'Veritatis splendor':
Smith, Janet E. & Cahill, LisaSowle & Hauerwas, Stanley & Patrick, Anne E. & Cunningham, Lawrence S. & Komonchak, Joseph A. & Doyle, Dennis M. & Curran, Charles E.
VERITATIS SPLENDOR LAWRENCE S. CUNNINGHAM • JOSEPH A. KOMONCHAK DENNIS M. DOYLE • CHARLES E. CURRAN • JANET E. SMITH ...
...The real question remains the old one-what is moral truth...
...They laud the church's conly developed since...
...How bishops and Stanley Hauerwas is professor of theological ethics at the moral theologians respond will be crucial...
...As a "dissenter," I see myself as serving the ecclesial community through disCharles E. Curran agreements on some matters that are not core to faith...
...Indeed, the forest gods do not devour the mod- for life on this planet, we should proceed with energy, cauemizers on the spot, as ancient stories had threatened, and peo- tion, and trust in God...
...they frame my response...
...am grateful...
...cessor of Peter, though not the solemn ex cathedra Like Pius XII's document, the new encyclical describes vague infallibility of his office, has spoken his mind about tendencies, but names no names (an old Roman practice...
...tell if the theological worldview informing this encyclical will To judge from prepublication publicity, there is a good stand the test of the future and be received in the church in the chance that Veritatis splendor will fall far short of what cerway that John Paul clearly intends...
...John Paul encyclical on morality, was issued in Rome on II generally uses the personal pronoun "I" (little of the Olympian October 5 (Origins, October 14, 1993...
...we asked that behavior...
...As the encyclical recognizes, we live in cutting wood from sacred groves, but unable to a time of crisis...
...If we do, Anne E. Patrick the encyclical gives reason to hope that large-scale withdrawal of mandates to teach and designations of "Catholic" will not occur...
...was condemned in Humani generis, even though it was near- Few of us like to have to answer hard questions, and patience ly universally believed that he was one of its chief targets, not and docility are not the most common of virtues...
...Alexander Morgan Capron & Vicki Michei Against that alternative, John Paul reminds us that Christians CONSIDER THE DUTCH believe that we are part of a created order that is teleological- Carlos F. Comez ly shaped to glorify God...
...Even the Congregation for the Doctrine of the more broadly consultative manner to express the faith of the Faith in its document on dissent ("The Ecclesial Vocation of church, if he would take more seriously the experience of evthe Theologian," 1990) acknowledged that theologians at eryday believers, and if he would explain more fully his point times have legitimate disagreements and that authentic doc- about "recognizing the possible limitations of the human artrinal development can occur (and has occurred) through such guments employed by the magisterium" (111), more people disputes...
...religious faith or church teaching alone, motivates the Roman Veritatis splendor strives to show the links between the love Catholic church's advocacy on a number of social issues, exof Christ, the Ten Commandments, human dignity, natural law, tending at least as far back as the first modern papal social enauthentic human freedom, right use of conscience, and human cyclical, Rerum novarum (1891...
...Paul publicly rebuked Peter in the early church...
...moral theologians...
...Much energy seems to be put largely in the ser- away from difficult and divisive decisions about the morally vice of arguing that there should be no absolute prohibitions best action or policy...
...We must use our human free- text, both to maintain the connection between the moral life dom to make the choice to follow the truth rather than to in- and religious commitment, and to assert the authority of the vent truths more to our liking...
...They oblige each and every individual, always and abortion, artificial contraception, homosexual acts, euthana- in every circumstance...
...0 individualism...
...Moreover, the human body itself is a valid point of refing societies and individuals today...
...If, however, a Catholic, ers to subjectivism and moral relativism, and used it as the founafter a serious attempt to conform his or her mind and will to dation for reestablishing human understanding and knowing in a teaching, is unable to do so, what occurs is a legitimate dis- a manner that addresses the concerns of the modem mind...
...0 ger that there will be people, both in Rome and among those Lawrence S. Cunningham, a regular contributor to Com- who wish to be more Roman than Rome, who will be eager monweal, chairs the department of theology at the University to supply the names the pope does not name, so that, for exof Notre Dame...
...That he has done so is a of faith, and certainly not by the goodness of intention alone great gift not only to Roman Catholics but I hope to all Chris(112...
...or importance...
...o theological reflection ought to take place: in this case, that the The Rev...
...He is the author of The Church Emerging from Vatican sition to church teaching...
...The 179- "we" here) in addressing himself to the bishops, both to warn page document has apparently gone through sev- about unacceptable moral theories and to urge vigilance over eral drafts in the six years since it was first those who propose them...
...New York...
...church, listen respectfully and work out the consequences to- Other examples of defensive caricature include the descripgether...
...In his book, Magisterium (Paulist, 1983), he the human subject's capacities and responsibilities...
