EDITORIAL ISBN The Flight of Metaphysics Gerard V. Bradley

ne of my old law professor once told his students that O Timothee, depositum custodi, devitans profanas vocum novitates et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae, quam quidam profitentes we’d be better off if we never saw two things actu- circa fidem aberraverunt.Gratia vobiscum. 1 ad Timotheum 6 ally being made: hot dogs, and law. Though there’s still some truth to it, this chunk of wisdom has not aged well. Yes, it is hardly edifying to observe law beingO made, it is even cause for joy when the finished product is Fellowship tolerably fit for the common good. But C-Span and the ubiqui- tous media have made it impossible to entirely avert our gaze. “News” these days is little more than politics and celebrity. And our politicians act like celebrities. of Catholic I’ve never seen a hot dog being manufactured. But I’ll grant that, back when I was a law student, seeing it would have made me a vegetarian. Now we have turkey dogs and chicken dogs. On Scholars the horizon are soy dogs, salmon dogs, veggie dogs and various other good-for-you-hot-dog-like-substances. A glance at today’s hot dog production line might well make us carnivores. Or at Newsletter least hot dog lovers. Law students expect sage advice from their professors. Passing VOLUME 19, NUMBER 3SUMMER 1996 on my professor’s caution is out of the question. What do I tell my students? The most helpful thing I say to them is be alert to CONTENTS what’s desperately missing from the law: metaphysics. Judges and lawyers are down on metaphysics these days. To them metaphysics EDITORIAL: is dreamy talk about fantastic stuff. Metaphysics is all faith-based The Flight of Metaphysics ...... 1 statements about the farther reaches of reality — Pluto and beyond LETTER TO THE EDITOR ...... 2 — if it is about anything real at all. ARTICLES: Well, one can run from metaphysics, but even Supreme Court In Defense of Life ...... 3 Justices cannot hide from the deep structures of everyday reality — metaphysics. Here’s one example of the law’s flight from meta- The Apologia de Fuga Revisited ...... 4 physics. Our law has already given up on defining religion as a Contemporary Interpretations of particular something or other, like knowledge of and relationship Christian Philosophy ...... 11 with a greater than human source of meaning and value. Any Modernism and the “Tail of the Devil” ...15 claim, proposition, or articulable feeling that one wishes to call FROM THE FOUNDER: one’s “religion” is religion for purposes of constitutional analysis. Letter to a Bishop ...... 23 Another example of the law’s retreat from metaphysics has DOCUMENTATION ...... 24 more tragic consequences. The matter of who or what is a person with a right not to be killed is not in our law, transparent for the REVIEW ARTICLE ...... 41 metaphysical truth of the matter. It is a question of legal fiction BOARD OF DIRECTORS ...... 45 driven by the interests of dominant groups within society. BOOK REVIEWS...... 47 The truly critical open question in our law today is whether BOOKS RECEIVED ...... 51

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marriage is a real something with irreducible con- The Hawaii Attorney General defended hetero- tours and features, or a trademark people might sexual marriage by an appeal to the reality of it: attach to whatever relationships they wish to call Marriage was a custom long before the state com- “marriage.” Former New Republic editor Andrew menced to issue licenses for that purpose . . . . Sullivan put the latter view succinctly: “Marriage [M]arriage has always been considered as a union of is a formal, public institution that only the govern- a man and a woman....the relationship proposed by ment can grant; and yet it is also the most intimate the appellants does not authorize the issuance of a and private of things, its meaning separate for each marriage license because what they propose is not a couple.” marriage. “Couple” of what? If marriage’s meaning is so The Attorney General said effectively that the separate and private, why just a “couple?” Why state does not deny homosexuals the opportunity not as many as there are willing participants? On to marry, as if “gay marriages” were possible but this view, “marriage” would, like “religion” in our prohibited. (This is the way dissenters think of the law, qualify for special treatment and have particu- Pope’s stand on women priests). “Gay marriage” lar civil effects, but it would be whatever folks is impossible; the state no more denies marriage to wanted it to be. Jack and John than it denies them the opportunity It is pretty well known that a Hawaii Supreme to be girls, or to be Michael Jordan ... and Dennis Court decision of May, 1993 promised to legalize Rodman. homosexual marriage. (When that happens, the The Hawaii Supreme Court’s response: the incredibly important question will be whether argument from the true nature of marriage is “cir- these “marriages” will have to be recognized in cular and unpersuasive,” an “exercise in tortured other states under the Full Faith and Credit Clause and conclusory sophistry.” of the old Constitution. If so, Hawaii will be to Metaphysics, anyone? ✠ gay marriage what Nevada used to be to divorce).

LMETTERAGISTERIUM TO THE EDITOR

May 6, 1996 ies. Become an accreditation agency for them. Set up Dear Editor, standards, do the inspection, publish results to bishops, parishes and seminaries. Msgr. Kelly, Charles Rice, K. D. Whitehead and others FCS already has strong men in place on the facul- did a superb service for Catholic colleges and universi- ties of many seminaries. They can help to set the stan- ties with their articles in the March 1996 issue. They dards, do the inspection beginning at home, pour oil put the finger on the solution: bishop by bishop will and wine into wounds, and escort them to the hospital. have to cultivate his own back yard. Find a benefactor who will fund a special FCS Office But where in all heaven is FCS’s concern for semi- for Accreditation of Catholic Seminaries. The Lord has naries? Are you giving up on them? Victims of the provided FCS with talents. Don’t bury any of them! consequentialist brigands, most are half dead, half alive, Oremus. like the wounded man lying prostrate on the road to Jericho. Fr. Anthony Zimmerman I move that FCS be a Good Samaritan to seminar- Nagoya, Japan

2 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 ARTICLES

from its very moment of conception it would be vul- In Defense of Life nerable to the activities of those, who like its architects, adhere to a doctrine of justified murder. John Haldane Ethical intuition and prudential reasonings are in Department of Moral Philosophy agreement, then, in rejecting the view that it sometimes University of St. Andrew permissible to commit wilful murder for the sake of some desired, even desirable end. This conclusion bears oral philosophy begins with moral directly on a number of current issues concerning, for intuitions and then, by arguments, example, terrorist violence, the possible use of weapons either confirms or refutes them. of mass destruction, and the practice of abortion. Until recently it was assumed that Consider the last of these. The argument against philosophers ought not, as philoso- terminating life in the womb is an application of the Mphers, to concern themselves with actual moral prob- principle mentioned above: lems, but should instead only analyze the language of 1. It is always wrong to take the life of an innocent ethics. Those bad days are gone, and a mark of their human being. passing is the frequent involvement of philosophers in 2. A foetus in the womb is an innocent human being. the public debate of social and moral issues. One very widespread intuition is the sense that it is 3. Therefore, it is always wrong to take the life of a absolutely wrong to kill the innocent. Can this be given foetus. a rational foundation? Suppose we are interested in Since the reasoning is valid the conclusion can only be moral truth and are neither skeptics nor nihilists; then it rejected by denying one or both of the premises. As is evident that the prohibition against murder will be regards (1) however, the cost of denying it is a lessening part of any acceptable ethical system. A moral view that of respect for life, and thereby a weakening of the argu- countenanced the taking of innocent life would be ment against terrorism and unjust wars. The case against corrupt but would also be incoherent. What could it chemical or nuclear warfare is not merely one of quan- offer as a higher value to be aimed at in preference to tity, as if killing a thousand people was wrong but kill- respect for life? Possibly the achievement of one’s ing one or two was not. Even if it were, the staggering well-being whatever the cost to others? Or perhaps the total of abortions rivals the ‘Megadeath’ figures calcu- preservation of the species? But the former could only lated by military strategists. be self-defeating, since with each concerned to further The other more popular option for the defender of his or her own good the stability necessary for indi- abortion is to deny (2). Typically it is claimed that hu- vidual well-being would never be realized. The ethics man beings exhibit certain species characteristics: of species preservation suffers from a similar kind of thought, deliberation and language use, and that since a incoherency. It is quite clear, especially in the modern foetus lacks such characteristics it cannot be classed as world, that the only hope of saving mankind is by a human. The central flaw in this reasoning is its equivo- policy built upon respect for individual human life. cation on the meaning of “capability.” To be capable may The same point can be brought against those who mean either: currently able to do a thing, or potentially would elevate a political idea — be it formed in terms able to do it, i.e. to be the sort of creature that can en- of the state, the nation or a class — gage in the activity. While a foetus is above the prohibition against murder. It is quite clear, espe- (in the first sense) incapable of The belief that one may kill the inno- thought, it may yet belong to a spe- cent, for whatever reason, is morally cially in the modern cies of thinking animals. Incapacity in repugnant, but is also self-defeating world, that the only hope its former meaning no more disquali- with respect to whatever other value fies it from being a human subject is given priority. One who urges that of saving mankind is by a than does senility or imbecility re- it is acceptable to act in this way is policy built upon respect move an individual from the human unlikely to live to see the kind of race. A human is not as such a foetus, society he wants; nor could such a for individual human life. an infant, a young man or an old society be expected to survive, since man. Rather these are proper stages

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 3 ARTICLES in the development of life. Thus there is no good rea- Choose.” This contends that the question whether or son to deny that a foetus is a human being that is not not to have an abortion falls within a person’s preroga- also a valid reason for denying that an infant or an adult tive to decide how their body may be used. This is not is a human. To follow the abortion case in this direc- the trivial claim that each person has the right to tion leads easily to an apparent justification of infanti- choose how to act. This, although true, is independent cide and non-voluntary euthanasia. of issues of rightness or wrongness in behavior — for in As before, it would be well to anticipate and re- this sense the person has the right to do wrong. Rather spond to objections. The first will come from those the claim is that an unwanted pregnancy is an infringe- who argue anti-abortion legislation forces women to ment of a property right, and the woman’s entitlement procure miscarriages by means which are likely to lead to determine the use of her body overrides the right of to more deaths, not fewer. This concern to eliminate the foetus not to be killed. the ‘back street abortions’ is virtuous, but it simply fails This argument has several aspects but it will be to touch the present issue. If, as I maintain, abortion is sufficient to note two points. First suppose we allow unjustified killing, then it is irrelevant in moral terms the (contentious) claim that an unwanted pregnancy whether or not it is legal. It is also beside the point constitutes the violation of a property right. It is surely whether the context is that of a medically safe opera- an error to believe that this proprietorial claim licenses tion. Certainly unqualified termination’s are dangerous the killing of an innocent human being. To suppose and ought to be avoided for the sake of the mother, otherwise is to fall in with those challenged earlier who but all abortion is wrong and ought to be avoided for elevate some other feature above the right of life and the sake of the innocent foetus. Let me add, however, who in consequence put at risk their preferred value. that the adoption of this position obliges the defender Secondly, and relatedly, property rights are conditional of life to do what he or she can to enable women to on the maintenance of life. Without full respect for the bear unwanted pregnancies by removing stigmas at- latter the former are reduced to a set of accidental facts tached to illegitimacy and handicaps, and by campaign- of possession lacking any moral justification. In short, ing for proper assistance for those in need. the fight of the innocent not to be killed is fundamen- A different form of objection is that brought for- tal to any coherent conception of human rights and it is ward under the banner “A Woman’s Right to the basis for any further claims. ✠

