FAMILY BETWEEN ITS CRISIS AND RENEWAL: THE NEED OF THE PASTORAL COVERSION IN THE POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC ADHORTATION „AMORIS LAETITIA”

Abstract

This article attempts to answer the question about the essence of the crisis of marriage and family – on the one hand operating in a specific social context, and on the other assuming a reading of the challenges and functions of marriage and family in relation to the consciousness and level of maturity in faith of specific individuals. In order to better understand the dispute over the exhortation Amoris laetitia, especially the chapter 8, it was proposed to go once again through the essential path of the synodal preparations of 2014 and 2015, in order to understand the novelty and at the same time the difficulty of the reception of the post-synodal exhortation. The paper also reconstructs the dispute that followed the promulgation of the exhortation. All of this was aimed at leading to the important question of what „pastoral conversion” can mean, especially with regard to divorced people and those living in new relationships? The document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, cited at the end of the article, confirms the validity of a new pastoral commitment to accompany, discern and welcome divorced persons living in new relationships, because only then does the Church show the true face of God’s mercy and a new pastoral opening.