Pope Francis: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation published

After almost three years of consultations, the Pope's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on family was finally published. Titled "The Joy of Love" or "Amoris Laetitia," it talks about stable families as necessary for building a healthy society.

The document composed of 325 paragraphs centers on the need to examine the current situations of families and in having "a renewed awareness of the importance of marriage and the family." It mentions the debates that are going on, from "immoderate desire for total change without sufficient reflection or grounding" to that which tries to use general rules to solve everything.

"Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it," Pope Francis says. "Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs."

Since this is the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis finds the message timely because it not only asks Christian families to value marriage and family but also asks everyone to show mercy to those whose lives lack peace and joy.

Chapter I of the Apostolic Exhortation first tackles the topic of families and couples as discussed in the Bible, talking in length about the union of man and woman, and them having a family. The Pope says that "the Bible also presents the family as the place where children are brought up in the faith." And while parents have the responsibility to raise their children, these children have their lives to live and are by no means the family's property.

Pope Francis then discusses difficulties in both a couple's marriage and disputes within the family. The discussion then moves on to work, which he says is "an essential part of human dignity." Labor, he says, is what makes development of society possible, which brings up the issue of unemployment and the suffering it creates. He also mentions the destruction of the environment. He concludes the chapter by talking about "The Tenderness of An Embrace."

According to Radio Vaticana, the exhortation centers on the needs for individuals to have "personal and pastoral discernment," and they need to recognize that "neither the Synod, nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases."