This was the reaction of Te Kupenga – Catholic Theological College lecturer and abuse survivor Dr Rocio Figueroa to the “heart-wrenching testimonies” of abuse survivors at the royal commission on abuse in care hearings held from November 30 to December 4, 2020.

“It caused me deep pain, not only to listen to the stories of each of the testimonies [of people] who suffered the most atrocious abuses when they were innocent kids, but also to listen to the lack of response or hopeless way in which, many times, we have handled the disclosure within our communities,” Dr Figueroa said.

“As a member or the Catholic Church, I regret our poor response, and I apologise for all that we could have done and we have not done,” she said.

Dr Figueroa said she recognised the situations that the survivors describe, because “it was more or less the same experience” that she had.

She said that in listening to them, she picked up on a lot of good recommendations that came out of the hearing – which was into redress processes in faith-based institutions. (The Anglican Church and the Salvation Army were the focus of the second week at the hearing).

First, Dr Figueroa said, “we need to be people who show mercy”.

Showing mercy, she said, means to open our hearts to the pain of survivors, and to question our attitudes.

“[To] show mercy means to learn to apologise and become a survivor-centred Church, in which we try to support the victims, not with our own methods or our own ideas of what can be helpful to them,” she said, “but listening to their needs and involving them in the healing process.”

One survivor called for the Samoan practice of seeking forgiveness (called Ifoga), while another sought an apology in person. Others called for the removal of honours from perpetrators.

Dr Figueroa said the Church should see this time as a moment of conversion and transformation and that means taking responsibility.

“Conversion involves treating survivors not as ‘problems’ to be solved, but to see in them Jesus’ countenance. In many cases, our institutions have entered a process of managing liability, forgetting that our main concern is to take responsibility of the wounds that, as a Church, we have inflicted,” she said.

Dr Figueroa said there is a need to train priests and religious, as well as lay people, on how to respond to traumatised victims.

“They (priests, religious and lay people) need to be trauma-informed. Victims are very sensitive, very wounded. You need to be able to understand them, to be empathetic,” she said.

She said the Church’s actions cannot be limited to treating the survivors in a legalistic manner, “to minimise the effects or negotiate compensation”.

“We need, in each instance, an integral response: justice, compensation, healing and pastoral care, taking care of the needs of the survivors,” she said.

Dr Figueroa pointed out the problem is not confined to the clergy and religious. She said the temptation is to make it someone else’s problem: the bishop’s, the National Office for Professional Standards’s, the congregation’s or the parishes’ problem.

“This transformation is not just required from the authorities. We lay people have enabled abuse with our idealisation of priests and clericalism,” she said, pointing out that lay people have considered members of the clergy beyond accountability.

Lastly, she said, the Church needs to accompany the survivors.

“Accompanying them means to be open to change and improvement,” Dr Figueroa said. “We can only rebuild confidence if we recognise the deep impact of the damage and violence that have wounded many victims.”

She said one of the recommendations was to have the process simplified, as one of the victims said there are too many bodies that deal with abuse, it was confusing.

Another was to include more women in the process, not just bishops and priests.

“I think that we need to include women, minorities and other survivors to respond to victims. We need all the voices. We cannot change the past, but we can change the present to make our future Church a safe place,” Dr Figueroa said.

The post Listening to survivor testimonies painful appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

This was the gist of Te Kupenga – Catholic Theological College lecturer Dr Rocio Figueroa’s talk at a webinar titled “Doing theology in a time of pandemic”, organised by the Theology Research Group in the Sydney College of Divinity. The same conference will be held on October 1 in Napier.

“This pandemic is an epistemic means to see the world. Often the death of an individual from Covid-19 reveals pre-existing health issues,” Dr Figueroa said.

“Paralleling this, the impact on a society of Covid-19 reveals pre-existing conditions. It reveals the sin of the world, the sin of our structures in which we have abandoned the most vulnerable. It helps us to visualise what our consumeristic societies are trying to hide.”

Dr Figueroa said the way that she does theology stems from her identity as a Peruvian married to a New Zealander, and being a woman, a survivor of sexual abuse and a migrant.

The Latin American liberation theology, which applied the signa temporum or signs of the times concept, and the “see-judge-act” method created by the Young Christian Workers are the two elements on which she based her reflection.

Dr Figueroa showed a brief video about a Peruvian woman, Maria Tambo, who fled Lima on foot with her three daughters and embarked on a 350-mile journey to their home in the Amazon.

“The pandemic is like a mirror or x-ray of our societies,” she reflected. “Seeing” it through the eyes of Maria, the pandemic has shown the inequity of the social systems, deep corruption of the government and questionable economic growth of Peru, that did not benefit the poor.

Dr Figueroa said in Peru, one in three poor families do not have access to potable water. A majority of the adults work in the informal sector which means breaking the lockdown to earn cash and buy food.

“When we analyse the pandemic, we see a natural disease with overwhelming consequences for humanity. But (liberation theologian Jon) Sobrino points out about the importance of not talking just about the natural factors of a disaster and how to mitigate them, but the necessity of taking the historical-social factors seriously,” she said.

“The fact that most victims of the pandemic are poor is not an accident, but it belongs to the ‘historical essence’ of the pandemic.  So, the consequences of the pandemic are not only produced by natural causes, they are also a product of injustice.”

In the video, Maria said she had to “die trying to get out (of Lima) or starve to death in my room”. However, not once during the journey did Maria blame God.

“[Maria] has lost everything: her house in Lima, her dreams for education for her daughters, her job.  She didn’t ask for anything in return. She was not angry with God. I think she has a pure faith and she trusts. She is able to thank God. Everything for her is a gift. This woman has nothing. Her love for God is absolutely free,” Dr Figueroa said.

“Judging” using the Latin American method is “to read the facts based on the demands of the Gospel”, according to Dr Figueroa.

“We must resist the temptation of not seeing. We need to let ourselves be touched by the pain of the victims. The lady in the video said something that deeply affected me. She said, ‘the virus has a treatment, but hunger doesn’t’. She makes us understand that the virus is not the main problem,” Dr Figueroa pointed out.

“The problem is poverty and the injustice that causes it. We, as theologians, need to denounce the real problem of the pandemic,” she stressed.

At one point in the video, Maria sung to herself to take her mind off the difficulties of the journey, her voice breaking and her eyes tearing up.

“Maria challenges us how to speak of hope and how to sing to God with the beauty of the psalmist,” Dr Figueroa said.

“Her words are God’s hymn. She, in the middle of her exile, looks up and, feeling the pain, insists on singing a song of hope. At the end of her long journey, she affirmed: ‘Thankfully God has protected us, but I have put you at risk.’ I think that here we can perceive Jesus’ total trust in the Father.”

Dr Figueroa said Maria’s voice, and those of people living in abject poverty must move us to act.

