Rorate has a great little three-point commentary on Amoris Laetitia that should be read by every Catholic. I’m going to excerpt most of it because it’s so short, but please visit them for the rest:
1. An apostolic exhortation is not, by its very nature, a non-magisterial document. It is the content of a papal document that reveals its magisterial relevance, not its name or category — no one doubts Familiaris Consortio, the John Paul II exhortation on his synod on the family, was extremely relevant in sorting out important Magisterial points. Amoris Laetitia itself does not say that it is not itself magisterial: what it says, in its highly explosive paragraph 3, is that the Magisterium does not need to be invoked or suffer intervention to sort all Catholic questions. On the other hand, this same paragraph opens up a Pandora’s Box of decentralization of the Magisterium, creating a centrifugal force which can ruin Catholic doctrinal unity.
2. Saying Amoris Laetitia is not a big deal, and not magisterially relevant is simply not true. The present Pope and his successors will not act as if it were not magisterially relevant, and bishops on the ground will certainly invoke it in their own Magisterial pronouncements. Amoris Laetitia will certainly have its place in future editions of the Denzinger and in any future revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
On the second point, the evidence is already coming in Germany, as we told you yesterday; it has also arrived now in Chicago:
[The pope] is saying things they haven’t heard before with regard to the Church. For instance, individuals in shaping their conscience take responsibility and nobody can come in and in some way try to replace that conscience.”
[…]”Asked in what specific situations he would allow a divorced and remarried person to receive Communion, Cupich refused to rule anyone out.
‘I wouldn’t exclude anyone,’ he said. “I would like our pastors to have discussion in all of those folks who are in these kinds of situations. … I know in my experience as a pastor, if you’ve seen a marriage then you’ve seen one marriage. There is no instance that can be replicated. Every situation has its variables that are part of it.’”
I sometimes feel like I’m watching a movie where the plot is so obvious you know the ending two minutes in.
