Richard McCormick, R.I.P.
Correction In the February 11 issue listing the RICHARD McCORMICK, R.I.P. Commonweal Associates, we failed to include Gale and Angela Metzger of New Jersey. Our...
...In the last years of his life, McCormick spoke out bravely about what he described as the "coercive atmosFF phere" in which Catholic moral theologians must now work...
...Steeped in the church's tradition, deeply demains vague and even slapdash...
...Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity...
...authority...
...For one...
...about...
...From 1965 to 1984 he wrote the interest in the politics of self-government is a hopeful sign...
...The church," John wrote, "has always opposed these errors...
...But whatever Republicans voted to the priesthood, he was commited to honest debate or American voters at large finally decide about Senator Mc- on disputed questions...
...Commonweal readers have been campaign-finance system," McCain has said, "this crusade familiar with his byline since 1964, when he first appeared is about much more than changing how we pay for our cam- here writing on the question of "marital morality...
...pects of sexual morality, and prohibitions against in vitro Beyond campaign reform, much of McCairi s agenda re- fertilization...
...Yes, fluential "Notes on Moral Theology" for the scholarly journal this is personality- (or "character-") driven politics, but Mc- Theological Studies, and in doing so was always careful to preCain's message touches on something more than Clinton- sent the best arguments of those with whom he disagreed...
...In his 1998 Commonweal article, he quoted John XXIII on how the church should best deal with the possibility of theological error...
...Never eager to pick a fight with the Cain's candidacy, he has already done a great deal to re- magisterium or the conservative Catholic activists who made mind us of why democracy matters, and why politics is him an object of their scrutiny, neither did he shy away from worthy of something more than our apathy or cynicism...
...He will not soon be replaced, but, we trust, his work-that conveyed his spirit-will continue to bear much fruit...
...He believed, above all, that church teaching had to be that, even George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Bill Bradley ought defended in rational argument, not merely by appeals to to be grateful...
...She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations...
...Few theologians were as proficient at demonstrating the validity of the Catholic moral tradition as Richard McCormick, and fewer still, perhaps, as good at applying the "You want to run a principled campaign?- "medicine of mercy" to the intellectual challenges we face...
...After years as a Jesuit seminary instructor, he taught at the To his credit, McCain has spoken to voters' idealism, ex- Kennedy Center for Bioethics at Georgetown, finishing his plicitly calling for a politics that transcends self-interest, that academic career as the John A. O'Brien Professor of Christian embraces duties as much as rights...
...Campaign-finance reform is a popular issue in the McCormick was an outspoken defender of "conscientious abstract, but as previous reforms have shown, it is a very dissent" from church teachings on contraception, certain ascomplicated business fraught with unforeseen consequences...
...Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity...
...It's about changing how we view our democracy...
...style empathy or Ross Perot's denigration of government...
...He was a nationally ample, he has been forthright in saying that the United States recognized authority on bioethics, an articulate defender of has moral obligations to act in the defense of human rights, the church's opposition to abortion and euthanasia, and a even outside the spheres of our immediate national interest...
...piece for the magazine (August 14,1998) laid out, in his cusExactly how McCain would change our democracy as tomarily direct and succinct style, his principled opposition president is something voters must learn a good deal more to "punishing dissent" in the church...
...and where politicians tious manner, McCormick was a beloved mentor to dozens are held in almost universally low esteem-this renewed in- of younger colleagues...
...Commonweal Associates, we failed to include Gale and Angela Metzger of New Jersey...
...Our apologies to Richard McCormick, S.J., died last month at the age of sevthese generous Benefactors...
...His last paigns...
...In foreign affairs, for ex- Ethics at the University of Notre Dame...
...Widely regarded as the most influential contemporary American moral theologian, McCormick's work was a model of intellectual precision and integrity...
...He exhibited on all occasions that very Catholic conviction that reason and faith need not contradict one another...
...Commonweal 6 March 10, 2000...
...enty-seven...
...P) n afraid that gimmick's been tried already...
...pioneering figure in the renewal of Catholic moral theology "Although the locus of the change we are calling for is our in the aftermath of Vatican II...
...Famous seems to be characterized by obscene spectacles like "Who for his resonant smoker's voice, ready laugh, and unpretenWants to Marry a Multimillionaire...
Vol. 127 • March 2000 • No. 5
