.- Kiko Argüello, the founder and global head of the Neocatechumenal Way, expressed his support for Pope Francis for his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, with a short analysis of its contents.Amoris Laetitia is the result of the Holy Father's reflections after the Synod of Bishops on the Family, which took place at the Vatican in 2014 and 2015. The exhortation is composed of 9 chapters and has 325 numbered paragraphs. The following is the statement on Amoris Laetitia by the Neocatechmenal Way's international team, composed of Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernández and Father Mario Pezzi:
“-The Holy Father's concern to reach out to the thousands and thousands of Christians, who beset by their social and familial environment have suffered the trauma of a new marriage, is noted.
-The Holy Father wants them to not feel like they are excommunicated, he regrets this suffering and wants them to feel loved and prays for them and welcomes them, trying to help them.
-In this sense, this Apostolic Exhortation has great value to call out to and welcome those feeling alienated from the Church. To his honor, the pope is showing an immense liberality in doing so, suggesting special assistance from the Holy Spirit at this time in the Church.
-The problem of discernment by pastors, priests and bishops, on a case by case basis, in an act of enormous charity towards the weakest, should not alarm us, and the Lord will provide because he always cares for his Church.
-We thank the Holy Father and we encourage him to continue on ahead. We recall what Don Quijote said: ‘Let the dogs bark, Sancho. It’s a sign we are on track.’ Take courage Father, the NeoCatechumenal Way is praying for You.”
The NeoCatechumenal Way is a Christian initiation of adults approved by the Holy See in 2008. It has more than 1 million members throughout the world and is present on five continents.
NCW accepts Amoris Laetitia
Amoris Laetitia is giant step forward in liberating the Catholic Church from age old dogmatic bondage. Many people who divorced and remarried are not adulterers. They just lost their ways. There could be legitimate reasons to dissolve a marriage bond and give a second chance to start again with a new spouse and a new family for Christ.
ReplyDeleteYoung people are especially vulnerable when they got married without previous love making experience and then they bang get disappointed at the very first night of their marriage. This trauma can last for a life time, leading to a dead end marriage destroying one's hope for happiness. From this the only way out could be to push the RESTART button with someone else.
It is no accident that narrow minded traditionalist groups inside the Catholic Church like TLM people try to hide and disguise their abhorrence from the pastoral letter Amoris Laetitia and their disdain to Pope Francis himself. The problem of these people is that they are not brave enough to voice their utter disagreement to the further liberalization of the Church.
They are a closet opposition, a minuscule minority hiding in the wide stream of every kinds of Catholics of a diverse background, hiding among liberals and conservatives, reformers and traditionalists. These people are convinced that the Pope is their enemy but they are scared to publicly disagree with him.
It is good that new church groups with high vitality as the NCW are standing behind Pope Francis in supporting his efforts to make the church more friendly and responsive to the needs of real people living in the realities of modern societies.
Be carefull with extremisms! This is not about making second marriages a easy go to solution... The problem here it's always about the faith. If I don't have faith, If I've never experimented that God can take me from the abyss of death (in a suffering marriage) than this will be only words.
DeleteAfter 20 plus years in the way I've come across with many brothers in the NCW who were divorced. Who lived in a second marriage. On almost of them, if they allow God operated great miracles. Some even rejoin after more than 20 years of divorce.
One thing, and thats what Kiko talks about, is to receive, accept this people in a community, in the Church, without judging them, make them feel loved by God and by the brothers, but always in the truth: that situation is not regular and they may be living really in sin. Being merciful is always telling the truth and help them make a discernment about the God's will! This is not about liberalise the divorce and second marriages. There are extreme situation when sometimes couples have to split, specially when there's violence over the other or over the children.
But the Church and christianity it's not about rules and laws, it's about having the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the Resurrected Christ. If I have it it's easier, if I don't have it I'll need laws that are according to my will. Remember what Christ said when was asked about the divorce, because Moses allowed it? (free speech) "He done it because of the hardness of your hearts. In the begining was not like that!"
I think Pope it's right, it's about changing the tone. Be merciful, accept. Yes most cases probably people is suffering because in fact they are living in sin, and sin makes people die inside. So if people are dead inside their souls, are suffering, what we should do it's love them, accept them, and the helping them get out of that state, taking in account that sometimes, in case of a second marriage there's other people involved that should not be forgotten.
I pray for Pope Francis because he really have hard work ahed of him. Like on almost everything these days there's a lack of balance. On one end there's the traditionalists that wan't to go back to Middle ages end on the other end there's the liberals, that ride on the cultural Marxism wave and think that Pope is a liberal regressive leftist... He's not!
Dear Blue, I agree that many people divorce for the wrong reason and therefore the Church has to stand firm and has to remind them of their sinful ways. The ha to do this foremost for protecting the family. However, this cannot be a blanket condemnation anymore, thanks to Pope Francis sensitive approach he laid out in Amoris Laetitia.
