In their preliminary document, the synod bishops identified some important areas for work. First, continuing conversion:
201. “This effort calls for missionary conversion by everyone in the Church, that is, one that is not content to proclaim a merely theoretical message without connection to people’s real problems”.(Relatio Synodi 2014, 32)
The cultivation of values, not (necessarily) rules:
Pastoral care for families “needs to make it clear that the Gospel of the family responds to the deepest expectations of the human person: a response to each one’s dignity and fulfilment in reciprocity, communion and fruitfulness. This consists not merely in presenting a set of rules, but in proposing values that are clearly needed today, even in the most secularized of countries”.(Ibid., 33)
A critique of the environment in which families operate and are, at times, pressured away from values:
The Synod Fathers also “highlighted the fact that evangelization needs unambiguously to denounce cultural, social, political and economic factors – such as the excessive importance given to market logic – that prevent authentic family life and lead to discrimination, poverty, exclusion, and violence.
And not just criticism, but dialogue:
Consequently, dialogue and cooperation need to be fostered with societal structures and encouragement given to lay people who are involved, as Christians, in the cultural and socio-political fields”.(Ibid., 38)
Thoughts? For your reference Amoris Laetitia is online here.
Catholic Sensibility 