“When a family is welcoming and reaches out to others, especially the poor and the neglected, it is ‘a symbol, witness and participant in the Church’s motherhood’. Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives. The family lives its spirituality precisely by being at one and the same time a domestic church and a vital cell for transforming the world. [1, 324]” (Pope Francis, The Joy of Love)
CCSJ welcomes Pope Francis’ second Apostolic Exhortation: Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), published on April 8. It is the result, inter alia, of two synods on marriage and the family (2014 and 2015).
Key social justice principles are embedded throughout this important 325 paragraph document. The Church is aware that although “The life of every family is marked by all kinds of crises…these are also part of its dramatic beauty” (232). The Church continues to “promote marriage and the family and to defend them against those who attack them.”