...of Christ Be Emptied of Its Power...
...mean that there are no objective criteria of right and wrong...
...I also concur that there truly are things that are immoral ficially endorsed option...
...There may well be bishops in the counannounced, but contains none of the bombshells promised by try who will know how to invigilate those who do write, but early headlines...
...comes to negative precepts identified by the church as invioI foresee the biggest source of tension in the reception of lable...
...Meanwhile rationalists call bates about Gentiles and the Law, and subsequent crises octhe ancient wisdom nonsense and "prove" with their axes that casioned by Aristotelianism and by modern science, philosophy, "nothing bad will happen" to those who take the conveniently and historical consciousness...
...Human nature is so "affected by sin" and "[o]nly Christian tians struggling to discern how we are to live in this strange faith points out to man the way...
...In a dream, Peter is hungry and be instructive where the natural law tradition is concerned...
...How characterize this encyclical...
...of the population do not seem to know right from wrong, and If I read the document correctly, the pope is not exactly ofthat a moral relativism undergirds our most serious social prob- fering strong support here for legitimate disagreement as an oflems...
...mankind to follow Christ in his loving and law-abiding ways In my view, the encouragement of humane and consensusto the point of martyrdom...
...The dialogue remains instructive today: "But Peter for "poverty of spirit," insisting that any teaching in Jesus' name said, `Far be it from me, Lord, for never did I eat anything must mean good news for the materially poor and oppressed, common or unclean.' And there came a voice a second time to especially women and children...
...A final word addresses the encyclical's grata premoral evil or ontic evil in the view of the dissenters (my ing use of sexist language...
...Not wanting to be dogmatic or totalitarian, we edge ual issues...
...The agreement...
...A concluding undermine this contribution...
...For each respondent, it was a hur- he resists the idea that morality can be shaped by an unwarried reading and the comments serve only as a first reaction...
...I expect that such affirmations are the ones that are most likely to receive general JOHN PAUL II, invoking his authority as the sucapproval, at least within the church...
...0 lutizers of freedom described in this letter...
...focuses primarily on the Catholic moral tradition and the de- Be that as it may, some things are quite clear...
...From the pope's perspec- ings are based on human reason and open to convincing all tive, the present reality has to be "certainly a genuine crisis...
...Yet many trained in "ethics" and divisions within the church...
...Yet its stubcourse...
...sin...
...Splendor veritatis affirms rights...
...The second of the three chapters is entitled "Do lems and weaknesses often associated with that Not Be Conformed to the World" and the third "Lest the Cross genre...
...Accordingly, freedom, and the cor- WHY ""ORS HVST NOT DILL responding views of morality based upon the assumption of the Lean R. lass autonomy of reason, are foreign to the Christian presumption `Alll.IN-aYlNa...
...not accurately portray the true picture of Catholic moral theAt times the encyclical proposes straw persons in order to shoot ology today...
...Many people, like de Lubac and Yves Congar, Joseph A. Komonchak unfairly suffered this kind of injustice throughout the 1950s...
...those who attempt to snip the thread of the church's ity of human beings, nor is it opposed to the absolute uniqueteaching on intrinsic evil threaten to unravel the whole, to leave ness of each person...
...John Paul implores theologians to clarify these matters that "the natural law expresses the dignity of the human perfor the faithful rather than to be sources of confusion...
...naturally assume that in writing on matters moral, one might, It will bring shame on the drafters and implementers of this as John Paul has, use Scripture as well as take a determinative encyclical if it causes further counterproductive accusations and Christocentric perspective...
...human beings...
...To prevent this happening again, I would like to suggest a simple expedient, the one employed by the Second Council of Four men taught me moral theology in Rome in the Constantinople as it struggled to overcome the literally bloody early 1960s, a Spaniard, a German, a Canadian, disputes that followed upon the Christological controversies and an American...
...The Christian ethics in the Church Dogmatics 11/2...
...I am tempted to fideist and authoritarian conclusion of this encyclical will in- make more of this fascinating parallel than is probably justicrease the marginalization of Catholics who try to enhance fied, but at the very least that Barth and John Paul have found the role of human values in our culture's moral sensibilities...
...tradition, the willingness to admit faults and wrongs and the Nothing is said about how the papal teaching office learns need for personal growth is not a weakness but a strength...
...One can only pray that the tain people either hoped or feared...
...Thus John Paul avoids a deontological construal of these matters by r framing the characterization of the actions within a teleologi- I cal framework...
...The encyclical does tionalism, and other newer approaches are not treated fairly...
...I think that the pope could get a lot further in reestabhave said that those who disagree should remain open-mind- lishing basic respect for the ordinary magisterium if he would ed, continue to research and study, retain a basic respect for be a bit more hesitant, if he would share his concerns for cerchurch teaching, and not try to persuade others away from the tainty with a little less certainty...
