CORRESPONDENCE
CORRESPONDENCE Sexual Ethics Collegeville, Minn. To the Editors: In his article, "The Vatican on Sex" [Feb. 27], Daniel C. Maguire quotes Pope Paul's address to a group of theologians in Rome in...
...A return to the Summa would show Fr...
...witness this very philippic-itself a Ciceronean praetermissio more opposite than apposite...
...JULIAN MCDONNELL, OSB President, Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research Jacksonville, Fla...
...The Pope's essential reliance is on the theology of the "assistance...
...The acta of Vatican I show the contradictory understandings of "assistance" which appear unredeemed in Pope Paul's 1966 address [See two of my studies which addressed the historical usage and assumptions relative to this category: "Moral Inquiry and Religious Assent" in Contraception...
...I find in his subjectivity some tolerance for that disavowed "licentious hedonism...
...EDWIN KENNEBECK Reply Milwaukee, Wise...
...Theology , provides much that is convenient and useful {magnum commodum utilitatemque) for the magisterium...
...27], Daniel C. Maguire quotes Pope Paul's address to a group of theologians in Rome in October, 1966, in which he says that the magisterium could teach and protect the faith without the help of theologians (absque sacrae theologiae auxl-Uo), relying on the assistance of the Holy Spirit Popes, too, have the right to be quoted in context...
...restates abstract, general, objective norms briefly, is not an Ethics Compendium...
...As to Thomas' practical conclusions in sexual ethics, a devout Thomist is no more bound to them than he is to Thomas' conclusions regarding interest-taking on loans It is Thomas' ethical theory that gives him perennial importance...
...Of course, it is now, when the very banallzation of sex is stimulating a hunger for humanizing wisdom, that the opportunity for service was missed...
...Should one now say "Mirror, mirror on the wall" or "Monkey see, monkey do...
...Moreover, I invite Dr...
...Paul, facing a complex of situations similar to those faced by the Vatican today, apodic-tically listed active homosexuals among those who cannot possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor...
...They are more unprofitable yet if they purport to be beyond the critique of theological hermeneutics...
...When St...
...In pastoral application norms, vision, and sympathy are indicated...
...See M. Sechler, "Die Theologie Als Kirchliche Wissenschaft Nach Pius XII and Paul VI," Tubinger Theologische Quartalschnft 149 (1969), pp...
...Meanwhile some critics are too much like an angry cattleman with rusty pitchfork repelling imagined attack on his steer stall, itself only halfbuilt and on sand foundation, with a couple of disconnected stanchions, and as yet roofless...
...Maguire conveniently fails to animadvert that the concern is not with what makes an action intrinsically good, but with what circumstances can render it evil: Unde si aliquid desit quod requiratur ad de-bitas circumstantias, erit actio mala {Summa Theologica I II, qu...
...Ibid., p 892...
...or if they do not know that they are doing theology when they are doing it...
...Authority and Dissent, ed...
...Maguire made but half-hearted appeal to the Bible on the question of homosexuality, to be sure, but let us at least honor his appeal and send him there...
...it is nonetheless well that the Church betimes come forth with a definite list of "Nays" in the spectrum...
...27 Maguire "satire," "The Vatican on Sex," I sensed at once the contentious tone condemning with faint praise...
...13], an expression for which I am unable lexicographically or by imagination to discern an orthodox meaning, Dr...
...893, 894, 896...
...Maguire to demonstrate a single example in which the Vatican's sexual ethic differs from that of St...
...New York, N.Y...
...presently saw words like "uni-versalizability" and "fundamentalis-tically" as apt echoes in an over-all hollowness...
...REV...
...C. E. Curran (Wash., D.C, 1968).] The Reverend Patrick Henry Rear-don says that St...
...In the interests of that ecumenical cross-fertilization to which he appeals early in the article, may this Anglican and former professor at an Episcopal seminary proffer modestly the following observations...
...C. E. Curran (New York, 1969), and, "Moral Absolutes and the Magisterium," in Absolutes in Moral Theology?, ed...
...Daniel C. Maguire more recently added four pages [Feb...
...There is of course imposed no moratorium on discussion...
...Reardon that the announced concern of the very article he cites is "Whether man's action is good or evil from its circumstances" Thomas' important conclusion is that "human actions are, according to their circumstances, good or evil...
...The direction of the Pope's remarks was the contrary to what Daniel Maguire indicated and the Pope rather acknowledged the dependence of the magisterium on the work of theologians...
...Thomas, in the Summa Theologica I II q. 18, a. 3, is not concerned with what makes an action "intrinsically good" (a term I would not find useful) "but with what circumstances can render it evil...
