CONSENT WITHOUT ADVICE
Kovler, Peter Blum
. of Texas, their views itians could that leading nth leaders Catholic and litions. (In i aspects of he principal fself, were ches.) ColMichael No: most imsince Vatie, ...
...However, it will always be more difficult to find agreement on what positively should be done and on the strategy best suited to bring about change...
...However, even after using every possible means of discernment, the possibility of dissent will always exist in the area of specific moral teachings...
...Recall that the first articles in serious theological journals calling for a change in the teaching on artificial contraception appeared only in 1963...
...The doctrinal principles must be distinguished from the contingent historical aspects...
...In the past pluralism was recognized in social matters precisely because of the complexity of the questions involved and their distance from the core of faith...
...On the basis of official policy the Catholic Church is still opposed to artificial contraception even though most of its members disagree...
...However, those who argued against the acceptance of artificial contraception in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s recognized the more radical nature of the problem...
...But the condemnation of artificial contraception found in Humanae Vitae is wrong...
...An important corollary recognizes that the unity of the church should not be found on specific moral issues...
...Andrew Greeley and associates after studying sociological data have concluded that the encyclical was the primary cause of the alarming decline in Roman Catholic practice in the United States in the decade of 1963-1974...
...Such a situation is basically good, but there are dangers of harm and injustice to innocent people which call for some official guidelines...
...Undoubtedly there is a great deal of truth in the magnificent theory developed by Murray on the question of church and state and perhaps some truth in its application to artificial contraception...
...In 1930 Pope Pius XI sharply condemned artificial contraception in his encyclical Casti Connubii...
...Historical studies have indicated that the Catholic tradition recognized this reality, but it was not popularly understood or practically acknowledged especially in the context of the authoritarian Catholicism of the twentieth century...
...One must also raise the question of why such dissent can and should exist...
...This situation can only continue to harm the church...
...This modus vivendi seems to have provided a climate in which diversity exists without threatening the official teaching of the church...
...one could argue that it should continue in existence...
...Before 1968 most Roman Catholics calling for a change in the ban on artifical contraception for married couples (myself included) argued on the basis of development in the teaching by employing approaches similar to the one used so effectively by Murray...
...In the last decade many theologians have recognized that the hierarchical magisterium does not constitute the total magisterial activity of the church...
...Without such a notion of development, it seems safe to say that the Second Vatican Council would never have accepted the newer teaching on religious liberty...
...The bishops clearly recognize what is taking place in practice, but at the same time they continue to reiterate the older teaching...
...Another similar conciliating approach sees contraception as involving premoral, physical or ontic evil...
...There is definitely room for for God, but rather an article of peace according to which people of different religious beliefs can live together in society...
...One also wonders if Leo would recognize himself in Murray's reconstruction...
...From the perspective of the life of the church such approaches seem to be a way to preserve greater unity and peace in the church in the midst of very difficult times...
...the pope is in error...
...Specific moral questions do not involve a matter of divine faith...
...The unwillingness to admit legitimate dissent in the case of Hunumae Vitae underscores how difficult it will be to allow dissent in other areas...
...He advances the hypothesis that these authors consider noninfallible papal action in matters of faith to be an exercise of papal disciplinary power...
...Particular moral questions by their very nature involve a great degree of specificity...
...If one cannot be certain when death occurs, it seems logical that there is also a lack of certitude about the beginning of truly human life...
...Since they are not denying any point of divine and Catholic faith nor rejecting the teaching authority of the church, these Catholics should not be considered, or consider themselves, shut off from the body of the faithful...
...If this is true, the response owed to such teaching is not that of absolute obedience...
...All can agree on the basic virtues of attitudes that should characterize the Christian life, but their practical realization often involves the possibility of legitimate differences...
...The word magisterium was applied to the hierarchical teaching office only in the nineteenth century...
...Without this relational aspect there is physical or biological life but not truly human life...
...There are many things which smaller groups can band together to work for which the whole church as such cannot adopt...
...At times the whole church through the hierarchical teaching office should speak out on specific social questions, but with the realization that some Catholics may disagree...
...Here again a way is found to salvage some of the papal teaching...
...Some have given up the institutional church, many have decided they can be loyal Roman Catholics and use artificial contraception...
...One cannot discuss the question of abortion without deciding this very basic question...
...I still insist that there is a significant prophetic aspect s United States, of Roman Casuch particular an Council, the o went to Mass and did not use fficult to change h specific areas n never be the be found...
...Each of these has a creative service in the church...
...Note that our discussion has been limited to the possibility of dissent...
...Such a great historical development could hardly have occurred in such a short period of time...
