Francis puts love, compassion, courage and respect on a pedestal, but not in the deluded way the analogy usually implies. In this case, the pedestal lifts those virtues so we won't lose sight of them while we explore ideals like independence, self-actualization, ambition, and mastery.
Because in excess, man, those ideals will really trip up a marriage.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading Amoris Leatitia, which is the pope's distillation of the work done over three years by the Catholic Synod of Bishops, his posse of advisers.
It's not that I had underestimated the pope's heart (I still go mushy when I remember how his smile lit the city for two astounding days during his visit here last September). But I thought the prose would be dense and inscrutable.
I thought this because Philly Archbishop Charles Chaput took it upon himself to translate some of its verbiage in the "pastoral guidelines" he issued this month to priests, deacons, seminarians, and lay people about how to counsel parish members on matters of human sexuality.
If the pope's words needed to be interpreted by Chaput, I figured they must be inaccessible to lay-brains like mine. But I wanted to give it a go, so I could understand what the fuss has been about.
In case you missed that fuss, Chaput's six-page guidelines have totally cheesed off some Catholics, including Mayor Kenney. Last week, Kenney denounced the guidelines, which insist that Catholics living in relationships the church considers "irregular" may not receive the Eucharist or hold positions of responsibility in parishes.
"Jesus gave us gift of Holy Communion because he so loved us. All of us," our Catholic mayor, a former altar boy, railed in a furious tweet. "Chaput's actions are not Christian."
But they sure are Catholic, and that's the difference.
Christians follow the teachings of Christ; Catholics follow Christ's teachings as interpreted by the Catholic church. Since the pope and church leaders, one of whom is Chaput, believe that Catholicism has the true interpretation of Christ's teachings, why would we expect anything less from the archbishop?
Besides, in this case, he's mostly the messenger. And "mostly" is an important word, which I'll get to in a sec.
In Amoria Laetitia, Francis clearly reiterates that marriage is between a man and woman, monogamous, open to new life, and permanent (except when it can be annulled, but that's for another column). Any sexual relationship other than that is "irregular." This includes same-sex unions; cohabitating unmarried sexual partnerships; and divorced and civilly remarried ones.
"We need to acknowledge the great variety of family situations that can offer a certain stability," Francis writes, "but de facto or same-sex unions, for example, may not simply be equated with marriage."
And in discussing the dignity and mission of the family, Francis quotes the Synod Gang directly: "There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family."
So Chaput and the pope are on the same page, even if Kenney and others - including me - don't like it.
What Francis doesn't say specifically, though, is that Catholics in irregular relationships should be denied Holy Communion. Perhaps the denial is implied, since he writes often about the Eucharist being open to all who seek the sacrament of Penance for their sins - and sex outside of Catholic marriage is a sin.
Still, it reads a little murky.
Where the pope is unequivocal, though, is in not allowing certain Catholics to be in leadership positions, which is not to say he sees no place for them in the church.
"Naturally, if someone flaunts an objective sin as if it were part of the Christian ideal, or wants to impose something other than what the Church teaches, he or she can in no way presume to teach or preach to others," he writes. "This is a case of something which separates from the community . . .
"Yet even for that person there can be some way of taking part in the life of community, whether in social service, prayer meetings or another way that his or her own initiative, together with the discernment of the parish priest, may suggest."
So - sorry, Mayor Kenney - if prickly Chaput's guidelines make him un-Christian, then the warm 'n' cuddly pope is un-Christian, too.
It's important to note that all of the above takes up only a few pages of the pope's hefty document. In some ways, these pages almost feel like a tossed bone to the old guard. The rest of Amoris Laetitia is chock full of prose that tenderly adores the godliness in all of us and that gently acknowledges - believe it or not - our right to personal discernment.
"We are called to form consciences," he writes in one extraordinary section, "not replace them."
And his transcendent, 20-page deconstruction of 1 Corinthians 13 - St Paul's treatise on love - is so beautiful, it ought to be read aloud in public once a week.
The world would be a better place for it. Not as Catholic as Chaput would prefer, maybe, but maybe more Christian, the way Kenney would.
polaner@phillynews.com
215-854-2217 @RonniePhilly
Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog
