AN INTRODUCTION AND APPRECIATION
OF THE ENCYCLICALS AND VATICAN II
DOCUMENTS
A HIERARCHY
OF CHURCH
DOCUMENTS
Apostolic
Constitutions
Papal Teaching
Documents
Instructions by
Congregations
Documents of Episcopal
Conferences
Decrees of Individual
Bishops
I. Apostolic
Constitutions
• legislative documents, containing
dogmatic or doctrinal elements
• Eg. Vat II; CCC, Canon Law
II. Papal
Teachings
• Encyclicals, apostolic letters,
apostolic exhortations, and
“motu proprio”
• Amoris Laetitia, Verbum Domini
III. Instructions of • Explain Council documents or decrees
Congregations • GIRM
IV. Documents of • Communiqués of the GCBC
Episcopal
Conferences
V. Decrees of
Individual
Bishops
• Statutes of the Diocese
Post-Synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia
(The Joy of Love) on love in the family,
08.04.2016
immoderate desire for
total change without
sufficient reflection or
grounding
solve everything by
applying general rules or
deriving undue conclusions
from particular
theological considerations
Plan of Amoris Laetitia
Unaddressed African Concerns
Reception of
Communion by
Some Classes
of NonCommunicants
(AL 301-303)
Cf. Can
1163§2
Unified
Marriage
Rites? SC 77.
Marriage as a
process? (Deut
20:7; 22:2327)
1. God wants you to be holy.
2. Holiness is not only for a few but for everyone
by virtue of the grace we received in Baptism
which is called to reach its fullness.
3. Holiness is made up of little daily gestures done
for God.
4. Holiness has a mission: It consists in identifying
ourselves with Christ, imitating his virtues, manifested in
the Beatitudes, the portrait of Christ,
5. We must not be afraid of holiness. “The only tragedy
in life is not to be a saint.”
6. Holiness is not something sad and melancholic. Rather,
those who strive for holiness are full of joy and of good
humour.
7. In order to pursue this divine call to
holiness, God gave us the means, the sources
of graces, which we need to put into practice.
8. As such, holiness involves a daily battle, a
constant struggle to put the means and to live
the virtues taught and lived by Christ.
9. Holiness is God’s initiative. He awaits our
response.