Introduction
(1-7)
The Apostolic
Exhortation is striking for its breadth and detail. Its 325 paragraphs are distributed
over nine chapters. The seven introductory paragraphs plainly set out
the complexity of a topic in urgent need of thorough study. The interventions
of the Synod Fathers make up [form] a “multifaceted gem” (AL 4), a precious
polyhedron, whose value must be preserved. But the Pope cautions that “not all
discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by
interventions of the magisterium”. Indeed, for some questions, “each country or
region … can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its
traditions and local needs. For ‘cultures are in fact quite diverse and every
general principle… needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied’”
(AL 3).This principle of inculturation applies to how problems are formulated
and addressed and, apart from the dogmatic issues that have been well defined
by the Church’s magisterium, none of this approach can be “globalized”.In his
address at the end of the 2015 Synod, the Pope said very clearly: “What seems
normal for a bishop on one continent, is considered strange and almost
scandalous – almost! – for a bishop from another; what is considered a
violation of a right in one society is an evident and inviolable rule in
another; what for some is freedom of conscience is for others simply
confusion.”
