Book Review: Accompanying, Discerning, Integrating: A Handbook for the Pastoral Care of the Family According to Amoris Laetitia

With a plurality of arguments surrounding Pope Francis’ 2016 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Granados, Kampowski, and Pérez-Soba’s book, Accompanying, Discerning, Integrating: A Handbook for the Pastoral Care of the Family According to Amoris Laetitia, is an important and insightful contribution to this arena of theological discourse. Based upon the realms of pastoral care addressed in Amoris Laetitia, this handbook provides pragmatic pastoral guidance (vii). While the book does not wade too deep into the various theological arguments surrounding Amoris Laetitia, it offers insightful application and pastoral advice regarding the topics presented in the document. Moreover, although the book is not written directly to the medical community, it can be of great benefit to Catholic practitioners: by providing guiding principles on how to approach difficult pastoral tightropes, so to speak, this book can help practitioners sharpen their ability to walk with patients who may disagree with Catholic teaching and thus may be reticent to accept, or forgo, certain treatments. The book can also help practitioners form guiding principles on how to approach medical techniques or procedures that have not yet received definitive statements or teachings from the Magisterium of the Church (e.g., what to do with frozen embryos).

Commencing their book, the authors highlight a path that considers Amoris Laetitia as a whole, not simply certain parts of the document to the exclusion of others (ix), a valuable contribution to the discussion surrounding the Holy Father’s exhortation since the exhortation, particularly chapter eight, is sometimes seen as a rupture with Tradition, that is, a rupture with formerly declared Church teaching. Additionally, as the title suggests, the book is divided into three sections—accompaniment, discernment, and integration—three themes that are presented in Amoris Laetitia (xv). Formatting their book in this manner, the authors highlight potentially overlooked contributions that Amoris Laetitia presents which ought to be present for authentic Christian pastoral care to occur.

To master the art of accompaniment, we need to emulate Jesus, namely, we need to meet people where they are and then help lead them on the path to the Lord (6). This is the first step to any fruitful dialogue and encounter. However, “[t]here is no true Christian love without conversion to the love of Christ” (12), and, therefore, true accompaniment must guide one closer to Christ, which sometimes means turning from sin. The authors highlight that accompaniment often requires real conversion; it cannot condone immoral behaviors simply because one’s subjective feeling is that he or she likes these behaviors. Accompaniment must lead to true Christian freedom, not a status quo desire for the license to live in my own subjective reality. Thus, the authors highlight the importance of the “law of gradualness,” which is not to be understood as “gradualness of the law,” during the process of accompaniment (19). While the latter obliterates authentic accompaniment (23), the former charitably challenges one toward Christian perfection, which includes acceptance of the teachings of Christ (25).

Moreover, the authors present several practical ideas of how to engage in pastoral care in relation to children, newlyweds, those experiencing same-sex attraction, and more. While these ideas are creative and could be pragmatically useful, the arguments and ideas presented would be strengthened with citation of sources. For example, the authors state the following without citing any sources or studies: “Studies show that more than sixty percent of separations occur in the first seven years of marriage” (37).

The next chapter discusses integration, that is, the telos of accompaniment, the telos that guides discernment (59). Integration is concerned with bringing those who have lived lives contrary to the Gospel, particularly those who live(d) in “‘irregular’ situations,” into the fold of the Church (60). To be fully integrated, one needs to be a member of the Church (63), which reaches its fulfillment in the Blessed Sacrament (64). When considering why people are not full members in the Church, “the nature of the wound” must first be considered (65); in the case of those who are divorced and remarried (and have not had an annulment), the second union is the wound (65). To help those who are living in this situation and suffering the infirmity of not being in full communion with the Church, pastoral care demands that these individuals are treated with mercy. Similar to the foregoing discussion on accompaniment, mercy is not “an emotional sort of compassion that bends down over the wounds…without identifying the real malady,” nor is it “tolerance of evil” (66, emphasis in original). Rather, mercy “is capable of renewing the person’s heart, purifying it of all evil” (66, emphasis in original). Hence, true mercy leads one to a life that is more closely united to God—as Jesus says, to have “life…more abundantly” (John 10:10, NABRE). As the authors highlight, one of the pivotal steps in receiving this mercy is the sacrament of confession (71–73); notably, however, in this sacrament, the priest must ensure that the penitent intends on turning from their sinful lifestyle (72).

At this point, the authors turn to the often-controversial subject of reception of the Eucharist for divorced and remarried Catholics, where the authors present a strong theology of the Eucharist. While it is laudable that the authors attempt to maintain unity on this subject between Amoris Laetitia and other papal texts, their reading of Amoris Laetitia nevertheless is quite generous and skirts the ongoing theological debate concerning the document (76–79). The authors of Accompanying, Discerning, Integrating may in fact be correct in their interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, but their position can only receive the respect which may be due if they engage more comprehensively and critically with other theological positions.

The third and final chapter of this handbook discusses discernment, beginning with a clear delineation of what discernment is and is not (87). Notably, “discernment does not mean judging a person’s state of grace” (87); this sheds light on Amoris Laetitia’s statement that “‘it can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace’ (AL 301)” (87). The authors contend that judging another’s soul has never been a consideration for the reception of the Eucharist (87), and the authors claim that Amoris Laetitia is in continuity with former Church teaching (87–88). Granados, Kampowski, and Pérez-Soba then go on to explain Eucharistic theology, including the theology which St. Thomas Aquinas presents (88–93). In essence, they claim that only the individual can determine his or her culpability in the participation of a sin; a person’s “objective public condition” is the determining factor as to whether he or she can be denied the sacraments (93). Both of these points provide a helpful framework from which to interpret Amoris Laetitia. Additionally, the authors highlight the importance of ecclesial discernment (97), which notably runs contrary to “gradualness of the law” and thus implicitly highlights that Amoris Laetitia is concerned with objectivity, not subjective moral judgments that are made apart from the Church and are made with only the consideration of the solipsistic “I” (102). Finally, based upon Amoris Laetitia, seven principles of discernment are presented (103), as well as further considerations on how discernment ought to be applied to divorced and remarried Catholics, especially concerning the reception of Holy Communion (107 ff.).

In essence, although a more critical engagement with the controversial tenets of, and the ongoing debate surrounding, Amoris Laetitia would fortify the claims presented in Granados, Kampowski, and Pérez-Soba’s book, the book provides a helpful and needed angle from which to approach Amoris Laetitia. The authors skillfully articulate how the exhortation does not, in their view, break with Tradition, and they present creative and thoughtful ideas of how to reach out to those in challenging pastoral situations. This book is an important contribution to both Catholic theology and pastoral care alike.