...In the recent past the interpretation of hierarchical teaching on the part of Roman Catholic theologians avoided such strong statements...
...A modus vivendi seems to have been reached in matters of birth control, divorce and even homosexuality...
...Before the Second Vatican Council, the good Roman Catholic was the one who went to Mass on Sunday, did not eat meat on Friday and did not use artificial contraception...
...These particular questions can never be separated from faith, but we must recognize that faith is here mediated in and through many human realities...
...In the years preceding the Second Vatican Council, John Courtney Murray and other theologians developed a very significant historical hermeneutic to explain how in the twentieth century the Roman Catholic Church could accept the separation of church and state even though papal teaching before that time, especially under Pope Leo XIII in the nineteenth century had strongly condemned the separation of church and state...
...Take, for example, the approach of the Roman Catholic Church to the world population conference in Bucharest in 1974...
...However, there must always be room within the church for groups of Christians who are fighting for such causes...
...The church's hands are thus tied in trying to contribute positively to the problem of population growth...
...However, I continue to maintain that such approaches are inadequate and wrong...
...There are two ultimate theological reasons justifying the possibility of dissent...
...In the light of the Gospel and of human experience one can find a strong basis for a negative critique of the injustice, oppression, consumerism and exploitation in our modern world...
...From this perspective, the whole church must constantly speak out against the evils which are present in our world...
...However, here too, one must admit a pluralism within the church especially when it comes to particular strategies for bringing about social change...
...mscience can a teaching, icant number le interpretane can accept iome circumbeing totally sent from an However, he o understand is here probe effectively f situation in every social jle that only ;ht be underion in actual concrete reality...
...From the viewpoint of moral theology one could make a case for these and similar approaches...
...Pope Pius XII admitted that the traditional definition of death as the complete and final separation of the soul from the body lacks precision...
...Greeley attributes the decline in Roman Catholic practice in the United States to the encyclical...
...I have just sketched the ramifications for the church of the acceptance of the possibility of dissent from authoritative hierarchical teaching...
...Our lger remain pritruggle for freee live...
...Hence the church looks to the doctors, especially the anesthesiologists, to give a clear and precise meaning of death and the moment of death...
...The easy way out of the difficulty is to continue the present situation with the hierarchical teaching office still proclaiming its adherence to Humanae Vitae while in practice most of the members of the church disagree...
...Karl Rahner recognizes that one can dissent from an authoritative, noninfallible papal teaching...
...I feel quite sure that this theory was proposed in good faith by its adherents...
...However, the hierarchical church itself does not officially recognize nor does it accept such a situation...
...When does truly human life begin...
...Dupanloup made the distinction between thesis and hypothesis...
...Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the unity and distinctive characteristics of Roman Catholicism have often been found on such particular moral issues...
...I have publicly written and spoken against such a position...
...It is conceivable at least in principle that only later will the ideal which is now being taught be understood as having the force of moral obligation in actual :ial contraceps proposed in « who argued :eption in the ecognized the ntioned in the smmission on changing the t the previous stly recognize clearly than te teaching on t the previous e older teachno longer call [owever, there lation of artihat one could time accusing ?eotive it was pproach...
...However, the hierarchical teaching authority cannot say one thing in theory and tacitly acknowledge another in practice...
...The acceptance of the possibility of dissent within the Roman Catholic Church calls for a changed understanding at least in the minds of many Catholics of the role of the hierarchical magisterium...
...who used the theory of historical development to explain how the Catholic Church could change its teaching on artificial contraception...
...The hierarchical teaching office cannot have it both ways...
...The acceptance of such an understanding of the hierarchical magisterium involves the recognition that dissent can exist on more than one issue...
...In subsequent years, Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII often reiterated that teaching in less formal and solemn ways...
...However, he suggests that there might be another way to understand the teaching of Humanae Vitae...
...On a more general level one can and should find great certitude...
...A second reason justifying the possibility of dissent from specific moral teachings rests on epistemological grounds...
...Methodological approaches in moral theology have changed so that now it is admitted that specific moral norms must be seen in terms of protecting human meaning and values...
...One should not conclude that there is no role for the hierarchical magisterium in the church...
...Ten years later the mention of Humanae Vitae is most often greeted by disinterested looks and weary yawns...
...The state is only a part of society aod Commonweal: 425 not totally identified with it...
...Whether or not one should dissent from a particular hierarchical teaching rests with the decision of conscience after a thoughtful and prayerful reflection on the aspects involved...
...As mentioned in the so-called minority report of the papal commission on birth control the primary reason for not changing the teaching was the necessity of admitting that the previous teaching had been wrong...