“I feel that our mission as theologians is to give voice to the Marias of the world. They are the ones who can help us to listen to the voice of God.  She is that sign of the times which calls me to oppose any kind of injustice and to follow the way of justice. Her voice is the self-giving of the victim that continues loving God and the others,” she said.

The post Doing theology in a time of the pandemic appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

Earlier, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, was interviewed by Vatican News about the role of women in priestly formation programmes.

“We must radically change” how priests interact with women, the cardinal was quoted by Vatican News as saying, adding that “during formation it is important that there is contact, discussion, exchanges” with women.

The Vatican News also report Cardinal Ouellet as saying that having women on seminary formation teams “would help a candidate interact with women in a natural way, including in facing the challenge represented by the presence of women, attraction to a woman.”

Dr Figueroa said New Zealand is doing “pretty well” in terms of having women in priestly formation, as against its counterparts around the world.

“I agree with Cardinal Ouellet that the presence of women in seminaries and seminary formation is vital. In New Zealand, at the Catholic Theological College (previously known as Good Shepherd College), we have a very good balance of male and female lecturers,” she told NZ Catholic.

“Currently we have five female lecturers and seven males. Apart from the good gender balance, the college also has a variety of ages and cultures within the staff, which gives the students the possibility of being enriched by many different perspectives.”

Dr Figueroa said the problem she sees is that the seminary is too “male-centred” and future priests don’t have a lot of contact with women.

“It is like a bubble in which they don’t learn how to have healthy relationships with the opposite sex, and this can damage their process of sexual maturity. Perhaps we can rethink ways in which seminarians can have more contact with families and lay people,” she said.

Cardinal Ouellet said in the interview that he agreed that, if women were involved in the formation of priests, the sex abuse scandal might have been prevented.

“There certainly is some truth in that because man is an affective being. If interaction between the sexes is missing, there is a risk of developing compensations . . . [ which can] express themselves [in] the exercise of power or in closed relationships, a closure that becomes manipulation and control . . .  and which can give rise to the abuse of conscience and sexual abuse.”

“I think that, for a priest, learning to relate to women in the environment of formation is a humanising factor that promotes equilibrium in the man’s personality and affectivity,” the cardinal was quoted as saying.

Dr Figueroa said, while she agreed with the cardinal on this issue, the problem is not “just about the presence of women in seminaries”.

“We need more women in decisional positions within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis continues reminding us of the importance of battling against clericalism,” she said.

Dr Figueroa said Western societies have “largely overcome” a patriarchal style of leaderships, but the Church has not.

“The power in the Church is profoundly linked to those who administer the sacraments. For me, this is a huge problem that doesn’t reflect the spirit of the Gospel,” she said.

Dr Figueroa cited women apostles, prophets and teachers who were leaders in the early Church: Priscilla, Phoebe and Junia.

“We need to show the value of dignity and equality between male and female, not just in our words, but in our own structures,” she said.

“I think that the Church lacks half of humanity in its decision-making process and is not receiving the knowledge and particularities that women can bring. Women are able to offer their talents in the charismatic dimension of the Church, but not in the institutional,” she further explained.

Dr Figueroa said the lack of female participation in the formation of future priests is only one factor.

“The Church has effectively been breathing with one lung,” she observed. “For me, it is not time for reflection because all these things are pretty clear. It is time for action.”

The post Women in seminaries debate prompts questions appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

Dr Figueroa spoke at the Australian and New Zealand Association for Theological Field Education (ANZATFE) conference on November 20 at the Anglican Retreat Centre in Vaughan Park, Auckland.

She explained that spiritual abuse is a relatively new term, entering literature and discourse only in the past 20 years.

“It is not easy to talk about spiritual abuse. Many consider that it is very dangerous to talk about it because it would be paralysing for leaders and leadership,” she said.

Unfortunately, she said, it had been proven that “spiritual abuse can happen in any church”.

“The key element of this abuse is the use of spiritual power. And as the leader represents the divine, it can have profound impact on the religious faith of the victims,” she explained.

Dr Figueroa said she was a member of Sodalicio, a lay movement in Peru led by consecrated men that had been rocked by sexual abuse scandals. She drew on the experiences of the members to illustrate abusive leadership.

“Abusive leaders use their ‘spiritual’ power and authority to annul the will and personality of their disciples. At the same time, they become the only source of love and value, manipulating their victims to detach them from all other type of relationships,” she said.

Abusive leaders, she added, use public shaming to keep members under their control, as well as demanding excessive commitment and conformity in the name of God.

“This dynamic creates a distorted image of God: a punishing God focused solely on our performance, threatening dire spiritual consequences for misbehaviour,” she said.

In looking for authentic ministry and leadership, Dr Figueroa examined different models of leadership over the past 75 years. She delved into the “situational approach” of the 1960s to the “transformational leadership” model of the 1980s to the more current “authentic leadership”, which emphasises moral authority as an important feature and “servant leadership”, which is religious in origin.

“For those like me who work on training future leaders for the Church, there is always one important question to ask: what makes a leader an authentic Christian leader? From the models quoted above, the servant model is an interesting idea that may be helpful for our Christian leadership, but I think it is not enough,” she said.

Dr Figueroa pointed out some leaders who were abusive had lots of skills, were kind and were considered good by people in the community.

“It would be necessary to propose a model of leadership which embraces the core of being Christian and being human within both the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions,” she said.

This model of leadership should be based on humility and love, Dr Figueroa said. She, then, focused on defining humility.

In the Old Testament, she said, humility is “the attitude of the anawim, the poor of Yahweh, who recognise their dependence on God, living in gratitude for his blessings”.

“In the New Testament, Jesus promised the Kingdom of God to the poor in spirit. Jesus uses himself as an example to follow, something he rarely does in the Gospels, when he teaches humility: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29). For Jesus, humility is a central virtue and his incarnation followed the dynamic of humility,” Dr Figueroa stated.

She said that humility is the opposite of abuse of spiritual power.

“This virtue must become the core of the spiritual life for those in ministry so that they develop an attitude of dependence on God, self-awareness of their own limits and an orientation towards others,” she said.

The post Protection from spiritual abuse needed in safeguarding appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

A document from Pope Francis was a focus for reflection at the recent National Association of Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools (NAPCSS) conference.Keynote speaker Dr Rocio Figueroa, a lecturer in systematic theology at Good Shepherd College in Auckland, spoke about the importance of persevering in love and joy, based on the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetita, the Joy of Love.

When the exhortation was published, there was extensive media coverage both within the Catholic Church and in secular society. There was much debate concerning the Eucharist and whether it should be received by civilly remarried Catholic divorcees or not.

At the conference, Dr Figueroa gave her interpretation of Amoris Laetitia and topics she thought were fundamental to understanding it.

