Amoris Laetitia 7: The most important section of the exhortation.

moris Laeti­tia 7 reads: “Giv­en the rich fruits of the two-year Syn­od process, this Exhor­ta­tion will treat, in dif­fer­ent ways, a wide vari­ety of ques­tions. This explains its inevitable length. Con­se­quent­ly, I do not rec­om­mend a rushed read­ing of the text. The great­est ben­e­fit, for fam­i­lies them­selves and for those engaged in the fam­i­ly apos­to­late, will come if each part is read patient­ly and care­ful­ly.”

And that is what I intend to do on this blog. I feel no spe­cial urge, none, to join the instant com­men­tary that will, inevitably, miss a great deal and get the rest wrong. The most impor­tant thing you can do is read the doc­u­ment your­self. Read it slow­ly, read it delib­er­ate­ly, and ignore the head­lines and believe none of them. Read them lat­er. Take the pope’s advice. I will have a great deal to say about Amor­is Laeti­tia, but I am going to read all of it first. You should too.

And that is why, dear read­er, you can trust the com­men­tary this blog offers. I read things before I mouth off about them. Always have; always will. And so I will report back next week. In the mean­time, dear read­er, fear not.