Along the Marriage Journey

Pastoral Care for Modern Families

In his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis spoke of family pastoral care as a proclamation of the Gospel of the family. A critical element in this exhortation is the need for “more adequate formation and training” for all those involved in the pastoral care of marriage: clergy, religious, catechists and other lay pastoral workers.

To this aim, every two years, the Center for Priestly Formation and the Center for Family Juridical Studies of Pontificia Università della Santa Croce organize a Course on Pastoral Accompaniment in the Marriage Journey.

Providing an interdisciplinary perspective, the speakers are not only professors and pastors, but also the spouses themselves, canonists, and professionals from other sciences that collaborate in helping families, such as in the disciplines of psychology and family development. Along the Marriage Journey contains the collection of these talks, along with some additional contributions to reach the widest possible audience.

This book can be useful to those who provide pastoral care in marriage preparation, those seeking to deepen their marriage commitment, and also the newly engaged couple.

Topics include:

• Consideration on the maturity of the engaged in preparation for marriage and the healthy development of their personality
• Reflection on wounded families, including divorced and remarried couples, and their access to Eucharistic Communion
• Discernment on the possible causes of annulment in light of the new legislation