“This is applied to our teachings in schools that reality is more important than ideas,” she said.

“The Pope wants to find new ways to attract people to the Gospel. In our times, it is not just by words or ideas alone, but principally through the beauty of love.

“The only way to save our world, to save our young people is through love. Young children only understand love through experience, when they feel loved by us.”

Dr Figueroa said the role of principals is very difficult — trying to do a job in a professional way and working hard for the students.

“But at the same time we must not forget to maintain  personal relationship[s] actually based on love, with the whole body of the school. It is only through this love that we can save the world,” she said.

The lecturer highlighted an important principle from Pope Francis — his statement that reality or people are more important than ideas and this leads to the key to understand what truth Jesus represents.

“Jesus is not an idea, Jesus is a person. To encounter the truth means to have a personal encounter with Jesus in which the truth becomes flesh in our lives.”

The 2018 theme for the principals’ conference was “Persevering in Love”. The conference was held from August 12 to 14 at the Quality Hotel Lincoln Green Conference Centre in Henderson in Auckland.

The NAPCSS chairperson, Chris Rooney from Liston College in Henderson, was on sabbatical during the conference.

Tony Shaw, from Catholic Cathedral College in Christchurch, stepped into the acting chair role.

“It is a privilege to support the mission of the Church through working in a Catholic school,” he said.

“Teaching in a Catholic school is a vocation and we encourage our young people to consider this as a career. Please pray for the work of the wonderful network of Catholic schools within our diocese and across New Zealand.”

The annual conference was moved to Auckland this year as this was a preference for members. The conference will be reviewed to assist planning for 2019.

The post Secondary principals focus on papal document appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

Systematic theology lecturer at Good Shepherd College Dr Rocio Figueroa said theologians “are conscious that theology cannot be the same following the severe crisis of sexual abuse that has happened in our Church”.

“We must rethink a lot of topics. We must rethink our Christology. We must rethink how we see power and many other issues, pastoral topics,” she said.

Dr Figueroa and Otago University Professor David Tombs (Centre for Theology and Public Issues) organised an April 28 symposium called “The Abused Christ: Theologians Respond to Sexual Abuse”. This was part of a wider project they are collaborating on called “When did I see you naked?”

Sixteen theologians from Otago University, Auckland University, St John’s Theological College, Trinity Methodist College and Good Shepherd College participated in the symposium held at Holy Cross Seminary in Ponsonby, Auckland.

Former priest and consultant to the Australian Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Dr Des Cahill reported on the results of this inquiry.

He said of all the offending that took place in religious settings that was reported to the commission, 61.4 percent occurred in Catholic settings.

He said it was important to rethink the priesthood as a position not of power but of service.

Dr Cahill said in many cases, people had fully entrusted the priests with their children, mindful of the priests’ position in the hierarchy of the Church.

Msgr Brendan Daly, Good Shepherd College lecturer in canon law, suggested several changes and additions to canon law.

“Key canons: 1395 concerning crimes of sexual abuse; 1362 concerning prescription; 1311, 1389 and 1341 concerning the need to impose penalties for sexual abuse crimes; and 1041 and 1044 concerning irregularities; urgently need to be changed. New law is needed in the areas of secrecy and excommunication for sexual abuse of minors,” he said.

Msgr Daly also strongly suggested the inclusion of a paragraph calling for the immediate excommunication of a person who uses child pornography.

“There needs to be another paragraph concerning use of child pornography: A person who abuses a person under age 18 or who acquires or holds or distributes pornographic images of minors below the age of eighteen years is to be punished with automatic excommunication and the penalties mentioned in paragraph 2 in whatever way or by whatever instrument the shameful act has been committed,” he said.

Msgr Daly noted the Australian royal commission demonstrated that within the Catholic Church perpetrators of sexual abuse were 37 per cent non-ordained religious (32 per cent were religious brothers and 5 per cent were religious sisters); 30 per cent were priests; 29 per cent were lay people.

“Since a significant proportion of offenders are lay people, there needs to be a penalty addressing this,” he said.

Msgr Daly also said people with “imperfect use of reason” should be considered as minors.

Anglican priest Dr James Harding, a senior lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies at the University of Otago talked about the importance of the theology of lament, specifically in Psalm 22.

He said Psalm 22 began with a cry from someone who is in intense pain, socially isolated and feeling shamed and abandoned.

Dr Figueroa said Dr Harding’s presentation was interesting in that it showed the importance of not being silenced and enabled people to talk about abuse.

Dr Figueroa and Dr Tombs also spoke about their “When did we see you naked?” project.

“Our aim is to examine the opportunities and challenges of better faith-based responses to sexual violence,” she said. “We will take this question and we will explore if the text of Jesus being stripped naked and exposed and crucified can improve the Church’s responses.”

She said the Church includes “all of us, not just the priests but also lay people and the community”.

The post Theology can’t be same after sex abuse crisis appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

When the Apostolic Letter Amoris Laetitia was published it had an incredible media coverage both within the Catholic Church and in secular society. Unfortunately, the discussion about Amoris Laetitia has focused on chapter 8.  This created a huge controversy around the issue of the Eucharist and whether or not it should be received by remarried divorcees. The most progressive groups in the Church concluded that the Pope had made a significant change in moral theology while more conservative groups considered that the Pope was being unfaithful to the Tradition and to the indissolubility of marriage. I think those two visions are simplistic and not quite loyal to Francis’ thought and I also think is slightly dangerous to only base our opinion of the letter on chapter 8.

Usually these discussions occur when important changes of perspectives are proposed. It happened with Vatican II, it happened with some Encyclicals published by Leo XIII and Paul VI. It is common in the Church that some people try to arrange or accommodate Pope’s teachings to their own point of view. Divisions about perspectives within the Church have existed since the first century of Christianity; enough to mention the differences between Peter and Paul. These types of differences or discussions are not necessarily a bad sign. It can be a sign that we are a lively Church, a Church in which people think, and have different views. Actually, I am happy that we continue talking about Amoris Laetitia because it generates debate, discussion and work from us Catholics. It can also “provide new opportunities to retrieve certain truths that have become dormant”.[1]

At the same time, I consider it is necessary to have a wider vision about Amoris Laetitia and to understand all its content. I will give you my own interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. I don’t think that the Pope has touched or changed the essence of our doctrine, but he has changed the approach to the pastoral mission.  

I would like to give you some topics that I consider fundamental or key to understanding Amoris Laetitia.

1. The Title Amoris Laetitia and the Pope’s pastoral concern

Why did the Pope use the two words love and joy?

Love: we believe that all human beings have been created in the image of God, and this means to be created to love and to be loved. The problem is that there is a pessimistic view that a definitive and everlasting love doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the millennials have seen that the love of their parents has not lasted and often it would be difficult to see a better future in their own lives. Talking about love is a big challenge and there is no way to convince people about love just through ideas.

