The authors critically analyze the numerous pastoral guidelines issued by several bishops’ conferences and individual bishops as a response to the publication of Pope Francis’s exhortation AL in 2016. While all bishops value AL as a significant and perceptive contribution to their local communities, they differ in the interpretation of the exhortation. The article focuses on their main areas of disagreement: first, from a methodological point of view, the role and function of pastoral care in church teachings for which AL has required a fundamental reorientation, where some bishops insist on placing doctrine systematically and structurally above the pastoral approach; second, from a moral theological perspective, the way in which some bishops override the weight of mitigating factors in the course of pastoral discernment by subordinating the conscience of the individual to the objectivity of moral law, contrary to the call of AL; third, with regard to sexual morality, the emphasis which certain bishops put on complete sexual abstinence, in contrast to the statement of AL that irregular situations can be accompanied in other ways. The article concludes by addressing the question of whether the bishops’ guidelines will lead to a positive reception in the local communities and to what extent the pastoral directives will help the church promote a better understanding of the faith.
Roi et al. (2025) studied this question.