...In one sense this pluralism is accepted by the hierarchical magisterium in matters of social morality, but it will now become even more evident in questions of personal morality...
...As a very first step the Catholic Church will have to learn to live with a greater pluralism on specific moral issues...
...Some French Catholic moral theologians have proposed that truly human life is not present until the fetus is accepted into a loving relationship...
...The teaching condemning artificial contraception is wrong...
...There will always be a tension between the prophetic aspect of the community and the freedom of the individual believer...
...On the tenth anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae there will be pressures for the bishops throughout the world to again renew their acceptance and commitment to this, particular teaching...
...but as one descends to the particular, the individual and the specific, the possibility of differing positions exists...
...Perhaps the present reaction is proper...
...In terms of more positive strategies for social change, a greater role must be given to smaller groups within the church...
...However, Catholic hospitals cannot do sterilizations which for all practical purposes are only female sterilizations, since male vasectomies are done in the doctor's office...
...In the nineteenth century, for example, Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans interpreted Pius EC's Syllabus of Errors in a way which ultimately met with papal approval and at the same time blunted the practical impact of the papal teaching...
...However, even in Murray's approach one must admit both continuity and discontinuity in the historical development...
...A critical, historical hermeneutic of past papal teaching proved that the newer understanding did not involve a contradiction of the older teaching...
...I in no way mean to impugn the integrity and honesty of those (myself included...
...HowI ever, it must be underlined that now it is impossible to discuss all of these specific issues...
...The doctrinal aspect of Leo's teaching recognizes the distinction between the two societies, the harmony and cooperation between them, and the primacy of the spiritual which calls for the freedom of the church...
...Many theologians have creatively employed this theory of premoral or ontic evil in other problem areas in Roman Catholic ethics...
...The on is wrong...
...There is no doubt that the model of the church proposed here will not be as prophetic as some people in the church think it should be...
...In the meantime, there have been a significant number of theologians who have tried to nuance the interpretation of Humanae Vitae in such a way that one can accept the morality of artificial contraception in some circumstances without accusing the encyclical of being totally wrong...
...Although achieving a kind of peace, the present situation also involves some glaring problems and inconsistencies which call for it to be changed...
...If the hierarchical magisterium can be wrong in noninfalHble matters (There has never been an infallible teaching on a specific moral question so it is not necessary here to enter into the debate over infallibility), then it follows that the hierarchical magisterium cannot be the only way in which the church teaches...
...From the ecclesiological perspective we must face the more radical question of the existence of papal error and of the possibility of dissent...
...Although official teaching has not changed on any of these issues, in actuality the church has changed, for many people acting contrary to official teaching fully participate in its life...
...Fifth, in the eyes of many Roman Catholics there must be important institutional changes in the church...
...At the very least, the papal magisterium was wrong in not correcting the teaching once the historical situation had changed or in not recognizing the situations in which it did not apply...
...We all occasionally succumb to the temptation of insisting on pluralism or prophecy depending on where we stand on the particular issue...
...Peace and justice are both very significant Christian attitudes, but sometimes for the sake of justice, violence can be acceptable...
...However, ithin the church r strategies for it of the Gospel strong basis for pression, consuivorld...
...At the very least they need to acknowledge publicly the legitimacy of dissent on this question and the ramification of dissent in the entire life of the church...
...I am willing to recognize there will always be gaps between promise and performance in the Christian life for all of us...
...In practice it seems that the present situation fits .the theory described above...
...The principles enunciated by Pope Leo XIII can and should be separated from the historical circumstances...
...The pope is here proposing an ideal norm which cannot always be effectively realized in all its moral obligations in every situation in human life or by every individual or by every social group...
...I would like to add my reflections on the encylical and the church from a theological perspective...
...Today this consistency is sometimes threatened in the area of social ethics...
...I do not think that contraception violates an ideal...
...nor does it involve premoral or ontic evil...
...There is no doubt that many people in the Catholic Church today disagree in theory and in practice with hierarchical church teachings on a number of specific moral issues...
...The pope condemned all these errors in thesis...
...A number of Catholic hospitals today feel that their continued existence is placed in jeopardy because of their inability to do direct sterilizations...
...Consequently, Roman Catholics could disagree on other specific teachings and not be cut off from the body of the faithful...
...Humanae Vitae is important because for the first time in recent history it has been widely proposed and accepted that one can dissent from authoritative, noninfallible hierarchical teaching and still be a loyal Roman Catholic...
...I am not a pacifist nor a supporter of unilateral nuclear disarmament under the present historical circumstances...
...However, I strongly insist that the present situation should not continue...
...The statement of the Canadian bishops espouses a general principle which applies to other questions...
