Francis’s Theology of the Family

Francis’s I’s pastoral exhortation on family life, Amoris laetitia, will inevitably, and rightly, be the subject of scrutiny by Catholic theologians and canon lawyers. A great deal is at stake.

But it’s also important to note, as even hostile commentators have, that the controversial passages are set within a letter of exhortation to Catholic parents and children and priests, and that, despite moments of platitudinous cliche, the letter is universally edifying for Christians. Francis is not the poet-theologian John Paul II was, nor a theologian of the depth of Benedict XVI, but there are moments of insight, and the whole is self-evidently the work of a warm pastoral father.

Near the beginning of the letter, for instance, Francis writes that male and female together constituted the image of God, precisely in their fruitfulness: “It is striking that the ‘image of God’ here refers to the couple, ‘male and female.’ Does this mean that sex is a property of God himself, or that God has a divine female companion, as some ancient religions held? Naturally, the answer is no. We know how clearly the Bible rejects as idolatrous such beliefs, found among the Canaanites of the Holy Land. God’s transcendence is preserved, yet inasmuch as he is also the Creator, the fruitfulness of the human couple is a living and effective ‘image,’ a visible sign of his creative act. The couple that loves and begets life is a true, living icon – not an idol like those of stone or gold prohibited by the Decalogue – capable of revealing God the Creator and Saviour. For this reason, fruitful love becomes a symbol of God’s inner life (cf. Gen 1:28; 9:7; 17:2-5, 16; 28:3; 35:11; 48:3-4).”

In short, “the couple’s fruitful relationship becomes an image for understanding and describing the mystery of God himself, for in the Christian vision of the Trinity, God is contemplated as Father, Son and Spirit of love. The triune God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection.”

More practically, Francis recognizes that unrealistic idealizations of family life have done damage to real families: “At times we have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families. This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God’s grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite.” He insists that the church needs to continue to challenge a culture that undermines self-giving and love: “It is one thing to be understanding of human weakness and the complexities of life, and another to accept ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality. Let us not fall into the sin of trying to replace the Creator. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift.” Yet at the same time he recognizes the danger of being “on the defensive, wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without being proactive in proposing ways of finding true happiness.”

Francis stresses that marriage is a sacrament because it is caught up in the wider aims of God’s kingdom and sustained by the grace that comes from Christ: “the common life of husband and wife, the entire network of relations that they build with their children and the world around them, will be steeped in and strengthened by the grace of the sacrament. For the sacrament of marriage flows from the incarnation and the paschal mystery, whereby God showed the fullness of his love for humanity by becoming one with us.” Protestants will not use “sacrament” in this context, but we can acknowledge that the power that makes a Christian marriage flourish comes from the “incarnation and the paschal mystery.”