age of radical skepticism, that a distinguished saint of The Apologia de Fuga orthodoxy should come under attack as a thug, a wishy-washy coward, or even more recently, a gang- Revisited ster.1 The latter presentation has been made by Barnes in his recent biography of Constantine and Eusebius, Refuting the Thesis of the but the attacks on Athanasius began with full force in Anthanasian Turn the late 1800s, about the same time that German bibli- cal scholars attempted with full relish to undermine the historicity of the scriptures, and he has been under by Robert F. Gorman attack ever since. Thus, although most scholars up to the end of the nineteenth century generally extolled t. Athanasius of Alexandria has been remem- Athanasius’s personal virtue, a revisionist interpretation bered throughout the history of the Eastern has largely held sway ever since, despite the fact that and Western Churches as the great patron of many of the earliest charges made against Athanasius, orthodox belief. A stalwart defender of the such as that he was a forgerer, are now almost com- Nicene Creed, he suffered banishment or pletely discredited. Athanasius, fortunately, has had his Sexile from Alexandria five times for a total of about defenders, among them Arnold who meticulously twenty years, about half of his episcopal career. But points out the flaws and refutes many of the arguments reputations often change as the times themselves made by Athanasius’s detractors.2 change, and it should come as no surprise during our I became interested in Athanasius, while doing

4 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 research on the question of exile and the face of persecution marked a banishment in the writings of the St. Athanasius, departure from the previous ten- Church Fathers. His Apologia de Fuga dency of the church to exalt martyr- was the most fully articulated writ- articulated a dom, there being little doubt that the ings on the subject in the entire cor- scripturally-based, early Church revered and honored pus. As I did further secondary read- the martyrs as paragons of Christian ing, however, it became clear, that a Christian defense of witness. But contrary to popular certain tendency existed in recent flight in face of belief, the vast majority of Christians scholarship to undermine the cred- chose to flee persecution, avoid ap- ibility of the argument Athanasius persecution prehension, or escape detection, made in that work. His principle rather than to embrace as martyrs an argument concerning the legitimacy unseasonable death. Much evidence of flight as opposed to martyrdom is as follows. attests to the fact that many early martyrs for a time . . . to all men generally, even to us, is this law given, to were hidden from harm, as was Polycarp, or retired flee when persecuted, and to hide when sought after, and from the immediate jaws of persecution and death, as not rashly tempt the Lord, but wait . . . until the ap- did Cyprian.4 As for the masses, even from the earliest pointed time of death arrive, or the Judge determines days of the Church, escape from martyrdom through something concerning them . . . ; that men should be flight was widely practiced.5 Thus, the readiness of the ready, that, when the time calls, or when they are taken, martyrs to die for their faith, marked them for special they may contend for the truth even unto death. This adulation and praise, among so many others who rule the blessed Martyrs observed in their several persecu- avoided the opportunity to win this highest badge of tions. When persecuted they fled, while concealing Christian witness. themselves they shewed fortitude, and when discovered they submitted to martyrdom. (Athanasius, Apologia de Concerning the theology of martyrdom among Fuga)3 patristic figures, only Tertullian argued that flight was impermissible for the Christian, and even in his case With these words, St. Athanasius, articulated a this view represented a change of heart that most likely scripturally-based, Christian defense of flight in face of occurred after he embraced the Montanist heresy.6 persecution. The common Christian heard in The rest of the corpus of martyrology, although exalt- Athanasius’s pronouncements a powerful voice offering ing martyrdom did not prohibit flight. Still, until an alternative to immediate martyrdom in the face of Athanasius, there was no systematic effort to develop a persecution — a voice of prudence and of Christian theology justifying flight in the face of persecution, humanity. In his Apologia de Fuga, Athanasius quite although at least one patristic figure, Cyprian, admitted properly placed the blame for flight on the persecutor the prudence of withdrawal “until the tyranny be not the persecuted. Persecution, he averred, was a overpassed.”7 work of the devil. According to Athanasius, the Chris- Because of Athanasius’s important role as an early tian was under no obligation to accept immediate mar- advocate of flight as opposed to martyrdom in face of tyrdom at the hands of persecutors. Rather, following persecution, his own views on the subject have re- the example of Jesus (as well as the teachings of Jesus, cently become the subject of some scrutiny. The posi- cf. Matthew 10:23), of the apostles, and of the patri- tion he staked out in the Apologia de Fuga was a clear archs of the Old Testament, Christians may rightfully and powerful one. But what of his earlier works? flee in the face of monstrous persecution. Flight was a Might they betray other sentiments that cast doubt on trial and tribulation in some ways superior to unseason- the factors that motivated Athanasius’s argument in the able martyrdom. The Christian in flight must perse- Apologia de Fuga? Were the views he expressed in that vere, keep the faith, and serve as a sign of the iniquity work motivated by a genuine and long-felt attitude of persecution. A rush to death is not necessary, a toward persecution and flight? Or were they instead tempting of fate may even be rash, but when flight motivated by a tactical shift for political and apologetic becomes impossible, the Christian bravely meets death reasons? Following this line of analysis, Alvyn at the persecutor’s hand. Pettersen, has suggested that the Apologia de Fuga repre- Athanasius’s version of Christian comportment in sented a significant shift in Athanasius’s views on

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 5 ARTICLES

whether or not flight was permissible in the face of Platonic conception that preferred a long gradual pro- martyrdom or persecutions.8 Pettersen cites several cess of self-development rather than immediate death as earlier Athanasian works to support the assertion that a means of effecting union with God.11 In this general Athanasius — in an effort to dispel charges or coward- intellectual environment, many would have been re- ice — abruptly shifted from a pro-martyrdom/anti- ceptive to Athanasius’s “sudden” pro-flight argument. flight position to a more pro-flight perspective. This All that was needed, then, was a catalytic event — claim by Pettersen that Athanasius performed an abrupt Athanasius’s flight in 357 from Arian harassment — to theological shift, I refer to as the thesis of the goad him into changing his mind on this question. Add Athanasian turn. It will be argued here, that Pettersen’s to this the fact that his flight was being ridiculed by the thesis of the Athanasian turn is based on both an in- opposition as an act of base cowardice and weakness of complete analysis and a misapplication of Athanasius’s Christian virtue, and one had all the motive one earlier works in which the apologist seemed to extol needed to effect such a dramatic volte face. This, the virtues of martyrdom to the exclusion of those of coupled with the opportunity to carry it off, given the flight. In addition, the thesis ignores certain key works larger influence of Hellenistic theology with its empha- altogether, most particularly Athanasius’s Encyclical sis on allegorical rather than literal scriptural interpreta- Letter of 342 A.D. written during the occasion of his tion, provided Athanasius a context in which to effect second exile. It will be argued, too, that the political his turn. (It must be noted, however, that Athanasius character of Athanasius’s position and his personality was not a thorough-going proponent of Hellenistic must be ignored to fully embrace the thesis that he theology). performed a volte face on the issue of flight. In short, the Central, then, to Pettersen’s argument is that politically charged nature of Athanasius’s ministry from Athanasius, as evidenced by his own writings, was an his earliest ascension to the espicopate, must be opponent of flight in face of martyrdom until 357, on weighed in the balance with his theological, pastoral, the occasion of his third exile. A secondary argument is and hagiographic writings in order to demonstrate with that his shift toward a pro-flight perspective occurred any confidence that he abruptly converted from a pro- mainly as a result of his flight from the Arians in 357. If martyrdom to a pro-flight theology. A close examina- Athanasius held a view of flight as permissible before tion of the evidence suggests that the thesis of the 357 A.D., or if he at least did not disallow flight, then Athanasian turn cannot be sustained, as will be demon- the idea that he changed his mind is untenable. It may strated below. well be that his writing of the Apologia de Fuga was motivated at least in part by the political circumstances II and reputational factors surrounding his flight from Arian persecution, but such an admission can be made even as one refutes the contention that Athanasius ettersen, often noting the limited ways in changed his mind abruptly regarding the permissibility which his evidence can be employed to of flight. the task, argues that the earlier works of Athanasius, including his De Incarnatione (318 A.D.), Festal Letter 13 (341 A.D.) and III DeP Vita Antoni (356-57 A.D.) differ significantly from the Apologia de Fuga (357 A.D.) in their treatment of ettersen’s argument concerning the Christian comportment in the face of persecution and Athanasian turn can be refuted by 1) as martyrdom.9 The latter, he suggests, is much more sessing the quality of evidence in the temporal rather than other-worldly in focus, and thus works cited in support of Athanasius’s marks an abrupt departure from Athanasius’s earlier presumed anti-flight position; 2) consulting works. In addition, Pettersen asserts that the early otherP earlier works that underscore and pre-date argu- works “presuppose that one ought not to flee, whereas ments Athanasius made in the Apologia de Fuga, and; De Fuga Sua allows for flight in certain circum- 3) accounting for the political as well as the ecclesiasti- stances.”10 cal nature of Athanasius’s ministry. Pettersen also notes that there existed in Egypt by Pettersen relies, as noted above, on three primary the mid-fourth century a growing Hellenistic, neo- sources to develop the thesis that Athanasius opposed

