The “Amoris Laetitia Family” Year begins today, Friday, March 19, 2021 — Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Virgin Mary, and the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, on the beauty and joy of family love.
Pope Francis announced the Year during the Angelus on December 27, 2020, and he mentioned it again last March 14, describing it as “a special Year to grow in family love.” The Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, which is coordinating the Year’s activities, has opened online the event “Our Daily Love,” which will end on June 26, 2022, with the 10th World Meetings of Families in Rome.
“Our Daily Love”
It is the event online, organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, the Diocese of Rome, and the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute to open the Year dedicated to the family, on the fifth anniversary of the publication of Amoris Laetitia, informed a joint note of the three organizations.
This meeting implies “the beginning of a journey more than a celebration: according to the promoters, the Apostolic Exhortation has a richness that is yet to be discovered, and the March 19 event — which will be broadcast on the Internet in the channels of the three institutions –, is a convocation for future work,” reads the note.
The Pope “wants to put the whole Church in movement,” explain the organizers, who intend to offer a contribution that is able to “unite the Pastoral and Theology in view of the World Meeting of Families, planned in Rome in 2022.”
Amoris Laetitia Family Project
The project’s Webpage describes it as an initiative of the Holy Father whose objective is “to reach all families worldwide through different spiritual, pastoral and cultural proposals, which can be carried out in parishes, dioceses, Universities, Ecclesial Movements, and Family Associations.”
The page also points out that the pandemic has made known the “central role of the family as domestic Church and the importance of community ties between families, which make of the Church a “family of families,” a reality that “merits a Year of celebrations so that it is placed at the center of commitment and care.”
The Year’s Aims
The first objective of the “Amoris Laetitia Family” Year is “to spread the content of the Apostolic Exhortation” to “make it felt that the Gospel of the Family is a joy that fills the heart and one’s whole life.” A family that “discovers and experiences the joy of having a gift and of being, in turn, a gift for the Church and the society, can become a light in the darkness of the world.”
It also encourages the proclamation of “the Sacrament of Marriage as a gift, which has, in itself, the transforming strength of human love. Therefore, it is necessary for Pastors and families to walk together in pastoral co-responsibility and complementarity between the different vocations in the Church.”
The third aim is “to make families protagonists of the family pastoral. This requires an evangelizing and catechetical effort directed to the family, given that a disciple family becomes as well a missionary family.”
Likewise, it seeks “to make young people aware of the importance of formation in the truth of love and the gift of themselves, with initiatives dedicated to them,” and, finally, to widen the look and action of the family pastoral so that they become transversal, to include spouses, children, young people, the elderly and situations of family fragility.”
Recipients of the Message
As indicated in the Webpage, the recipients of the message are the Episcopal Conferences, dioceses, parishes, Ecclesial Movements, and Family Association, but especially all “families worldwide.”
It is an invitation to “all communities” to “take part and become protagonists with new proposals to implement at the level of the local Church.”
Program
The program is founded on various pillars, such as the forum entitled “Where Are We with Amoris Laetitia? Strategies for the implementation of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation,” which will take place from June 9-12, 2021, with the participation of the leaders of the delegations of the family pastoral of the Episcopal Conferences, and International Movements and Family Associations.
Planned also is the project “10 Amoris Laetitia Videos,” in which the Pontiff will explain the chapters of his Exhortation, together with the families that will offer testimonies of aspects of their daily life. A video will be broadcast every month to “awaken pastoral interest in the family in dioceses and parishes worldwide.”
Offered also is #IamChurch, a dissemination of testimonial videos on ecclesial protagonism and the faith of disabled people, and “On the Way with Families,” 12 concrete pastoral proposals to walk with families inspired in the Apostolic Document.
In view of the 10th World Meeting of Families, to be held in Rome in 2022, the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life invites dioceses and families worldwide to “spread and reflect further on the catecheses that will be distributed by the Diocese of Rome and to commit themselves with pastoral initiatives in this regard.” Finally, a Day will be held for grandparents and elderly people.
Resources
Tools of family spirituality, formation, and pastoral action will be disseminated on the “preparation for marriage, education in young people’s affectivity, and on the holiness of spouses and families that live the grace of the Sacrament in their daily life.”
International academic symposiums will also be organized “to reflect further on the content and implications of the Apostolic Exhortation in relation to important issues regarding families worldwide.”
With Larissa l. Lopez
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
