CANONICAL IMPLICATIONS OF AMORIS LAETITIA
Keywords:
Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis, Familiaris Consortio, Divorced and Remarried, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Veritatis Splendor, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pontifical Council for Legislative TextsAbstract
The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia has created a lot of interest among both canonists and theologians, especially because of its footnote 351. The author, while not entering into the polemics around it, tries to understand this document using the principles of interpretation of Canon Law. Looking into the document as a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, the author explains that it is to be understood in the light of ‗text in the context and by looking into the mind of the author.‘ This document can be understood correctly only as the continuation of the consistent teaching of the Magisterium in this regard. The author argues that it contains no doctrinal errors. However, it seems that through footnote 351, Pope Francis has opened a small window of pastoral discernment to at least some of those divorced and remarried in the context of their reception of the sacrament of penance and Eucharist, which were hitherto considered absolutely closed unless they had already fulfilled the conditions stipulated in Familiaris Consortio, 84.
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