Pope Francis on Forming Consciences, Not Replacing Them

 

Written by WPI Contributor

Pope Leo XIV has called the heads of the Eastern Churches and the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to the Vatican from October 7 to 14 for a meeting titled “Ten Years after Amoris Laetitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today.” Before the bishops trade notes on what is working, it is worth remembering where Pope Francis said, in that 2016 apostolic exhortation, the Church itself had gone wrong.

We also need to be humble and realistic, acknowledging that at times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has helped contribute to today’s problematic situation. We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. Then too, we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation. Nor have we always provided solid guidance to young married couples, understanding their timetables, their way of thinking and their concrete concerns. 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. This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God’s grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite.

We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.

— Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, nos. 36–37, March 19, 2016