Pope's exhortation offers pragmatic view of family
Calling for change in the way Catholics approach family issues, Pope Francis issued an apostolic exhortation that maintains church teachings on divorce and sexuality.
Francis used the document to outline his views on how the church should respond to modern-day realities of family life, such as encouraging husbands to do more household chores and parents to be less tied to their mobile phones.
Amoris laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), running to 263 pages in English and released on April 8 in six languages, responds to a two-year process involving two synods of bishops and questionnaires sent in from parishes around the globe. An apostolic exhortation does not carry as much weight as an encyclical and is not considered a statement of doctrine. But it does advise lower-level clergy on the implementation of church teachings.
