Posted on 09/28/2016 5:38:32 PM PDT by marshmallow
Bishops in the US say they are taking time to understand the Pope's apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family
Leaders of the US Catholic Church have been proceeding carefully in their efforts to understand and implement the Pope’s exhortation on marriage and family, according to a report issued on September 27.
The report, from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, was in response to a request from the Office of the Synod of Bishops to determine how the papal exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”) has been received and implemented since its release in April. The report is based on responses from 59 dioceses and 18 national organisations.
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, a member of the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, is chairman of the US bishops’ ad hoc committee studying implementation of the exhortation.
A number of dioceses and Catholic groups said they are spreading the word about the document through articles or columns by bishops in diocesan newspapers, websites and social media outreach. Several national organisations have been conducting webinar presentations and some dioceses have provided online toolkits with resource guides and supplementary materials for Catholics and church leaders.
Dioceses also have been providing opportunities to train pastors, priests and deacons on the document and some dioceses have given priests guidance on how “Amoris Laetitia” should be implemented.
Some diocesan responses said the document would be the focus of future deanery meetings but that it had not been urged as a topic for suggested homilies or as themes to be included in seminary education.
On the diocesan level, the offices of marriage and family life, not surprisingly, were most familiar with the document, involved in studying it and recommending changes to ministry efforts such as providing training for volunteers in marriage ministry.
Diocesan tribunals also......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Amoris Laetitia will soon enough degenerate into anything goes and will drive some, maybe many, Catholics into Orthodoxy.
and away we go
The only way to understand Amoris Latitiae is to read it with the "lens of Catholicism", and then publicly and loudly denounce it as heresy and an open encouragement to commit sin.
I say this mournfully. They (my Orthodox friends) tend, themselves, to be against divorce-remarriage and contraception, but hold little hope of actually getting their church to uphold these moral standards.
No differences among Greek, Russian, whatever other Orthos are out there?
I don’t know. I’d like to hear a better report. NRx?
Not in favor of this.
How about just sticking with the Bible and the words of Jesus?
I don’t want to stick my nose into the internal affairs of the Roman Church so my response will be brief. There are good reasons and not so good reasons for converting into Orthodoxy. The good reasons would be that you believe and accept what the Orthodox Church teaches. The not so good would be that you are looking for the Catholic Church with better liturgy but w/o a leftist Pope.
Yes, the Orthodox Church permits divorce and remarriage under certain conditions. Such has always been the case. The hard zero tolerance policy of the Western Church doesn’t seem to have become normative until somewhere around the 5th century though there were people making the case for that position before then.
Christ, St. Paul, and the Church clearly teach that the ideal for each person is that they either remain single, or marry only one person for life. Any second or third marriage is considered less than that ideal, even if you are a widow or widower. In fact, you find in the lives of the saints many examples of people who were betrothed to another, and their betrothed died before they were finally married, and yet they chose to remain faithful to their betrothed even after their death, refused to marry any other, and in many cases became monastics instead. So you will find many fathers that encourage people to not enter into a second marriage for any reason. This is why a deacon, priest, or bishop cannot have been married more than once, nor are priest and deacons allowed to marry again, even if their wife passes away.
In the Gospels, Christ does say that if someone is divorced for any reason other than infidelity, and they remarry, they commit adultery and cause their former spouse to commit adultery (Matthew 5:31-32). St. Paul adds another reason for divorce – abandonment (1 Corinthians 7:10-15). All of the reasons for the Church granting a divorce with a blessing to remarry are extrapolations from these two exceptions. For example, if a woman has a husband who is a drunk, beats her, and does not support the family, this is considered a form of abandonment. Nevertheless, divorce is always a last option, a bad option (though in some cases the least bad option) and one best avoided if at all possible.
The Eastern practice of allowing 2nd and 3rd remarriages as a concession can be found in St. Basil’s Canonical letters (canons 50 and 77 in particular). The 6th Ecumenical Council (canon II): “set our seal likewise upon all the other holy canons set forth by our holy and blessed Fathers, that is ... of Basil, Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia”. This was further affirmed by the Quinisext Council (Trullo) (AD 692) whose decrees form part of the basis of Orthodox Canon Law.
Birth control is more controversial. The traditional teaching on the subject has been negative. In recent years some of the local Orthodox churches have relaxed that teaching to the extent that it is tolerated in cases where child bearing could cause serious medical risks or the family is not able to financially support another child at the time. It is not permitted as a means to avoid the responsibility of a family and no one may marry in the Orthodox Church who does not want children.
However most Orthodox churches remain much more strict on the issue. Also any form of abortificient birth control is prohibited under any circumstances.
I should also add one more quick point. The idea of marital validity as understood in the West and annulment is unknown and alien to Orthodoxy. If you were married and the marriage fails, a great tragedy, we don’t delve into legalistic issues. The Church (at least the Orthodox Church) is a spiritual hospital, not a courtroom. Perhaps our approach to the question of a failed marriage is not so different from Rome’s except we skip all the canon lawyers. In the end though Rome has its own way of recognizing failed marriages and blessing new ones.
I can't comment now because I am pressed for time.
However, let me note that, as far as I have been able to see, the practice of observant Orthodox is very largely in sync with the practice of observant Catholics in these matters. In practice, Catholic and Orthodox instinct/culture foster the same holiness of life in these sex, marriage and family matters.
That's why I worry so much about the erosion of Catholic culture. In many places where it once was strong, it is now just a remnant. And the few struggling, faithful families are ignored or derided by others.
BUT amidst the struggles, God gives them joy and strength.
Let us pray for each other.
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