Archbishop Charles Scicluna said at a Vatican press conference on Wednesday evening that he was returning to Malta with a “renewed commitment” to place the family at the centre of the Church’s pastoral mission, describing Amoris Laetitia as a “fresh document which needs to be rediscovered” ten years after its publication.
Speaking at the briefing, held at the Holy See Press Office to conclude a week-long meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation on family life, Archbishop Scicluna emphasised the document’s call for a Church that listens before judging and leads people to an encounter with God’s mercy.
“What I also bring with me from this meeting is a renewed commitment to put the family at the centre of the Church’s pastoral mission,” he said. “At the end of the day, Amoris Laetitia ten years ago stimulated and provoked an invitation for pastoral conversion, an attitude of listening to families before judging and also discerning situations with an open heart, seeking the will of God but also facilitating the meeting with God’s mercy, embracing people, finding them where they are and leading them to meet Jesus as a saviour.”
The press conference was also addressed by Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera of Ecuador, Rev. Prof. Stanislaus Chu Ilo of Nigeria and the United States, Rev. Fr. Giacomo Costa SJ, Monsignor Philippe Bordeyne, and a married Brazilian couple, Solange and Alisson Roberto Schila.
Archbishop Scicluna stressed that families were not merely recipients of the document but had to live it. “This is a word about families but also a word that needs to come from families,” he said. “Families are not only the recipients or those who are destined to receive the document. They have to live it.”
He said his commitment as a bishop was to “renew the great enthusiasm created by Amoris Laetitia” while accepting it “with wisdom, humility but also in dialogue with families”.
Amid a world of increasing isolation, Mgr Scicluna underlined the family’s unique vocation. “I think that in a world which is being overtaken by robots and anonymity and solitude, the family has a prophetic role, not only in society but for humanity’s future.”
The week-long gathering, held in Rome from 7 to 14 October, was convened by Pope Leo XIV to mark the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia. Unable to attend due to his recovery from lung surgery, the Pope sent a written message thanking participants for their “attentive listening” and expressing his hope that families would “always be active participants in the life and mission of your local Churches”.
In his homily, read by Cardinal Tagle, he described the family as an “icon of God’s love” and reaffirmed “the values of openness to life and respect for life from conception to natural death”.
Source: Newsbook.com.mt
