MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 14 OCTOBER 2026

Regular Marfam followers would recognize immediately that here I am combining the family and the care of creation focus areas.  In part that is because there are important events in both, happening or about to happen soon and because they do have something very significant in common.  

Ten years after the 2016 publication by Pope Francis of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, subtitled The Joy of Love, presenting his conclusions after the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family, Pope Leo XIV has called an extraordinary meeting to revisit both the document and the state of marriage and the family today.  Heads of Episcopal Conferences around the world and representatives of the Eastern churches are gathered in Rome this week to reflect, share and discuss. The approach is synodal, with much emphasis on listening to the realities on the ground presented by the different bishop speakers and also the lay delegates present there.  There is no intended predetermined outcome.  The report of their reflection was due to be released on this day 14th October, but due to Pope Leo’s surgery and convalescence, it will be delayed until after he has studied the document.

Care for our Common Home refers to the subtitle of the encyclical Laudato Si’ published at almost the same time. Its 10th anniversary was celebrated in 2015.  Various projects and movements grew out of the encyclical and the Laudato Si Movement (LSM) is a strong international initiative established in the US, but reaching across the world.  An animator training programme was developed and is run to encourage deeper reflection and insight into the document and promote its implementation.  In 2021 the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, based at the Vatican, established the Laudato Si Action Platform (LSAP) which uses a different approach, has various sectors and 6 goals to which projects for caring for creation can be linked. The LSAP is commemorating its 5th anniversary in November.  While I, as MARFAM coordinator, identify in particular with the LSAP, because it has a family sector, I do experience a degree of confusion between the movements, which are both Catholic but work in their different ways.

The recently completed  SEASON OF CREATION was another initiative focusing on creation, but this is Christian and interdenominational, based on a specific theme, this year’s was Living Water.  Some of us believe that Care for Creation, or Building our Common Home as is the name MARFAM uses,  should be even broader and incorporate all those who believe in a Creator, whose hand and face are present in the whole universe and in God as Trinity.  

Where and how can all these initiatives reach down into the grassroots, the oceans and the land, the sun, moon and stars beloved of St Francis?  For me, at the heart of the matter is the call for building the civilization of love, a concept revived and adopted by Pope Leo in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.  This can and should begin in every home, with its own traditions, set of beliefs and convictions.  The essence of what we really need to remember is how Pope Francis stressed that “everything is connected.”  In addition MARFAM promotes the view that all of creation is family-based.  Our World is a Family of Families, growing, developing, pro-creating and co-creating with our Creator, as God has designed in the great plan of creation.   Our own particular nuanced beliefs do shine a light on life and love, which are the heart of the spirituality of creation and of the civilization of love. 

A specific and very important aspect noted in Amoris Laetitia  and Laudato Si  is the role of the Trinity, a core aspect of MARFAM’s vision. AL11 states, The triune God is a communion of love, and the familyis its living reflection.   St John Paul II shed light on this when he said, “Our God in his deepest mystery is not solitude, but a family. For he has within himself, fatherhood, sonship and the essence of the family, which is love.  That love in the divine family is the Holy Spirit. and LS 238-240 states The human person grows more,k matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with  all creatures. In this way they make their own that trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in them when they were created.   Everything is interconnected and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity.                

I have focused on care of marriage and the human family for more than 40 years, with Chris, and more or less alone since his death in 2000.  Our life-changing experience has been of Marriage Encounter in 1979, building marriage as a foundation sacrament, preparing couples, strengthening marriages and families and recognizing changing realities.  The gift and spirituality of sexuality and marriage has been a foundation.  Dialogue – intimate personal communication, listening and sharing, building unity as a couple and a sacramental sign of God’s love, are the vehicle.  Is this not what the JOY OF LOVE should be and what synodality is or should be all about? 

We are well aware of the problems and issues in family life today but dare we ask if enough was done not just in th last 10 years but all of those 40 years ? Why are we leaving the work mainly to clerics and the hierarchy, to the heads of episcopal conferences, a few couples and experts?   Why has our Church not spent more of its energy in the last 40 years promoting this Marriage Encounter vision of renewal of the Sacraments of Marriage  and the Priesthood?  Why have we lay people, couples and families not taken more  and greater responsibility for our sacrament and its unique and particular spirituality.  

Sexuality, pro-creation and co-creation with God can still be incorporated into our vision of the Church as a Family, and Care for our Common Home.  The current Amoris Laetitia gathering was able to explore in great depth all the issues, but patiently, lovingly and  theologically explore the spirituality of THE JOY OF LOVE to be lived in love by every family, the human family with all the dignity due to it, but equally with the respect due to every family of creation.     TR 13 October 2026

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

October 14.  SEE. Jesus’ condemnation.  There is a kind of parable story about a farmer who wanted to give his farm animals a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs as a reward.  The hen was quite happy to provide the eggs, but the poor pig sure wasn’t.  “You give from excess,” he said, “I give from substance.”   Giving to God and the Church demands balance and discernment as well as generosity.  Wisdom is knowing what is what.  Some modern-day churches that demand that their members tithe to be in God’s good books may manipulate people’s commitment for their own benefit and show little genuine care for the needs of their own flock. 

JUDGE.  Reflect, share, Scripture. Woe to you, Pharisees, lawyers also, for you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. From Luke 11:42-46.   Pope Francis:   The worship of the ancient golden calf (Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.  EG 55. Pope Leo: A profit-driven economy weakens family ties, many elderly people are left behind by children forced to migrate, or in some instances to fight in wars. The Church joyfully proclaims the Lord’s promise to the elderly, “I will never forget you!”  From Day for elderly 2026.

ACT. Would Jesus be condemning or praising my behaviour in all spheres of my life but in particular the question of caring and sharing?

Daily Prayer for Mission Month October, Year of St Francis and upcoming Local Elections in SA.  

Heavenly Father, during this Mission month, we praise and thank you for the gift of your love and the riches of your creation. As missionary disciples we answer your call to walk in the way of peace.  We lift up to you all leaders of nations. Grant them an open heart and a listening ear to hear the cries of the poor and the needy. Bless all missionaries, protect them from harm, strengthen their hearts in times of trial, and fill them with the joy of your Spirit. As we prepare for the elections and a renewal of society for the common good we acknowledge our shortcomings and faults. We hear the needs that call for help to build a united country under God, as a family of all the families of creation.  Mary, Mother of the Church and of the Rosary pray for us. St Francis, our model and patron saint of all of creation pray for us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen