Amoris Laetitia is in continuity with previous Church teaching and “follows the classical doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas”, Pope Francis has said.
In a letter to Stephen Walford, a British Catholic author, the Pope says that in order to understand Amoris, “it must be read in its entirety and from the beginning”.
“This is because there is a development both of theological reflection and of the way in which problems are approached,” he adds.
“If the Exhortation is not read in its entirety and in the order it is written, it will either not be understood or it will be distorted.”
Pope Francis says the document follows the “magisterial hermeneutic of the Church, always in continuity (without ruptures), yet always maturing.”
Regarding ethics, Amoris “follows the classical doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas,” the Pope says.
The letter serves as a foreword to Walford’s latest book “Pope Francis, The Family and Divorce: In Defense of Truth and Mercy”. It is dated August last year.
