As the Pope himself acknowledges Amoris Laetitia is a loooong read. PopeWatch believes that the meat of the 264 pages is footnote 351, go here to read about it, but PopeWatch would be derelict in his duty without providing to the readers of TAC a version of the Exhortation, sans bloat, and with some commentary by him. PopeWatch will do about 30 paragraphs today, and since AL is 325 paragraphs, this will take awhile. So, without further ado, we begin:
Introduction
1. Joy of families is the joy of the Church.
2. Synod revealed complex issues regarding families. Pope positions himself between those who desire too much change of Church rules regarding families and those who want no change. (See, I am between the extremes, the sweet voice of moderation!)
3. Pope doesn’t have to settle all the issues, wielding the Magisterium. Let a thousand regional and cultural flowers bloom, all guided by the Holy Spirit of course.
4. Synod process was illuminating and impressive. Now I am going to show where the Synod Fathers botched things.
5. Mercy Uber Alles in this Year of Mercy.
6. Brief outline of how the Exhortation is structured.
7. The Synod dealt with a lot of questions and that is why this Exhortation is 264, count ’em, 264 pages in length. The Pope warns against rushed reading, although he then suggests that lay readers may wish to read only the portions of interest to them. (Whew that is a relief. PopeWatch can just imagine Catholic life coming to a halt due to a vast number of Catholics putting their lives on hold to read every word of this document that is longer than the combined Gospels and 50% longer than Laudato Si. At this rate, if Pope Francis is Pope for a few more years, his closing documents might rival War and Peace in length.)
Chapter I-In the Light of the Word
8. Bible has a lot of incidents involving families. Lets take a look at a typical Biblical family. (Take out your curlers, Sarah! David, put on a clean shirt! Company calling!)
9. In the house we find a mother and father united in love.
10. Genesis tells us that God created humanity male and female.
11. A loving family is a reflection of the Trinity.
12. Christ referred to the second chapter of Genesis to the first family of Adam and Eve.
13. Christ referred to the passage in Genesis where the two became one flesh. (The Pope emphasizes romantic love, although the Bible often has a more pragmatic view of marriage.)
14. Various passages are cited from the Old Testament to emphasize how blessed are families who have kids.
15. Families as domestic churches.
16. Families are the primary means by which kids are taught about the Faith.
17. Parents are to teach their kids and kids are to honor their parents.
18. Children are not possessions of their parents and will have their own lives to lead.
19. Sin can destroy the love in marriage. (A typical twenty-first century citation of Genesis 3:16 as dreadful: “Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” Most Christians, of both sexes throughout the ages, hearing that passage would have thought something like “and water is wet and fire burns” as merely describing a fact of life, albeit not describing every marriage or fully describing the complex facets of the relationship between man and wife in almost all marriages.)
20. Families in the Old Testament were often a fractious bunch.
21. A rather strained interpretation of various New Testament passages to demonstrate that Christ was familiar with families under stress.
22. The Bible is a source of comfort for families going through rough times.
23. Work is an essential element of human dignity.
24. Work is essential for families and societies.
25. Unemployment is bad for families. (You heard it here first folks!)
26. Pope rides his ecology hobby horse for a paragraph.
27. Christ was all about love.
28. Love in a family is often manifested in tenderness.
29. Summing up as to what the family should be.
30. The holy family of Nazareth is a model. Ties their fleeing from Herod with modern refugee families.
More tomorrow.
Have we now shifted from ambiguity to Pelosi process–pass this leviathan so we can find out what’s in it?
As Moses said to the fleeing Israelites when they came to the Red Sea; “Okay everybody, spread out and chose for yourselves which is the best way to cross this thing and remember above all that when the Egyptians show up, be accommodating to them.”
Objective Truth doesn’t change with time or tide unless those Teachings weren’t Truths . . . Upholding Truth is not extremism.
Popes should not be authors unless they are writing ex cathedra which has only happened twice in the past several centuries. There are 1.2 billion Catholics. If 10,000 are reading this constant flow of papal authoring, I’d be amazed.
Stop the authoring and work the phones 8 hours a day so that 90% of Catholic colleges stop the part night coed dorm visits. But that’s real work. No Pope wants that when he can be a best selling author in the ny times if half of 1% of
Catholics buy his book. This Pope as traveler/ author is a drug to the ego. They need to be cleaning house in all the worldwide Catholic institutions…but that’s actual tough phone work. 60% of weekly Mass attending Catholics accept gay acts and 45% accept gay marriage. But Popes are authoring instead of mandating to dioceses by phone that every homilist review Romans chapter one with pew sitters as being the inspired word of God not Paul’s personal journal. Pope Francis is against unemployment and consumerism simultaneously. Good luck with that. Stop this paradigm of Popes doing what they love….authoring but never ex cathedra authoring. We could obviously use an ex cathedra encyclical against gay acts for that 60% of pew sitters that think Romans one is an antique personal aside by Paul. The chaos well predates Francis. It’s about Popes not working the phones daily, 8 hours a day. They get elected and say to themselves….”finally, now I can write and people actually have to read me.” Good luck with that.
They’re not even reading God in scripture.
The tortuous and torturous AmorisLaetitia. I thought we were done with Lent ?!
‘The Pope warns against rushed reading,”
How in the hell can you rush read something that is so damned long?
I am not reading any of it. None of it was necessary. As it was done under this papacy, which has earned my contempt, it is best I avoid it, like I am avoiding politics, because both cause me to lose my temper and say a bunch of things I ought not say.
The Polish bishops have said they won’t follow this bloated pile of garbage. I stand with them. As this current pontiff will be visiting Krakow this year, he will be amazed to find himself in a Catholic country and see what it really is to be IN a Catholic country, not one that worshipped the demagogue Peron, let in Nazis escaping justice and promulgated the heretical liberation theology. He ought to be humbled, but he won’t be.