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Article
New Evangelization, New Families, and New Singles
Journal of Moral Theology
  • Jana Marguerite Bennett, University of Dayton
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Abstract

When Pope Francis issued his calls for a synod in 2013, he stated that he wanted bishops to discuss the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization,” surely also a link to the recent calls for a “New Evangelization.” Evangelization has long been tied to Catholic understandings of family. Parents are deemed the original source of Christian evangelization and witness for their children, and thus the family is assumed to be at the center of any kind of broader evangelization that happens. It makes sense, then, that family becomes a central topic of conversation for bishops in relation to what it means to be church in the contemporary world. That said, in this brief discussion, I raise a tension in the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family. On the one hand, it seems to raise up the nuclear family as a kind of idol. On the other hand, it discusses several forms of singleness that present a more expanded and open view of the family.

Inclusive pages
15-23
ISBN/ISSN
2166-2851
Document Version
Published Version
Comments

This document has been made available for download by permission of the publisher.

Permission documentation on file.

Publisher
Mount St. Mary's University
Place of Publication
Emmitsburg, MD
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Citation Information
Jana Marguerite Bennett. "New Evangelization, New Families, and New Singles" Journal of Moral Theology Vol. 5 Iss. 2 (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jana_bennett/11/