A post-synodal apostolic exhortation from the synods on the family will be released by Pope Francis in March, according to the head of the Pontifical Council on the Family.
The Ecclesia Agency reported that Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia gave this news Wednesday at a meeting with clergy in Portugal.
The document will gather the Holy Father’s conclusions, following the two synods dedicated to the theme of family: the Extraordinary Synod of 2014 and the Ordinary Synod of 2015.
Archbishop Paglia expressed his conviction that the Document will confirm the need to be an outgoing Church, including in the realm of the family, adding that “it will be a hymn of love, a love that wants to take care of children, which is able to be close to wounded families to give them strength, which wants to be close to children as well as to the whole of needy humanity.”
“Sadly today we see a great breach between the family and the parish: families are not very ecclesial,” he added, acknowledging that this is also true because “parishes are suffocated by the weight of bureaucracy, or aged by the mentality of functionaries.” Moreover, “warmth is lacking; there is little hospitality and little support.”
Archbishop Paglia also pointed out that “many governments don’t have family policies and this is very grave” because “the solidity of a society is in the family.”
Popes generally write a post-synodal apostolic exhortation as a sort of conclusion to the discussions held in the synod.
For example, Benedict XVI released in 2010 Verbum Domini: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church and in 2007, Sacramentum Caritatis: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission.