I think that the title “the joy of love” expresses the real concern of the Pope: How can we awake the possibility for the world that love is real? How can we belief in love if we see so much selfishness, nastiness, and violence?

His answer is in the title, with the joy of love: “Here we are not talking about a feeling, a romantic vision. This is not a discussion of personal development.  We are talking about a love that can heal any damage; A love that can save the most lost human being. There is a Love bigger than mine, than yours that can rescue us from selfishness and maliciousness. This love has a concrete countenance and is Jesus Christ”[2].

In a relativistic world in which no one believes in the truth, the Pope wants to find new ways to attract people to the Gospel. In our times, it is not just by words or ideas alone but principally through the beauty of love. I think that we have forgotten to evangelize with the beauty of love and with joy.

I have only been married for 4 years. When I met my husband, he was not a practicing Catholic and he was also sincere with me that he didn´t particularly believe in marriage.  Everybody in my family advised me not to date him. I decided to take the risk. And I said to myself, perhaps if we discover together what love is he will change his mind. And it happened. He was happy with a relationship made up of friendship, care, love and companionship and we got married. Of course, I was blessed. He discovered the joy of love. I never talked to him about marriage, I didn’t convince him about the values of family and marriage. The reality that convinced him was just the love and joy that we were experiencing.

For me the crisis of the family is because we are not able to be creative and participate in Jesus’ love in our own relationships. When we love with God´s love we can see the other as he is meant to be. With God´s love we have the power to imagine the others as sharing God´s image.  That is why the other feels love and is able to experience love. When we are superficial, we just see the boring, neurotic, or shy person that someone is… but that is not creative. We are not open to love´s creativity. Someone feels loved by us when we are perhaps able to see more capacity for love than he or she gives us. And this happens in our own families: all we see is how complicated our sister or brother, or father or mother is, sometimes we only remember how they failed us and it may seem incredibly difficult to try to overcome all these situations and to create something new.

The second word of the title of the letter is Laetitia. The word joy in Latin has two meanings: Laetitia and gaudium.

The Pope uses the word laetitia to express the experience of joy, but he doesn’t use gaudium because Gaudium means the plenitude of joy. The love of the family is joy but it is just a sign of the Gaudium of God. It is not perfect. The family is a sign, a prophecy of the fulfilment. It is the symbol of the love of God.

If we want to make God present in our world, we need to live the joy of family.  When I say family, I am referring to the family that does not just include our nuclear relatives, I am referring to all humanity. Humanity is our family.  A theologian once said that this world is an orphan world that needs fathers and mothers. I think that our first task or response to Amoris Laetitia is to become parents, brothers or sisters of humanity, always taking care of those in need of love.

2. Context of Amoris Laetitia
3. a) Literary Genre

First, it is important to understand Amoris Laetitia’s literary genre (2016). It is the fruit of two Synod. It has as a starting point, the debate of the bishops during the Synods (2014 and 2015). The Pope didn’t want to present a new dogma or give solutions to all the problems, but he wanted to initiate the reflection of different issues regarding family.

“The complexity of the issues that arose revealed the need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral, spiritual, and pastoral questions” (Amoris Laetitia, n. 2).

We have to remember that the Pope affirmed in the Synod of 2015: “Synodality is the path of the Church… walk together pastors, lay and the bishop of Rome”.

With this letter the Pope is enacting the principle of synodality inviting pastors to be co-responsible but at the same time inviting us lay people to think and discuss.

Pope Francis also wants to strengthen a more decentralized administration. In this he is on the same page as John Paul lI promoted in his Encyclical Ut unum sint to “begin a new study of the question of a universal ministry of Christian unity”[3] in the hope of find a new situation of exercising the primacy[4].

1. b) Document on Pastoral Theology

Secondly, we are discussing here a pastoral document. It is not a philosophical document neither is a dogmatic theology text. I think it is a reflection of pastoral theology. It is a sapiential reflection, which means full of wisdom. And as pastoral reflection it has its source in the people’s experience of faith who are trying to live human love.

To understand Francis´ style, we must understand his pastoral theological method: this is Latin American Theology.   This is a man, who went against various structures of power in Argentina and decided to go to preach to the most vulnerable and poorest, in the shanty towns. The government accused him of being a communist and he just wanted to follow the Gospel. He didn’t want to live in the archbishop palace in Argentina. He aided a close friend of mine in Argentina, to rescue girls from sexual trafficking. He is a man that have seen a lot.

What are the characteristics of a Latin American Pastoral method? The starting point is experience. We must remember that experience is one of the fundamental sources of theology.  It is not the only source, but it is a valid way, especially in pastoral theology.  Latin American theology tries to understand the experience of the people of God to better understand the truths of the faith and moral life.  We need to remember that for Latin-American theology the first step is discipleship and then comes theology as the second step.  After living the experience with the people of God, Pope Francis tries to reflect in a theoretical way and then goes back to the pastoral praxis with new vision. It is the famous method that bishops have used in all the meetings of the Episcopal Conferences in Latin America: see, judge and act.

So, if we don’t try to understand Latin-American Theology we may miss the point of the apostolic letter.

1. c) The text is written within the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Pope Francis wishes that our approach to families is guided by the spiritual attitude of

This Exhortation is especially timely in this Jubilee Year of Mercy…it seeks to encourage everyone to be a sign of mercy and closeness wherever family life remains imperfect or lacks peace and joy (Amoris Laetitia, 5).

This is the most important invitation that we have received. The most important of God’s attributes is mercy. I think that in a secularized society like New Zealand, in which God is not so obviously present in society, we should look with merciful eyes at all the situations: the single woman taking care of their children, the broken families and the people who are afraid of getting married or having any serious commitment. The most important act is to show them our compassion, mercy and love. But at the same time, we must look with mercy on our own families. We also have problems, frailties, incomprehension, lack of communication and ruptures. Our life within the family needs to be based on a love that becomes mercy, that accounts for our personal weaknesses and the weaknesses of those besides us.

We are called to be a sign of mercy wherever the family life remains imperfect. So Francis is conscious that so many families are living in precarious situation and we must show our closeness. It is a change of perspective.

3. Principles for reading Amoris Laetitia

I will now just develop two principles that I consider fundamental to understanding Pope Francis´ thoughts.

1. Time is greater than space

In all his encyclicals and in the letter Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis invites as to live by the principle “Time is greater than space”. What is he trying to affirm when he states that “Time is greater than space”? How does he connect this principle with the reality of family?

We must not read this phrase as a scientific principle. Also, he is not using time and space as philosophical terms. He is just using them as symbols and metaphors.

The ecclesiological view of Pope Francis is to understand the Church as people of God. This image underlines two important values for Francis: the historicity of the Church, a pilgrim Church that walks towards the Kingdom of God, and the second value of the communion between hierarchy and lay people in which all of us participate in the common priesthood. He wants to eliminate any careerism or sense of superiority from the hierarchy.

With his ecclesiology we can now understand better why he considers time dominant over space. For Pope Francis, time means the process that is needed in life for growing and developing, the salvation that is acted in a concrete history. Time is something that you aim towards. Time refers also to the fact that God in Jesus entered history seeking to save each single person.

Space, on the other hand, symbolizes for the Pope, limits, a static dimension in which we can control reality and experience it. He has compared this priority of space over time to those people within the Church that search power and only occupy space.

When he applies this principle to the pastoral reality of families, he is giving us the message that time is needed to assimilate the truth that is Jesus. We must give time to ourselves and to others, instead of searching for immediate results. Results that clearly occupy space.

Sometimes we Catholics feel impotent when no one listen to us. We don’t see a Christian culture, and no one follows the Gospel. One of my students, a father with two adolescent boys, commented in class that when he talks about faith no one in his family listens to him. He felt frustrated. And here comes the principle of Pope Francis for family. It seems that it has its origins in an important Jesuit like Peter Fabro. He affirmed: for being mature and free we need time and a lot of patience, because “time is the messenger of God”.

Another important influence of this idea about time and space, comes from Ignacio of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. He affirmed:

Non coerceri a maximo, sed contineri a minimo divinum est. “Do not let yourself be restricted by the biggest space, but you have to be capable of being in a very little space”.  Magnanimity or loving with generosity, is making a virtue of the big things as well as the small things.  Magnanimity is not just doing lots of things or reaching many people with our love, but it is also giving all our heart to every little situation.

Jesus diminished his space. He made himself smaller, poorer, less kinglike, less regal, he entered the sufferings and the limits of his people. And this is our path as Christians.

This is something that I have discovered in my own life. When I was young I was very passionate and always thinking where I could go to proclaim the Gospel: I evangelized in United States, Italy, different cities in South America and I wanted to get to China and Japan. I understood evangelization as conquering spaces for Jesus. Now, I do not think that this was wrong, but in some ways, I believe that in the past, I only wanted results and fruits – results that occupied space. Thinking about that the other day, I was wondering if I had lost my enthusiasm, but then I realized that I had changed my point of view. My passion for evangelization continues.  It is just that life has taught me that to help people and families we need to accompany them in all their process. To do that, time is needed. We must give the people around us what they need in each moment, trying to help them in their progression towards the Truth and Jesus. For example, someone who is very damaged may only be able to assimilate one of our smiles. Perhaps others are able to receive a gesture from us or words of consolation. Or someone may want more, they may be willing to talk about God. These little acts, though they may seem small, may actually open pathways that can lead to an encounter with God.

So, there is the primacy of the journey to follow. The Church needs to open new paths and not be worried about occupying spaces. When I got ill in Rome and I was in bed for more than 6 months I discovered the power of the mission. I discovered that I had to go deeper but not necessarily wider. The other day a friend of mine who is not a Catholic, said to me that he liked Catholicism because Catholicism doesn´t try to conquer masses but tries to go deeply into the mystery and help people encountering that mystery…

If we talk about paths we need to think of ways in which someone can change from sin to grace, but this is not a magical path. It needs time.

Time is more important than space, the process over the automatic response, the graduality of the pastoral life over the logical consequences.

1. B) Reality is more important than ideas

This is another very important principle that Pope Francis uses in Amoris Laetitia.  When he says that reality or people are more important than ideas he is giving us the key to understand what Truth Jesus represents. Jesus is not an idea, Jesus is a Person. To encounter the Truth means to have a personal encounter with Jesus in which the truth become flesh in our lives.

We are not talking about a scientific truth. For us Truth is a relation. God is relation. live the truth is a calling and a vocation for each of us. It is not just subjective, but it can only become reality in a personal path.

In an interview with P. Spadaro Pope Francis answers what is the truth for him:

“Now, the truth, according to Christian belief, is God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. So, the truth is a relationship! Each of us grasps the truth, and expresses from themselves, from their history and culture, from their situation in which each one lives, etc. This does not mean that the truth is variable and subjective, far from it. But it means that it is given to us only as a journey and life. Jesus himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. In other words, the truth is ultimately one with love, it requires humility and the opening to be accepted and expressed”.

Example: if I have a friend that is a womanizer who is afraid of committing himself, I will not try to convince him about the importance of getting married and having family. First of all, I will try to support him in the first step of his own emotional maturity. Sometimes these processes can take an entire life time. We, disciples of Jesus are called to accompany people and walk with them on their own journeys.

The Pope also challenges us in how we have presented till now the values of marriage. He affirms:

35. “… It is true that there is no sense in simply decrying present-day evils, as if this could change things. Nor it is helpful to try to impose rules by sheer authority. What we need is a more responsible and generous effort to present the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and the family, and in this way to help men and women better to respond to the grace that God offers them”.

It seems that the Pope is searching for a new approach. An approach that is less authoritarian, less focused on rules. The old style of evangelization decrying evil in all its guises does not help the modern world.  Before, the Church had a more juridical idea of marriage. He adds:

36. We also need to be humble and realistic, acknowledging that at times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has helped contribute to today’s problematic situation. We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. Then too, we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation. Nor have we always provided solid guidance to young married couples, understanding their timetables, their way of thinking and their concrete concerns. 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 asks us to leave behind our idealistic vision of marriage. It is not that we have lost our ideals. It is just that we live in a very complex world. Of course, our ideal of family is that a woman marries a man and they have children and stay together with love, trust and joy. But life presents us: a woman without a husband, a remarried man with 3 children, a single pregnant adolescent, traffic of young girls in prostitution…

Pope Francis asks us that when we are in contact with people, in our mission, we need to be more concerned with the reality of the person. For example, if I meet a single woman with three children, I would be careful not to bring up the subject of married life and the importance of a husband with her because that is not her situation.  It would be uncaring and unthinking to do so. First, I would try to support her and her kids trying to help with her life.  So love is the method.  The truth is not a bullet that we shoot at someone. It is a gentle way in which the truth can help and build.

As Christians of  course we have ideals. And we live by them. But to preach these ideals to other can sometimes hide an aggression.  Some we can hide with this preaching our superiority and aggression about those who we think don´t reach our standards. We have our ideals, but reality and the concrete person is more important.  t

If I meet a girl who is 16 years old and pregnant I would not judge her and I would not start talking about the evils of pre-marital sex. Instead I need to support her as a member of the community and help her as young adult who need education. And of course, if I have little children and adolescents I will present them the values and ideals of marriage and family.4.

