For those wondering what Pope Francis would do with all the conflicting ideas that emerged from his two Synods on the Family, the answer came Friday with publication of his 263 page Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, “The Joy of Love”. Reading through the document I see Francis continuing to admonish bishops and priests to end all law-bound judgments and replace them with understanding, empathy and mercy. His tone is pastoral throughout, as we would expect.
He calls for “a healthy dose of self-criticism” within the governing structures of the church. He says “we [church pastors]…find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who…are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them. I imagine we can all celebrate that statement!
In the second chapter he says “we rejoice to see old forms of discrimination [against women] disappear, and within families there is a growing reciprocity. We must see in the women’s movement the working of the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and rights of women,” he says. He also condemns the claim that the women’s movement is the cause of many of today’s problems. He calls it “false, untrue, a form of male chauvinism.” Ah, yes! Another statement worth celebrating!
There is actually much good in this document, especially if you follow the heterosexual norm or see the world through that lens, or have less investment in women’s issues generally. But there are also statements within this long exhortation that will cause many of us to feel discouraged. For example, Francis’ vision of family does not include LGBT families. He quotes the final report from the 2015 Synod saying “there are absolutely no grounds for considering [gay] unions to be in any way similar…to God’s plan for marriage and family.” Those of us who have been waiting for affirming and inclusive statements from the Vatican, who have hoped for decisive words from Francis that welcome and include LGBT voices and insights—we will have to wait. There is no mention of the lived experiences of LGBT couples and individuals in this document. Francis still views women, gender and family in completely traditional ways.
For all its merciful improvement in tone, the document falls short of what many of us had hoped for due to a tragic absence of women’s voices and experiences, and the likewise notable absence of cross-cultural LGBT experiences of loving committed relationships that sustain family life against all odds. And the voices of actual families themselves are nowhere to be found.
The man at the top is still one of the high priests of the Sanhedrin. And though he is a man of prayer, a man open to the Spirit and demonstrating tremendous courage in the face of entrenched opposition from many of the other high priests, a man we can admire for his active engagement in many social justice issues, he still lives within a closed system. And that closed system ignores advances in theology, anthropology and psychology that could and should inform the development of doctrine, and encourage the growth of a more respectful and inclusive church and world.
When Jesus returns to the Sea of Tiberias following his resurrection, it is just before daybreak. The disciples had gone fishing that night but had caught nothing. Jesus stands on the shore and calls out to them, telling them if they cast their nets off the starboard side they will find something. Once they do they catch so many fish they can’t haul in the net, so they trail it behind them, bulging with fish, as they bring the boat to shore. We’re told there were 153 fish in that net!
In her reflections on today’s readings for Celebration magazine, Patricia Sanchez mentions that St. Jerome told readers of his commentary on Ezekiel that the Greeks had identified exactly 153 species of fish. The Greek authors of John’s Gospel would have known about those 153 species. Sanchez says “[These authors] may have been affirming the fact that every species—all the people of the earth—were to be welcomed into the net of salvation and drawn unto the bark of Peter. The fact that the net was not broken attests to the cohesive character of the church, which is to welcome [and include] all and discriminate against no one.”
In this latest Exhortation, Francis does reiterate the Church’s stance on ‘unjust discrimination’ of LGBT individuals. He writes, “Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.” And he condemns the “shameful ill-treatment to which women are sometimes subjected, domestic violence and various forms of enslavement.”
But interestingly he goes on to say “History is burdened by the excesses of patriarchal cultures that considered women inferior,” as though this is a past-tense reality, as though the very church he heads—and the Synodal process itself—has not continued that same patriarchal excess by preventing the female voice from even being represented in this discourse on “the family!”
We are the disciples who appear before the Sanhedrin and can’t keep quiet. We are the ones who risk being mocked, mistreated and perpetually excluded for raising the feminine face of God in the sanctified halls of patriarchy. We are the disciples Jesus is speaking to in this Gospel, telling us to cast our nets to starboard and haul in the 153 species of lived experience our blinded apostolic leaders cannot begin to see. We are the Church in this time and place, and the vulnerable lambs and ignored sheep need us to testify before the Sanhedrin. They need us to go further than simply accept this document’s merciful tone when it does nothing to challenge a mindset that invalidates the consciences and obscures the truth of over half the world’s population. We follow the One who stands and waits on the shoreline as fishers of “men” cast about in the dark seemingly unaware there is another side to this boat—and that other side is teeming with life.
“Do you love me in these unusual and diverse species of fish,” Jesus might ask these fishermen? Then listen to them. Hear them. Make space for their voices. Feed my sheep.
And you who stand before the Sanhedrin, take heart. I am with you. I will be with you and stay with you and continue to lead you always. Follow me.
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