JOY OF LOVE, THE DOCUMENT OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS SYNOD ON THE FAMILY

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This exhortation reaffirms the fundamental truths of reason and faith, relating to marriage and family, It outlines the characteristics, the purposes and the properties as well as he wanted the Creator, who, through the mission and work of Christ, He has granted to the Church and civil society to legislate with more precision in the field, according to the times and places, taking into account the fragility of human sinfulness and subsequent to original sin, in order to ensure to the family as possible the maximum period of the virtues, especially of charity, that blooms in the joy of love.

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Dear Readers.

we would like to introduce the ancient speculative mechanism of theological dissertations, that are not made of "I think», «I say», because theology is not ideological research of the reasons of their own I, but humble search and ad arcane mysteries of God. The reason for which was required to Father John Cavalcoli an article which highlight all the positive aspects of the Post-Synodal; and our elderly Father of’Patmos Island He has done so. All to provide a mixed picture across multiple writings written by priests and other theologians, introducing readers what are the theological dissertations summarized in their own way with this example: once, in a speculative context, I was asked to draw up a study in which emphasize all “positives” of Luther's thought; and knowing what I was asked how I was opposed to his thinking. In another of my brother, instead considered very soft this heresiarch, He was asked a study that shed light on all the negative aspects of the same Luther. These valuable exercises, that had the purpose of saving the theologians from ideology and egocentrism, today have fallen into disuse, with results often produced at present by many theologians closed in the defense of their own iocentrism replaced from time to Diocentrism.

Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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The Post-Synodal Exhortation love joy Pope Francis is a sum doctrinal and pastoral work of the Christian family, a rich synthesis, complete and well-ordered current thinking on the subject of the Church. It reiterates the fundamental truths of reason and faith, relating to marriage and family, It outlines the characteristics, the purposes and the properties as well as he wanted the Creator, who, through the mission and work of Christ, He has granted to the Church and civil society to legislate with more precision in the field, according to the times and places, taking into account the fragility of human sinfulness and subsequent to original sin, in order to ensure to the family as possible the maximum period of the virtues, especially of charity, that blooms in the joy of love.

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The Pope also compares the true and healthy concept of the family with certain ideas, aberrant and unhealthy habits and practices, which contrast with the Creator's plan, the right of man and woman concept, the straight Practical Reason, the project of Christ, the Church laws, the good of civil society, human progress and the very real happiness of the couple, preventing the the joy of love. However, before entering to treat moral issues, pastoral, psychological, Educational, cultural, ecclesial, civilians, legal and spiritual, that touch the family, the Pope has the happy idea to take the momentum from afar, ie the absolute foundations, inviolable and immutable, metaphysicians, theological and anthropological the whole treatment, without which the lack the fundamental reasons, the theoretical consistency and the essential guidance.

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The Supreme Pontiff in fact, we know that, to discover and highlight the root causes of the evils, that today afflict the family, to eliminate it and to correct misconceptions and bad behavior and habits, that corrupt and destroy, it is urgently necessary to recover the realistic conception of knowledge [1], so to be able to go with confidence and objectivity to the roots of the same view of reality, the conception of man, of God and creation, as we are taught by the Holy Scriptures, by ecclesial tradition and the sound philosophy.

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At the beginning of the document, Pope warns us solemnly in the following words, as if to give us the access key and the criterion to learn the right way and ward off any manipulation: "Do not fall into sin to claim to replace us to the Creator. we are creatures, we are not omnipotent. Creation before us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and that means first of all accept and respect it as it was created " (n.56).

In a few, dense rows, to meditate at length and make money, we have a metaphysical synthesis, of theology, of anthropology, of epistemology and moral. The Pope recalls that it was the original sin, and that is the sin of atheism and contemporary pantheism: pretend to replace us to the Creator. Or the man who makes himself God and identifies with him or the man who denies God and puts in its place. Accident serious in both cases.

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In the event to, the man does not admit a being, real as the premise of his thought, a reality presupposed, che lo precede, reality, which then has not created him, but God has created. He does not admit this, not to admit a Creator God, transcendent, Who also created man. No. The man claims that the being is identified with his thinking and is therefore both effect of his thought, robbing God of his prerogative, for which in Him and in Him alone, Being and Thinking subsisting, the real is caused and wanted by the ideal, in case, from the Logos divine.

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So, There the Pope says, the man believed to "almighty", He does not consider creature, but as the creator of himself. She does not receive any gift from God no, why does the rest, self-sufficient, He decides everything, Also the terms of human nature, that is not a fixed datum, objective, universal and immutable, established by God, but that he can mold and change subjectively as he wants. And so it's up to him to establish the moral law. He has no God to thank, or to whom to ask for help or forgiveness or mercy, for he, He is a law unto himself, It does not have to account to anyone, but it is able to solve all its problems by itself.

