In advance of The Big Letter™ – Amoris laetitia

The day before The Big Letter™ comes out (aka the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetita), I received this meme from a reader:

A couple notes in advance of its release.

First and foremost, tens of people will ever read the whole thing.  I don’t think the people who wrote it read the whole thing.

I will not violate the embargo by quoting specific texts, but I can say that the document is not a theological disaster, as some have predicted.  We have dodged a bullet, at least dodged a round to center mass.

Taken as a whole, The Big Letter™ doesn’t have to be a pastoral disaster either.

However, some will not want to take the whole of The Big Letter™ into consideration.  They will focus only on the last parts.  Just watch.

You are going to need a great deal of this coffee to get through the whole Letter!

As most papal and curial documents these days, it goes on and on.  It’s repetitive.  Some parts are vintage Francis.  Others are obviously not.  This Letter also has paragraphs wherein you can’t ferret out about whom he is talking (which might be purposeful).  It shifts from one group to another, which will produce some confusion.  It is, alas, really vague toward the end.  This vagueness, so characteristic of our era, could allow some pastors (especially of a certain age, leaning, or membership in the Society of Jesus) to channel their inner Jeremiah 23:1 and seriously misguide their sheep (see the meme, above).

But they would do that anyway, regardless of what Amoris laetitia says, wouldn’t they.

Tomorrow I will watch with interest how certain unnamed liberal writers (go look at the National Schismatic Reporter) who have built up the importance of Amoris laetitia as if it were the new iteration of the … I don’t even know what, because they don’t adhere to truly important magisterial documents … will do when they actually read the thing.

No wait… they won’t read the whole thing. They will ignore 90.3077% of it (I picked that percentage for a reason).

They are not going to like some bits at all.  Thus, they will ignore those bits.

Also, some on the other end of the spectrum, the more traditional and conservative side, will not be able to indulge fully in their descent into grand mal Schadenfreude.   There are some good bits in it.

No… wait … what am I saying?!?  Yes, they will.

Yes yes… I know… if it also has vague stuff in it then the world has truly come to an end. Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

When you get your own copy, perhaps you might wind up being one of the tens of people who make through the whole thing, but you are going to have to have serious quantities of Mystic Monk Coffee (or TEA!).

Try not to freak out when you reach the end.

Finally, I am trying to obtain the Latin of the first sentence of The Big Letter™ (which gives the document its title). Judging from the English of the first sentence and paragraph, as well as the general content, the admittedly ill-sounding, ill-advised title Amoris laetitia probably shouldn’t be – pace some of my friends – translated into English as “The Joy of Sex”.

Until you get to the end… maybe.

The combox is CLOSED.