US: Pope Francis issued a controversial document on the family. The D.C. archbishop has a pioneering plan to implement it.

Pope Francis made global news in 2016 with a high-level document on family life meant to bring the church into modern times. It emphasized the need for priests to welcome divorced Catholics who remarry outside the church and many others in what the church calls “irregular situations.”

Francis fans cheered his emphasis on inclusion. Critics rued his lack of clarity.

Two years later, Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, has released one of the most comprehensive responses from a Catholic leader on how to implement the pope’s more lofty and theoretical document. 

Papal documents very rarely trigger specific responses from bishops, who are the ones leading local communities. But some say Amoris Laetitia has generated more interest than any papal document since Pope Paul VI’s 1968 “Humanae Vitae,” about birth control, because it tackles areas such as marriage, divorce and sexuality that are undergoing enormous social change. 

Wuerl’s stature as leader of the U.S. capital’s Catholics, his reputation for caution, and his decision to create this document underscores in a dramatic way what is being said at the highest levels: Family life in 2018 looks nothing like 1950s America, and the church needs to start reflecting that. Read more via Washington Post