DeleteThe main thrust is that people who make genuine efforts to straight out their lives and lead a Catholic lifestyle should not be automatically rejected and excluded from the sacraments just because they had a divorce for some reason sometime in their past. While automatic exoneration would be foolish, automatic condemnation is plain unjust. Thanks to Pope Francis, we have a middle ground between the two extremes.
Of course this does not mean we have to succumb to indiscriminate liberalism. While liberation from the dogmatic bondage serves a purpose of building families, liberalism for its own sake does not serve any good. When the Church offers more liberties to the faithful, this always has a pastoral purpose. Liberties without this purpose are vain and empty. There is a fine line between being socially sensitive like Pope Francis is and being a self-serving leftist.
The trap of traditionalists is that while they cannot openly disagree with the Pope, they obviously loathe many these changes. This frustration is eating out their souls, while they feel they must remain silent in the basic issues. As a compensation, they resort to their usual tactic of local turf wars against legitimate church authorities as we see it here on Guam.
Jesus taught the realities of heaven and hell. In fact, he mentioned hell much more often than heaven, yet according to Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia:
Delete"No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!"
Figure that out if you please?
Dear Anonymous at 2:43 pm,
DeleteThe Pope was not referring to the condemnation of Hell. He was referring to the Church condemnation of Catholics who were "imperfect." He was calling for a more compassion Church.
theology that does not save is dead....hhhmmmm...wonder who said quoted this.
DeleteDear Anon 1:24pm
DeleteAmoris Laetitia in no way allows second marriages or divorce. When the sacrament of marriage is given to the fullest it is no reverse-able.
Christ teaches to love you wife as he has loved his church. He died for his church when they where his enemies, a love like that can not be separated. If one truly wants to follow Christ he will rejoin his wife, or if that is not possible live a celibate life without remarriage. Of course their are different cases that have to be looked at with love, patience and mercy.
However your statement
... who got married without previous love making
goes against Catholic teaching. Experience in love making most definitely does not constitute annulment in a marriage. Annulment only happens because the sacrament was never given.
Ex: Marriage was never consummated, hidden intentions from spouse that goes contrary to vows etc.
Going into marriage as a virgin is always recommended by the Church because it allows for the spouses to learn to love each other and only helps to increase their love for each other throughout the years. In fact previous experience only allows the devil to use such experience to tempt you into mortal sin.
Amen. I, for one, am grateful that Kiko was brave enough to affirm the Pope's exhortation. I get a little worried when people try to take Jesus's words about marriage so seriously that they don't give people the flexibility to leave a Christian marriage when the circumstances truly warrant it. Some people are just completely incompatible and I don't think the Lord wants them to be trapped in a miserable relationship for the rest of their lives. The Holy Spirit is moving us toward a new openness, thanks be to God!
ReplyDeleteTO be Christian means to be like Christ, who died for his enemies. God took him and raised him up.
DeleteIf your wife is your enemy, then to be like Christ means to love her and he will give eternal life, and resurrection. Being miserable is just a perspective. One can be with someone who is "incompatible" and be happy. Of course one has to experience Christ truly in his life. Having said that the church allows to live apart but does not condone remarriage.
Amoris Latitia is a call for mercy not a change of doctrine. This is already very present in the NCW. However as time passes if one truly wishes to follow Christ he will desire to correct his irregularity. You can not call God your father if you do not love as Christ does. A son is the image of his father and Christ has shown us the image of God in how he loved us even when we where his enemies.
hey! someones stalking me on facebook....lol
ReplyDeleteWhat I continue to find intriguing is that if you listen to Pope Francis speak or read up on any of his writings you realize just how close he is to the NCW. When listening to Pope Francis you may think he is reading from the catechesis' of the NCW. Not try to say he is copying but more importantly it shows just how much the NCW is aligned with the catholic church. Now many will disagree but most of them have never even heard a catechesis in the first place.
Pas!
-Jokers Wild
I can't imagine excluding anybody in my community from fully participating in Eucharist, even if they are in a complicated situation. Is that really what Jesus would want? Maybe it happens more on the parish level so that's why the Pope wrote. Just one of the good things about the Way.
DeleteThe pope has been very consistent with regards to doctrine and morals in the latest Apostolic exhortation. His pastoral remedies may be a little bit liberal in interpretation but is its Ok.
ReplyDeleteWhat do mean by "very consistent"? With himself? Or with the eternal teaching of the Church?
Delete"His pastoral remedies may be a little bit liberal in interpretation but is its Ok."
When pastoral praxis contradicts doctrine, you know you're in trouble. But that has been the case for some years now anyway.
doctrine that does not save is just as dead
Delete