...A recent doctoral dissertation of Michael Place studies the teaching of four significant Italian theologians in the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries about the nature of papal solicitude in matters of faith and morals...
...Both theoretically and practically, our ethical concerns in the Catholic Church have too often forgotten about the social aspect of morality...
...It is not enough merely to study the historical development of ecclesiology to show that the Catholic tradition acknowledges the possibility of dissent from authoritative, noninfallible papal teaching...
...All would agree that the response to disciplinary regulations admits of some exceptions and the possibility of acting in a different manner...
...Murray thus explained how it was possible for Roman Catholicism to reject the separation of church and state in the nineteenth century and accept it in the middle of the twentieth century...
...Catholic theology has recognized there exists a hierarchy of truths and has carefully attempted to distinguish various truths and how they relate to the central core of faith...
...norms are not found in the very structure of faculties...
...How does this theory correspond with the present reality...
...Yes, there are many advantages to the present situation...
...Such a situation cannot and should not continue for too long a period of time...
...Honesty demands as a minimum that they not do this without at the same time officially recognizing the possibility of dissent from such a teaching...
...I merely want to recognize that the possibility of dissent can exist in these areas...
...The greater the particularity and specificity, the more difficult it is to claim for one's solution a certitude that Commonweal: 427 excludes the possibility of error...
...The present situation in which the official teaching and the accepted practice are different cannot continue...
...Once Humanae Vitae was issued and the older teaching reaffirmed, those opposed to it could no longer call upon a theory of historical development...
...Sometimes the contradiction between the level of official teaching and the actual practice will surface...
...For a proportionate reason contraception can be morally good...
...Contemporary political and liberation theologies rightly show the need for church involvement in overcoming all forms of oppression and injustice...
...But in hypothesis or what might be called the actual historical order, many things may be tolerated to avoid greater evils...
...Likewise, there has been some development in the teaching of the Catholic Church on procreation and marital relations...
...There is definitely room for religion in society...
...All can agree on the need to respect human life, but the Catholic tradition recognizes that in the practical question of capital punishment there can be different positions within the Catholic community...
...But I cannot say that those who hold such an opinion are outside the church of Jesus Christ...
...If the hierarchical church refuses to change here, there will probably be no change on the other issues...
...Even from a pragmatic and practical viewpoint, the contemporary church must address the question of dissent...
...However, there were ways in which the encyclical's condemnation of artificial contraception could be interpreted so that one could mitigate its teaching without at the same time accusing the pope of being in error...
...In the name of the whole church the hierarchical magisterium at times must speak out...
...One must honestly recognize that "the conservatives" saw much more clearly than "the liberals" of the day that a change in the teaching on artificial contraception had to recognize that the previous teaching was wrong...
...When Pope Paul VI officially released his encyclical Humanae Vitae on July 29, 1968, there was a furor in the Catholic world...
...However, the way in which the papal and episcopal teaching offices carry out their function must take account of the changed understanding...
...Various opinion polls report this understanding of the contemporary situation...
...A theory of development and continuity faced very great difficulties in attempting to explain a possible change in the teaching on artificial contraception...
...Catholic moral theologians distinguished between real death and apparent death...
...Theologians have been further investigating the theological and historical aspect of magisteria...
...A vexing problem has arisen for Catholic hospitals...
...In responding to Humanae Vitae the Canadian bishops acknowledged that some Catholics had difficulty in appropriating the teaching condemning artificial birth control...
...Second, the continuance of the present situation ultiCommonweal: 429 mately damages the credibility of the church and of the hierarchical teaching office...
...could dissent in theory and practice from such a teaching...
...In a sense Humanae Vitae has become symbolic...
...Catholic people have long since made up their minds about Humanae Vitae...
...Today I am proposing the same reasons exist for the insistence on a greater pluralism even in questions of personal morality...
...On the question of artificial contraception, the pope and bishops must be willing to publicly admit that the previous teaching is wrong...
...There phetic aspect of : individual bethe temptation depending on prophetic aspect to the church...
...that is, in what roughly corresponds to the ideal order...
...The liberalistic notion of separation of church and state should have been condemned, but in contemporary democracies the separation of church and state is in accord with Leo's principles...
...There are many magisteria in the church—papal and episcopal magisteria, the authentic magisterium of the laity and the magisterium of theologians...
...For many reasons we all want the church to be prophetic, but we must understand this in terms of a broader ecclesiology...
...Many Catholics decide, often with the advice of a priest, to remarry and to continue celebrating the sacraments of the church...
...Catholics in good conscience can dissent in theory and in practice from such a teaching...
