The Sunday Mail
Religion Correspondent
POPE Francis walked a tight rope when, on April 8 he released “Joy of Love”, a massive document reflecting on the troubled institution of marriage and family life today.
“Joy of Love”, eagerly anticipated since late last year, was written by the Pope as a response to two back-to-back meetings of Catholic bishops he hosted at the Vatican in 2014 and 2015 on issues of family life.
Zimbabwe was represented by Gweru Bishop, Xavier Munyongani.
The meetings made recommendations to the pontiff following weeks of discussions. The Pope’s “Joy of Love”thus cites extensively from those recommendations. The Pope’s letter was eagerly anticipated since media reports last year suggested the bishops, in their discussions and consequently their recommendations, had implored the Pontiff to change the Church doctrine and allow for same sex-marriages and divorce within the church.
Pope Francis affirms the church’s teaching that marriage is indissoluble,‘what God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ (Matthew 19:6), and says that divorce displeases God. He also restates the church’s teaching around same-sex marriages, emphatically stating that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family”.
But of concern to the Pope are not the doctrinal issues, but people, especially religious leaders’ attitude of being judgmental and idealistic when they deal with often times complex issues around family and marriage break ups.
He says many people feel that the Church’s message on marriage and the family does not clearly reflect “the preaching and attitudes of Jesus, who set forth a demanding ideal yet never failed to show compassion and closeness to the frailty of individuals like the Samaritan woman or the woman caught in adultery”.
Discernment must help to find possible ways of responding to troubled or failed marriages and scarred families. “By thinking that everything is black and white” leaders often times rush to judge and condemn failed marriages and single parents.
Still focusing on church leaders, the pontiff states that “We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. At times we have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families.
The letter devotes space to addressing the topical issue of Catholics who divorce and remarry without first obtaining annulments, whom church practice has always prohibited from taking Communion.
While the Pope does not specifically issue a new law or regulation allowing remarried Catholics to have the Eucharist, he significantly changes the church’s stance towards such persons, calling for “pastoral discernment” of individual situations.
“No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” he exhorts. “Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.”
The Pope addresses several other sometimes controversial issues throughout the exhortation, including same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion.
While the pontiff recognises values he says are expressed in committed same-sex relationships, he clearly separates them from heterosexual relationships.
“We need to acknowledge the great variety of family situations that can offer a certain stability, but de facto or same-sex unions, for example, may not simply be equated with marriage,” writes the Pope. “No union that is temporary or closed to the transmission of life can ensure the future of society.”
He went on: “As for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
He also affirms the Church’s teaching against use of contraception by Catholics and speaks strongly against abortion: “So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the ‘property’ of another human being.”
In the love of parents for their children, the Pope sees “a reflection of the primacy of the love of God, who always takes the initiative,” he says, “for children, are loved before having done anything to deserve it”.
He says “large families are a joy to the church” but further states that responsible parenthood does not mean “unlimited procreation or lack of awareness of what is involved in rearing children, but rather the empowerment of couples to use their inviolable liberty wisely and responsibly, taking into account social and demographic realities, as well as their own situation and legitimate desires.
‘‘I am sure many Zimbabwean Catholics in marriage and family situations will find joy from this letter.
It is pastoral and inspirational, not nagging or judgemental.
It presents the old scripture in a new way.’’
