Jessica Marshall
Special Envoy to Aparecida (SP)
The Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, commented the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francisco about family, Amoris Laetitia, published on Friday morning, 8, at the Vatican. The cardinal spoke to the press in Aparecida, Sao Paulo State, Brazil where the 54th General Assembly of the Brazilian Bishops is taking place
Some people had expected in this document a final answer, closed, maybe even with changes of rules of the Catholic Church. In General, Dom Odilo explained that in the document of the Pope there is no “generic one can/one cannot “. The key word, according to the Archbishop, and according to the Pope himself, is discernment.
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Cardinal Odilo recalled that this document is the result of two synods on the subject of family. The Synod assemblies do not produce a document itself, since it is the Pope who writes this final document.
As usual, the exhortation has a Latin name, Dom Odilo pointed out, a title that means “joy of love”. The Archbishop of São Paulo made a brief summary from the index, commenting briefly each on of the nine chapters that make up the text.
The last two chapters, the Cardinal said stressed the discernment requested by the Pope to analyze difficult situations. Cardinal Odilo cites as an example the cases of couples who have lived together, but without the sacrament of marriage. “Probably there is some economic reason, for example, or some cultural reason,” said the Archbishop, who added: “the Pope says that there are such circumstances, but that they need to be overcome.”
Cardinal Odilo also mentioned the time of exhortation in which the Pope asks for mercy with regard to these specific cases affecting so many families. “Logic of mercy is that the Church does not exclude anyone, God does not exclude anyone. Everyone wants to give the possibility of a full life. “
“My first impression is this: the Pope wanted to talk of marriage and the family not from the requirements, but from another angle. He does not speak from the problems. He starts talking about what is good, what is love. I think that the Pope is very wise. It is pointless to want to cover all the holes when they lack another thing, which is the basic motivation, the joy of love, the family, “said.
About the problematic situations, some expect a “you cannot”. Cardinal Odilo said that is not so. “There are standards, but they should not be applied cold as in a Cabinet. There is a pluralism also in application of the standards and judgement of situations “.
About communion to couples of second marriage, the Pope addresses, but, again, not with a “one can/one cannot”, but with discernment, analyzing every situation, explained the Cardinal.
“What the Pope insists on greatly is in the pastoral accompaniment and discernment. There’s no “generic” can/cannot”.
Translated from Portuguese/ This is not an official translation