Pope Francis is beloved by many because he locates the heart of Christian faith in justice and care for the most vulnerable, including the very poor and the earth itself. Both in his actions and his public statements, his focus on social justice has been extraordinarily consistent and powerful. Yet he chose to utilize a synod of bishops to bring attention not to poverty or environmental destruction but to the family. The he followed up with an authoritative document of his own, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love). Why is the social justice pope so concerned with families? How does he connect love and justice? Can this pope's vision of marriage and family connect with new generations of Christians?
Julie Hanlon Rubio
Julie Hanlon Rubio is Professor of Christian Ethics in the Department of Theological Studies at St. Louis University. Her research brings the resrouces of Catholic social thought, moral theology, and social science to contemporary discussions of marriage, family, sex, and gender. She is the author of three books: A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family (Paulist 2003), Family Ethics: Practices for Christians (Georgetown 2010) and, most recently, Hope for Common Ground: Mediating the Personal and the Political in a Divided Church (Georgetown 2016). She is a board member of National Catholic Reporter and the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education. Her current project is on feminist theology and the family.