With the April 2016 release of the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Bishop Michael J. Sis said the best way of ensuring Pope Francis’ words are heeded is to further develop the Church’s marriage formation and marriage support programs.

The pope’s exhortation focuses on love in marriage and family. The document is the fruit of two worldwide consultative events called Synods of Bishops, in Rome, October 2014 and October 2015. The synods included questionnaires completed by Catholics around the world.

This work is based in human experience, the Bible, and almost 2,000 years of Church teachings. It cites the writings of Francis’ predecessors, particularly Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, and also draws on Francis’ own previous writings as bishop and pope.

“ Amoris Laetitia is a very positive work which seeks to make marriage more desirable and attractive. It presents the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and family,” Bishop Sis said. “It offers a perspective of hope and compassion, filled with concrete reminders of the beauty of family life. It encourages couples to trust in the grace of God for living out their marriage.”

At a news conference introducing the exhortation to the people of the Diocese of San Angelo, the bishop was joined by Tom Burke, a canon lawyer who serves on the diocese’s marriage tribunal, and Dave and Linda Erickson, leaders with the diocese’s Engaged Encounter married preparation program.

Bishop Sis said both personal economics and culture play a role in what he called a reduced number of couples marrying in the Church today.

“I ask people to consider marrying in the Church today,” he said. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money. It can be a very simple ceremony. The key is preparing well, getting to know your partner well and inviting God in from the very beginning.”

Pope Francis used part of his exhortation to write about how technology and social media can and often does serve as an impediment to family relations. Bishop Sis said that while cell phones and other forms of new technology can connect us all more easily, they can also serve as a method of disconnecting from others right next to us.

“My recommendation is, with a tool like a computer or a cell phone, use it to connect rather than to disconnect,” Bishop Sis said. “When I was in college, I hardly ever talked to my parents because I was a thousand miles away and long distance phone calls were expensive. Today’s college students talk to their parents all the time through text messages, Snapchat and email. The electronic media can become a means of communicating and networking even better rather than being an obstacle. We just have to use the tool in the proper way. The pope discusses this when he writes of people sitting at a dinner table all talking on their cell phones and not to one another. He also talks about a couple where one of the spouses late at night is engaged in video games or on their computer as the other one falls asleep alone and the painfulness of that. We know that gadgets can get in the way of relationships. We also know a lot of beautiful ways they can build relationships.”