remarried, AL in a sense offers nothing new. The document builds on and reiterates an invitation that was urged some years ago in another synod on the family and synthesized by Pope St. John Paul II in his post-apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio:"Pastors must know that, for the sake of truth, they are obliged to exercise careful discernment of situations .... I earnestly call upon [them] and the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her life" (§84).

For the most part, then, AL offers a summation of what has long been sound pastoral practice both inside and outside the confessional with regard to the pastoral discernment of, as AL puts it, "those situations that fall short of what the Lord demands of us" (AL §7). Among other important elements, AL reiterates the following:

Sound pastoral discernment, taking into account "the complexity of various situations" and "how people experience and endure distress because of their condition," is not incompatible with care for the truth; indeed, care for the truth demands this. (AL §79)Divorced persons who, for the sake of bearing witness to marital fidelity, have not remarried must especially be the focus of the Church's pastoral concern. (AL §242)The divorced who have entered a new union should be made to feel part of the Church. They are not excommunicated: they should be made to know that they remain part of the ecclesial community [AL §243], where, like the penitent prodigal son, they might "experience being touched by an 'unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous' mercy." (AL §297)55 The words "unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous" are taken from Francis's homily on February 15, 2015, to the then newly created Cardinals (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 107 [2015]: 258). A note makes reference to 1 Cor 13. The words are said in reference to charity, not mercy, although the immediately preceding paragraph speaks of mercy, mentioning "the repentant prodigal son." The sentence in AL is followed by an exclamatory affirmation that "no one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!" One can only speculate about the Pope's meaning here. A charitable interpretation would say that he is referring to some kind of perpetual "condemnation" during one's life (the possibility of eternal condemnation after death being

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Amoris Laetitia, Pastoral Discernment, and Thomas Aquinas

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