental marriage bond remains, those engaged in a new union are confronted with the Eucharistic significance of marriage: the fact that they do not receive sacramental communion can then be experienced as a way of acknowledging this significance. This excludes them neither from the life of the Church nor from the spiritual fruits of the Eucharistic celebration. Through their participation in the liturgy, in listening to the Word of God, in prayer, in the Eucharistic consecration, and in the life of the Church, they continue to benefit from the graces that illuminate each person’s path. The most important thing is to continually align one’s freedom with the path to holiness that is unique to each person. Such a witness invites all believers to examine their consciences in the light of Eucharistic communion. There are other situations or sins—such as pride, slander, etc.—that can present real obstacles to receiving Communion. It is a grace of revelation that shapes our freedom.
The sacramental life reveals the desire to enter into the very love of Christ and to allow one’s own way of loving to be gradually transformed by him.
Baptism
The same is true of baptism. Usually, two years of preparation are planned for adult catechumens. While it is important to mark milestones, we observe that some pass through them more quickly, while others may remain catechumens their entire lives, sharing in the grace that consists in living their faith by gradually adhering to the faith professed by the Church. The journey of these individuals is a source of grace for the entire Church. Their gradual adherence to the Church’s faith manifests their decision to conform their lives to the Gospel and to embark on a genuine journey of conversion. When this commitment is freely and consciously undertaken, baptism can then be received as the effective sign of the work that God is already accomplishing within them, for their salvation and the edification of the entire Church.
Adhering to the faith of the Church implies a personal relationship with Christ. From this perspective, prayer plays a decisive role. A personal encounter with Christ gradually enables one to unify the various dimensions of existence: intellect, memory, will, emotions, imagination, and the senses. The Christian life consists not only in knowing what is good, but in receiving the grace that enables one to put it into practice. Sometimes a person may intellectually understand the demands of the Gospel yet remain unable to live them out fully, due to deep wounds or emotional conditioning. Prayer then becomes the place where the human person learns to access their identity as a son or daughter of God. Each person gradually opens themselves to this inner freedom that enables them to embrace the truth of their own story.
Doesn’t every sacramental journey form part of a story of conversion?
Reconciliation
Some people may find themselves in situations where they are not yet able to receive sacramental absolution. This never means that they are excluded from God’s mercy. Pastoral accompaniment, then, consists in helping them discern the calls of grace already present in their lives and to move toward an ever-deeper communion with the Lord. Nothing prevents us from praying to the Lord with the person to implore forgiveness for the sins they bear and/or have confessed. As we mentioned earlier, following St. Thomas Aquinas, the sacraments are an ordinary path to salvation. The creativity of charity also invites us to explore the extraordinary paths2. Forgiveness for sins committed enables people to walk in the light of God’s mercy. It is not primarily a matter of being in good standing but of attuning oneself to the grace given—a grace that will bear the fruits God desires. Pastoral creativity does not replace the sacraments; it helps lead people to them. The sacraments remain the ordinary path to salvation. However, God is never confined to the visible limits of sacramental action.
The Anointing of the Sick
At the end of life, anyone who genuinely asks may receive the sacrament of Baptism, the sacrament of Reconciliation, the Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum. This is not merely a matter of resorting to “last-chance” sacraments. As the figure of the Good Thief shows, an entire life can be summed up in an act of faith and surrender. It is not suffering in and of itself that leads the thief, but more precisely, the way Christ illuminates it through the gift of his life. This is the meaning of the Anointing of the Sick. Every life, at some point, is tested and raises the question of meaning. The Gospel reveals that there is no evil or suffering that Christ has not taken upon himself out of love. To allow oneself to be reached by this love in the midst of suffering—which is also the suffering of all humanity—is to share in the grace of Redemption. Thus, there are people who, at a certain moment, through what they are experiencing, discover the grace of baptism. This is why it is important for Christians to be present on the peripheries of our humanity, at the ends of the earth, to bear witness to eternal life at the heart of each of our limitations, finitudes, sufferings, and deaths. The baptized are called to live out their baptism. For, as the very title of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia states, “love rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6).
Continue the discussion at NRT
Three articles by Father Alain Mattheeuws on separated couples and forgiveness in light of Amoris laetitia, the very concept of sacramental marriage, and morality as a path of Christian life.
- Indissolubility: A Window Open to Heaven (2021)
- Man and Woman in the Sacrament of Marriage. Overcoming the Opposition Between Pastoral Care and Doctrine (2015)
- Morality and Sacramental Economy (2026)
Alain Mattheeuws is the author of the Cahier de la NRT Marriage: Gift, Commitment, Sacrament.
Published on October 1 2026. Order it now here.
Footnotes
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1 Thomas Aquinas, ST iii, q. 65, a. 1.
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2 It is in this same question of the Summa that Thomas presents his famous axiom, which he expresses as follows: “God has not bound His power to the sacraments to the point of being unable to confer the effect of the sacraments without them. But He has bound man to the sacraments, so that he might obtain salvation through them” (ST iii, q. 65, a. 1, ad 1; the same statement appears in q. 64, a. 7, ad 3).