6 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 flight until his third exile. The first of these sources, De because he did not positively mention it as an option Incarnatione, was written by Athanasius before he and because he only mentioned resistance to persecu- attained the age of twenty and a full decade before he tion, trials, and tribulations. That Athanasius may have assumed the bishopric of Alexandria. It is a theological viewed persecution as a trial or tribulation must be treatise that only tangentially can be viewed as an apol- discounted if one is to pursue an argument from ogy for martyrdom. It is in no way a systematic treat- silence, even though in those works where Athanasius ment of either martyrdom or of flight, and even where does argue for flight he characterized it as a trial and the virtues of the martyr are extolled there is no posi- tribulation far greater than death itself.14 Festal Letter 13 tive prohibition of flight.12 An exhortation on the is, then, not a reliable source of Athanasius’s views on wonderfulness of martyrdom is not an equivalent, in the subject of flight in time of persecution. Indeed, it any case, to a condemnation of flight. One can admire does not help us very much at all. However, written as the courage of the martyr without condemning the it was by someone who had fled, its utility for proving refugee. Indeed, one paragraph alone in De Incarnatione that Athanasius supported martyrdom instead of flight is is devoted to the witness of martyrs to the victory of even further undermined. Christ over death, and it is the latter sense that gives The final source cited by Pettersen, Vita Antoni, purpose to a discussion of the martyrs in a work that is is a bit more problematical, if only because Pettersen otherwise unconcerned with martyrs as such. claims that it was written only months prior to But Pettersen does not rely solely on De Athanasius’s third exile and to the subsequent writing Incarnatione to build his thesis. Rather it is cited as an of Apologia de Fuga, thus leaving the appearance at least earlier view that finds later expression in Athanasius’s of a very abrupt shift of opinion. It should be noted Festal Letter 13 of 341 A.D. and his Vita Antoni of 356- that some doubt exists as to the actual time at which 357 A.D. These later works, Pettersen contends, estab- Vita Antoni was written, and it is conceivable that the lish clearly Athanasius’s “other-worldly view” concern- Apologia de Fuga may actually have predated it.15 In any ing martyrdom in face of persecution. Indeed, the case, that Athanasius in this work praised St. Antony’s Festal Letter 13, written during Athanasius’s second defiant challenge of the persecuting authorities is exile and first flight from Alexandria (note that beyond doubt. That Athanasius held Antony up as a Athanasius first was formally banished by Constantine’s model for Christian emulation is also true. That the imperial decree and hence did not flee from Alexandria Vita is full of an admiration for the other-worldly on that occasion, unlike his second exile which was serenity of Antony is also true. However, it is also true precipitated by Arian harassment and persecution, not that this very first of all hagiographic works was fore- by imperial edict) exhibited a good deal of long-dis- most a biography. Athanasius might extol Antony’s tance pastoral concern for the well-being of the virtue and courage in the face of the Maximinian per- Alexandrian flock. It was also an exhortation to observe secution without condemning others for taking a less Easter in the face of Arian harass- heroic and defiant stance in pursuit ment. It did, indeed, speak of the of Christian virtue. As with the other need to resist Arian decrees, to sub- Athanasius might extol two previously cited works, one mit patiently to the trials and afflic- Antony’s virtue and must leap to a conclusion without tions of persecution. But nowhere in hard evidence that Athanasius, by this letter did Athanasius argue courage in the face of praising Antony’s defiance in face of against flight as a matter of principle. the Maximinian persecution, intends to indict those It is at once a pastoral letter, a conso- who would flee or shrink from open lation, and a call to resistance. All it persecution without defiance. Moreover, it is instructive called for, as Pettersen admits, was condemning others for to note that Antony was approaching for constancy in Christian faith.13 In the age of sixty at the time he dis- short, one must read into the text of taking a less heroic and played this courage, and that despite this letter the notion of a latent op- defiant stance in pur- his impertinence to authorities, he position to flight. One must rely on was allowed to withdraw and did an argument from silence: namely, suit of Christian virtue. willingly withdraw from the scene of that Athanasius disapproved of flight persecution to the serenity of the

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 7 ARTICLES

desert where he lived to the ripe old one may physically leave a city where age of one-hundred five. Clearly, the One may of course iniquity prevails. Flight from iniquity, Vita is not one of Athanasius’s po- whichever way it is effected, is a duty lemical works, nor is he preoccupied depart iniquity in spirit for the Christian — and it is not clear in it with the issue of martyrdom or or one may physically from the works we have so far con- of flight. sulted that Athanasius preferred one of What we have, then, are at best leave a city where the two options for flight from iniq- three dubious sources from which to iniquity prevails. uity over the other. make an argument that Athanasius Athanasius’s festal letters as a opposed flight as a permissible option whole can be taken as an indictment for Christians facing persecution or martyrdom. of persecution, just as Apologia de Fuga echoes a similar Pettersen recognizes the difficulty in this, and even refrain. They honored the persecuted, and consoled discusses the weaknesses of these sources, but neverthe- them. But they did not present an unmitigated argu- less, concludes that the “other-worldly stress” of the ment against flight as an alternative to martyrdom. In- previous works stands in stark opposition to the tempo- deed, as we will see below, such an argument runs ral focus of Apologia de Fuga, where flight is clearly counter to other writings of Athanasius that substantially sanctioned by Athanasius. Pettersen concludes that predate the Apologia de Fuga. despite their limitations these sources stand in abrupt contrast to the pro-flight stance taken by Athanasius in IV the Apologia de Fuga. The theology has taken for Pettersen too radical a turn to be ignored. But has it really? Referring to several of the festal f all one could advert to in order to decide the letters, themselves, we find that Athanasius entertained question whether Athanasius performed a theo a variety of notions about how the persecuted might logical about-face in 357 were the evidence deal with persecution. In Festal Letter 10, while point- cited by Pettersen, a real debate would exist ing on one hand to Christ’s submissiveness even unto from grounds of uncertainty and a legitimate death at the hands of his persecutors, Athanasius also differenceI of views could be sustained by those who cited with approval the example of the Hebrews under would prefer to support or oppose the thesis of the Moses, who, in contrast, fled from their Egyptian per- Athanasian turn. But the telling fact that turns the tide secutors and won the eternal rewards under divine indisputably against Pettersen’s thesis is that Athanasius protection: did write prior to 357 explicitly about flight in ways that he later more fully developed in Apologia de Fuga. We may take as a type of this distinction the departure of Pettersen does not cite this evidence, most importantly the children of Israel and the Egyptian from Egypt. For Athanasius’s Encyclical Letter To Bishops Throughout the the Egyptians, rejoicing a little while in their injustice World of 339 A.D., written in haste during his first flight against Israel, when they went forth, were all drowned in (and second exile) from Alexandria.19 It is worth noting the deep, but the people of God, being for a time smitten that this document was written some two years before and injured, by the conduct of the taskmaster, when they Festal Letter 13 which Pettersen cites as evidence of the came out of Egypt, passed through the sea unharmed, Athanasian turn. 16 and walked into the wilderness as an inhabited place. Written a full eighteen years prior to Apologia de In the long run, the persecuted not the persecutors Fuga, the Encyclical Letter is not only a political indict- were rewarded with a promised land, and it was a land ment of the Arian cause, but a preview of the theologi- attained by flight. cal arguments Athanasius later systematically articulated Nor is flight something that can separate the Chris- in Apologia de Fuga. In it, Athanasius invoked Matthew tian community for “no place can separate us, but the 10:23, arguing that he, being persecuted in one city fled Lord gathers and unites us together.”17 In Festal Letter into the next, so that in doing so he might mitigate 11, Athanasius, citing Exodus (viii, 26) again, as well as Arian anger against the body of Christians by removing Corinthians (vi, 17), stipulates that it is right to depart himself from the center of controversy. He argued that from the wicked, to go far away from iniquity and seek his flight was providentially assisted and that it promised virtue.18 One may of course depart iniquity in spirit or to reduce bloodshed against Christians. Still, as

8 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 Athanasius noted, the Arians persisted in harassment of tactically choose to flee rather than meet an untimely Catholics. He even observed, without judgment, that death. He stated on more than one occasion that he “the people who condemn the impiety of the Arian knew full well that his Arian antagonists would love to heretics choose rather to be sick [alienated, that is, from get him and slake their thirst for revenge with his blood. fellowship with one another] and to run the risk than He was, in a very real sense, the centerpiece, the key- that the hand of the Arians should come upon their stone of Orthodox resistance to Arianism in the East. His heads.20 Athanasius, far from condemning passive resis- death, even by martyrdom, in this crucial period, might tance to Arian authority, condemned the persecutors have spelled defeat for the Nicene cause. He clearly for their coercion of Catholics. He, in turn, like the would not give to his opponents what they wanted “monument of iniquity” he later referred to in Apologia dearly — his own head. Athanasius articulates such an de Fuga, survived by God’s grace to escape and “to understanding in both the Encyclical Letter of 339 and relate these few particulars concerning their [Arian] later in the Apologia de Fuga. In the latter he articulated a conduct.”21 justification for flight that any Christian might embrace Several themes, then, of both a political and theo- without the slightest sense of being inferior to the mar- logical nature appear in the Encyclical Letter that later so tyr, or weak in faith. In it, we see the real Athanasius clearly make their way into the Apologia de Fuga: 1) standing up: for flight in face of persecution and for Matthew 10:23, is cited to justify Athanasius’s flight; 2) brave martyrdom when resistance or flight is no longer Athanasius articulates an uncompromising condemna- possible. Pettersen, in his accurate treatment of the con- tion of persecution as evil; 3) Athanasius tolerates pas- tent of Apologia de Fuga, illustrates the power and force sive Christian responses in face of persecution; 4) his of the argument in this remarkable document.22 In it, own flight emerges as a symbol, a monument, to the both the political savoir faire and theological virtuosity of iniquity of persecution, and; 5) providential acts are Athanasius are displayed. cited as assisting the escapee in flight. This is not the writing of a man who opposes flight, but of one who V seeks to justify it both as a form of resistance to persecu- tion and as a scripturally permissible means of Christian witness. he above analysis suggests clearly that The Apologia de Fuga, written eighteen years later Athanasius was at no time an opponent may be a more articulate and systematic treatment of of flight as a means of avoiding persecu- the subject of flight, but it manifestly is not the first tion. This is not to say that he opposed time Athanasius wrote on the subject. This fact alone martyrdom either. Rather, what we have should be sufficient to convince the undecided that inT Athanasius is a person who could admire both martyrs Athanasius made no abrupt turn in his thinking on this and refugees as Christian witnesses, just as he could ad- subject in 357, since as early as 339 he had already mire the life of an ascetic, such and Antony, while him- served notice of his real thinking on the matter. self living a life full of active public service in the Without entering any more deeply into the recent troubled and strife-torn See of Alexandria. One might hotly contested debate in Athanasian scholarship re- extol a martyr or an ascetic without actively courting garding the saint’s character, it is important to reem- martyrdom or becoming a hermit. So it was with phasize the political side of Athanasius’s ministry. From Athanasius. There is no inconsistency here. Indeed, the the beginning of Athanasius’s episcopate, controversy role of the Christian was to bear witness to the truth of ensued, first over whether he had attained the requisite their faith and to stay true to its central tenets. age for episcopacy. The growth of the Arian, Miletian, For Athanasius, seasonable flight from persecution and Manichean sects constantly divided his See. His was preferable to tempting fate, however. The trials and festal letters show a growing awareness of the Arian tribulations of flight in the mean time could help to menace. A staunch advocate of the Nicene Creed, temper Christian virtues. Perseverance in the face of the Athanasius was a tireless opponent of heretical doctrine. trials of flight could be a great boon to the development He was an active political force. It should come, then, of the Christian soul. In fleeing from unseasonable death, as no surprise that Athanasius would not only castigate Athanasius observed that the Christian mimics the ex- his persecutors for their iniquity, but that he should ample and takes the advice of Christ and of the patriarchs and apostles. Flight is no ignominious thing, but rather a