...John Paul II observes that this is credibility as advocates of the human and the common goods...
...Splendor veritatis may give impetus to theologians who insists repeatedly that there must be norms prohibiting "inare renewing the natural law tradition in service of such dis- trinsically evil acts," especially in sexual behavior...
...many ideas to complement the encyclical, which draws heavThe resulting desertification is tragic for all concerned, includ- ily on the love-mysticism of John and the law-emphasis of ing nonhuman creatures and the earth...
...I offer the first because it depicts what What is urgent is that new formulas, based on a renewed natis at stake, the tragedy we need to prevent, and the second be- ural law approach that emphasizes justice, be approved soon cause it symbolizes the goal we must achieve where human sex- and that honesty and charity prevail in the meanwhile...
...It is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to tions must come to see that there is a seamless garment in these all mankind...
...ple use the once-forbidden trees without respect for the Both bishops and theologians will find in the New Testament interconnectedness of life, or concern for future generations...
...But perleast of all by de Lubac's Father General...
...To support this position, some ethicists and the- the good society...
...That enits ponderously convoluted and technical cyclical attempted to block a kind of theology which, in the second chapter, which will provide ample opinion of Papa Pacelli, undermined the foundations of that faith...
...If the pope would act in a official line...
...El Rejected interpretations of Catholic ethics include the "au- Lisa Sowle Cahill is professor of Christian ethics at tonomous ethics" of some continental theologians, said to sep- Boston College...
...They probably will not, but who can gauge Commonweal 22 October 1993: 11 the chilling effect on theological discussion...
...Such power entails conviction, rather The Splendor of Truth is an eloquent encyclical for which I than coercion on the one hand or blind acceptance on the other...
...THE SOCIAL OIHENSIONS Daniel Callahan that any freedom worth having is the freedom that comes from truthful service to God...
...For have we not witnessed erence in the quest for moral meaning...
...The Rev...
...It reasserts the a notion of objective moral truth...
...Happily the pope writes as a theologian profoundly dismitment and parenthood as complementary aspects of sexual playing the difference Christ should make not only for how fulfillment...
...How the church will receive Veritatis splendor is not yet sion, coning from Rome before and after Humani generis will known but that the theologians will comment is beyond discussion...
...El uality is concerned before it is too late...
...and to in- passionate and merciful mother to "man...
...10038 "fundamental option," and particularly the corresponding idea I Please send lne of "premoral" evil, mystifications, I particularly enjoyed the I I copies of the EUTHANASIA report encyclical's criticisms of those peculiar notions...
...Veritatis Against an overly relativistic respect for pluralism, the ensplendor addresses these questions directly, though not, of cyclical appeals to Catholic moral tradition as established on a course, exhaustively...
...This universality does not ignore the individualmatters...
...Charles E. Curran is Elizabeth Scurlock University Pope John Paul II sees the root problem as "detaching human Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University...
...I agree with the pope communion with his neighbor...
...I also hope that bishops will understand the deep love Ir he first image I received while pondering Veritatis of the church and concern for the truth and power of its ausplendor is that of a Khasi leader in Nothern In- thentic moral teaching that have motivated recourse to secudia, insisting decades ago on ancient taboos against lar media in the past...
...It speaks theirs will not be an easy task as any nonprofessional moralist of universal moral norms, the natural law, and conscience, but (like myself) who reads chapter 2 will soon learn...
...Constanmethod...
...Still hears a voice enjoining him to "kill and eat" animals traditionally others may offer a Lucan corrective to Matthew's preference forbidden...
...ample, anyone who has ever used the term "fundamental option" will be considered fair game for official or unofficial harassment...
...letting go of some formulas regarding sexual morality that are Neither image quite fits the substance of this encyclical, but less universally valid than this encyclical implies is the case...
...As the moral truth...
...ways of knowing the truth...
...This position is in line with widely accepted pope has not taken such a turn...
...If anyone says minus sapiens...
...Interestingly, the document does not even make In the modem world, as in the deepest currents of the Catholic the distinction between infallible and noninfallible teaching...
...Proponents of fundamental option, propor- tual document itself is quite disappointing...
...Therefore, recent accounts of natural law, which draw more on Kant's account of morality than that of Aquinas, are rejected...
...bornly noninclusive language confirms that such norms are still Unfortunately, the other agendas of the encyclical tend to being defined within a male-oriented mindset...
...It is prohibited-to everythat human societies are in moral decline, that huge segments one and in every case-to violate these precepts (52...
...A third agenda is The encyclical touches upon many of the primary challenges to implement magisterial authority by warning pastors of their to traditional morality over the last several decades...
...Should we not take up it (46, 48...
...Hence we find it difficult to advance toagainst premarital sex, contraception, divorce, homosexual acts, ward substantive public consensus about the human good or for instance...
