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The heart of a pastor: Reactions to Amoris laetitia

(Vatican Radio) “It’s a real gold mine.”That’s the reaction of Dr Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College (Front Royal, VA, USA), and a consultor to the Pontifical for the Family, to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris laetitia (the Joy of Love).Speaking with Vatican Radio, Dr O’Donnell spoke about some of the challenges in Amoris laetitia. “There are so many, so many challenges that are found in there,” he said. “I think probably the most fundamental challenge, and the thing that he really communicates, in I think a very effective way, is the importance of love, and that if you really do love, whatever aspect, as a husband or as a father, or as a wife or as a mother, or even as children. Love has to grow. You can never be complacent in love.”Listen to the interview of Dr Timothy O’Donnell with Christopher Wells: The Pope’s Exhortation shows that Pope Francis, precisely as our Holy F...

(Vatican Radio) “It’s a real gold mine.”

That’s the reaction of Dr Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College (Front Royal, VA, USA), and a consultor to the Pontifical for the Family, to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris laetitia (the Joy of Love).

Speaking with Vatican Radio, Dr O’Donnell spoke about some of the challenges in Amoris laetitia. “There are so many, so many challenges that are found in there,” he said. “I think probably the most fundamental challenge, and the thing that he really communicates, in I think a very effective way, is the importance of love, and that if you really do love, whatever aspect, as a husband or as a father, or as a wife or as a mother, or even as children. Love has to grow. You can never be complacent in love.”

Listen to the interview of Dr Timothy O’Donnell with Christopher Wells:

The Pope’s Exhortation shows that Pope Francis, precisely as our Holy Father, really “has the heart of a pastor,” Dr O’Donnell said. “And it’s very clear in some of the practical suggestions that he has, that he has a deep and abiding love for family life, and wants to share that. So for me, one of the greatest challenges is the challenge to grow in love.” He said growing in love is “a challenge that’s really worth taking on, and I think our families would be a lot healthier, relationships would be healthier, if that Christ-centred love and that challenge to keep growing and go more deeply into love in all of its aspects was really realized.”

Dr O’Donnell suggested reading Amoris laetitia “prayerfully, slowly” rather than simply jumping to some controversial passage, because, he said, “I think the Holy Father’s mind is beautifully revealed in this document, and that mind is the mind of the man of the Church.” Pope Francis’ teaching in the Exhortation “is placed within the context of the richness of the Church’s teaching concerning marriage and family,” he continued, noting that Francis cites earlier papal documents including Encyclicals like Pius XI’s Casti connubii and Paul VI’s Humanae vitae, as well as John Paul’s teaching on the “Theology of the Body” and the Polish pope’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio.

It was the Pope’s focus the Lord, though, that was especially moving. Dr O’Donnell said he was “particularly struck” by chapter 3, “which really talked about Jesus, about looking to Jesus to find the vocation of the family. It’s a very Christocentric vision.” He pointed, too, to Pope Francis’ discussion of “love in marriage,” and “the joy that is to be found there,” especially in chapters 3, 4, and 5. “Any couple, Dr O’Donnell whether contemplating marriage or already married, that “would like to do everything they can to continue to strengthen that bond, in this beautiful witness to a permanent and exclusive relationship” would benefit from reading those chapters dealing with “the beauty of human love.”

 

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