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 9 ARTICLES hard fate to be borne in a spirit of Christian fortitude. debunked in recent years. Although perhaps less dam- These notions are not the result of a sudden revela- aging to his reputation, the claim that Athanasius sud- tion in 357 A.D. They were the outgrowth of a life denly turned round to embrace flight from persecution spent in the personal experience of exile and flight. as against martyrdom, and that he wrote the Apologia de The evidence does not support the view that Fuga in hypocritical defense of his cowardice also needs Athanasius harbored a secret distaste for flight for years to be plainly rejected as yet another false assertion only to reverse himself after his third exile so as to among the many that have been leveled at the great justify an hypocrisy. Indeed, Athanasius was anxious to defender of the faith. ✠ answer the charges of cowardice leveled at him by the Arians and, in the Apologia de Fuga, he does so with Endnotes great force and eloquence. But Athanasius was defi- 1 In this connection see, Richard P. C. Hanson, The Search for a Christian Doctrine of God: Arian Controversy, 318-381 A.D. (Edinburgh, T. & T. nitely not motivated by a desire to justify a sudden Clark, 1988), and; Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cam- theological shift, for indeed, he never contended that bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), especially at pp. 230-31. flight was impermissible to Christians. Moreover, he 2 Duane Arnold. The Early Episcopal Career of Athanasius of Alexandria castigated persecutors and extolled the virtue and pru- (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991). dence of flight as an alternative to martyrdom. Evi- 3 Athanasius, Apologia de Fuga in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds. Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (hereinafter NPNF). Vol. dence for this is found not only in the Encyclical Letter of 4. Second series. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1957), p. 339, but also in occasional festal letters from 338 to 263. For a slightly different translation see: Library of the Fathers of the Holy 348. Indeed, in these festal letters, one detects a bal- Catholic Church (hereinafter LOP). Vol. 13, (London: Walter Smith, 1885), pp. 204-205. anced mixture of calls for steadfastness in the face of 4 See Cyprian, “Preface to the Treatises of Cyprian,” in LOF, Vol. 3 persecution, bowing to tormenters, and Old Testament (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1840). references to delivering oneself from evil by fleeing 5 Eusebius, The History of the Church (New York: Penguin, 1989), pp. 68, from it. 213-214. In the Apologia de Fuga, Athanasius’s theory of 6 Tertullian, “Fight in Time of Persecution,” translated by Edwin Quain, Christian comportment in flight from persecution S.J. In The Fathers of the Church (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959), pp. 275-307. The seventy of Tertullian’s position in this work is not comes to full fruition. The argument presented there found in his earlier pre-Montanist position which tolerated flight. See was a compelling, beautifully expressed, and systemati- Tertullian “Of Patience,” LDF Vol. 10. (London: Walter Smith, 1885a) and cally mature one, and it is far from a retraction of ear- his “First Book to His Wife,” Ibid. lier views. It is, rather, a drawing together of various 7 St. Cyprian, Epistle 20, translated by Sister Rose Bernard Donna C.S.J. in The Fathers of the Church Vol. 51 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of strands, stated in great clarity and precision. It is the America Press), pp. 53-55. fullest and most complete statement Athanasius gives us 8 Alvyn Pettersen, “To Flee or not to Flee: An Assessment of Athanasius’ on persecution, flight, and martyrdom. It represents not De Fuga Sua,”’ Studies in Church History Vol. 21 (1984): 38-39. a turn, but an insightful completion of earlier 9 Ibid., pp. 30 & 38. Athanasian notions that finally crystallized during the 10 Ibid., p. 38. dangerous days of his third exile when once again the 11 Ibid., pp. 40-41. integrity of the Catholic faith hung by a precarious 12 Athanasius, De Incarnatione Verbi Dei translated by Sister Penelope thread exposed to the scissors of Arian partisans. Pro- Lawson, C.S.M.V. (New York: Macmillan, 1981), pp. 35-67, especially at voked by the threat not only to himself, but to the faith p. 44. 13 he held so dearly, Athanasius was compelled to answer Pettersen, “To Flee or Not to Flee,” p. 30. 14 the Arians, not only to disprove charges of cowardice, Apologia de Fuga, (in LOF), pp. 200-201. but to place the blame for persecution on its perpetra- 15 See the Preface to Vita Antoni in NPNF, Vol.4., p. 188. tors, rather than on its victims. In so doing he did not 16 Athanasius, Festal Letter 10, in Ibid., p. 531. turn a new leaf, but rather took many a leaf out of his 17 Ibid., p. 528. previous works and fashioned an even more powerful 18 Athanasius, Festal Letter 11, Ibid., p. 536. defense for flight than he had hitherto had reason or 19 Athanasius, Encyclical Letter, in LOF, Vol. 13 (London: Walter Smith, opportunity to construct. 1885), p. 9. 20 Revisionist treatments of Athanasius and his works Ibid. 21 have done the saint serious injustice during our current Ibid, p. 8. age of skepticism. Thankfully, the more outrageous 22 For another treatment in addition to Pettersen’s exegesis of the Apologia de Fuga, see Robert F. Gorman, “Persecution and Exile in the Patristic attempts at character assassination have been soundly Period: Athanasian and Augustinian Perspectives,” Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 6, no. 1, (1993): 40-55.

10 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 and Eugene Kevane, Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Contemporary Christian Philosophy (1988). My approach was rather to actually expound that Interpretations of philosophy, trying to avoid the two extremes of over- simplification and over-complication: neither evading the objective depth and range of the philosophical Christian Philosophy questions, nor complicating the obvious and thus blocking the insights into reality by excessive analyses A lecture given at Naga City by that miss the wood for the trees. I took for granted the Fr. Joseph M.de Torre, on Feb. 24, 1996 affirmative answers to the following two questions: “Is a Christian philosophy possible?” and “Does a Chris- tian Philosophy actually exist?” And I concentrated Is there such thing as my effort on the actual exposition of that philosophy, a Christian philosophy? hoping to prove the pie in the eating, that is, showing the power of that philosophy to transform man and et me first define my terms as precisely as society. possible, as I learned from my alma mater, By Christian philosophy I understood (a) the body the Pontifical University of St. Thomas of philosophical and scientific insights, both theoretical Aquinas in Rome, popularly known as the and practical, accumulated by Christian thinkers — Angelicum, where I took my doctorate in theologians, philosophers, poets, historians, artists, LPhilosophy in 1953. statesmen, dramatists and scientists — in twenty centu- The concept of “Christian Philosophy” has under- ries of Judeo-Christian tradition of divine revelation, gone heated polemics in our century, being criticized under the guidance of the teaching authority or by both Catholics and non-Catholics as being non- Magisterium of the Church centered in the Papacy; existent, since what passes for Christian philosophy, and (b) the methodology of scientific and philosophical according to these critics, is in reality Christian theology, enquiry, based on the most rigorous and objective laws that is, an effort to rationalize the Christian faith, mak- of the natural logic of the human mind, as part of ing the rational or philosophical argum ents conform Judeo-Christianity’s full adherence to an unquestioned to an already accepted conclusion dictated by faith. For epistemological realism. example, Heidegger would maintain that such kind of No less than Pope Leo XIII, an outstanding phi- arguing is not a free enquiry into the truth of reality, losopher in his own right, employed the expression and therefore not “philosophy” but theology. Some “Christian philosophy” in the subtitle of his Encyclical prominent Catholic philosophers of the School of Aeterni Patris of 1879, which he considered the most Louvain have also supported this view. basic and programmatic document of his crucial pon- On the opposite side, perhaps the most persuasive tificate. The subtitle was “On the restoration of Chris- champion of the “existence” of Christian philosophy tian Philosophy in Catholic Schools.” He therein and of its right to exist has been the maintained that all the events that late Etienne Gilson, with the full take place in society, for good or ill, support of another outstanding In my book Christian are hatched in the classrooms of phi- Thomist philosopher of our age, the Philosophy (1980), losophy. In other words, ideas rule late Jacques Maritain, as well as the the world. phenomenologist Dietrich von I purposely distanced I have already on many occa- Hildebrand, and many others. myself from such sions discussed the effective power of In my book Christian Philosophy Christian philosophy to transform (1980), I purposely distanced myself controversies, which man and society. I wish now to point from such controversies, which raged raged particularly in to several areas of world culture and particularly in the 1930s. These were civilization where this influence has thoroughly documented in the out- the 1930s. had distinctive effects historically standing work of Ronda Chervin detectable and verifiable.

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Admittedly, this influence of Christian philosophy philosophy that has shaped world civilization. The in society, in individuals and in the world of culture present Pope, acknowledged world-wide as the most has occurred under the guidance of Christian theology. outstanding philosopher of our age, has made the cen- But this fact does not disqualify it as a genuine and real trality of Christian Philosophy one of the capital themes “philosophy,” that is, as a free rational enquiry into of his pontificate, especially in the social teaching of the reality, since the Christian theologian must make a full Church on the dignity of the human person, the pri- use of his rational philosophy and logic in order to macy of the family, and the function of the state with articulate his theology. Nay, theology is nothing but regard to the common good, as a basis for ecumenical the rational effort to understand the faith in divine and inter-religious dialogue. revelation, as the well-known Augustinian formula put Let us now examine the actual historical application it: “faith seeking understanding.” So, faith holds the of Christian philosophy to the most central areas of primacy, but reason both precedes it and follows it. culture and civilization, namely science and technology; Philosophical enquiry begins always with questions. economics; political institutions; and the creative arts. St. Thomas Aquinas, theologian and philosopher, al- ways begins the articles of his Summa theologiae with the Science and Technology enquiring term Utrum (whether). He wrote the latter for Christians, using philosophy as a tool for theology he scientific and technological break to be a blend or synthesis of faith and reason. But in his through took place in 16th century earlier work — Summa contra Gentiles, seu de Veritate Christian Europe, coinciding with the Catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium — he was address- European evangelization and coloniza- ing not Christians but “gentiles,” and so his starting tion of the American continent. But this point and method for every question had to be per- breakthrough,T which has accelerated at a bewildering force philosophical so that philosophy in this case was pace ever since, did not occur out of the blue. It was the used rather as a pathway than a tool. Of course his consequence of the philosophy of science elaborated by philosophy was “Christian” in so far as he himself was a the early 13th century universities founded by the Christian theologian, but it was thereby no less a real Church, in Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Naples, Padua, philosophy, appealing to experience and using rational Cambridge, Cologne, Salamanca, etc., etc., as has been discourse, that is, based on objective evidence and brilliantly demonstrated by Pierre Duhem and Stanley logical demonstration, both inductive and deductive, Jaki, among others. or, as he would put it, a posteriori and a priori. The congenital and thorough epistemological real- It is precisely this philosophy utilized by Christian ism of Christian philosophy led St. Thomas Aquinas, theologians that has had an obvious and far-reaching right in the middle of the 13th century, to describe the impact on man and society, on Western civilization three levels of the mind’s penetration into reality as (1) and culture, and thereby on world culture and civiliza- the abstraction of essences from sensible bodies; (2) the tion. It is actually the Judeo-Christian tradition with its abstraction of pure quantity from them; and (3) the distinctive philosophy that has given the edge to the intellectual grasp of universal being in everything (the Western world in leading the world civilization, not famous esse or actus essendi of St. Thomas Aquinas). any alleged genetic or racial superiority, whose com- Here was the seed of the scientific breakthrough. By plete falsehood has been thoroughly demonstrated by joining (2) and (1), namely mathematical physics, the sound philosophy and modern science, and resolutely scientific method crystallized, namely the golden rules rejected by sound theology. Racism is utterly absurd, of (a) empirical observation, (b) experiment, and (c) so that the evident superiority of Western culture can quantification. only be the effect of its distinctive religion, namely the Some theologians then began to apply this method, Judeo-Christian tradition. such as Roger Bacon, Albert the Great, Robert That this tradition has actually shaped European Grosseteste, Alfred of Saxony, John Buridan and civilization and thereby world civilization led Cardinal Nicholas Oresme, with remarkable discoveries in all the Newman in his Idea of a University (1850) to propose fields of physics, later on acknowledged by no less than that Christian theology should be the core subject of Newton, who said that “we stand on the shoulders of the liberal arts curriculum, so as to contextualize the giants.”

