Pastoral reception of Amoris Laetitia in Africa

Abstract

The notion of pastoral reception of Amoris Laetitia (AL) regarding those in irregular unions in the light of marriage and family life in the Roman Catholic Church is a phenomenon that requires clear pastoral catechesis. Meanwhile, the underlying pastoral emphasis that has governed the whole life of the church is the salvation of souls. To live up to this role, there is a need to apply pastoral discernment, integration, and accompaniment to certain pastoral issues regarding marriage. The question of how the church, especially in Africa, is responding to these demands becomes a subject to be researched. Is the church in Africa pastoral in nature? To what extent has the pastoral nature of the church in Africa accommodated the lives of its faithful? What is the view of the church in Africa regarding the pastoral recommendations in AL? Would the local church in Africa allow reception of communion to the civilly divorced and remarried based on AL’s pastoral recommendations? What about its peculiar pastoral challenges besides communion to the civilly divorced and remarried? What concrete pastoral plan would the church propose for families torn apart due to childlessness, polygamy, posthumous marriage, cohabitation? Would the church in Africa allow reception of communion to couple in this irregular unions? These are the research questions that will be explored deeply in this academic work. Being a very diverse continent with differences in culture and circumstances, the African local churches have no generally accepted pastoral plans and proposals regarding the reception of AL, rather according to each individual episcopal conference or diocese. The research, therefore, will present proposals, plans, and recommendations from the different local churches both in Africa and in the West. The dissertation will be extensively bibliographic. The identified themes will be evaluated using tools such as articles published in journals, books, and online materials.