Editorial:

...Catholicism, the pope avers, insists that the meaning of freedom is "found in its orientation to the true and the good...

...It is easy to affirm the pope's high regard for motherhood...

...Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable," John Paul warns...

...The encyclical does not mince words about the objective evil of abortion...

...He assures the penitent, and especially women who have had abortions, of God's mercy and the church's care...

...Conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life...

...Effective contraception has played a crucial part in that social transformation...

...In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to 'take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.'" On the face of it, this confronts pro-choice Catholics with a stark choice...

...Our contemporary moral and political conversation desperately needs to be challenged by that Catholic tradition and perspective...

...It is formidable for the consistency of its argument, and for the extent to which it is steeped in Scripture and a confident evangelical faith...

...Moreover, the pope's certainty about right and wrong carries with it the demand that what is "gravely" evil be suppressed...

...In this vein, much of the encyclical calls on Catholics to demonstrate by their own actions a witness to the absolute value of life...

...There is much truth in his picture of how the "self-centered concept of freedom" erodes social and moral bonds...

...Given the pope's harsh words about liberal societies, it is worth noting that societies with stricter abortion laws or even more explicitly Catholic cultures have not proven themselves better defenders of human dignity...

...Our moral center of gravity has shifted on many questions, but judging modern democracy uniquely depraved is neither plausible nor persuasive...

...Its 'moral' value...

...In further defense of that "basic value," the encyclical narrows the use of capital punishment that may be considered compatible with Catholic teaching...

...The "privately opposed, but...

...With great clarity and in the face of powerful opposition, John Paul writes of modern society' s demand for "efficiency" and of the way in which individual autonomy can lead to "a war of the powerful against the weak...

...John Paul must continue to preach conversion, but he need not mistake the West's culture of conflict and moral pluralism-and, yes, grave sin-for a culture of death...

...Representative democracy is built upon a system of checks and balances that presupposes conflicting interests and even irreconcilable visions of the good...

...At least in a season of new life, when the church celebrates the Risen Lord, that is our prayer.is our prayer...

...The encyclical comes down hard on politicians who are content with the status quo...

...First, in characterizing modern society as "a veritable structure of sin" and a "culture of death" while implicitly reserving for the church the appellation "the culture of life," the pope is asking for a high level of forbearance from his putative dialogue partners...

...John Paul asks that those ready to temporize about the absolute sanctity of life in the name of "choice" or "compassion" draw back before the moral foundations of society collapse beneath them...

...But motherhood is no longer the sole end of a woman's life...

...Liberal society may yet rise to the moral threat John Paul so courageously opposes...

...Abortion and euthanasia are particularly difficult questions because they cut to the heart of the endlessly negotiated relationship between self-determination and social or moral duty in cultures where negative freedom (freedom from control), not positive freedom (freedom for the good) has long been regarded as the surest guarantee of life and liberty...

...Pluralism and democracy are not substitutes for truth, but neither are they the enemies of the true and the good...

...But at least three aspects of the encyclical impede the "courageous cultural dialogue among all parties" the pope says he wants...

...Having emphatically reiterated the church's teaching, the pope acknowledges the social and economic pressures that encourage such killing...

...Consequently, Catholic health-care professionals have a "grave and clear obligation to oppose [abortion and euthanasia] by conscientious objection...

...Finally, Evangelium vitae too often suggests that abortion and euthanasia are the means by which hedonistic moderns indulge in sex and dispense with the burden of caring for the sick and dying...

...If only matters were that simple...

...Evangelium vitae ("The Gospel of Life") conveys a genuine and deep concern for the transcendent value of all human life...

...Right to die" referendums and laws must similarly be resisted...

...Individual rights and personal autonomy are the philosophical bedrock of Western society...

...These are welcome words...

...The culture that the pope sees in "grave moral decline" many women prize as making good on the promise of equality...

...Justification for the state to resort to such measures is "very rare, if not practically nonexistent...

...depends on conformity to the moral law...

...But for better and for worse, a unanimity of opinion about the moral order-and especially about the equation of freedom and truth-is no longer the natural condition of democratic cultures...

...In a sense, this attitude follows inescapably from the encyclical's unremitting critique of modern society, one of whose conspicuous features is the success with which women have taken on responsibilities outside the home...

...A culture that enables women to contribute outside the home should be welcomed, not maligned...

...Faced with such a prospect, "other parties" will be understandably suspicious about "dialogue" that can lead to only one conclusion...

...Were the hegemonic ages of Christianity better guardians of the "true and the good...

...The pope's repeated condemnations of the so-called "contraceptive mentality" make no effort to recognize the genuine moral goods married couples seek to balance in the use of contraception...

...All people of good will should be eager to embrace the pope's steadfast, often eloquent defense of the unborn and those threatened by euthanasia...

...Modern secular society must contend with a strong pull from pluralism toward moral relativism and even nihilism...

...Policies that permit abortions but are designed to reduce their number may be tolerated, but the argument of those who champion a "woman's right to choose" must be rejected...

...What "conditioning" was it that darkened all those consciences uncontaminat-ed by pluralism, the contraceptive mentality, or the loss of a sense of transcendence...

...In rightly defending the "absolute" value of human life, the pope's rhetoric and style do not fully acknowledge the complexity of the political situation...

...Evangelium vitae calls for a "new feminism," but there is nothing new in its praise of the "true genius of women," which is little more than a paean to idealized motherhood, and a paean offered in relentlessly masculinist language...

...rationale is judged deficient...

...One need not deny the immorality of abortion or euthanasia to resist the sometimes narrow frame of the pope's argument...

...Second, the way in which the pope writes about women continues to be an enormous handicap...

...Once again the authority of papal teaching is lessened by the conceptual trap created in Humanae vitae and its predecessor, Casti con-nubii...

...It is worth remembering that the conscientious objection the pope urges on Catholics is a quintessential expression of modern individualism and tolerance...

...Democracy," he writes, "cannot be idolized to the point of making it a substitute for morality or a panacea for immorality...

...Has the absence of "moral relativism" in Catholic Croatia, Rwanda, or Argentina protected the weak...

...I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being," John Paul writes...