12 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 The Thomistic method was the theologians in the 16th century, spe- real cause of the scientific break The real creators of cifically at the Spanish schools of through, not the method advocated Salamanca, Seville, Valencia, by Francis Bacon, or that of Rene the scientific break Barcelona, Alcala, Pamplona, etc. to Descartes (both in the 17th century), through, such as look into both the political and eco- since the latter reduced it to math- nomic issues arising from the Ameri- ematical deduction (mistrusting ob- Leonardo da Vinci, can conquest. servation and experiment), and the Copernicus, Galileo Some of these theologians, like former reduced it to pure observation Mercado, Molina, Medina, and experiment, excluding math- and Kepler, and, of Azpilcueta and others, went into a ematics. The real creators of the sci- course, Newton, fol- thorough examination of the tradi- entific break through, such as tional Aristotelian economic con- Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, lowed the three golden cepts, such as the nature of money, Galileo and Kepler, and, of course, rules formulated by St. price, exchange, value, usury, etc., as Newton, followed the three golden well as the assumption that the only rules formulated by St. Thomas Thomas Aquinas. source of wealth is land and labor. Aquinas, ignoring the philosophical Money, as a medium of exchange, controversies between rationalists and and materialized in precious metals, empiricists, as well as gradually purging science of all was considered as a dead wealth. Those theologians magic, superstition and mythology. The technological discovered the “living” nature of money, capable of revolutions logically and historically following the sci- “growing” by means of investment in productive enter- entific breakthrough of the 16th revolution century are prise in a free market, and the charge of an interest on still dazzling our imagination and making us dream of a loans (as distinct from abusive usury), with the develop- cosmic colonization of outer space by humanity. ment of credit facilities and freedom of enterprise and trade. These ideas paved the way for the economic, The Economic Revolution commercial, agricultural and industrial revolution of the 18th century, pioneered by Britain, scientifically articu- conomic mercantilism, based on the pres- lated by Adam Smith, and brought to its full flowering ervation of a limited zero-sum of material in the United States of America. In his famous Wealth of wealth and a royal absolutism owning and Nations (1776), Adam Smith proved that the decline of controlling the economy, an economy the Spanish empire was due to its adherence to mercan- based on slavery or forced labor, popula- tilism, in spite of the pioneering work of Spain’s theolo- tionE control and wars of territorial expansion, had gians, while the rise of the British empire was due to plunged humanity since time immemorial into a the expansion of free trade and free enterprise. chronic state of poverty, disease, tyranny and oppres- Karl Marx and many other socialists, always dream- sion. The great Aristotle, in spite of his remarkable ing of the collectivist utopia organized from the top, insights in the field of metaphysics and ethics, actually painted a somber picture of the “capitalism” resulting contributed to the rationalization of a static economy from the economic revolution (from a static to a dy- based on slavery and population control through the namic economy), and aimed at suppressing individual practice of abortion. Throughout the early Christian freedom and the right to private ownership. But the centuries the Church, thoroughly engaged in the work dramatic rise of Western peoples from the abyss of pov- of evangelization, and constantly harassed by Barbarian erty and tyranny to the modern wealthy and democratic invasions and Islamic aggression, could do nothing but state bears historical evidence of the power of capitalism endeavoring to “humanize” the evils of slavery, tyr- to lift people up from poverty, if they are free and en- anny and war, thus preparing the ground for the emer- terprising. That evils have multiplied together with the gence of modern democracy. But the new economic achievements is not due to the economic revolution or order brought about by the American conquest in the the capitalist system as such, but to the quality of moral wake of the Renaissance, with its emphasis on the and cultural standards accepted by society. creativity of the human person, prompted Christian

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The Human Rights Revolution America of their life, liberty or property. When Vitoria died in 1546 (the same year as s mentioned above, the 16th century Luther) the Council of Trent had just begun, and un- Spanish theologians, notably Antonio der the influence of Vitoria and his followers, such as Montesinos, Bartolomé de Las Casas Cano, Soto, Layuez and others, the Council Fathers and, above all, Francisco de Vitoria, reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine of the fundamental took an early interest in the plight of the equality of all men based on the opening of salvation to nativeA peoples conquered by Spain and Portugal in all, against both Protestant elitism (only the “predes- America. The conquest of Mexico was completed in tined” are saved) and the claim of racial superiority of 1521 and that of Peru in 1531. It was precisely in De- the Iberian conquerors of America. cember of that year that the Virgin Mary appeared with Vitoria’s doctrine of ordered liberty under the law native Indian features to a poor local peasant close to — a constitution based on the natural law, not on the Mexico City, telling him that she was also his Mother. arbitrary will of a ruler, of an oligarchy or of a major- This signified the fundamental equality of all races ity, while adopted by the American Constitution, was before God, deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition. not adopted by the French Revolution, which opted Meanwhile, in Salamanca, Francisco de Vitoria, rather for an individualism inspired by the Enlighten- having been briefed by Bartolomé de Las Casas regard- ment, which put political power in the people’s will ing the unjust treatment of the natives by Spanish colo- rather than in the natural law known through reason. nizers, launched on a series of electrifying lectures, The French Revolution left God out of the picture, drawing huge crowds, in which, basing himself on the with the well known disastrous consequences, while teachings of Aquinas, he laid the foundations of mod- the American Declaration of Independence spoke of ern democracy and international law (this is why the man’s God-given rights. United Nations Organization, with its “Universal Dec- laration of Human Rights,” considered Vitoria as its Christian Philosophy precursor). Going right against the prevalent public and and the Arts “official” opinion in Spain at that time, with Emperor Charles V at the height of his power, Vitoria demon- inally, Christian philosophy’s unrivalled strated the truth, later enshrined in the American Decla- pursuit of beauty as the most comprehen- ration of Independence (1776), that all men are created sive transcendental property of a reality equal, with God-given unalienable rights, among created by a God who is Being Itself (idsum which are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of esse subsistens) spawned through the centu- happiness, thus proclaiming the sovereignty of the Fries an astonishing proliferation of aesthetic expressions, people, without whose consent under the law no one with a stunning blend of humanity and divinity, as can has the right to rule. The drafter of the American Dec- be seen, for instance, in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, laration, Thomas Jefferson, took it directly from En- and innumerable works of literature, poetry, song, glish philosopher John Locke, who in his turn took it music, painting, sculpture and architecture, and even in from Scholastic philosophers at Oxford, followers of choreography and, more recently, in cinematography. Vitoria, Soto, Molina, Suarez, Bellarmine and others, as For literature alone, the monumental multi-vol- well as the Anglican Richard Hooker, also a follower ume work of Charles Moeler, Literature du XXe siècle et of Vitoria. This tradition of Vitoria on human rights Christianisme, has provided an impressive review of and international law was also transmitted on the Euro- 20th century literature inspired by Christianity. And as pean continent by Bodin, Grotius, Pufendorf, Leibniz for music and song, the sublime melodies of Gregorian and Kant, reaching up to our time and enlivening the Chant and the unsurpassed compositions of Mozart and world-wide movement of democracy and liberty. Beethoven, among many others, witness to the force of But still in Vitoria’s lifetime Pope Paul III, Christian philosophy to enliven and transform culture prompted by Vitoria’s teachings which he endorsed and civilization. fully, issued two decrees of excommunication in 1537 against those who would deprive the natives in

14 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 The Matrix of Culture Modernism and the n conclusion, we can say that the Christian philosophy flowing from the Judeo-Christian “Tail of the Devil” tradition and guided by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church furnished the cultural matrix by Raymond B. Marcin and inspiring force for a universal philosophy andI civilization of order, peace and progress, issuing n October 13, 1977, toward the very from the West as the geographical location where that end of his papacy, just a few months tradition took root first. That all the evils that afflict the before his death, Pope Paul VI — the world today also come from the West can be explained pope of the Vatican II Council — the by the Scholastic maxim that “the corruption of the pope of the Great Renewal within best is the worst” (corruptio optimi pessim). Othe Catholic Church — made a curious public state- But one thing is clear: that Christian philosophy, ment. He told the world — and these are his words: inspired by Christian theology, is an indispensable in- The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of strument for the Church to evangelize the world. This the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered philosophy, deeply imbued with epistemological real- and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its ism, presents (a) the human person in all his dignity summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading rooted in his capacity to transcend himself infinitely throughout the world and into the highest levels within the through knowledge and love; (b) the monogamous Church. [1] family as the natural breeding and nurturing ground of Strange, almost apocalyptic, language. The darkness of that transcendence; and (c) the state as the servant of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic the common good through its protection of rights: Church — even to its summit. Apostasy is spreading into individual rights, family rights, group rights and na- the highest levels within the Church. What could Pope tional rights. Paul VI have meant? Is the devil fomenting a problem At any rate, Christian philosophy on the person, of apostasy at “the highest levels within the Church?” the family and the state (the social teaching of the Do we even believe in the reality of the devil in these Catholic Church) proved decisive in the making of contemporary times? That very question — the fact modern democratic and freedom-loving institutions. that some of us have ceased to believe in the devil in And it has provided a “public philosophy” (as the any operative sense — might be an example of what present Pope has repeatedly stated) for a universal in- Pope Paul VI was warning us about. Yes, the devil is ter-religious and democratic dialogue of peace and real — so says the Holy Father — and the devil is at ✠ brotherhood. work in what we see all around us. What the Holy Naga City, February 24, 1996 Father has referred to as “the disintegration of the Catholic world” is also real, and according to the Holy Father it is the work of that very real devil. What we ordinary Catholics may not see all around us is the spreading of “the darkness of Satan” to the summit of the Catholic Church and of apostasy into the highest levels within the Church. But the Holy Father has told us that that is exactly what is occurring. Almost contemporaneously, a little more than three months before Pope Paul VI had uttered those apocalyptic words, Karol Cardinal Wojtila, the man
who was to become Pope John Paul II, proclaimed to a Cracow, Poland, audience on June 24, 1977: We find ourselves in the presence of the greatest con- frontation in history, the greatest mankind has ever had to confront. We are facing the final confrontation be-

