Papa Francesco's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

Here is the CTV video of the press conference:

https://youtu.be/I9k79PKhP3I
Below are excerpts and links I rounded up to help you better understand what you read.
This document resonates with other teachings and aspirations in this holy year of Mercy.
Please, do share it!
No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed, the pope writes. Families need
constantly to grow and mature in the ability to love.
From John Allen:
The money quote on this score comes in one of Francis footnotes (number 336, to be
exact), in which the pontiff says, This is also the case with regard to sacramental
discipline.
In effect, what hes saying is that there may be cases in which a given divorced and
remarried Catholic, after talking things out with a priest, could be justied in reaching the
decision that they dont carry the guilt that should exclude them from the sacraments,
including Holy Communion.
From America:
Divorced and remarried Catholics need to be more fully integrated into the church.
How?
By looking at the specics of their situation, by remembering mitigating factors, by
counseling them in the internal forum, (that is, in private conversations between the
priest and person or couple), and by respecting that the nal decision about the degree
of participation in the church is left to a persons conscience (305, 300). (The reception
of Communion is not spelled out here, but that is a traditional aspect of participation in
church life.) Divorced and remarried couples should be made to feel part of the church.
They are not excommunicated and should not be treated as such, since they remain
part of the church (243).
Top 10 takeaways from Amoris Laetitia

http://americamagazine.org/issue/top-ten-takeaways-amoris-laetitia
Pope Francis, Urging Less Judgment, Signals Path for Divorced on Communion
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/world/europe/pope-francis-amoris-laetitia.html
10 Inspiring Quotes from Amoris Laetitia
https://thejesuitpost.org/2016/04/10-inspiring-quotes-from-amoris-laetitia/
Francis' exhortation a radical shift to see grace in imperfection, without fearing moral
confusion
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-exhortation-radical-shift-see-grace-imperfectio
n-without-fearing-moral
What Is Francis Saying with 'Amoris Laetitia'?
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/what-francis-saying-amoris-laetitia
'Amoris Laetitia': Start with Chapter 4
http://ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice/amoris-laetitia-start-chapter-4
Archbishop Cupich praises pope's 'Amoris Laetitia,' calls family life a 'gift'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-cupich-pope-amoris-laetitia-video-20160408-pr
emiumvideo.html
An Overview of Amoris Laetitia
https://thejesuitpost.org/2016/04/an-overview-of-amoris-laetitia/

Read the popes exhortation Amoris Laetitia, or On Love in the Family

http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/08/read-the-popes-letter-amoris-laetitia-or-on
-love-in-the-family/
Popes family manifesto offers cautious opening on Communion
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/08/popes-family-manifesto-offers-cautious-o
pening-on-communion/
Pope Francis lets the world in on the Churchs best-kept secret
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/08/pope-francis-lets-the-world-in-on-the-chur
chs-best-kept-secret/
Pope Francis to church: Accept gays, divorced Catholics
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/europe/vatican-pope-family/
Pope Francis in epic bid to save the family, convert the Church
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/08/pope-francis-in-epic-bid-to-save-the-famil
y-convert-the-church/
Below are some of my own reflections published in anticipation of the release:

Optimally, one's standing before God will be reflected also in one's standing before a
tribunal. However, practical --- not creedal and not moral --- considerations can, on a case
by case basis, interfere with the efcacies of the tribunal process such that it simply
cannot properly mirror one's standing.
An annulment doesn't invalidate the 1st marriage. It only recognizes the fact that it was
invalid. One needn't prove that invalidity to another to "establish" it. The annulment, then,
doesn't absolve or forgive a mortal sin, only recognizes it never existed.
The "re"-marriage wouldn't necessarily involve mortal sin because the objective state,
alone, is not sufcient to constitute same, as a person's conscience and subjective