4. The experiences and challenges of families

Today the family faces new challenges that we must answer. For me, chapter 2 of Amoris Laetitia is a brilliant analysis of the complexity of the problems that we face. Pope Francis not only writes about what he has seen of families, but also he refers to the testimony of the bishops in different parts of the world. He presents a very good synthesis of the various challenges. These challenges include: cultural decline that fails to promote love, a society that makes harder for people to get married, the lack of maturity in young adults and the problem of loneliness. He also addresses other situations that are affecting the family like housing, migration, families with children with special needs and the loneliness of the elderly.

The situation of the family now is very different from that of our parents or grandparents. Now there are fewer marriages. In 2009, the marriage rate was 13.5 marriages per 1000 (estimated non-married population aged 16 years and over). In 1971 it was 45.5 marriages per 1000. This generation is more likely to be un-partnered or to partner later. In 2006 28% of people aged 24-34 years had never married or entered a civil union, and 34% were unpartnered[5].

The advancement of the rights of the woman have changed the countenance of the family. Women and men are now both participating in the development of the society and this has generated new challenges. Every day it becomes more difficult for families to balance family life and work demands. In many societies, like Latin America for example, we don’t see enough men helping women in the house.

For, example I lived in Mexico for three years and I created a project called reciprocity to help indigenous women to understand their own value and dignity. In these Mexican towns, women were expected to not only take part in the agricultural work, but also be responsible for the household food and taking care of children with little or no participation of men. When I asked them, it was so they answered: men are superior to us, and love means that we need to make them happy. See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_24aSiClI

The Pope also addresses how the phenomenon of poverty is affecting family life. In New Zealand, single parent families make up 28% of all families with dependent children. These families are the poorest in New Zealand. Child poverty is consistently blamed on unemployment, low wages, high housing costs and inadequate social security benefits. Little attention has been given to family structure. Despite marriage being the best protector against child poverty it has become politically unfashionable – some argue insensitive – to express such a view. But if there is to be any political will to solve child poverty the issue has to be confronted”[6].

The dominant liberal ideology of our Western societies does not value community life: today neighbors hardly know each other, there is little time for friendship. A consumeristic society values people for the price of their work.

So, sometimes we denounce that we lack family values, but we have participated in a consumeristic society, not taking care of the poor people, living in our own isle without solidarity towards the vulnerable ones.

5. The use of the Bible

1. 8 “The Bible is full of families, births, love stories and family crises. This is true from its very first page, with the appearance of Adam and Eve’s family with all its burden of violence but also its enduring strength (cf. Gen 4) to its very last page, where we behold the wedding feast of the Bride and the Lamb (Rev 21:2, 9)”.

Pope Francis doesn’t use the Scriptures as a dogmatic or normative source. It is a narrated experience of faith. It is a narrated story to inspire us.

Pope Francis wants to search the narrative and language of love. He finds the original narrative of love at the biblical level. And it is a dramatic story with light and shadow. All of us are included in the narrative. The Gospel doesn’t present an ideal view of the family but the reality of it with all its complexity. It can be a companion in our journey.

21. Jesus himself was born into a modest family that soon had to flee to a foreign land. He visits the home of Peter, whose mother-in-law is ill (cf. Mk 1:30-31) and shows sympathy upon hearing of deaths in the homes of Jairus and Lazarus (cf. Mk 5:22-24, 35-43; Jn 11:1-44). He hears the desperate wailing of the widow of Nain for her dead son (cf. Lk 7:11-15) and heeds the plea of the father of an epileptic child in a small country town (cf. Mk 9:17-27). He goes to the homes of tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus (cf. Mt 9:9-13; Lk 19:1-10), and speaks to sinners like the woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee (cf. Lk 7:36-50). Jesus knows the anxieties and tensions experienced by families and he weaves them into his parables: children who leave home to seek adventure (cf. Lk 15:11-32), or who prove troublesome (Mt 21:28-31) or fall prey to violence (Mk 12:1-9). He is also sensitive to the embarrassment caused by the lack of wine at a wedding feast (Jn 2:1-10), the failure of guests to come to a banquet (Mt 22:1-10), and the anxiety of a poor family over the loss of a coin (Lk 15:8-10). 

In a very sharp and wise interpretation of the Scriptures he finds the core of the Gospel:

22. In this brief review, we can see that the word of God is not a series of abstract ideas but rather a source of comfort and companionship for every family that experiences difficulties or suffering. For it shows them the goal of their journey, when God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more” (Rev 21:4).

6. Dealing with irregular situations in chapter 8

The Church has always been conscious about the frailty of many marriages:

291. The Synod Fathers stated that, although the Church realizes that any breach of the marriage bond “is against the will of God”, she is also “conscious of the frailty of many of her children”.

“292. Christian marriage, as a reflection of the union between Christ and his Church, is fully realized in the union between a man and a woman who give themselves to each other in a free, faithful and exclusive love, who belong to each other until death and are open to the transmission of life, and are consecrated by the sacrament, which grants them the grace to become a domestic church and a leaven of new life for society. Some forms of union radically contradict this ideal, while others realize it in at least a partial and analogous way”.

The church has changed its approach: on the one hand, it continues to proclaim the goodness of a fully realized union in marriage. The vocation has not changed: it is the indissolubility of marriage. The Church affirms that some unions contradict this ideal radically. All the elements of the doctrine on marriage are loyal to the traditional teaching of the Church.

On the other hand, the Church doesn’t want to condemn all others forms of union, but tries to consider the good elements and the seeds of love and justice that are within them. Instead of looking at these types of unions as completely threatening we must look at them more as opportunities for our pastoral mission. An example might be a couple that is against the principle of marriage, but they are cohabitating while unmarried, because they don’t have the money to pay for the wedding.

What are the three principles that we could use dealing with irregular situations?

1. Law of graduality

The first principle is the law of graduality. It means that all of us can improve our relationship with God and become more virtuous gradually; we can never jump into perfection in a single step. This teaching is in continuity with John Paul II who affirmed in Familiaris consortio n. 9 that a human being fulfills moral good according to their stage of growth.

For this reason, Amoris laetitia states that “it is not a” graduality of the law “but a graduality in the prudential exercise of free acts in subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate or fully practice the objective requirements of the law” (No. 295). For this reason, in the end, with a touch of deep realism and invitation to Christian hope, Pope Francis points out “to relativize the historical path we are doing as families, to stop pretending from interpersonal relationships a perfection, a purity of intentions and a coherence that we can only find it in the definitive Kingdom “(n. 325).

Ex. I would like back to the girl we met who was 16 old and was pregnant: I supported her and when she had her baby and she is now more stable, I will begin helping her to talk about the value of marriage and maternity and the importance of not having casual encounters.

1. b) Subjective conditions or conditions of Conscience

The second principle is conscience.