...and words like "deontology," "teleology," tinople II set out a list of what might be called linguistic rules and "proportionalism" never darkened the doors of the game: If anyone says that Christ had two natures but of the students' minds...
...Lists will differ somewhat, but many Catholics will be able It is precisely the "turn to the subject" and the taking serito affirm the basic reassertion of inviolable moral principles ously of human experience that characterize modem thought...
...North American culture (at which to be the object of human choice), no matter what the inten- the encyclical seems in large part to be targeted) exhibits plution, circumstances, or consequences...
...not be repeated...
...charge the church with physicalism and biologism...
...the first time that the magisterium of the church The morality of human acts is not to be established by the human has set forth in detail the fundamental elements sciences, nor by accumulated human wisdom, even of persons of moral theology...
...I COMMONWEAL I must admit as one who has always found the concept of I 15 Dutch Street...
...freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth...
...Veritatis splendor leaves the impression that it stands, the present encyclical, for all of its many positive the Holy Spirit gives the knowledge and understanding directand profound elements, may do more to divide the church than ly to the pope...
...alienable human rights...
...These principles are determined by the church's "objectivity is the fruit of authentic subjectivity...
...Examples are rife in debates about bioethics ologians make pleas for the autonomous exercise of human policy, from abortion to infertility therapies to physician-asfreedom and the sovereignty of the human conscience and sisted suicide to health-care reform...
...that the Christian life makes heroic demands "under the shadow of the cross" and one should Lawrence S. Cunningham not shrink from those demands (chapter 3 has a long brooding meditation on martyrdom as essential to the Christian life...
...These systems make freedom an end in and of itself because, as Kant saw, freedom is all that is left once the world is mechanisti- WHAT Is AT sTAKt...
...It would have more power, however, if John Paul The encyclical's stress on human dignity as a limiting prinhad embodied it by moving to Bosnia and refusing to leave until ciple for ethics is eminently wise, as is its insistence on an obthe Croatians ceased killing the Muslims...
...and a "proportionalist" weighing of good and evil aspects of acts, viewed as equivalent to subjec- Stanley Hauerwas tivism and consequentialism...
...It is the gospel which re- time between times...
...This notion is at the heart of teaching of the church that some acts are intrinsically evil (never the "natural law" tradition...
...example), not to be assessed morally until the intention, cir- The first agenda is to place moral freedom in the context of cumstances, and consequences are known...
...This kind the church in identifying and rejecting erroneous moral view- of thing only adds fuel to the fire of those who claim that the points (on which many interpreters in the press and in the church church's interpretations of our sexual "nature" are simply culare likely to focus as the "meat" of this document...
...When the soundbites fade away, fallibility, that when a document comes from Rome, two things the theological analysis, fought out on the pages of the journeed occur: the church must receive it and theologians must expli- nals, will begin...
...The truth here contained The encyclical deals primarily with moral the- will meet opposition and rejection as did Jesus...
...Historically, papal teaching has II (Twenty-Third Publications...
...She understands sinstruct the bishops to rely on the authoritative moral teaching of ful man and loves him with a mother's love" (121...
...The second and third agendas are put forward in a confessional and even fideist mode which pulls V eritatis splendor is a unique and remarkable the rug out from under the church's and the moral theologians' document...
...Only time will lant lest the tendencies lead to the unfortunate results...
...Many Christians would by doctrinal requirements (116...
...This is an important insight for sexual and biomedthe challenge of the new evangelism, should we not challenge ical ethics, as many feminists would agree...
...This development serve that "the danger of riches" could apply to wealth and power of doctrine is described in Acts 10 in terms of a "vision" Peter beyond the material order...
...far short of what those opponents had hoped for, and very few This could make for a serious conversation, from which of those who were thought to be its targets considered them- the church and society can only benefit...
...The murder called jective moral order...
...It is a matter of prohibitions which sia, genocide, the abuse of workers, and many other prohibi- forbid a given action semper et pro semper, without extions as examples of negative precepts that can never be ception, because the choice of this kind of behavior is in violated...
...adultery are always wrong but think that artificial contracep- In the pope's mind, any position that does not promote the obtion and homosexual acts can be matters of individual con- jective truth prior to practical application suffers from "subscience when concrete circumstances are taken into account...
...I am not referring to the tired and uninteresting internal "liberal/conservative" divide in Catholicism, but rather the pope's willingness to challenge the politics of modernity...
...I do not, however, recognize the positions war in that unhappy place is clearly an "intrinsic evil" that he of such revisionist moral theologians as Bernard Haring, should see is destroying the souls of the Catholic faithful in Charles Curran, Richard McCormick, and company in the "teleCroatia...