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The consequences in the moral of these errors, in particular in the field of sexual anthropology, they are clear. The distinction between men and women is not untouchable, nor it is established by God, but it is a simple matter of contingent fact, that does not exclude, but rather allows the possibility of different forms of sexuality, created by man. Here the theory of gender.

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The Pope recalls instead that the natural moral law is established by God and is therefore inviolable. In the case of marriage, it is in itself a natural value, raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament. The Church and the State, each in his own order, They are entitled, right and duty to legislate, regulate and adjust in the field, but always in accordance with the divine laws. These are immutable, while human laws, both the Church and the State, may change.

The Pope comes to clarify the nature of moral and pastoral guidance of human actions, which can not be satisfied with the abstractness of law or the rule, but it supposes a careful reading of the circumstances, the variety of cases and situations, so you can determine or order, with caution, Justice and Charity, the particular act or practice to be performed.

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Among the many topics covered, I wish to dwell on two issues, which for many years they are polarizing the attention of the Church, of the bishops, of moralists, of the families and of the same secular world: the first, whether it is appropriate or not to grant the Church the Holy Communion for divorced and remarried. And the second, the moral judgment to be given to stable unions of homosexual persons. The Holy Father, nos. 243 e 298, He speaks of the human and moral conditions of the pairs of the first case, but does not enter into the question. Which means of course that he confirms the provisions of St. John Paul II contained in the n. 84 of the encyclical Family member company.

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The Pope preferred to insist, in those numbers and other, both in the present mode, shapes and different circumstances of those couples, both in giving directions to the shepherds, bishops and priests, and under the same regular families, on how to help and accompany with wise discernment these couples, in a journey of conversion, penitence and moral growth, devoting himself to good works and the education of children, in service to the Church and to society, striving to live in God's grace, specifying that, though not excommunicated, They are not in full communion with the Church.

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The Pope specifies that these couples, although placed in a state of irregular life, They may, however, and must remain in the grace of God and receive the forgiveness of sins, although this does not happen through the sacrament of penance, that they are not allowed, but simply due to the effective and direct presence of God's mercy.

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He then responds to the difficulty raised by those who argue that, finding them in a state of life that leads to sin, They may not be in grace. A state of life, explains the Pope, it could be dangerous, but this does not mean that those who live in it can not be in grace and, other parte, just the boost to sin causes the fault decreases, for no one is required to perform an act that exceeds its forces.

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The rule which forbids divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, is a rule which depends on the power of the keys, ie it is an ecclesiastical law, that does not stem from divine law unambiguously, necessary and without alternative, like a syllogistic deduction, quasicchè, as some believe, possible change, elimination or mitigation of the discipline introduced tomorrow by the Pope, be prejudicial or offense to the divine law and Christian dignity of marriage. On the contrary, everything is part of the faculty of the Supreme Pontiff as Supreme Pastor of the Church. If it has not seen fit to do so, leaving unchanged the law of St. John Paul II, it means that he had good reasons to do so, November's, to be good Catholics, meekly and trustingly welcome the decisions of the Vicar of Christ.

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Let us now turn to the second question. Says Pope:

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251. During the debate on the dignity and mission of the family, the Synod Fathers noted that "about the projects equating marriage to unions between homosexual persons, there is no foundation whatsoever to assimilate or establish analogies, even remotely, between homosexual unions and God's plan for marriage and the family "; and it is unacceptable "that the local Churches subjected to pressure in this matter and that international bodies condition one financial aid to poor countries to the introduction of laws that establish the" marriage "between persons of the same sex [278].

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292. Christian marriage, reflection of the union between Christ and His Church, He is fully realized in the union between a man and a woman, who give themselves to each other in an exclusive love and fidelity in freedom, They belong to death and open to the transmission of life, consecrated by the sacrament that gives them the grace to establish itself as a domestic Church and a ferment of new life for society. Other forms of union radically contradict this ideal, while some perform it at least in part and for a similar way. The Synod Fathers stated that the Church does not fail to highlight the constructive elements in those situations that are not yet or no longer in his teaching on marriage [314].

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Here there are no comments to make, so the text is clear. What we can hope is that between civil society and the Church may rise, in this delicate matter, fruitful cooperation and mutual acceptance, between the state's point of view and that expressed here by the Synod Fathers with the Pope's consent.

The State, one part, It must be aware of his duty, in its own interest, to prevent the worsening of this social phenomenon, that, the evidence most handheld, would lead, in the long run, I do not say to the extinction of the Church, to which Christ has promised eternity, but serious damage to human society and to the good order of the State.

As for the Church, for its part, is now more than ever called to announce the Gospel of the family, not like the residue of a past to be preserved by force, or a life model monochrome and monolithic to be imposed at all, or even as a contingent union, left to the whim of the individual, but as a free and creative community of love, that, in society and in the Church, It works for the good of both in love, joy,.

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[1] See my study The dependence of the idea from the reality in Evangelii gaudium of Pope Francis, in Pontifical Theological Academy, 2014/2, pp. 287-316 [text, WHO]

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