Pastoral Care of the Faithful in Situations of Manifest Lack of Proper Moral Disposition: The Need for a New Canonical-Pastoral Paradigm After Evangelii Gaudium

Abstract

On the basis of the suggestions of Evangelii gaudium, we propose a new model canonical and pastoral to the faithful who are in moral or spiritual periphery or, with expression of the Ecclesia de Eucharistia, in “situations of a manifest lack of proper moral disposition.” In addition to proposing the use of this new terminology, so as not to fix attention almost exclusively on the divorced and remarried faithful and the question of their admission to the sacraments, it highlights the need to change the approach of pastors and Christian communities, so that go to meet the need – which results in a “real right” – of these faithful to receive pastoral care appropriate to their circumstances and dispositions. A pastoral approach that does not merely point out the things they can’t do, but to help them in a personalized way and with the necessary gradualness, to rediscover the joy of a life guided by the Gospel, to achieve the necessary dispositions to participate in the sacraments and – comforted by the grace of God – to become, they too, missionary disciples. It is proposed, in closing, a model of accompaniment inspired by the “eight thesis” for the pastoral care