The following are quotes from Pope Francis’s recent apostolic exhortation The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia)

• “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.” (para. 37)

• “The equal dignity of men and women makes us rejoice to see old forms of discrimination disappear, and within families there is a growing reciprocity. If certain forms of feminism have arisen that we must consider inadequate, we must nonetheless see in the women’s movement the working of the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and rights of women.” (para. 54)

• “In the family, ‘three words need to be used. I want to repeat this! Three words: ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’. Three essential words!’” (para. 133)

• “In discussing the dignity and mission of the family, the Synod Fathers observed that ‘as for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family’.

“It is unacceptable ‘that local churches should be subjected to pressure in this matter and that international bodies should make financial aid to poor countries dependent on the introduction of laws to establish ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex’.” (para. 251)

• “The divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment.” (para. 298)

• “I am in agreement with the many Synod Fathers who observed that ‘the baptised who are divorced and civilly remarried need to be more fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible, while avoiding any occasion of scandal’.” (para. 299)

• “I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care that leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness that the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, ‘always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street’ (No. 308).

• “All family life is a ‘shepherding’ in mercy. Each of us, by our love and care, leaves a mark on the life of others; with Paul, we can say: ‘You are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts... not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God’ (2 Cor 3:2-3). Marital fruitfulness involves helping others, for ‘to love anybody is to expect from him something that can neither be defined nor foreseen; it is at the same time in some way to make it possible for him to fulfil this expectation’. This is itself a way to worship God, who has sown so much good in others in the hope that we will help make it grow.” (para. 322)

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)