Breaking with Tradition or Necessary Development? Two Types of Reading of the Apostolic Letter Amoris laetitia

Abstract

In his apostolic letter Pope Francis underlines indeed the connection with the statements of his predecessors, but he performs also an important paradigm shift in the tradition of the Church concerning the marriage and the family. This step allows the new approach to remarried people after the breakdown of their sacramental marriage. This paradigm shift concerns not only such situations but the marital and familial ethics as a whole. The pope encourages to respect towards the judgment of the spouses conscience and expresses his extensive skepticism towards the deductive methods in the moral considerations. In the previous Church teaching with the help of these methods,  conclusions concerning every single situation were derived from general truths. According to the Pope Francis the logics of marginalization and exclusion can no longer be the way of the Church. As the Pope says, the Church cannot throw the moral laws like stones at the people who do not follow the ideals. They should be rather invited to make next steps on the way of love, which they recognize in their conscience as an answer to the God’s call, here and now.