...Then behold, under Item 5, he cavalierly makes the Vatican a habitue of that same singles' bar...
...To the Editors: Many thanks to Daniel C. Maguire, of my alma mater Mar-quette University, for his gentle job of answering back to the Vatican's Declaration on Sexual Ethics [Feb...
...There is, today, I believe, a discernible renaissance of interest in Thomas' ethical theory...
...rev...
...Without this help, the magistenum's task of teaching would be quite difficult (magna cum difficult ate), but not impossible...
...Neither in the Bible nor anywhere in the classical tradition of Catholicism can one find moral justification for homosexual activity, and Dr...
...27] to the extensive criticism already received by the Vatican's new statement on sexual ethics...
...Thus he hopes to show that the Pope said something other than I indicated...
...Pope Paul told the International Congress on the Theology of Vatican II: "Without the help of theology, the magisterium could indeed safeguard and teach the faith, but it would experience great difficulty in acquiring that profound and full measure of knowledge which it needs to perform its task thoroughly, for it considers itself to be endowed not with the charism of revelation or inspiration, but only with that of the assistance of the Holy Spirit .. . "Deprived of the labor of theology, the magisterium would lack the tools it needs to weld the Christian community into a unified concert of thought and action, as it must do for the Church to be a community which lives and thinks according to the precepts and norms of Christ...
...Kilian McDonnell, OSB, wants to provide the actual context of Pope Paul's address to a group of theologians in Rome in October, 1966...
...However, Fr...
...PATRICK HENRY REARDON Collegeville, Ind...
...If this renaissance reaches into what can be accurately called "Vatican theology," we will be spared future disappointments such as Humanae Vitae and the Declaration on Sexual Ethics...
...REV...
...This papal position is, I submit, heavy with problems Teaching and defending the faith is a theological enterprise Even the New Testament writers were theologizing as they taught and defended the faith...
...there is little call here for long treatise on the patent, never overlooked fact that circumstances do affect the morality of each human act, with cultural variations also having some bearing...
...it could, however, fulfill it...
...Ibid., p 893], The magisterium could do this by "the chansm of the assistance of the Holy Spirit," because it represents the person of Jesus the Teacher and is his quasi-mstrument...
...DANIEL C. MAGUIRE...
...Although this theology has never been adequately developed, it is used in Vatican documents as though it were in peaceful and nuanced possession...
...Without theology, it would be hard for the magisterium to fulfill its teaching role thoroughly (cumulate...
...209-232.] The Pope's point is clear if push comes to shove, the magisterium could both teach and defend the faith without the help of theology...
...Thomas for support that "human actions are good or evil according to circumstances," Dr...
...A careful study of all eleven articles of this question shows the significance of this often neglected and often abused part of the Summa...
...McDonnell, by merely adding a couple of sentences, does not provide the context of the Pope's remarks nor does he contradict my contention that the Pope says that theology is useful but not necessary for the hierarchical magisterium...
...Ibid., pp...
...Beneath objectivity he sees reprehensible harshness toward poor sinners...
...In his quiet way he shows, I think, why I was right in guessing that the Declaration was written by a bunch of well-educated, articulate maniacs...
...Well, professors may continue to write on the complex subject pertinently and impertinently...
...The further context is the recent papal conception of the nature of theology...
...But because M's approach is oblique, explication devious, and tone feisty, his content regrettably becomes rather frothy quoad his announced subject...
...Maguire knows this as well as I do...
...To the Editors: Fr...
...To the Editors Reading your featured Feb...
...stripped of all mystical and symbolic power...
...rufus h. esser, c.pp.s...
...The context of the papal remarks is what I cited in my article, the theologically undeveloped notion of the "assistance of the Holy Spirit...
...He quotes a Playboy Press publication to say that sexual liberation has not yet replaced the romantic-passionate concept of sex with a recreational one...
...One cannot theologize without theology...
...18, art...
...In progress I noted marginally several specious straw-men in Maguire's cantankerous ersatz of points the Vatican, he says, should have expounded...
...Both the magisterium of the hierarchy and the magisterium of the theologians are at their best unprofitable servants of the mysteries and the faith that they imperfectly explore...
...yet earlier he himself has affirmed this to be an age "when sex has moved from taboo to calisthenics, from mystery to banality...
...Thomas...
...6, 10), he abstracted completely from any question of circumstance or "meaning...
...In his petition to St...
...AAS, 58 (1966) p 893...
...To the Editors: Having of late employed th<: epistolary medium to introduce your readers to his ethical category of "post-personal" [Feb...
Vol. 103 • June 1976 • No. 12