303. Recognizing the influence of such concrete factors, we can add that individual conscience needs to be better incorporated into the Church’s praxis in certain situations which do not objectively embody our understanding of marriage. Naturally, every effort should be made to encourage the development of an enlightened conscience, formed and guided by the responsible and serious discernment of one’s pastor, and to encourage an ever-greater trust in God’s grace. Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response 345

Pope Francis considers that the personal story and the conscience of the subject is central for the reception of the doctrine. Without this reception the doctrine is death. Sometimes in Catholic education we have imposed norms and doctrines on young people without helping them to assimilate them in a personal way that orientates their freedom in their choices.

We need to form conscience and we cannot substitute it. That is why Pope Francis doesn’t want to oblige Catholics with norms and prohibitions, but he wants them to understand the value that hides behind.

Pope Francis also makes a self-criticism of how the Church has talked about love and family. For example, sometimes we Catholics defend marriage and family, thinking that by talking about our ideals we can change people.

37. We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.

In Catholic theology, conscience in the human being is not just a subjective dimension. We are not talking of conscience as a psychological trait of the psyche. Conscience was at the core of the teachings of Vatican II. It is the sacred place in our hearts where God´s presence dwells. It is the real presence of God within each of us.

Cardinal Newman has deep definitions of conscience: “conscience is a special faculty of the mind. It is a specific and integral operation of the human soul”^3.  “A messenger from Him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches us and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal vicar of Christ, a prophet in its information, a monarch, a priest in its blessings and anathemas, and, even though the eternal priesthood throughout the Church should cease to be, in it the sacerdotal principle would remain”[7].

Talking about this moral obligation Newman affirms: “toast the Pope but conscience first”. We can never act against our conscience.

It is true that we can err, but we also need faith. Because of our baptism we participate in the prophetic mission of Christ and our faith gives us the gift of the sensus fidei fidelis.

The path of the subject belongs to the sensus fidei fidelis. What is the sensus fidei fidelis? The International Theological Congregation affirms that a faithful “not only ‘unfailingly adheres to this faith’, but also ‘penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life’. It is the means by which the people shares in ‘Christ’s prophetic office’” (LG, 12)[8].

The document continues: “The sensus fidei fidelis is a sort of spiritual instinct that enables the believer to judge spontaneously whether a particular teaching or practice is or is not in conformity with the Gospel and with apostolic faith. It is intrinsically linked to the virtue of faith itself; it flows from, and is a property of, faith. It is compared to an instinct because it is not primarily the result of rational deliberation, but is rather a form of spontaneous and natural knowledge, a sort of perception (aisthesis)”[9].

1. c) The need for discernment

The third principle is the need for discernment, quoted thirty-five times, clearly echoing Ignatius of Loyola and confirmed by two precise quotes from Thomas Aquinas (No. 304). The principle that is proposed is as follows:

“If we take into account the innumerable variety of concrete situations […], it is understandable that we should not expect from the Synod or this Exhortation a new general canonical norm, applicable in all cases […]. Priests have the task of “accompanying people concerned on the path of discernment according to the Church’s teaching and the Bishop’s guidelines […]”. This is an accompanying and discerning itinerary that directs these faithful to the awareness of their situation before God. The dialogue with the priest internally contributes to the formation of a correct judgment on what is hindering the possibility of a fuller participation in the life of the Church and the steps that can help and grow it […]. This discernment can never ignore the requirements of truth and charity of the gospel proposed by the Church “(No. 300). This task of discernment is also entrusted to “lay people who are devoted to the Lord” (Amoris Laetitia, n. 312),

1. d) Is the Pope allowing communion for remarried divorcees?

This depend on each case. The important thing is that for access to communion we cannot take communion if we are in mortal sin. Has the doctrine changed? No. It has changed the discipline about the access to communion[10].

This teaching comes from St. Pius X. We only live in mortal sin when we have committed with freedom and conscience. This was affirmed by Pope St. Pious X, in his Catechism.

For example, I remember one case. A woman that I was abandoned by her husband and left with two children and later remarried. She told me, I believe in God, I know that this is not right, but I can’t live without a man beside me. (she was very fragile psychologically and suffered from depression). She continued he is not a Catholic, but he is a good man. If I ask him to be without sexual intercourse he will abandon me. Her freedom is reduced. She wants to change her situation, but she cannot act on her desire. Do you think is possible that she would be able to receive the communion? I think yes because you have grave matter, conscience but not enough freedom. So, she is not in mortal sin.

Sometimes a person knowing the norm is unable to live it, or he or she cannot take another option without generating another sin.

Does the Pope have the authority to change the discipline? Yes he has. Other Popes have changed the discipline. The Council of Trent excommunicated those who lived in adultery and they were not allowed to enter the church. The excommunication changes in Familiaris Consortio and in Canon Law.

I think we need time to continue reflecting, thinking and applying this Letter. If you have not read the entire Document I encourage you to read it and if you have read it I encourage you to continue thinking about it.

The other day Father Merv. showed me a Maori proverb that for me synthetize the spirit of Pope Francis writing this letter:

He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.
Maori proverb

[1] Francesco Coccopalmerio, A Commentary of Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia, New Jersey: Paulist Press 2017, Foreword.

[2] Rodrigo Guerra, “Para comprender Amoris Laetitia. Premisas y argumentos, respuesta a dudas y objeciones, camino y esperanza” in: Medellin, vol. XLII, n. 168, 409-449.

[3] John Paul II, Encicyclical Ut Unum sint, n. 89.

[4] Cfr. Ibid., n. 95.

[5] Cribb J., (2009, June), Focus on Families, New Zealander’s families yesterday, today and tomorrow, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, issue 35, retrieved from: https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj35/35-focus-on-families.html).

[6] L. Mitchell, (2016) Child, Poverty and Family structure’, retrieved from: https://www.familyfirst.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Child-Poverty-and-Family-Structure-FULL-REPORT-1.pdf

[7] Cardinal Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.

[8] International theological Congregation, Sensus fidelis in the life of the Church in:  http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20140610_sensus-fidei_en.html (Accessed 1st December 2017), n. 44.

[9] Ibid. 49.

[10] CIC 1650 and Can. 915 Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.

Peruvian theologian Dr Rocio Figueroa is a systematic theology lecturer at Good Shepherd College. She lectured in spiritual theology for five years at the Giovanni Paolo II seminary in Salerno, Italy and Universidad Popular Autónoma in Mexico and also worked for the former Pontifical Council for the Laity, networking with various international Catholic organisations to promote the dignity of women. The article was a lecture she delivered in Wellington on December 3, 2017.

The post Understanding Amoris Laetitia appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

Peruvian theologian Dr Rocio Figueroa, systematic theology lecturer at Good Shepherd College in Ponsonby, said while this might shed light on some issues raised against the exhortation, she does not think it will not silence the critics.