...Our theology and our church life can no longer remain privatized and divorced from the human struggle for freedom and justice in the world in which we live...
...Third, at the very least the present situation does not seem to be honest...
...Many Catholics do become sterilized —often with the advice and encouragement of a priest and continue to be loyal Catholics...
...Issues such as divorce and remarriage, women priests, and clerical celibacy call for change...
...Above all, the hierarchical magisterium must use all available means to discern the call of the Spirit and to recognize that it must have the courage at times to admit that past teachings were wrong...
...First, specific moral teachings are not that intimately connected with faith...
...Leo XIII condemned the separation of church and state based on continental liberalism which maintained there was no room for religion in society...
...Contraception thus always involves evil, but such evil is not always moral evil...
...My own response is quite conservative— truly human life begins two to three weeks after conception...
...Fourth, in the present situation the role of institutional structures and of the hierarchical office is being steadily eroded...
...but some strongly defend the encyclical and view it as the touchstone of Roman Catholic orthodoxy both in theory and in practice...
...The ethical directives for Catholic hospitals prohibit any direct sterilization...
...Here it is necessary to point out the importance of a negative critique as a form of prophecy...
...The twentieth century American scene was different...
...According to Yves Congar, before the nineteenth century the word magisterium never signified what twentieth century Catholic theology called the magisterium—that is, the teaching office of the pope and bishops...
...It will be very difficult to change these long ingrained attitudes, but such specific areas so removed from the core of faith can never be the place where the unity of the church is to be found...
...the hierarchical it and a greater ral matters must r is sometimes oth theoretically in the Catholic t the social asil and liberation rch involvement id injustice...
...From my perspective it was imperative then to take the more radical approach...
...The First Amendment to the Constitution is not totally identified with it...
...The passage of ten years furnishes an opportunity to reflect on the encyclical and its effect on the life of the Catholic Church...
...Apparently some Catholics have seen the refusal of the hierarchical magisterium to change its teaching on artificial contraception as a sign that the church is not mediating the word and work of Jesus in our time...
...In this way one can account for both the truth of the teaching and the actual practice of many Roman Catholics...
...There is a proper place and a need for the hierarchical office to regulate aspects in the life of the church, but today many things are developing outside and beyond the official structure...
...However, to continue this situation will merely create greater problems for the hierarchical church and its credibility in the eyes of the faithful and of the world...
...For one who accepts such a view of the hierarchical teaching office, the possibility of dissent and a greater pluralism in the church on specific moral matters must be consistent...
...It is interesting to recall that Catholic moral theology in the 1950s recognized that one could not be absolutely certain when death occurs...
...In this light the official teaching on questions such as contraception, sterilization, abortion, sexuality, euthanasia, divorce and the principle of double effect has been challenged...
...However, eement on what e strategy best the church prosome people in any reasons we we must underesiology...
...From the very first reaction to the encyclical, I was among those who insisted that the basic teaching condemning all artificial contraception for married couples was wrong and that a Roman Catholic father CHARLES E. CURRAN if Professor of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington...
...At least the later popes were wrong in reiterating the condemnation...
...An acceptance of the possibility of dissent calls for significant changes in the understanding of the church...
...ColMichael No: most imsince Vatie, although less ambits way just ie Congress lied a conorganizations he Bishops' y, the first part of the ng its secreended to be rhe bishops s of the lay cations were >ps directly :rns of the hrough letconferences inherent in he problem oviding the ucation beity, between >ns, between nd the laity and clergy, e institution rfic Church, lin church, institution, on the one i to fullness '47) TEN YEARS LATER CHARLES E. CURRAN Reflections on the anniversary of 'Humanae Vitae' What a difference ten years makes...
...Even before Humanae Vitae, Daniel Maguire perceptively insisted that the word "magisterium" has a plural...
...I insist that such a theory is wrong for many reasons...
...There are some significant moral truths in Humanae Vitae...
...Likewise, there will always be tension between teaching the way of the Lord and at the same time showing mercy to those who are not able to fully respond to this teaching...
...Take, for example, the question of remarriage after divorce...
...Many theologians rightly deny the existence of moral absolutes when the forbidden behavior is defined solely in terms of the physical structure of the act...
...Such a theory of development could be much more easily and readily accepted by the church than a theory which acknowledged that the previous teaching was wrong...
...In my judgment both of these approaches still give too much importance to the physical aspect of the act and see the physical as normative...
...Real death might not occur for a number of hours after apparent death especially when death results from a sudden accident...
...Moral theology today recognizes the danger of physicalism or of identifying the human moral act with the physical structure of the act...
Vol. 105 • July 1978 • No. 13
