TORONTO – Cardinal Marc Ouellet, once strongly identified with conservative resistance to any change to the ban on communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, has given a ringing endorsement to Amoris Laetitia, the controversial exhortation by Pope Francis that sums up two synods on the family.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' document on the family reflects an "organic development" of Church teaching and doctrine, said Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, theologian and participant in both Synods that dealt with the topic.

VATICAN CITY – Simple gestures such as a kind look or a morning kiss and family prayer can strengthen couples in living out their vocation to marriage, Pope Francis said in his apostolic exhortation.

VATICAN CITY – The same mercy and patience that are essential for building a strong family must be shown to those whose families are in trouble or have broken up, Pope Francis said in his highly anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation.

Pope Francis released its apostolic exhortation on the family, "Amoris Laetitia" (The Joy of Love) on Friday, April 8, 2016. Here are all the stories and reactions by The Catholic Register on the Pope's landmark document. 

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis’ landmark text on the family, scheduled for release on Friday, is expected to encourage a more open attitude toward the non-nuclear family but contain no change in Church doctrine.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has set April 8 for the release of "Amoris Laetitia" ("The Joy of Love"), Pope Francis' reflection on the family and family life.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The Church must rediscover its role in helping and supporting families at this fall’s Synod on the Family, one of the leading Asian cardinals told The Catholic Register.

Bishops who attend the Synod on the Family in Rome next month should find a way for divorced and remarried Catholics to be forgiven and allowed back into the communion line, urges one of the most senior and respected canon lawyers in Canada.

Pope Francis is asking for prayers and hoping for miracles ahead of this October’s Synod on the Family.

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Catholic bishops pledged to resist changes to Catholic teaching on marriage and family life at October's synod on the family at the Vatican and rejected demands for reform by German-speaking Catholics.

One of the dynamics of last year’s Synod on the Family was the contrast between the German-speaking bishops, who have been preoccupied with finding a way for those in invalid marriages to receive Holy Communion since Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper were young theologians, and the African bishops. The latter, not to put too fine a point on it, objected that it was not possible for the Church to teach that simultaneous polygamy was immoral for poor black Catholics in Africa while serial polygamy was okay for rich, white Catholics in Europe.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM MANILA, Philippines - Pope Francis stressed that, despite Church doctrine against contraception, Catholics fail to practise "responsible parenthood" when they have too many children.
He also denounced the teaching of "gender theory" in schools, likening it to indoctrination of children by the Nazis and fascists.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis used his weekly audience Dec. 10 to challenge media reports of “clashes between factions” at the recent bishops’ Synod on family issues.