STEPHAN PFURTNER'S DISPUTED '12 THESES' ON SEXUAL MORALITY:
position of the church has been regarding the death the 1974 Catholic Almanac, Our Sunday Visitor), ex- penalty or taking lives in wartime. plicitly provide for this....
...This belongs to its complete development harmony and personal maturity...
...Acting as it did above the heads Frings at the Vatican Council...
...Infallibility is an attribute that can- doctrine...
...The In addition, the question can be raised whether it is responsible ecclesiastical authorities continually violate at all possible today to speak of orthodox doctrine in a basic human and personality rights...
...One Swiss context, however, the Pfurtner controversy ac- wonders too why the Faith Congregation has not been quires an international dimension because it illustrates called into question with greater intensity and greater in a highly revealing manner to what lengths the Sacred demands for norms, guidelines and jurisdiction...
...When necessary and after "All this talk of the Ten Commandments in regard prior consultation with concerned bishops, [the Faith to sexual behavior is misleading...
...However, both must be taken into account...
...It was on the strength of this Kon- mailboxes were stuffed with anti-Jesuit propaganda sponvention that the order was able to impose restrictions sored by right-wing groups, citing the PfUrtner case as on Pfurtner, over the heads of the university senate "proof" of Roman interference...
...freedom...
...mons and lectures under censorship...
...They must be sustained by the explicit 12...
...One who lives only for the sake of only be employed in those instances where sexual sensuality is unable to serve, unable to stand firm...
...straint and even frustration to an appropriate de10...
...They didn't dare go so far as to traditional Catholic views on sex...
...Human sexuality is replete with psychic and gree...
...not be allotted to any mere human authority...
...threatens these can it be regarded as a source of Pfurtner first learned of the investigation when all danger...
...This of course I dismiss him for fear that such a step would reawaken could not do...
...open to the larger values and to partnership...
...Commonweal: 453...
...If sexual behavior interferes with lasting and Father Aniceto Fernandez, O.P., Dominican superi- human happiness, it becomes immoral...
...The Faith Congre- 4. Sexuality should be primarily regarded as an gation immediately began a secret "extraordinary opportunity toward happiness, for the fulfillment and investigation" of the Pfurtner case completely without liberation of human life...
...Italics added...
...It was only by a narrow margin that the a Konvention (treaty) signed in November 15, 1889, Jesuit-ban dating back to 1848, was defeated and the gives the Dominican order special privileges including Jesuit community could shed its parolee status...
...stances in each case, should be invoked in the in- the propagation of the human race, in social creativterest of the specific happiness of the life of the ity...
...But man's capacity for pleasure aind gratificafunctional implications for individual and society...
...In the evaluation, whether on the right or on the left...
...and in person who is involved...
...Some university, he might never have had to leave, for pro- Swiss textbooks still describe the Jesuits as a kind of fessors like Hans Kung at the University of Tiibingen, ecclesiastical CIA...
...The right graced relative enters through the back door...
...behavior norms seriously threaten the lasting hap- One should be trained with the capacity for repiness of young people...
...gratification and emotional bliss, especially by com6. Whenever sexual activity involves the lives of plementary partnership as a means of personal libothers, one must take their happiness just as much eration and maturation...
...In fact, the Pfurtner controversy alfor example, enjoy life tenure and are completely im- most became a decisive factor in the plebiscite held in mune from Rome...
...Man and his happiness may not be subjugated It had the impact of a bombshell in the conservative to them...
...if it is to be effective...
...of man as well as his culture and capacity for so7. Sexuality by its very nature has social impli- cialization...
...Only to the extent that it his knowledge...
...same token, if moral injunctions hinder this, then Pfurtner was sent on a two-year "leave of absence" they become invalid...
...They do not exist for their own Pfurtner gave his first public lecture on sexual morality...
...He interferes with man's psychological cations...
...in games and festive or ritual events...
...En- realization of existence...
...The right to appeal, judicial representation, must be left up to the couple themselves...
...tion and love may not thereby be laid waste, but They are manifest in love partnerships, in the crea- must be released again and again, expanded, but tion of larger communities, in the awakening of in the final analysis subordinated to the capacity to We-consciousness, in the formation of families, in love...
...Whether or when a Catholic couple may engage after giving the authors the opportunity to defend themin sexual intercourse before marriage is a matter that selves...
...In a coun- to sexual happiness is a part of this basic human try that stubbornly withholds membership in the UN, right...
...Sexual capacity wherever it is involved, are thereby continually to for pleasure is a human value...
...old fears of Catholic interference in secular affairs in a Had Pfurtner been attached to some other European country with considerable religious intolerance...
...sake...
...In addition, there is the strong procedure at all times...
...give them legitimate scope for play and experimen- For one's individuation, for the I-consciousness as tation...
...kindled with a boundless sense of moral outrage, reac- 3. The decisive factor justifying a particular histionary Bishop Mamie lost no time at all in bringing torical behavior or a specific form of sexual moralthe matter personally to the attention of Pope Paul VI, ity is the extent to which they contribute to men's Franjo Cardinal Seper, head of the Faith Congregation, happiness...
...As TV moderator Volken, above, indicated, constitution...
...The concerns of society, 11...
...theological landscape congested with every conceivable Of course we have heard all this before...
...be brought into dynamic relation with the other 8. But society does not have the right to inter- psychic elements in human life as well as the deeper vene in the sexual freedom of adults, as long as they psychic reality of sexuality itself...
...All regulations con- Congregation] examines books on doctrinal matters and cerning sexuality have been invented by a human so- can reprove such works, if the contents so warrant, ciety...
...During veto rights on all appointees to the theological faculty, the height of the Pfurtner controversy, thousands of and is still in force...
...to him...
...Rather, reason and love, sentative in his behalf, even though official releases with particular attention to the specific circumdescribing the work of the congregation (as quoted in 23 Augsut 1974: 452 trols, commissions and regulations assure democratic and canton of Fribourg...
...Most of doctrinal variation, contradiction, interpretation and PfUrtner's views are hardly new or sensational...
...The supreme moral commandby his order, which also slapped all his writings, ser- ment is: let love and reason rule...
...Happiness presupposes the fulfillment of life that gave women the franchise only two years ago, the and signifies a completely good and successful Pfurtner case overnight became a cause celebre...
...Sensuality alone may not be the determining intention for the emancipation of young people and principle for the genuine development of sexuality...
...They become irresponsible if they merely well as the social consciousness of the individual, serve to inculcate a false dependence on parents, a relationship with reality is necessary, the willingeducators, or society...
...1. All commandments and institutions exist for The controversy began in 1971, when Professor the sake of man...
...bond of tradition that gives Fribourg University a special It is true that the Swiss bishops in a series of talks status as "the" Catholic University of Switzerland and, with Pfurtner did make serious overtures at reconcilia- before the Council, one of the great theological centers tion...
...climate of Swiss Catholicism, where renewal like a dis- 2. All men have a right to be happy...
...But the Fribourg University is a 1973 on the anti-Jesuit clause in Switzerland's federal special case...
...Gratification at criminates against sexuality blocks the humanization others' expense is immoral...
...Its heavy-handed interference with the affairs of a foreign state, at the en- Disputed '12 Theses' couragement and behest of the Dominican order and On Sexual Morality Bishop Pierre Mamie of Geneva-Lausanne and Fribourg, can only be condemned as moral extortion...
...position of the church has been regarding the death the 1974 Catholic Almanac, Our Sunday Visitor), expenalty or taking lives in wartime...
...and the consultation of their proper regional conference "The pope and the bishops are nothing else than sim- of bishops, are assured to persons accused of unorthodox ple human beings...
...conclusions had been reached and a formal condemna- 5. In tension areas or cases of conflict between tion of his views was issued to him...
...By the or general...
...They must remain do not create social harm through their activity...
...Interdictive measures may ness to give...
...What safeguards if any of the Swiss university authorities in driving Pfurtner exist against abuse or arbitrary decisions, and what conto a "voluntary" resignation, the Congregation resorted to methods that presumably evaporated with the supposed disappearance of its notorious predecessor, the Stephen Plurtner's Holy Office of the Inquisition...
...He was asked categorically to recant his views The Swiss bishops of course breathed a sigh of relief and promise in the future to stay within the scope of when Pfurtner resigned...
...Nar9. Educational measures and social regulations cissism and autoeroticism are forms of sexual imregarding youth are good to the extent that they maturity, in extreme cases even signs of sexual leave open the way to a responsible exercise of pathology...
...But in the end there was only one course open of Europe...
...Gratification is nothing evil...
...Not a single outside accepted norms and individual needs and requiretheologian was called in for consultation, nor was Pfurt- ments, neither the former nor the latter should be ner ever invited to defend himself or to send a repre- the determining factor...
...Whoever therefore disinto consideration as one's own...
...What Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will go to ever happened to the reforms proposed by Josef Cardinal protect its interests...
Vol. 100 • August 1974 • No. 19