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tween the Church and the Anti-Church, between the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is Gospel and the Anti-Gospel. [2] veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world (that is, Satan) has blinded the minds of the The final confrontation — the Church and the Anti- unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Church — the Gospel and the Anti-Gospel. Again, gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [8] apocalyptic language. What is the Anti-Church? What is the Anti-Gospel? Despite their ominous and porten- And as if He were talking to us today, lawyers and law tous implications, these are not difficult questions to students in the 1990s, Paul, under the inspiration of answer, as long we approach them responsibly. God, warned the Christians at Colossae to “[s]ee to it Catholic Christians, when faced with questions that no one deceives you by philosophy and vain about the Church and the Gospel it preaches, usually deceit, according to human traditions, according to take their lead from two sources, which are really one elements of the world and not according to Christ.” [9] source, because they cannot be in conflict — Divine Again, these sayings may seem counter-intuitive to Revelation and Divine Tradition as expounded by the Catholic lawyers and law students in the 1990s. We Magisterium of the Church. have to deal with the world — with human traditions. In the context of Divine Revelation the Holy We have to, as it were, get down and get dirty with Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, has given us some the problems of the world, and we have to solve those interesting insights into the notion of an Anti-Church problems in the context of a system that uses “the wis- and an Anti-Gospel. Paul wrote to the Christians at dom of the world.” And so we have a real dilemma as Corinth, advising them not to deceive themselves. lawyers and law students in the 1990s: We have to These are Paul’s words, written under the inspiration work in the world, and we have to use the wisdom of of God: “Let no man deceive himself; if any man the world, and yet we are warned by God Himself that among you seem to be wise in this world, let him be- the wisdom of the world is foolishness. come a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this The Vatican II Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the world is foolishness with God. [3] This is not an isolated Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, acknowl- statement in the bible. It is a scriptural theme. The edged the necessity of an interaction between the Holy Spirit, through Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures, Church and the world — but with a caution that those said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the who invoke “the spirit of Vatican II” often omit. The cleverness of theclever I will set aside.” (4) Similar discussion of the Church and the modern world in themes appear in the Book of Job [5], the Epistle of Gaudium et Spes began with this admonition: James [6], and the Psalms [7]. What is the wisdom of The whole of man’s history has been the story of our this world? Why is it “foolishness” in God’s sight? dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Why is it so in opposition to God’s wisdom that God Lord tells us [10], from the very dawn of history until wants it “destroyed?” It does not seem like much of a the last day. . . . Hence the Church of Christ, trusting stretch, in light of the Scripture quotes, to suggest that in the design of the creator and admitting that progress the wisdom of the world has something to do with can contribute to man’s true happiness, still feels called what Pope John Paul II called the AntiGospel. upon to echo the words of the apostle: “Do not be But that suggests a problem. Don’t we in the world conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2). [11] — especially we lawyers and law students who deal with worldly public policy and worldly conceptions of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Prefect of the justice on a daily basis — don’t we have to use the wis- Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, dom of the world? And yet in no uncertain terms God recently seemed to recognize our current dilemma, and has said that it’s all foolishness in His sight. And worse his solution to that dilemma is posed in the form of a than foolishness. It is the wisdom of Satan. Paul, under very interesting challenge. These are Cardinal the inspiration of God, also wrote these words to the Ratzinger’s words: Christians at Corinth: [O]n the part of many Catholics in recent years there [W]e refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s has been an unrestrained and unfiltered opening to the word; but by the open statement of the truth we com- world, that is to say, to the dominant modern mentality. mend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the

16 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 After the phase of indiscriminate often speak of today’s social milieu as “openness” it is time that the Chris- It is difficult to get a the “post-modernist” era. The terms tian reacquire the consciousness of “Modernism” and “post-modern- belonging to a minority and of often handle on the content ism”, are quite au courant in jurispru- being in opposition to what is obvi- dence and political philosophy today. ous, plausible and natural for that of Modernism in phi- [15] mentality which the New Testament losophy and theology, calls —and certainly not in a positive The interesting thing is that in sense — the “spirit of the world.” It precisely because of the context of the Magisterium, the is time to find again the courage of Church’s treasury of teaching on nonconformism, the capacity to op- what Modernism is faith and morals, Modernism has pose many of the trends of the sur- been and is still denounced as a her- rounding culture . . . . [12] esy. And the Modernism that has If Cardinal Ratzinger is urging caution and reticence in been denounced as a heresy is not unconnected with one’s attitude of openness to the world, he is certainly the modernism and post-modernism that is being being consistent with Divine Revelation. The Apostle talked about in jurisprudence and political philosophy John, under the inspiration of God, tells us: “Do not today. love the world . . . . If anyone loves the world, the From Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors, issued in love of the Father is not in him.” [13] We are all 1846, through Pope Saint Pius X’s Encyclical Pascendi familiar with the injunction that the Christian is called dominici gregis in 1907 to Pope Paul VI’s more contem- to be in the world but not of the world. What Cardinal porary post-Vatican II announcement that Modernism Ratzinger decries is not openness to the world per se, “is the most dangerous revolution the Church has ever but rather — to use the Cardinal’s words — “an unre- had to face and it is still scourging her severely” [16], strained and unfiltered” openness to the world. “Unfil- Modernism has been consistently condemned by the tered?” What “filter” might Cardinal Ratzinger have Magisterium as a heresy and as both a threat to and a in mind? The teachings of the Church, of course. perversion of the Catholic Faith. Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) makes a similar point: It is difficult to get a handle on the content of With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is the task of the Modernism in philosophy and theology, precisely whole people of God . . . to listen to and distinguish because of what Modernism is. Igino Giordani, the the many voices of our times and to interpret them in biographer of Pope Saint Pius X, explains the Modern- the light of the divine Word . . . . [14] ism of Pius X’s day in these words: “Modernism . . . consisted principally in a state of mind and way of life So — what does Divine Tradition as expounded that sought to make over Christianity, rationalistically by the Magisterium of the Church have to say about explaining away its difficulties to make the religion this “spirit of the world” — what Cardinal Ratzinger acceptable to the thinking of the day.” [17] Because refers to as the “dominant modern mentality?” What Modernism seeks to make “the thinking of the day” does the Magisterium have to say about modern and the criterion of religious “truth,” the content of mod- contemporary worldly wisdom? ernist thought will vary with “the thinking of the day.” It’s at this point that we begin our discussion of Indeed, at base, there can be no fixed religious truth in “Modernism,” because the Magisterium does have some- modernist thought. Modernism “changes with the age thing to say about the wisdom of the world, and its to conform to the age.” [18] pronouncements on that topic generally and perva- Modernism is what Cardinal Ratzinger was refer- sively have to do with the several papal condemnations ring to when he cautioned against an unrestrained and of something that has come to be called “Modernism.” unfiltered openness to the wisdom of the world “Modernism” is a term that is difficult to define but (which, according to God’s holy word, is foolishness in much easier to grasp. It is more of a “movement” than God’s sight). a set of fixed principles. The term “Modernism” is used Despite the diffusiveness of the term, there is a in art and architecture as well as in philosophy and history and an etiology to Modernism. Pope Paul VI theology. In jurisprudence and political philosophy we has suggested that Modernism’s origins lie in the

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Enlightenment and in the philosophies rampant around presents to us — then it is not surprising that things the time of the French Revolution. [19] No doubt the and events that are not part of the physical world — Church-bashing views of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, things like the soul, or God — will similarly be seen as and the other members of the Encyclopedist move- impositions of the structures of our minds. According ment had their influence on the development of mod- to Kant, “[t]he existence of the soul, its freedom and ernist thought within as well as without the Church. immortality, the existence of a world of objects outside Pope Saint Pius X, however, was more specific about of us, and the existence of God, are, of logical neces- the genesis of modernism. He saw it in the epistemo- sity, declared to be unknown and unknowable.” [22] logical system of the great Enlightenment philosopher It is not that the “world out there” and the soul and of Immanuel Kant. [20] God don’t exist; it is rather that we can’t really know those things as they truly are in themselves — objec- As those of us who struggled through college phi- tively. We can only know them subjectively, that is as losophy courses know, Immanuel Kant’s philosophy is recreations in and of our own minds. Again, it’s this somewhat obtuse and difficult. But it has been enor- thesis of Kant’s that has become the foundation stone mously influential. Kant is one of those pivotal figures of modern philosophy. It leads directly through the in the history of philosophy. Once he wrote his magna philosophy of Kant’s disciple Hegel [23] to the various opera philosophy was never the same again. All the forms of Pragmatism which are dominating philosophi- main strains of modern philosophy, including even cal, especially jurisprudential, thought today. And it some strains of modern natural law philosophy, are leads directly to the heart of the modernist heresy of filtered through the thought of Kant. And it is neces- Pope Saint Pius X’s day and the neo- or post- modern- sary, if we are to understand Modernism and “the spirit ist heresy of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II’s day. of the world” that we understand at least a little bit of The modernists of Pope Saint Pius X’s day adopted Kant’s philosophy. this Kantian doctrine regarding the non-objectivity of truth and referred to it as the principle of Vital Imma- At the heart of Immanuel Kant’s theory of knowl- nence — the notion that religious “truths” only exist in edge is the thesis that we do not “see” the world as it any meaningful sense in the structure of the mind. is, but rather as our minds restructure it for us. We can Kant’s Immanence theory in philosophy reduces all real- never know directly what Kant refers to as the thing- ity operatively to elements indwelling or “immanent” in-itself (the ding-a-an-sich). And Kant took this insight in consciousness. [24] Its implications for modernist to great lengths, taking the position that many of the theology are identical, and in the words of Monsignor constituents of nature, such as time, space, and even Ronald Knox, God Himself is reduced to an F.I.F. — causality, are found, not in the intrinsic nature of reality a Funny Interior Feeling. [25] outside ourselves, but rather in the structure of our The “interior feeling,” for the modernists, how- perceiving minds. We see things in time and space and ever, is not a purely personal, private thing (nor is it for we perceive things as adhering to the principle of cause Kant). It is seen by the modernists as a common or collec- and effect, not because the things and the events in tive feeling. We are, after all, a Church. And it’s this themselves objectively impose time, space, and causal- “collective feeling” — more often referred to by mod- ity on our organs of perception and understanding, but ernists as “the common consciousness” that defines the because the structure of our organs of perception and modernists’ concept of the Church. In modernist understanding imposes time, space, and causality on the thought, the Church originated “not as a visible hierar- things and events being perceived. About things as they chical society founded by Christ, but simply as a prod- really are in themselves, according to Kant, we can uct of the collective conscience of His followers.” [26] know nothing. [21] That’s a very hard concept to Similarly, dogma is a product of the “collective grasp, but it’s at the heart of an understanding of conscience”of the “faithful.” [27] Pope Saint Pius X Kantian theory. stated that the main doctrine of the modernists was that If we cannot be sure of having a true perception of of evolution (but he was not referring to Darwinian the things and events that inhabit reality outside our- theory). He described the modernists as believing that selves — if the only reality that we can know is the “[t]o the laws of evolution, everything is subject under version of “reality” that our mind restructures and penalty of death — dogma, Church, worship, even

