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| Rather Than Rules, Pope’s Document Gives License to Adapt | Rather Than Rules, Pope’s Document Gives License to Adapt |
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| ROME — At 256 pages and 391 footnotes, the apostolic exhortation Pope Francis issued on Friday is a lengthy reminder of the importance he places on family, if also a puzzle. Some analysts are calling it revolutionary. Others describe it as tepid or opaque. | ROME — At 256 pages and 391 footnotes, the apostolic exhortation Pope Francis issued on Friday is a lengthy reminder of the importance he places on family, if also a puzzle. Some analysts are calling it revolutionary. Others describe it as tepid or opaque. |
| For two years, as Francis oversaw a contentious process to create the document, the focus has been on hot-button issues such as whether he would shift the church’s approach on homosexuality or toward divorced and remarried Catholics. Some hoped Francis would issue new policy as if he were dictating marching orders for the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. | |
| But the exhortation, titled “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love,” is not a book of new rules — if anything, it is the opposite. Rather than dictating policy like a chief executive, Francis effectively devolved power and suggested that in a global church, answers sometimes are best found locally. | But the exhortation, titled “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love,” is not a book of new rules — if anything, it is the opposite. Rather than dictating policy like a chief executive, Francis effectively devolved power and suggested that in a global church, answers sometimes are best found locally. |
| In this way, the document created something more significant: a broader space, or room to operate, in the relationship between the clergy and the faithful — a space that some liberal Catholics think may provide a path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, including communion. | In this way, the document created something more significant: a broader space, or room to operate, in the relationship between the clergy and the faithful — a space that some liberal Catholics think may provide a path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, including communion. |
| Rules matter, Francis wrote, but so does individual conscience. | Rules matter, Francis wrote, but so does individual conscience. |
| “The exhortation will disappoint those who expected rules, in one direction or another, but it’s exactly this mentality of rules that the pope wants to unhinge, especially on these issues,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. “The pope doesn’t entrust the governance of souls and families to one rule, but to the responsible meeting, within the church community, between pastors and the faithful.” | “The exhortation will disappoint those who expected rules, in one direction or another, but it’s exactly this mentality of rules that the pope wants to unhinge, especially on these issues,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. “The pope doesn’t entrust the governance of souls and families to one rule, but to the responsible meeting, within the church community, between pastors and the faithful.” |
| Parsing papal documents laden with theological, literary and philosophical footnotes is never simple, especially on tight deadline. At the Friday news conference unveiling the document, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn joked that church documents “do not belong to one of the most accessible literary genres.” Francis apologized for his prolixity early in the tome but blamed the vast array of issues raised during the two-year period of preparation. | Parsing papal documents laden with theological, literary and philosophical footnotes is never simple, especially on tight deadline. At the Friday news conference unveiling the document, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn joked that church documents “do not belong to one of the most accessible literary genres.” Francis apologized for his prolixity early in the tome but blamed the vast array of issues raised during the two-year period of preparation. |
| Yet the pope made one thing abundantly clear in the third paragraph: Even if “unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the church,” it does not “preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it.” In a global church, different countries or regions can seek different solutions better suited to domestic cultures and traditions, he added. | |
| Pope Francis is now such a commanding global figure that it is easy to forget he was elected three years ago by cardinals frustrated with the centralized, top-down management style of the Vatican. They wanted a greater role in making decisions. The term of art was “collegiality.” | Pope Francis is now such a commanding global figure that it is easy to forget he was elected three years ago by cardinals frustrated with the centralized, top-down management style of the Vatican. They wanted a greater role in making decisions. The term of art was “collegiality.” |
| Paul Vallely, one of the pope’s biographers, recalled that Francis chafed at interference from midlevel Vatican bureaucrats during his long tenure as archbishop in Buenos Aires. And like many Latin American bishops, Francis had embraced the collegial message of the Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II. | Paul Vallely, one of the pope’s biographers, recalled that Francis chafed at interference from midlevel Vatican bureaucrats during his long tenure as archbishop in Buenos Aires. And like many Latin American bishops, Francis had embraced the collegial message of the Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II. |
| “This is a pope acting like a Vatican II pope,” Mr. Vallely said. “The people who will not like this are the people who say, ‘Let’s have a set of rules, and if you break them, then the church condemns you and you are in a state of sin.’ ” | “This is a pope acting like a Vatican II pope,” Mr. Vallely said. “The people who will not like this are the people who say, ‘Let’s have a set of rules, and if you break them, then the church condemns you and you are in a state of sin.’ ” |