intentions necessarily come into play. The reception of spiritual communion has been
thus justied by a persons own subjective conviction of their spiritual state and not by
the objective judgment of the Church. No logic, then, bars one, in the same
circumstances, from sacramental communion either. God.
This, then, requires pastoral solutions that not only would not redene the relevant
creedal and moral realities (e.g. indissolubility & worthy reception, fornication & adultery)
but needn't obviate existing juridical pathways (external forum), even when conditionally
supplementing them (internal forum).
Regarding the divorced, remarried - at the least, I'm hoping for creative ambiguity in the
exhortation. At the best, I'm expecting a formal recognition of what's been a widespread
and long-established practice/discipline: pastoral flexibility via the internal forum.
"We must turn again...to the arduous task of distinguishing the living message from the
form of its transmission, from the cultural elements in which it is codied at a given
time." Pope Francis
This resonates with Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message," which reflects
Aquinas' influence vis a vis "Quidquid recipitur secundum modum recipientis recipitur.
(Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.)"
The pastoral provides the medium, the form, the transmitter in a symbiotic, integral
relationship to the doctrinal message or substance transmitted to each receiver, each
soul beckoned to Christ encounters.
The Law of Graduality recognizes that it does no good to transmit television signals to
communities with only telegraphs or to transmit programs in foreign languages. We
must meet people where they are based on who they are to transmit the truth and
sanctity that can transform them.
Too much conversation regarding the pastoral and doctrinal reflects a category mistake,
confusing means and ends, the transmitter and trans-mission, and worse, ignoring the
poor receiver altogether.
The doctrinal in this sense refers to re-form-able doctrines and disciplines, while the
message refers to immutable dogma and doctrine.
Pastoral approaches and reformable doctrines represent practical realities concerned
with HOW the values of immutable teachings might best be realized by WHOM (receiver)
in what FORM (transmitter) but they do not redene the WHAT or WHY or THAT of the
SUBSTANCE (trans-mission) of those teachings."

There may be an inchoate recognition that, while the rules and principles of divine law
remain immutable, HOW we realize their values is not!
Both pastoral and juridical approaches comprise PRACTICAL responses, historically
situated, neither privileged over the other.
While both pastoral and legal solutions remain subordinate to divine law, neither
subordinate the other. Which might optimally convey truth and sanctity must be
discerned here vs there, now vs then. Positive laws, church disciplines and pastoral
approaches remain reformable in the service of the transformative ends of the divine
law.
It was Crispino Valenziano who wrote that It is not about adjusting the pastoral to
doctrine, but rather it is about not ruining doctrines constitutive pastoral seal of origin."
The "seal of origin" has an analogue in trade and commerce as a guarantee of a
product's vintage and quality.
The phrase "doctrine's constitutive pastoral seal of origin" refers to the integral
relationship between the doctrinal and pastoral.
Cardinal Bergoglio, in 2009, quoted Valenziano in support of his own statement: "In the
language of the council and of Aparecida, 'pastoral' is not in contrast to 'doctrinal,' but
rather includes it. Neither is pastoral a mere 'contingent practical application of theology.'
On the contrary, Revelation itselfand therefore all of theologyis pastoral, in the sense
that it is the word of salvation, the word of God for the life of the world."
The pastoral-doctrinal, then, comprises PRACTICAL responses, the "means" that
constitute HOW we realize the truth, beauty, goodness, unity and freedom of the Gospel,
which will orient, sanctify, heal, empower and save us, the "ends" of each Christ
encounter.
Those means are accidentals, subject to idolatry. Those ends are essential. There's no
virtue in treating accidentals as essentials, which is a traditionalistic vice. Nor should we
treat essentials as accidentals, which can be a progressivistic vice.
The Pope may well be poised to express a progressive charism of reforming certain
accidentals in concert with the traditionalist charism of conserving what's essential in
this exhortation.

