Snapd
ragon
THE
P RTAL
May 2016
Page 5
Snapdragon
has been reading
The Joy of Love and
tells us his thoughts
Reducing The Joy of Love
to a document simply about divorce and
remarriage does the 325 paragraph document on love in the family a great injustice,
but let’s be honest, what the Holy Father had to say about these contentious topics is what we
were most interested in reading after so much ink has been spilt on them in the run up to the
synods, during the synods and since.
We would be very foolish not to return to and read
more attentively the earlier chapters of the document,
in particular the rather beautiful reflections on
Saint Paul’s ‘hymn to love’ in his first letter to the
Corinthians, but for now divorce and remarriage are
what everyone’s talking about.
If a diocesan marriage tribunal establishes that fact,
an ‘annulment’ can be granted and the individuals are
free to marry.
But The Joy of Love calls for business as usual with
a greater degree of understanding, particularly on
the part of pastors, of the challenges which married
We’ve heard a good deal in recent times about the couples and families face in reality, and of compassion
need for greater mercy in the Church, and quite so. But for those who struggle and fail.
reading The Joy of Love has left me feeling that what we
Without proposing changes to doctrine, and clearly
could also do with is a healthy dose of humility. Both
those who were hoping for ground-breaking doctrinal restating the Church’s teaching that marriage is
change in relation to divorce and remarriage, and between a man and a woman, ‘til death us do part’,
are now left disappointed, and those who defend the and open to the gift of children, Pope Francis is urging
Church’s current doctrine and discipline, and are now us to hold Catholics whose lives and relationships
feeling vindicated, ought to feel challenged by The Joy are not there yet, and sometimes very messy (sinful)
indeed, in the arms of the Church, rather than coldly
of Love.
leaving them to their fate. Humility would be helping
I don’t see that this document allows either for a people to live the truth, rather than handing it out and
triumphalist ‘business-as-usual’ attitude from the passing by.
latter or an angry ‘my-views-from-the-real-worldAt the same time, however, life in the ‘real world’
haven’t-been-respected’ reaction from the former.
can’t be allowed to interpret or modify truth. It is very
In one sense, it IS business as usual, and always easy for those whose relationships fall well short of the
will be, because the Catholic Church preserves demands of Jesus to scale down the doctrine of the
the teaching of Jesus Christ, and that is what itis. indissolubility of marriage to an ‘ideal’ or the ultimate
Synods can’t change it, local conf