Dr Figueroa lectured in spiritual theology for five years at the Giovanni Paolo II seminary in Salerno, Italy and Universidad Popular Autónoma in Mexico. She also worked for the former Pontifical Council for the Laity, networking with various international Catholic organisations to promote the dignity of women.

“I don’t know if the controversy will have an end,” Dr Figueroa said. “Usually the ones who are against (Amoris Laetitia)… they have a mindset. They have to process a new pastoral approach.”

In the first week in December, Pope Francis ordered the official publication of his letter to a group of Argentine bishops and the Argentinian bishops’ guidelines for the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. He described both the guidelines and his letter as “authentic magisterium”.

“It clarifies his posture,” Dr Figueroa said. “But he already published that letter. And all the people read the guidelines of the Argentinians.”

She said those, mostly theologians, who have a very rigid interpretation of Church teachings will struggle with the fact that there are exceptions to the rule.

“They will have to accept (the Pope’s decision),” she said. “But they need time to assimilate the truth.”

The controversy that has surrounded Amoris Laetitia may be taken as a sign of a lively Church, Dr Figueroa said.

Speaking on the papal post-synodal apostolic exhortation in Auckland on November 23 and in Wellington on December 3, she marvelled at how it generated so much discussion within the Church. (The talks were sponsored by The Catholic Institute and Good Shepherd College).

She said these Amoris Laetitia discussions and controversies provide the Church with “new opportunities to retrieve certain truths that have become dormant”, she said, quoting Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Dr Figueroa said she considers it necessary to have a wider vision of Amoris Laetitia and to understand its content.

“I don’t think that the Pope has touched or changed the essence of our doctrines but he has changed the approach,” she explained.

Pastoral reflection

“When some people say ‘it’s not clear’, ‘it’s confusing’, for me, it is most clear!” said the Peruvian theologian.

She said to understand the document, one must understand its context and literary genre.

Dr Figueroa pointed out that Amoris Laetitia, which the Pope issued following two synods on the family, is a pastoral reflection, not a dogmatic text.

“The Pope did not want to present a new dogma. He didn’t want to give solutions to all the problems. But he wanted to initiate the reflection of different issues regarding family,” said Dr Figueroa.

She said Pope Francis did not want to present the faithful with an order that they have to obey. Rather, he would like to walk with bishops, priests, religious people as well as the laity on the path to truth.

“The Pope is enacting the principle of synodality, inviting pastors to be co-responsible, but at the same time, inviting us lay people to think and discuss,” she explained.

She also noted that the Jesuit Pope is Latin American and his theological method is based on Latin American theology.

Dr Figueroa said the starting point of Latin American theology is experience, which is one of the sources of theology.

She said in Latin American theology, discipleship comes first, theology second.

“First, you live as a disciple with the people who live and experience the faith and you get there the knowledge for understanding better how to help share the Gospel,” she said.

Known as the “Bishop of the Slums” during his time in Argentina, Pope Francis lived with the poor.

“After living the experience with the People of God, Pope Francis tries to reflect in a theoretical way and then goes back to the pastoral practice with a new vision. It is the famous method that the bishops have used in all the meetings of the episcopal conferences of Latin America: see, judge and act. So, if we don’t try to understand Latin American theology, we will miss the point,” she said.

The text was also written in the Jubilee Year of Mercy and “seeks to encourage everyone to be a sign of mercy and closeness wherever family life remains imperfect or lacks peace and joy.” (AL#5)

“I think this is the most important invitation that we have received. It is in the context of mercy. Let’s try to see the family with compassion, with mercy. We are called to be a sign of mercy wherever the family life remains imperfect,” Dr Figueroa said.

“Francis is conscious that so many families are living in precarious situations and we must show our closeness. It is a change of perspective.”

Irregular situations

Dr Figueroa cited several situations she had encountered where people wanted to follow Church teachings, but their situation won’t allow them.

She cited the case of her nanny in Peru who couldn’t get married because the cost of a wedding was too prohibitive. She also spoke of her cousin who was abandoned by her (cousin’s) husband, now living and having additional children with a partner.

“It seems that the Pope is searching for a new approach. An approach that is less authoritarian, less focused on rules. The old style of evangelisation decrying evil in all its guises does not help the modern world,” she said.

How should the Church deal with irregular situations? There are three principles that we could use, she said: the law of graduality, conscience and need for discernment.

Dr Figueroa said what Pope Francis wants is for us to stop judging people, see the good in them and help them progress step by step to the truth.

She said it is law of graduality, not the graduality of the law.

One does not tell a 16-year-old pregnant girl, she is a sinner and should have married before she found herself with a baby.

“First, support her and her baby. Then, educate her on the value of marriage and celibacy,” she said. “It is a process. That is why this document is pastoral.”

Dr Figueroa said Pope Francis also wants to educate the conscience so that each person will see the beauty of love.

“Our faith has been based on norms, on obedience and imposition. That’s why young people don’t want to follow,” she said. “So, the Pope is just changing the way, saying hey, different pastoral approach. Work the conscience.”

She reiterates that conscience is not one’s psychological psyche, but “the sacred place in our hearts where God´s presence dwells”.

Does Amoris Laetitia open the floodgates for the remarried divorcees to receive communion? No, said Dr Figueroa.

Does it close the possibility for civilly remarried divorcees to receive communion? No, she said.

There is a process of discernment, not just by the person in the sinful situation but also the person’s priest. If the person’s sin is discerned as not having one of the three conditions for it to be mortal sin (grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent), then he can receive the Eucharist.

In conclusion, Dr Figueroa said a Māori proverb synthesises the spirit of Amoris Laetitia: He aha te mea nui o te ao. What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.

“That’s why Pope Francis is saying what he is saying,” she reflected. “He wants to save all the people of God.”

The post Digging deeper into ‘Amoris Laetitia’ appeared first on NZ Catholic Newspaper.

Dr Rocio Figueroa

She holds a doctorate in systematic theology, with a specialisation in Christology, from the Gregorian University.

She lectured in spiritual theology for five years at the Giovanni Paolo II seminary in Salerno, Italy.

She served for four years on the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Her section of the pontifical council focused on the advancement of women in different parts of the world.

Since her time in Rome, she has lectured at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla in Puebla, Mexico, where she was also responsible for the social project Emprende y Crece (Learn and grow).

The core of this project was the promotion of women through education, while it also offered
specific entrepreneurship training based on human values.

She is also a specialist in issues related to reciprocity between men and women.

Dr Figueroa has published and communicated through books and conferences about theology, anthropology and women’s studies.

The Senate of Good Shepherd College are delighted to welcome someone with such a breadth of international experience to the staff of the faculty.

Dr Figueroa is a Peruvian married to a New Zealander.

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