Ambiguous LÆtitia

With the year of ‘Amoris Laetitia Family’ beginning March 19, it might be worth examining the theology of Amoris LÆtitia / Laetitia.

According to the International Theological Commission document Unity of the Faith and Theological Pluralism (1972) all Catholic school teachers, catechists and adult formation directors 'do theology'. The question today, as it has been for the last 100 years or so is, can Catholics who 'do theology', do it in various ways while ensuring that the Unity of Faith is maintained?

While Unity and Plurality of Faith need to be based on the mystery of Christ, who eludes exhaustive systematization, without some clear doctrinal systematization they mystery of faith cannot be transmitted.

"The limits of Pluralism are reached when doctrinal statements are 'gravely ambiguous' or otherwise incompatable with the faith" (Rowland p.17 - point 8 ITC document on Pluralism).

One example might be two paragrphs and a footnote in Amoris LÆtitia, which appear to contradict the German and Maltese interpretation that divorced and civilly remarried couple may be admited to communion. The Amoris statements are:

"No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves" (Amoris 297). This statement appears to contradict Mt 25:41,46 which speak of "the everlasting fire”, and "everlasting punishment" versus "life everlasting.”

"The Church acknowledges situations 'where, for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate'” (Amoris 298). This second statement is ambiguous on its face because it ends the quote from Familiaris Consortio mid-sentence, dropping "they 'take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples'" (Familiaris 84).

The footnote, #329 pertains to the second Amoris statement regarding couples who "cannot satisfy the obligation to separate", which as previously stated is a severely abridged quote.

Foothnote #329: In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living “as brothers and sisters” (Familiaris 84), which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, “it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers” (Gaudium et Spes, 51).

The references to John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio and Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes serve to conflate separate issues, both of which condemn the situation, to create the confusing new interpretation that divorced and civilly remarried couples may be admitted to communion;

. * "However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried" (Familiaris 84).
. * Regarding "where the intimacy of married life is broken off, its faithfulness can sometimes be imperiled..." the next lines of should be read for a sense of context. "To these problems there are those who presume to offer dishonorable solutions indeed; they do not recoil even from the taking of life. But the Church issues the reminder that a true contradiction cannot exist between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those pertaining to authentic conjugal love" (Gaudium et Spes, 51).

Certainly ambiguous, possibly even gravely so.

Works Cited


"Cardinal Ratzinger Speaks to Press on New Instruction" L’Osservatore Romano. English Weekly Edition, July 2, 1990, p. 5.
https://catholicism.org/theology-not-private-ratzinger.html

Francis I. AMORIS LÆTITIA - The Joy of Love. Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, on 19 March, the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, in the year 2016, the fourth of my Pontificate

GAUDIUM ET SPES - Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. of Vatican Council II. Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965

International Theological Commission. Unity of the Faith and Theological Pluralism. 1972,
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1972_fede-pluralismo_en.html.

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio. Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the twenty-second day of November, the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, in the year 1981, the fourth of the Pontificate.
http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html (22 November 1981)

Rowland, Tracey. Catholic Theology. Bloomsbury, 2017.

Ratzinger, Joseph. DONUM VERITATIS - On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian. Given at Rome, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on May 24, 1990, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19900524_theologian-vocation_en.html