...Henri de Lubac, hard questions would be asked, but those who may wish to for example, denied to his dying days that he ever taught what ask them would also have to be ready to listen and to learn...
...names), but is cast in the language and vision of the pope's John Henry Newman once wrote, to calm the anxieties of a personalism: a heady blend of scriptural eisegesis, phepotential convert relative to the imminent definition of papal in- nomenology, and Thomism...
...Moral theology ny to the Catholic ability to withstand the ethos of freedom and moral reasoning thus become the presentation and justifi- and accordingly is a service to all Christians...
...ranted appeal to the "behavioral sciences" (a term he returns Elsewhere in this issue, the editors comment (page 3) on the to more than once...
...This truth demands our allegiance and our tiple agendas, not all well reconciled with the first love and our attempt to live in accord with the truth for only A second agenda is to place moral theology in a faith conthus will we attain eternal life...
...In fact, the conviction that its right use of conscience require man to attend to the natural moral insights are based on common human values, and not on inclinations of the body, to be attentive to the true human good...
...Joseph A. Komonchak is professor of theology at Christian gospel has certain moral implications, that morality The Catholic University of America...
...cally construed...
...Many Catholic feminists, and Catholics and Protestants are rediscovering that "ethics" for not only so-called "radical feminists," view the church as sin- Christians cannot be separated from the one who has called us gularly unresponsive to women's viewpoints and experiences into existence...
...No doubt the discussion surrounding this encyclical will be Bulk orders: focused on the pope's upholding that certain acts are always 1000 copies: $200 wrong...
...Real and sometimes selves to have been pierced by its arrows...
...Because the stakes are so great located trees...
...gued that objective knowledge is achievable both through the The conscience should play a role only in applying such prin- fragile processes of human subjectivity and through belief...
...VERITATIS SPLENDOR LAWRENCE S. CUNNINGHAM • JOSEPH A. KOMONCHAK DENNIS M. DOYLE • CHARLES E. CURRAN • JANET E. SMITH LISA SOWLE CAHILL • STANLEY HAUERWAS • ANNE E. PATRICK V eritatis splendor, John Paul II's long-rumored Veritatis splendor is very much a papal document...
...The encyclical assumes that pline within Protestantism called Christian ethics, I found this theologians need a mandate from the local bishop (110), as- document a gold mine of insight and direction...
...Would the pope Although I am always careful to place fundamental beliefs himself be willing to use as an example of the magisterium's on a much deeper level than doubts and questions, the possi- limitations the story of how Vatican II reversed the position bility of legitimate disagreement for theologians and for other against religious freedom expressed in the 1864 "Syllabus of believers has been very important to me in my own spiritual Errors" on the basis of a new understanding and appreciation Commonweal 22 October 1993: 13 of human autonomy and freedom of conscience...
...in defining the human goods of sexuality, parenthood, marriage, This is not just a "homiletical point" by John Paul as is clear and gender-related ecclesial and social roles...
...18: 22 October 1993 Commonweal...
...John Paul rightly sees we are confronted by social systems and corresponding moralities that cannot help but deny that all creation is teleologically ordered to the worship of God...
...theories of the "fundamental option," said to make its concrete expression in moral choices irrelevant...
...as the central focus of his account of titudes and hence not at all relevant to the policy debate...
...he writes that moral theologians must be encyclical and Dennis O'Brien reviews two new books on Moral at the service of the church in their external and internal assent Imagination and Moral Sense (page 26...
...The practical consequences of this docof the pope's presuppositions and approaches...
...What Pius XII's encyclical said, however, often fell particular choices someone makes morally indifferent...
...vide an over-all assessment...
...changed because of the differing positions taken by theologians...
...No contemporary Catholic moral theologian I know has ever absolutized freedom and/or conscience or failed to point Janet E. Smith out their necessary relationship to truth...
...cation of Catholic doctrine, whatever the "limitations of the As one trained in as well as a practitioner of that odd discihuman arguments employed"(165...
...the body is not simply sufficient atrocities in our times in the name of good intentions "raw material" whose value depends only on our choices about and prospective good consequences...
...is not a matter of mere subjective decision, that appeals to sincerity of conscience do not suffice for judgments about the goodness of an act, that one's basic life-orientation (fundamental Dennis M. Doyle option) has to be reflected in the way one makes one's particular decisions in one's daily life, etc...
...If what happened after urgent grandeur of his moral vision not get lost in the theo- Humani generis is any indication, however, there is a danlogical squabbles which are sure to ensue...
...I believe, for reasons I lack space him, `What God has cleansed, do not thou call common"' (Acts to develop here, that this last emphasis will eventually mean 10:15-16...
...No Catholic moral ument will only come to light in the future, but my forecast for theologian embraces relativism, subjectivism, positivism, and the immediate future is quite bleak...
