Pope Francis’ New Pontifical Institute: Another Political Move?

In a papal decree issued on September 19, Pope Francis announced he will be replacing the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family with a new pontifical institute. The newly created entity — called the Pontifical John Paul II institute for Marriage and Family Sciences — will serve to support the pope’s Amoris Laetitia.

The announcement was made through the apostolic letter Summa Familiae Cura and establishes the theme of the new institute, which is in line with the two most recent synods. The focus is on the complex reality of marriage and the family today, particularly in regard to pastoral challenges for family evangelization in the modern world. The institute will address the role, vocation, and mission of the family in the world and in the church.

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In Summa Familiae Cura, Pope Francis defended his decision to replace the original institute: “The anthropological-cultural change, which today affects all aspects of life and requires an analytical and diversified approach, does not allow us to limit ourselves to pastoral and missionary practices that reflect forms and models of the past.”

The pope argued that to evangelize, the church must “pay attention to concrete reality” and “be conscious and passionate interpreters of the wisdom of faith in a context in which individuals” now live without previous social structures. In other words — Pope Francis will use the institute to bring a new message to individuals who do not fall in line with the traditional understanding of marriage and family.

The new institute will include a stronger focus on the “developments of the sciences [of] human and anthropological culture,” the papal decree states. There will be a deeper study about marriage and family sciences, including of family history and law.

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“John Paul II’s great institution asks to be expanded and enriched,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the institute’s grand chancellor, said in an interview with Vatican Radio. “Pope Francis demands that the reality of families in their concreteness, therefore in their limits and riches, wounds and good, may be the key to renewal both in the church and in society.”

However, statutes have yet to be established and published. It’s also unclear what further focus the pope’s change will bring, as the original institute already focused on marriage and family sciences.

“The Pontifical John Paul II Institute is devoted to the study of the truth about the human person in all of its dimensions: theological, philosophical, anthropological, and indeed cosmological-scientific,” notes its website. “The Institute centers its study of the person in the community that is the original cell of human society: marriage and family.”

In his interview, Archbishop Paglia said the term “sciences” refers to a broader “dialogue” with the contemporary world, including an analysis of the “anthropological perspective,” or the study of the human person within society. Yet the institute already makes this focus clear. It’s as of now unclear if or how there will be a departure from John Paul II’s original teachings.

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St. John Paul II founded the original institute in 1981 to strongly support his teachings from Familaris Consortio and Vertiatis Splendor. Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia has been seen as a deviation from St. John Paul II’s original teachings — sowing confusion for many people. The previous grand chancellor of the John Paul II Institute, Archbishop Carlo Caffarra, was very concerned by the ambiguity in many of the teachings of Amoris Laetitia.

Along with four other cardinals, he sent five questions, called dubia (Latin for “doubts”), to Pope Francis, asking for clarifications. The group wanted to clarify the teachings on divorced and remarried persons receiving Communion, the definition of intrinsically evil acts, and the role of conscience.

Pope Francis has yet to answer fully any of the dubia, and in 2016, he replaced Archbishop Caffarra — who has since passed away, on September 6 — with Archbishop Paglia as grand chancellor of the institute, along with Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri as dean. The changes, along with the new papal decree, have created further concerns about the future of St. John Paul II’s teachings.

Both Paglia and Sequeri have been widely criticized for their interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, which supports the idea of allowing remarried couples to receive Holy Communion and even takes a more relaxed approach to the church’s stance on artificial contraception. Paglia has also supported the possible acceptance of homosexual relationships as a new kind of family.

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Over the past few years, there’s been great controversy about the potentially significant changes in church teachings. In 2015, before the October Synod of Bishops on the Family, news broke that a group of 50 participants gathered at the Pontifical Gregorian University to discuss the possibility of same-sex unions.

The meeting, which became known as the Shadow Synod, was conducted by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who has called for openness toward homosexual couples within the church. Other participants were Father Eberhard Schockenhoff, who has been highly critical of Humanae Vitae and in disagreement with the church’s teachings on sexual morality.

The new papal decree comes on the heels of Magnum Principium. The controversial apostolic letter, just published on September 9, allows for the translation of liturgical texts by local bishops.

The translating of liturgical texts has always been a Vatican responsibility, which ensures authenticity and consistency in the teachings of the Catholic Church; Pope Francis has noted any translations must be consistent with church doctrine. However, new and local translations of liturgical texts may lead to mistranslations and even greater confusion about church teachings overall.

Steffani Jacobs is a freelance writer based in the Twin Cities area. She has written about everything from military history and weaponry to theology and church doctrine. <

(photo credit, homepage image: Casa Rosada, Wikimedia; photo credit, article image: Alfredo Borba, Wikimedia)