There may be an inchoate recognition that, while the rules and principles of divine law
remain immutable, HOW we realize their values is not!
Both pastoral and juridical approaches comprise PRACTICAL responses, historically
situated, neither privileged over the other.
While both pastoral and legal solutions remain subordinate to divine law, neither
subordinate the other. Which might optimally convey truth and sanctity must be
discerned here vs there, now vs then. Positive laws, church disciplines and pastoral
approaches remain reformable in the service of the transformative ends of the divine
law.
Most people I know can afrm the values to be realized in a relationship that's
1) unitive (loving),
2) conjugal (monogamous),
3) consensual (noncoercive, consciously aware, age appropriate) and
4) procreative (life-giving).
But most people believe that the procreative value should be broadly conceived,
1) not imagining that every interaction has to realize that aim in order to be morally licit
and
2) not imagining that biological reproduction is the only way to dene life-giving.
Procreativity best be thought of, instead, in terms of our spiritual lives and over the
course of an entire relationship. Even physically, there are many pro-creative ways to
foster and enhance human life.
We can learn these things from our personal experiences and others' testimonies.
On one hand, the Theology of the Body [TOTB] properly moved beyond the natural law
methodology, which has limits many ignore, to afrm a personalist approach, which has
riches on offer. On the other hand, JPII's personalism conceived universal experience
abstractly, constructing it from the impoverished natural law perspective, which it
implicitly presupposed.

JPII'S TOTB did not truly depart, then, from the same old sterile, a prioristic, physicalistic,
biologistic rationalism that divorces the roman tradition of moral theology from the
concrete lived experiences of the faithful. It just substituted an abstract lived experience,
claiming it was both universal and self-evident.
A good theological anthropology, though, must be grounded in a good scientic
anthropology, empirically investigating people's actual lived experiences. And those lived
experiences enjoy a degree of universality and a degree of diversity across a wide
spectrum of human concerns and values. Those are the experiences that must inform
any personalist approach, which, when combined with our more vague natural law
insights, can make for a much more robust anthropology of gender, sex and life issues
as they inform both church disciplines and moral theology, prior to applying pastoral
approaches.
This is to suggest, perhaps, that we'll need to apply the Law of Graduality toward the
Magisterium, afrming the value to be found in its new personalist methodology, even
though it's imperfect. It's a step in the right direction.
Believers aspire to harmonize divine laws, natural laws and positive laws. Positive laws
include both secular (e.g. civil and criminal law) and ecclesiastical (e.g. canon law).
Due to our human limitations, positive laws require jurisprudence, which addresses --not just moral, but --- practical realities.
Practical considerations include a law's enforceability, its effectiveness in delivering --not just retributive, but --- restorative justice. Other pragmatic criteria might weigh, for
example, desired outcomes and pedagogical efcacies, as well as unintended
consequences, for example, collateral damage and perverse incentives.
In just war theory, beyond moral criteria, practical criteria similarly come into play. The
decision not to invade another sovereign country may be based on a host of other
reasons, which would not change the moral determination, for example, regarding an
ongoing genocide.
Jurisprudentially, a "gradualness of the positive law" doesn't necessarily implicate a
gradualness of divine or natural laws; instead, it indicates practical limitations for
interdicting immorality and influencing outcomes.
Pastorally, the "law of graduality" recognizes the formative and developmental character
of human transformative processes, again, not implicating a gradualness of divine or
natural laws.

Philosophically, "moral probabilism" reflects a proper epistemic humility regarding

others' rights to disagree with our own moral calculus, recognizing the highly
problematic nature of certain realities and the natural and divine laws that govern them,
even when positive laws cannot.
In the April 8th Apostolic Exhortation, over against protests to the contrary, any creative
ambiguity that opens the pathways to greater mercy and compassion will not be
inconsistent, then --- not only with a moral probabilism, philosophically, and law of
graduality, pastorally, but --- with a gradualness of the canon law, jurisprudentially,
reflecting practical concerns in realizing the values of natural and divine laws, while in no
way obviating them.
Trump's wrong because he doesn't trafc in the jurisprudential nuance that could
suitably defend such disparate approaches.
Others are wrong for rejecting moral probabilism regarding doubts of law (but not
doubts of fact, of course).
Others are wrong for rejecting the law of graduality, pastorally.
Others are wrong for rejecting gradualness of positive laws, including canon law.
This holy year invites us to run toward mercy, compassion and forgiveness and away
from legal rigorism. Our holy tradition provides all of the tools required, philosophically,
morally, legally and pastorally. We need only pick them up and cultivate the ground of our
solidarity to realize the fruits of mercy and compassion. And we must use them
consistently in accordance with Gospel norms, theologically.
For every poet it is always morning in the world; history a forgotten, insomniac night.
The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of history." ~ Derek Wallcott