18 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 faith itself.” [28] Since the “collective conscience” of [S]ome facile slogans are making the rounds, one of the “faithful” evolves — obviously in line with the which asserts that all that really matters today is orthopraxis, wisdom of the particular age — the meanings of dog- hence “right conduct,” love of neighbor. On the other mas also evolve, and understandings of the Church also hand, concern for orthodoxy, that is, for “right belief”, evolve. The Church can change, in modernist thought, according to the true meaning of Scripture, which is read within the living tradition of the Church, occupies a from a hierarchy to a democracy, as the times change. second rank, when it is not downright alienating. [33] And beliefs — what we non-modernists think of as truths — can change as well. Renee Casin, the French Catholic writer and teacher, It’s only a short step, of course, from a recognition put it this way: that a “collective conscience” evolves, to a recognition The first misinterpretation on which (today’s neo-mod- that a collective conscience can be influenced to evolve ernists) have embarked is the following: To deal effec- in a particular direction. This explains why people of a tively with the chaos of the real world, its injustices, and modernist bent, who disagree fundamentally with the alienations of every kind which have multiplied, the many of the dogmas of the Catholic Church, ada- first pressing need is action. No longer does union with mantly refuse to leave the Church. Pope Saint Pius X God have the primacy. Rather social activism has dis- said it almost a century ago. These are his words: “[I]t placed it; little matter that a supernatural sacramental life has always occupied first place in the life of all the Saints. is necessary for (the modernists) to remain within the [34] ranks of the Church in order that they may gradually transform the collective conscience. [29] To suggest an example — I will venture to suggest One more ingredient is needed in order to under- that we have all heard the neo-modernist sermon on this stand both Kantian and Modernist thinking. Kant’s very point of Christian action being more important than curious epistemological system is contained in his book devotional efforts at union with God, and we have prob- The Critique of Pure Reason. But Kant also wrote an- ably heard the sermon more than once. The text for the other magnum opus, entitled The Critique of Practical sermon is usually Matthew 22:36-39. A doctor of the law Reason. The latter work is the one in which Kant ad- asks Jesus: “Master, which is the great commandment in dressed the issue of human activity. When we pass the law?” Jesus said to him: “Thou shalt love the Lord from knowledge to activity we enter the sphere of thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, morality. And it is here that Kant tries (some believe and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the unsuccessfully [30]) to draw a connection between the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou perceiving mind and “reality out there.” According to shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Kant, it is in the sphere of human activity where we eventually find certainty as to things like the freedom Beautiful words. The essence of what it is to be a true of the will, the immortality of the soul, and the exist- Christian. But the currently fashionable neo-modernist ence of God. In Kant’s thought, action is exalted above sermon [35] usually goes something like this: Yes, we knowledge or intellect. [30] So too do should love the Lord our God. But the the modernists value action over Lord our God is a Spirit. How do we knowledge. According to Thomas This explains why go about loving an invisible Spirit? Judge: people of a modernist We can’t, at least not very easily. What The modernist . . . go so far as to we can do, however — and on a daily teach that the dogmas of the Catho- bent, who disagree basis — is to love our neighbor. That’s lic faith are of so little or no value in fact exactly how we love God — by considered as standards of belief, and fundamentally with loving our neighbor. that their chief and primary signifi- many of the dogmas of At best, the sermon puts the cance is to be sought in their power two commandments on a par, whereas to suggest attitudes or modes of the Catholic Church, Jesus actually said that love of God is moral conduct. [32] adamantly refuse to the greatest commandment. Also, in the Cardinal Ratzinger has made the minds of most hearers, the sermon same point regarding today’s neo- leave the Church. subtly reverses the order of the two modernism: commandments — love your neighbor

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and thereby love God — whereas mattered was the truth that it was in- Jesus actually said that love of God is For modernists (and tended to convey — and this is a cru- the first — the greatest and the first - cially important distinction, the distinc- commandment. And by the time the neo-modernists), the tion between orthodoxy and modernism. [37] sermon is over, one is usually left dogmas of the Church with the mind set in which efforts at seeking union with God are really are real, but only to The end result is that the modernist (or the neo-modernist of today) can out of the picture entirely, and the extent that they Christianity is reduced to a vague in “good” conscience believe none of form of humanism. And Christianity suggest modes of what an ordinary Catholic believes, as a vague form of humanism is the objectively speaking — he may not exact aim of the neo-modernist. moral conduct. believe that Jesus was born of a Vir- The true, orthodox understand- gin, that Jesus is God, that Jesus rose ing of the passage might be taken from the writings of from the dead, etc., etc., and yet he Saint Alphonsus Liguori, the great Eighteenth Century may say, with interior consistency, that he accepts those moral theologian who was named a Doctor of the dogmas, because he “accepts” them as symbols of some Church in 1871, and who is the patron saint of moral moral (not necessarily physical) event, like the influence theologians. [36] The truth is that our “neighbor” of Jesus living on in the hearts or memories of His includes our enemy, as the Sermon on the Mount tells followers. Despite his non-belief, he will remain a very us. Most of the time it is difficult enough to love our active member of the Church, while all the time doing friends and neighbors. How can one truly love one’s his best to subtly change the beliefs of the ordinary enemies in the first instance? The answer is in the very Catholic, again all in “good” conscience. Are you con- words Jesus used. One loves one’s neighbor and one’s fused and discomforted by what’s going on in the enemy with God’s love. That is what the words say. Catholic Church? Confused about what you should We first love God with our whole heart — all of it — believe? About what the Church itself believes? If so, and with our whole soul and with our whole mind then you’re experiencing the effects of the neo-modernist’s — and only then are we able to practice the second tampering with dogma. commandment, loving our neighbor and our enemy In Pope Saint Pius X’s day theological modernism truly as our self. It is the love of God that is the enabling was already calling into question some of the basic love — not the other way around. truths of the Catholic faith — truths concerning the Next, the modernists and neo-modernists have an nature of God, the historicity of the Gospels, the Real unusual understanding of Church dogma. For modern- Presence, the divinity of Christ, the infallibility of the ists (and neo-modernists), the dogmas of the Church pope, the facticity of the Resurrection, the nature of are real, but only to the extent that they suggest modes the Church, and the reality of personal salvation. [38] of moral conduct. Thus a modernist, or a neo-modern- Most, if not all, of those questions are with us today, ist of today, can say with a perfectly clear sense of in- almost a century later, better honed and more thor- ternal consistency that he or she accepts, say, the oughly informed by the tenets of today’s popular mod- dogma of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ without ernist philosophies, such as pragmatism. actually believing that Jesus Christ physically rose from If we listen carefully in the theological and philo- the dead in an objectively real historical event. British sophical winds today we hear echoes of the Modernism author Michael Davies explained it well: so decisively and uncompromisingly condemned and anathematized by Pope Saint Pius X and his predeces- Dogma . . . for (a modernist) was simply symbolic, a sors and successors. We hear today that the kingdom of symbol of what Christians believe, a symbol of their God is not in the hereafter, but in the here and now faith, and by faith (the modernist) meant something purely subjective, not something which was an accurate (despite Jesus’ own clear statement that His kingdom is expression of objective reality. Thus Jesus exerted such not of this world [39]). We are told that “salvation” an influence on His followers that this influence re- today means liberation from social sin; personal sin, in mained long after His death, and was ‘symbolized’ by the the view of some in the Church, has ceased to be rel- story of the resurrection. Whether the story was objec- evant, except insofar as it might have social implica- tively true was not important for (the modernist), what

20 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 tions. We are told that the true meaning of the Gospel adversary rises up against them with an erudition and is economic rather than spiritual. We are told that the force that render him redoubtable, they try to make a Church is part of this world; that it is a democracy. We conspiracy of silence around him to nullify the effects of are told that dogmas derive their force, indeed in a his attack, while in flagrant contrast with this policy sense their “truth,” not from their correspondence with towards Catholics, they load with constant praise the writers who range themselves on their side, hailing their the Word of God or even their objective historical works, exuding novelty on every page, with choruses of facticity, but rather from their relevance to the human applause; for them the scholarship of a writer is in direct condition — no, to current understandings of the human proportion to the recklessness of his attacks on antiquity, condition. [40] and of his efforts to undermine tradition and the ecclesi- In theological terms, we are perhaps all familiar astical magisterium. . . . The young, excited and con- with today’s manifestations of the modernist heresy. fused by all this clamor of praise and abuse, some of They come from those who invoke what they usually them afraid of being branded as ignorant, others ambi- call “the spirit of Vatican II” to suggest what the docu- tious to be considered learned, and both classes goaded ments of Vatican II actually often denounce. The tech- internally by curiosity and pride, often surrender and niques of today’s modernists have been so successful give themselves up to Modernism. [44] that Cardinal Ratzinger has lamented: In a world at which, at bottom, many believers are Where do we see these techniques of ostracization gripped by skepticism, the conviction of the Church and intimidation today? Stand up for the right to life that there is one truth, and that this one truth can as such of pre-born babies? At first you will be ignored. If you be recognized, expressed and also clearly defined within persist, you are labeled a sexist, an oppressor of women, certain bounds, appears scandalous. It is also experienced and told by the Surgeon General of the United States as offensive by many Catholics who have lost sight of to get over your love affair with the fetus. Adhere to the essence of the Church. [41] the Bible’s unequivocal condemnation of homosexual conduct as mortally sinful? Again, at first you are ig- There can be very little doubt but that, despite the nored. Persist and you are labeled a homophobic bigot. papacy’s vigorous opposition over the past century and One does not have to multiply the examples to raise a half, the heresy of Modernism — what Pope Saint the suggestion that the techniques unmasked and con- Pius X called “the synthesis of all heresies,” [42] — has demned by Pope Saint Pius X way back in 1907 are not been stamped out. Indeed, today it seems stronger today the techniques of what’s been called the “politi- than ever. Paul H. Hallett, introducing Michael Davies’ cal correctness” movement, in both religion and poli- book Partisans of Error, has an explanation: tics. Take a conservative or traditionalist position in Of one thing we can be certain: Modernism is too either religion or politics, and you are shunned as an closely bound up with perverse human will ever to die. ignoramus. Persist in it and you are branded a racist, Its peculiar genius, which is to appear Christian and sexist, homophobic bigot. [45] Catholic while evading the demands of a transcendent It is an effective technique. It works. But it also faith, is too well adjusted to the mentality of fallen man discomforts us. At least it should discomfort us, because ever to become outdated. It will always survive in one it is an ad hominem technique. It depends for its effec- form or another until the Day of Judgment. [41] tiveness not on the force of truth — recall in the mod- Pope Saint Pius X, however, has his own explanation ernist mind set operatively there is no “truth” — but for the success of the modernist movement — an ex- rather it depends on intimidation. It may be at least planation that seems especially relevant today. It has to part of what Pope Paul VI had in mind when he cau- do with the tactics used by modernists: tioned that today, in our time, “[t]he tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic Let one of them [the modernists] but open his mouth world.” [46] and the others applaud him in chorus, proclaiming that These are distressing and confusing times for the science has made another step forward; let an outsider but hint at a desire to inspect the new discovery with his non-modernist Catholic, and sometimes it seems as if own eyes, and they are on him in a body; deny it — there is no solace, except in prayer. And prayer is a and you are an ignoramus; embrace it and defend it — great solace and a great solution for problems, and it and there is no praise too warm for you. . . . When an should never be neglected. But lest we forget, there is