...this perspective, the best defense against relativism lies not in Respected theologian Francis Sullivan presents a different confining subjectivity to a neatly defined box, but in exploring point of view...
...I believe moral theDivinity School of Duke University...
...D seeking public discourse about the relation of controverted ethJanet E. Smith is associate professor of philosophy at the ical issues to the common good, is one of the most important University of Dallas...
...Christians live but also for how moral theologians think...
...For embodiment and interpersonal relations from the classicist casit is, I believe, the pope's belief that if Christians are to resist ing in which Catholic sexual morality was packaged centuries the allurements of the ethics of freedom, as well as the politics ago...
...I John Paul's refusal to separate ethics from theology is per- 1 10/2214 haps best displayed in his extraordinary discussion of martyr- L • Commonweal 22 October 1993: 17 dom in chapter 3. That discussion is a judgment on many of us gent tasks: (1) distinguishing the essential wisdom on human who have reduced Christian ethics to the ethos of freedom...
...The document never Catholic or to have much sympathy for Rodescribes what is meant or embraced by truth, but seems to un- man Catholicism nonetheless respect the derstand truth as an undifferentiated mass of whatever has been church's strong stand on universal, intaught in the past by the papal magisterium...
...Others may suggest that Matthew's receives, after which he concludes that the divine will transcends parable in chapter 25 about the buried and invested talents may human abilities to codify it...
...Anne E. Patrick, S.N.J.M., is professor of religion at CarleHuman sexuality is not the stated theme of the encyclical, ton College in Northfield, Minnesota...
...Its proportions rival that of first-century depersuade his hearers...
...Lonergan holds that Catholics should approach ordinary church teach- took the turn to the subject, which admittedly has led some othing with a basic attitude of openness...
...ologians will do well in the future to avoid the kind of dissent condemned in the encyclical, forgoing "carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media...
...Although most life and in my teaching...
...It teaches that individuals and societies should labor to ensure that all of mankind enjoy fun- Lisa Sowle Cahill damental human rights and that we be willing to die, if necessary, in protection of those rights...
...potential contributions of Catholic moral theology in today's Commonweal 22 October 1993: 15 culture...
...Additional copies As one often critical of those that would present the Christian of this special report moral life in terms of natural law, I found little reason to ob- are available from ject to John Paul's account of natural law...
...After contemplating the encyclical's focal story from A second image is that of Saint Peter approving change in Matthew 19 about the rich young man who went away sad befirst-century moral life in a way that respected the essence of cause his riches kept him from following Jesus, some may obthe fledgling community's traditional faith...
...I speak on this encyclical, then, tamquam denies by this that Christ was one, anathema sit...
...often those taken by Catholic thinkers whose life work has atJohn Paul, however, teaches that the individual conscience tempted a creative synthesis of subjectivity and objectivity...
...jectivism...
...As with conscience, there is plenty of room for mother is threatened), genocide, the abuse of workers, and autonomy after the truth of basic principles has been accepted...
...The tendencies are said to lead to clear departures from Catholic truth, pope discerns that the world has degenerated moralbut the nature of this implication is not specified (e.g., whether ly and socially, and he sees a remedy for Catholics in his conit is logical, psychological, etc...
...Bishops are asked to be vigi- fident reassertion of the certainty of the gospel and of the church' 12: 22 October 1993 Commonweal teaching regarding fundamental moral truths...
...he is insistent that there are fundamental acts which are inThe comments of theologians and ethicists gathered in these trinsically evil (i.e., there are exceptionless norms in human pages were written at Commonweal's request...
...His 16: 22 October 1993 Commonweal discussion of the law reminds me of Calvin's discussion of the Decalogue in the Institutes...
...Lonergan arauthority through natural law in the light of divine revelation...
...The document correctly assumes that many people even within the church will have problems with what is written here and V eritatis splendor belongs to the literary genre consequently develops a spiritual strategy in keeping with this of an apology or defense and has all the prob- defensiveness...
...However, the encyclical has mulperson of Christ...
...It is also in line with the teaching about are turned off by overconfident proclamations of absolute cerartificial contraception by several episcopal conferences, which titude...
...ralism, values freedom, and often accommodates moral conThe widespread dissent within the church against the fusion by resorting to guarantees of free choice and informed church's teaching on intrinsic evil has focused largely on sex- consent...
...Our problem is that most of us Single copies: $1 are now so well trained by the practices of "freedom," we are (Please include a 9 x 12 self-addressed incapable of acknowledging the moral truths that should othenvelope with 520 stamp) erwise be available...
...without in conscience being able to embrace the entire list of The moral positions dismissed by the pope as subjectivist are specific examples...
...Likewise the pope has no appreciation for a loyal them down...
...he warns against any concept of human freedom that the writers focus on a particular point or two rather than pro- results in absolute autonomy without reference to transcendence...
