POPE REFORMS THE JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE ON MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

In 1981, Pope St. John Paul II established the Institute for Marriage and the Family.

The late, very recently deceased, Cardinal Caffara was named its first President and adminstered it until 1995.  

The Institute was established in order to be a center for study in the fields of anthropology and Christocentric thought in addressing the modern day crisis of Marriage and the family within the Church. 

One of its many publications, Marriage: Theological and Pastoral Considerations, served as the principal introduction to the previous Synods on the Family. 

The Apostolic Constitution, Magnum Matrimonii Sacramentum, which founded the Institute canonically, charged the it with the task of discovering the truth about Marriage and the Family, on the basis of an adequate anthropology, in order to help husbands and wives experience the fullness of their conjugal vocation.

Pope Francis, in his Motu Proprio announced just yesterday has reformed the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.  

In effect, this new Institute (which keeps the name of that established by St. John Paul II) will now serve to implement the teachings contained in Amoris Laetitia (whose teachings many consider to be a complete rejection of those promulgated by the former saintly Pontiff). 

Pope Francis stated that contemporary anthropological and cultural changes require “a diversified and analytical approach” which cannot be “limited to pastoral and missionary practices” of the past. 

Some have asked whether it is simply a coincidence that Pope Francis abolished the former John Paul II Institute precisely on the one year anniversary of the on which four Cardinals presented him the with the now famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) dubia?  

For that reason, there are some who are suggesting that Pope Francis’ reformation of the Institute is his answer to the dubia!

If so, in style at least, it would be a return to some of the former and truly more “Roman” ways of doing things, full of intrigue and curiosity.  B

But, since I have never quite considered Pope Francis to be particularly astute in the 
Roman” way of doing so, I conclude it is just a clever, if not witty, bit of timing and nothing more.

Those who still insist that Pope Francis give an clearer indication of whether or not Amoris Laetitia is to be considered authentic magisterial teaching simply refuse to live in the real world of the contemporary Church.

Not only has Pope Francis promulgated the teachings contained in Amoris Laetitia, but has enthusiastically encouraged the Bishops, collectively and individually, to implement its pastoral initiatives as quickly as possible for the good of souls.

Needless to say, the conservative reactionaries within the Church will find this latest action of Pope Francis both inflammatory and disorienting.

We shall be hearing their shrill voices about all this in the very near future, I am sure.