African, Latin American, and Asian Voices on AL
09/05/2022
MFS 28/1 (2022)
THEME ISSUE: African, Latin American, and Asian Voices on AL.
AL has always been met with a mixed reception, especially in the western societies where theological and pastoral discussions about marriage and sexuality were mostly conducted in “Roman” or “Western” terms. This issue opens the horizon to other parts of the world – to continents, countries, cultures, and contexts in which the teaching of the church has found different resonances than the ones westerners are used to.
Our intention is to “give a voice” to the experience and knowledge of colleagues around the world whose voices may on first hearing sound unusual and strange or even might upset us. Pope Francis’s appeal that the diversity of cultures “needs to be inculturated” and that each country and region should “seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive its traditions and local needs” (AL 3) seems still far away from its application and implementation in a universal church. We want to regard the global reception of AL as the very beginning, or in other words as the “first dawn”, of a church in which ecclesial doctrines, documents, rules, and practices are no longer imposed from above, by an a priori established set of resolutions, but in which the plurality and diversity of cultures and contexts will be respected and valued. That is the real purpose of this issue of our journal. Readers will then judge whether, and in what way, this seed bears fruit.