...ories and correctly recognizes that many Catholic moral the- Such an approach, while having some validity, is strange ologians today disagree with some of the methods and approaches indeed coming from a tradition which claims its moral teachof the manuals of moral theology...
...If you positions of the opponents of a theology derisively described invoke the fundamental option, do you consider what sorts of as "new...
...With that I E Payment enclosed El Bill me said, however, I wish that John Paul might have said more about the importance of the virtues for the moral life as I sus- I I Name pect that the language of "fundamental option" was the result I Address of the loss of Aquinas's understanding of the significance of I City, State, Zip the virtues for Christian moral existence...
...opposition that disagrees on some specific issues but finds itThe document's "we versus them" mentality fails to recog- self in basic and fundamental agreement with the core of the nize that revisionists or dissenting theologians agree with many Catholic moral tradition...
...None of them talked about provoked by the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon...
...haps such a conversation will be the best way at once to take I take the primary purpose of this encyclical, like Humani this encyclical seriously and to prevent it from being used, generis, to be that of recalling certain non-negotiable aspects as Humani generis too often was, as a rude club with which of Catholic teaching as the outer limits within which Catholic to settle scores...
...Calvin argues there that the command, though put negatively in fact, entails positive obligations for Christians...
...112...
...In addition the Catholic church claims, as the The defensive nature of the document comes through espe- encyclical repeats, to be "an expert in humanity," whose moral cially in its inadequate, caricatured, and even erroneous inter- encyclicals have lately been addressed to all people of good pretations of the positions taken by many contemporary Catholic will...
...This encyclical from his extraordinary Christocentric display of the law...
...It insists that man is not free to manip- confidence in reasonable debate among diverse groups about ulate his bodily processes at will and that true freedom and a values they share in common...
...that we be willing to die rather than to do moral evil willingly...
...Let the pope so live and he will discover that the au- ologists, relativists, proportionalists, subjectivists," and absothority he now can only claim will be a reality...
...He is expressly forbidding it when it no matter what the circumstances...
...She is currently combut rather the subtext that occasioned and governs this text, pleting Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in which itself offers inspiration for continuing work on two ur- Catholic Moral Theology for Crossroad Publishing Company...
...Karl Barth compatibility of sperm and ovum donation with the human also used the young man's question, "Teacher, what good must meaning of parenthood were just the result of my Catholic at- I do to have eternal life...
...Not all truths are of the same or equal value demnation of totalitarianism, torture, and genocide...
...That the moral law COMMONWEAL, is "in principle" accessible to human reason, as the pope main- 15 Dutch Street, tains, I assume any Christian should believe...
...The contemporary winds blowing in moral theology...
...The Declaration on Religious I hope that Catholics throughout the world, no matter where Freedom of Vatican II recognized that the hierarchical magisthey stand on the spectrum of beliefs, will, out of love for the terium learned from the experience of people of good will...
...It is time for Catholics to call a moral theology find quite sophisticated ways to separate "ethics" ceasefire on issues like contraception, and spend their energies from "theology" in the name of being "responsible" to "socion making a more attractive case, to the wider culture, for com- ety...
...In reality the hierarchical teaching office enjoys to unite it...
...arate the moral law from divine authorship...
...One can only hope that the unhappy represcate it...
...Even though I have often found the arguments about 500 copies: $150 why certain acts are intrinsically evil unconvincing, I think that 100 copies: $ 50 John Paul puts the discussion of these matters rightly by argu- plus handling and UPS charges ing such actions cannot be made part of the well-lived life...
...To my mind it is this genIN hatever terror may strike the hearts of eration's Humani generis-Pius XII's 1950 encyclical which moral theologians as they study this en- pitted the school of theology regnant in Rome against la noucyclical will be offset by their delight at velle theologie emanating, maximally, from France...
...The pope, however, says: of the encyclical is a general treatise on the relationship be- The negative precepts of the natural law are universally tween law and freedom, the pope makes specific references to valid...
...From ciples in concrete circumstances...
...no case compatible with the goodness of the will of the I affirm strongly the basic message of this encyclical, the acting person, with his vocation to life with God and to need for a renewal of moral seriousness...
...he lasting contribution of Splendor veritatis is its Veritatis splendor argues that the church's teachings on affirmation of objectivity in moral thinking, human rights and moral issues are grounded in a commitment against relativism and the absolutization of perto an objective, universal truth, most fully manifested in the sonal choice...
...We are, however, in John Paul's debt for its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once helping us get the problem right...
...In this son and lays the foundation for his fundamental rights and dusense, those who find the church unpersuasive on sexual ques- ties...
...They laud the The pope never mentions the hierarchy of truths, a very im- church's insistence that employers pay a just wage and proportant reality found in Vatican II's documents and frequent- vide decent working conditions...