| Francis made collegiality a centerpiece of the process that produced “Amoris Laetitia,” even if he may not have always liked the results. He ordered questionnaires distributed to parishes worldwide to gauge opinions of ordinary Catholics. He called two major meetings of bishops, known as synods, and encouraged a freewheeling discussion that exposed sharp ideological divisions. | Francis made collegiality a centerpiece of the process that produced “Amoris Laetitia,” even if he may not have always liked the results. He ordered questionnaires distributed to parishes worldwide to gauge opinions of ordinary Catholics. He called two major meetings of bishops, known as synods, and encouraged a freewheeling discussion that exposed sharp ideological divisions. |
| In February 2014, when Francis announced the long process that would produce the family document, expectations arose among some interest groups that the bold new pope might take provocative positions. Groups representing gay Catholics were especially disappointed on Friday. Francis said the church must be more welcoming to homosexuals and the children of same-sex unions, but made clear that he did not consider those unions equal to traditional marriages and blamed same-sex marriage laws for diminishing the value and allure of marriage. | In February 2014, when Francis announced the long process that would produce the family document, expectations arose among some interest groups that the bold new pope might take provocative positions. Groups representing gay Catholics were especially disappointed on Friday. Francis said the church must be more welcoming to homosexuals and the children of same-sex unions, but made clear that he did not consider those unions equal to traditional marriages and blamed same-sex marriage laws for diminishing the value and allure of marriage. |
| Catholics hoping for clear protocols on how the church would deal with divorced and remarried Catholics did not get them. Lucetta Scaraffia, a Rome-based scholar of Catholicism, said Francis might have wanted a bolder document, but he faced stiffed resistance from opponents who feared that he was trying to change doctrine, or that loosening norms might mean the triumph of moral relativism. | Catholics hoping for clear protocols on how the church would deal with divorced and remarried Catholics did not get them. Lucetta Scaraffia, a Rome-based scholar of Catholicism, said Francis might have wanted a bolder document, but he faced stiffed resistance from opponents who feared that he was trying to change doctrine, or that loosening norms might mean the triumph of moral relativism. |
| “So he had to scale back because he had to avoid a break within the church,” said Ms. Scaraffia, who writes often for the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. “Basically, they could not accept the passage from being judges who reproach errors, the keepers of morality, to pastors who embrace suffering.” | |
| Yet, in pointedly giving license to churches in different countries to confront problems and make decisions, one interpretation is that Francis has gone over the heads of this opposition. Some conservative bishops had already embraced the pope’s emphasis on decentralization, but other conservative Catholics are uncomfortable and say it is a dangerous step that moves the church closer to Protestantism. | |
| At a bare minimum, Francis has clearly endorsed the idea that bishops must move church practice closer to the realities of the pews, where priests often accommodate people whose lives do not comport with a strict reading of church norms. He calls for priests to guide and accompany people in distress — not throw the rule book at them — and suggests a process of “discernment” and an examination of conscience. | |
| To laypeople, this language can seem hazy, but some analysts said it could empower priests to guide divorced Catholics who remarry without annulments to receive communion and return to full standing in the church. It is hardly a clearly established process — and opens the likelihood that different priests apply it in different ways — but Francis seemed to signal his position in a footnote, repeating one of his earlier statements on the subject. | To laypeople, this language can seem hazy, but some analysts said it could empower priests to guide divorced Catholics who remarry without annulments to receive communion and return to full standing in the church. It is hardly a clearly established process — and opens the likelihood that different priests apply it in different ways — but Francis seemed to signal his position in a footnote, repeating one of his earlier statements on the subject. |
| “I would also point out that the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” he said. | “I would also point out that the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” he said. |
| So much time and attention has been focused within the church on the process leading to “Amoris Laetitia” that its publication felt to some like an endpoint. Yet those who know Francis disagree. | So much time and attention has been focused within the church on the process leading to “Amoris Laetitia” that its publication felt to some like an endpoint. Yet those who know Francis disagree. |
| “The apostolic exhortation is not just the last step of a long process,” said Father Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest close to the pope and editor in chief of the Catholic journal Civiltà Cattolica. “It is going to be another starting point.” | “The apostolic exhortation is not just the last step of a long process,” said Father Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest close to the pope and editor in chief of the Catholic journal Civiltà Cattolica. “It is going to be another starting point.” |
| He added: “This is the big message that Francis is giving in his pontificate. The doctrine is not a stone to be carried on. The doctrine is a good piece of bread to help you stay alive.” | He added: “This is the big message that Francis is giving in his pontificate. The doctrine is not a stone to be carried on. The doctrine is a good piece of bread to help you stay alive.” |