President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia has confirmed that Pope Francis’ much anticipated synodal catechesis devoted to family life following last year’s synod will be published by the end of March.
During an interview with the Portuguese Catholic agency Ecclesia, Archbishop Paglia said that the Pope will probably release the document on March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph and the 3rd anniversary of the Pope’s inauguration Mass, noting that it will “show that the Church is close to families in all stages of their lives.”
“I am convinced that the Apostolic Exhortation will be a hymn to love, to a love that will care for the well-being of children, that is open to wounded families who need strength, that wants to be close to the elder, a love that the whole of humanity needs,” Paglia said.
Archbishop Paglia is heading a conference for the Catholic clergy of Portugal’s Southern ecclesiastical province with theme: “Family: Centrality, Renewal and Continuity.”
The Pope’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation will be the end of a multi-year synod process. Pope Francis had announced in late 2013 that in October 2014,there would be an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on topics related to the family and evangelization which will followed by an Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015, on the same topics. An estimated 190 bishops from around the world participated in each gathering.
The 2014 synod was themed: “The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization”
The 2015 synod which the Pope’s exhortation is expected to be centered on, was themed ” The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world”
The synods were surrounded by controversy, with topics of great interest such as issues on homosexuals, marriage preparation, pornography, domestic violence and abuse, and the issue of the divorced-and-remarried which is dominating media coverage.
