Strengthening Families [antikvár]

IntroductionThe recent Church document, the post-synodal apostoUc exhortation Amoris Laetitia confirms the Church's teaching that happy, strong and stable families are the foundations of a healthy society and of the Church itself. Amoris Laetitia brings together the results of the two synods on the family convoked by Pope Francis in 2014 and 2015, after a huge consultation among Catholics all over the world. In this document the pope often cites the synods' final reports as well as documents and teachings of his predecessors, especially Gaudium et Spes of Vatican II, Humanae Vitae of Paul VI, and Familiaris Consortia of John Paul II. In particular Amoris Laetitia focuses on the need for wise and responsible pastoral discernment based on the diagnosis of families all over the world and originality of the family as well as Church teaching. The pope realistically considers the present situation of families and their everyday experiences. According to him, contemporary families face many, diversified challenges: migration, globalization, individualization, poverty, pornography, addictions, inadequate attention towards persons with disabilities, lack of respect for the elderly, the ideological denial of differences between the sexes and the impact of biotechnology in the field of procreation. At the same time he warns against idealizing family life, urging faithful to care for families, which have been facing many difficulties and crises in the postmodern society: "we do well to focus on concrete realities, since 'the call and the demands of the Spirit resound in the events of history,' and through