...opportunity for scrutiny, exegesis, distinctions, comments, and By a curious twist of fate, the theological school which fell under modifications of the papal animadversions about "certain trends papal stricture would triumph a generation later at Vatican II...
...One could then Catholic Doctrine...
...THE EDITORS to the authoritative teaching of the magisterium and, if they are not, they should be removed...
...That John Paul has written so eloquentveals the full truth about man and his moral journey, and thus ly on the nature of the Christian moral life is a great testimoenlightens and admonishes sinners...
...quietly and with power...
...and (2) communicating it in a way that respects the inbuilt on that ethic, which often takes the name of democracy, sight of Vatican II's Dignitatis humanae that the truth we all we may well be called to make sacrifices and to suffer in ways must seek and obey "cannot impose itself except by virtue of we barely envision...
...It careful- duties of vigilance toward the purity of doctrine and protection ly discusses the claim that such acts as "having sexual inter- of "the faithful...
...E:1 tion of dissent as a form of politics and polemics in opposition Dennis M. Doyle teaches ecclesiology at the University of to ecclesial communion, and blanket condemnations of oppoDayton...
...would take his words more deeply to heart...
...The encyclical uses the word "truth" or "the truth" on about N any who do not profess to be Roman every page beginning with the title page...
...Thus, it is not sufficient that we not steal from our brother and sister but we are required to give of our own property if we are to live according to the law...
...interpretations of Vatican II and with a later Vatican-sponsored I know from my experience as a teacher that many students theological commission...
...the encyclical in that many Catholics will make a personal The autonomy of individual believers is a big issue at stake list of absolutely inviolable moral precepts considerably short- in this encyclical...
...A few remarks will be offered on each of these course with someone against that person's will" is considered agendas in turn...
...At a meeting of a national policy advisory board last month, For example, the commentary the pope provides on Matthew another member advised me that my reservations about the 19:16 is a remarkable way to begin the encyclical...
...Humani generis was issued after several years of theolog- If you defend proportionalism or consequentialism, do you mean ical controversy and was widely considered to represent the that the intrinsic nature of acts is morally insignificant...
...that Christ had one nature but means by this some mixture of I do, however, have some knowledge of magisterial state- divinity and humanity, anathema sit...
...The pope is following his own conscience, which the assistance of the Holy Spirit, but it must use all the human looks first to principles and only secondarily to consequences...
...of theological thinking and certain philosophical affirmations Veritatis splendor, while paying lip service to various the[which] are incompatible with revealed truth" (Veritatis splen- ological schools, quite clearly opts for one (one could name dor, 29...
...this passage so significant is a wonderful indication that Finally, the sexist language...
...ments, and the one that came immediately to mind as I read If an ecumenical council, for the sake of restoring and soliVeritatis splendor was Pius XII's encyclical Humani generis difying unity in the church, could deal in such a fashion with (1950), whose subtitle explained its object: "Some False the solemn formulae of our central faith, surely it is possible to Opinions Which Threaten to Undermine the Foundations of imagine analogous efforts in moral questions...
...The crucial issues New York, New York 10038 involve his contention that we must be well instructed to right- Telephone: 212.732-0800 ly know the "law" of our being...
...For those who serts that moral theologians must give not only external but also have not been part of the debates in Christian ethics, or what internal assent to all teaching (165), and enjoins bishops to take Catholics call moral theology, it might he easy to miss the sigaway the name "Catholic" from institutions that fail to abide nificance of what the pope has done...
...The pope believes that the church's proclaer than that of the pope...
...magisterium over theological interpretation...
...tural products, and patriarchal ones at that...
...These are to teach that the moral section on Mary was no doubt meant to add a pastoral angle, life finds its origins in the divine law and its completion in faith but it portrays her in stereotypical feminine terms, as a com(to which few Catholic theologians would object...
...The document never mentions names or I expected the basic thrust taken in this encyclical but the acgives citations...
...The pope deviations by revisionist theologians that the pope describes in sires to rehabilitate the distinction between mortal and venial some detail but without naming names...
...As important as John Paul's refusal to separate the "ethical order" from the "order of salvation" is his sense of the politics of this move...
...It is a long and complex document...
...Substitute "morality" for "doctrine" and ask: When you defend the supremacy of conscience, do you you have the rough purpose of this new papal text...
...But it aims at a "communion of persons" us without defenses against some of the worst evils threaten- (51...
...Moreover, 14: 22 October 1993 Commonweal the church has always called mankind to heroic witness to these and other moral truths...
...Matthew...
...For example, a given Catholic might mation of the established truth aids rather than inhibits a peragree that abortion (except in rare cases where the life of the son's freedom...
...I should not play a role in determining which moral principles think of the late philosopher Bernard Lonergan, who said that are inviolable...
Vol. 120 • October 1993 • No. 18
