Familiaris consortio - impasse or inspiration for a contemporary theology of marriage and the family?

Abstract

Since its publication in 1981, Pope John Paul Il's apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio has remained a unique teaching document issued by the Roman Catholic Church. Never before in its history has the Magisterium undertaken to treat marriage and the family so extensively and comprehensively. It appears to be the longest single document emanating from the official church on this topic, surpassing by far Leo XIII's encyclical Arcanum divinae of 1880 and Pius Xl's 1930 encyclical Casti connubii. Equally unparalleled is probably that the personal philosophical and theological position of a single pope has so deeply marked the subsequent official teaching of the church on this subject. While intended as a response to the Propositiones that the bishops at the 1980 Synod on "The Role of the Family" presented to the pope, the document clearly bears the handwriting of Karol Wojtyla who already as a scholarly theologian had been fascinated by the mystery of the human person and had regarded sexual and marital ethics as the test case for its adequate understanding. Much has been said and written, both affirmative and critical, in praise or rejection, about the specific type of personalism at the basis of his ethical thinking, about the essentialist approach to gender relations, about the so-called "theology of the body" and its implications for sexual ethics, and other items that have left their mark on Familiaris consortio.