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 21 ARTICLES

also Cardinal Ratzinger’s challenge: “It is time to find 22. Supra note 20, at 104. again the courage of nonconformism, the capacity to 23. Hegel recognized the dilemma Kant’s theory had created for metaphys- oppose many of the trends of the surrounding culture.” ics and epistemology. His (Hegel’s) resolution of that dilemma is summa- ✠ rized in his famous statement: “The Real is the Rational and the Rational is [47] the Real.” Georg W. F. Hegel, Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, p. 10 (T. M. Knox trans. 1967). In other words, the rationality that our perceiving minds superimposes on things and events is the only “reality” we can ever deal Endnotes with; in that sense it is reality for us. See Marcin, supra note 21, at 824. 1. Quoted in Ted and Maureen Flynn, The Thunder of Justice 213 (1993) 24. Supra note 17, at 106. (emphasis added). Earlier, in 1972, Pope Paul VI had this candid assessment of the aftermath of the Vatican II Council: 25. Michael Davies, Partisans of Error: St. Pius X Against the Modernists, p. 27 (1983). It was believed that after the Second Vatican Council there would be a day of sunshine in the history of the Church. There came instead a day of 26. Id. at 48. clouds, storms and darkness, of search and uncertainty. By means of some 27. Id. fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God. 28. Quoted in Davies, supra note 25, at 53. Quoted by James Likoudis in Preface, Renee Casin, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Orthodoxy, and Neo-modernism in the Church (1977). In light of Pope 29. Id. at 70. Paul VI’s condemnation of modernism as “the most dangerous revolution 30. Arthur Schopenhauer unmasked the flaw in the Kantian reasoning on the Church has ever had to face,” and his acknowledgement that modern- this point. See Marcin, supra note 21, at 827-828. ism “is still scourging (the Church) severely” (see infra note 16 and accompa- nying text), there seems little doubt as to his view of the cause of the fissure 31. Supra note 20, at 104. whereby the smoke of Satan has entered the Church. 32. Id. Conventional Catholicism, of course, tends to view dogmas both as 2. Quoted in Thomas W. Petrisko, Call of the Ages xxi (1995) (emphasis standards of belief and as helps toward moral conduct. See Catechism of the added). Catholic Church, p. 28 (1994). 3. 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 (emphasis added). 33. Supra note 12, at 23. 4. Isaiah 29:14. 34. Renee Casin, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Orthodoxy,and Neomodernism in the Church, p. xviii (trans. and ed. James Likoudis, 1977). 5. See Job 12:17. 35. Based loosely on 1 John 4:12. 6. See James 4:4. 36. See, e.g., St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Sermons of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, 7. See Psalms 94:11. pp. 224-233 and 345-353 (1982); and Love is Prayer, Prayer is Love: Selected Writings of Saint Alphonsus Liguori (adapted by John Steingraeber, C.SS.R., 8. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. On the same theme see John 8:43-45, 12:31, 14:30, 1973) passim, esp. pp. 53-69. 16:11, and Revelation 12:9. 37. Supra note 25, at 62-63. 9. Colossians 2:8 (emphasis added). 38. Supra note 1, at 227. 10. Citing Matthew 24:13; 13:24-30 and 36-43. 39. John 18:36. 11. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents (Austin Flannery, O.P., ed. 1992) 773. 40. See, e.g., supra note 1, at 226, 227. 12. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger with Vittorio Messori, The Ratzinger Report: 41. Supra note 12, at 24. An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church, pp. 36-37 (1985). 42. Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominci Gregis, para. 39 (1907). 13.1 John 4:15. See also James 1:27. 43. Paul H. Hallett, Introduction to Michael Davies, Partisans of Error: Saint 14. Supra note 11, at 946. Pius X Against the Modernists, p. xx (1983). 15. See, e.g., Gary Minda, Postmodern Legal Movements: Law and Jurisprudence 44. Quoted in Thomas E. Judge, The Encyclical of His Holiness Pius X on the at the Century’s End (New York University Press 1995). Doctrines of the Modernists, pp. 80, 91. 16. Supra note 1, at 222. 45. In the words of Michael Davies, “Modernism . . . will usually be pre- sented to us under the guise of ‘new insights,’ contemporary biblical schol- 17. Igino Giordani, Pius X: A Country Priest, p. 153 (1954). arship,’ or ‘the findings of modern theologians.’ Those who oppose it will 18. Supra note 1, at 222. be portrayed as ignorant, bigoted, or uncharitable — probably all three.” See Michael Davies, supra note 25, at 2. 19. Id. 46. Supra note 1, and accompanying text. 20. Thomas E. Judge, The Encyclical of His Holiness Pius X on the Doctrines of the Modernists, p. 103. 47. Supra note 12. 21. See Raymond B. Marcin, “Schopenhauer’s Theory of Justice,” in Catholic University Law Review, vol. 43, pp. 813, 821 (1994).

22 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 FMROMAGISTERIUM THE FOUNDER

the Cardinal that should he try to establish norms for Letter to a Bishop the governance of his university, he, the president, would return home to decertify that institution as Mgsr. George Kelly Catholic. The president of Notre Dame University, using different words, also threatened the Pope’s Chief trust that these words, from an octogenarian Educator. protagonist of the faith to a respected friend, Cardinal Garrone did not respond, “What thou will be taken as a given: Do what you can to dost, do quickly, or I’ll do it;” but, angered at the re- prevent the substantial meaning of Ex Corde bellious spirit, instructed all college presidents (ten years Ecclesiae from being eviscerated. before the New Code — 1973) to (1) set out formally IThe credibility of the Catholic faith depends on in statutes or other formal document his institution’s the divine authority of the hierarchy. That authority — “character and commitment;” and (2) create internal if you will pardon my use of an inadequate metaphor machinery to guarantee both — in the areas of “faith, — is like a three-legged table. It relies on hierarchy’s morality, and discipline,” especially. supreme right and responsibility to define — (1) the When the president of Georgetown and others, on priesthood and religious life, where the Church’s primary return home, continued to tell the Catholic public that teachers are to be found; (2) the essence of Catholic Rome really agreed with the Americans, I was sent by theology where her best “apologia” is developed and the President of St. John’s University (N.Y.) to find transmitted; (3) the Catholic school, where young people out whether the Prefect was talking out of two sides of go, or are sent, for formation in the faith, whatever else his mouth. I never, before or since, have faced such may be its function. restrained anger by a Cardinal, of the French Prefect at I was celebrating the silver jubilee of my priest- the American deception. At one point, as if in despera- hood (1967) when the first leg of that table was cut off. tion, he blurted out: “Is there no other voice for The bishops decided that it was un-American to termi- Catholic higher education in the United States than the nate Charles Curran from his teaching post at CUA. leadership of NCEA?” (The ACCU is its offspring). Nineteen years later, when “big Charlie” was declared (Out of that one question came the Fellowship of unfit by Rome to teach Catholic theology, “little Catholic Scholars.) Currans” were all over the Catholic landscape. It is inconceivable to me that any successor to Car- Humanae Vitae (plus the Church’s teaching on mar- dinal Garrone would accept a non-juridical answer to riage) became the ultimate victims. what really is a juridical question. Or, that American In the same year with its own studies of the priest- bishops would bequeath to their successors a bankrupt hood, and for five years thereafter, by intervening in estate of secularized colleges, where dissenting religious the contest of wills between the Sacred Congregation and theology professors remain in good standing to for Religious over the essentials of religious life, bish- undermine episcopal and papal authority. A non-deci- ops cut off the second leg underpinning their authority. sion at a high level will also reduce the pastor on the Ecclesiae Sanctae (1966) and Evangelica Testificatio (1971) street to care taking. fell off the table, too, with about half the population of What we are doing here is nationalizing inef- our glorious school system. (That patrimony was fectively that which traditionally is the function of the unique in the history of Christianity). The fertile field local bishop. Having succeeded in that goal, we are of religious vocations suddenly began to go barren. encouraging an amalgamated union of 230 + locals to Now by all accounts — from my conversations continue in a general strike against the Church’s gov- with bishops — the third leg of Church authority is to ernment. (A strike called by a dozen or so biggies, be sawed off, too, viz. the heart and soul of that role forcing all the little ones to follow like sheep.) If this which belongs to a Good Shepherd to decide when a was an economic strike against the U.S.A., Catholic school is or is not Catholic. bishops would declare it immoral — for the harm it In 1972, I attended the Congress of Catholic Universi- does to people. Instead, we negotiate with “strikers” in ties at the invitation of Cardinal Gabriel Garrone, Pre- such a way as to legitimize a revolution against the fect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. There Church’s Constitution, as outlined in Vatican II’’s I heard the president of Georgetown, in assembly, tell Lumen Gentium (e.g. No. 27). In so doing we are for-

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 23 FEATURE feiting our people’s baptismal right can Church, and that thought be leges, whose presidents contuma- to have their faith protected by given to means by which local ciously refuse to accept bishops’ those alone who can protect it, viz. bishops can attend once more to oversight of their Catholicity. Catholic bishops. the care of their own faithful, and I just don’t want an old friend My suggestion is that this in so doing be supported by the like you to think my light has gone matter be tabled, that the amalgam- National Conference and by out! ✠ ated union (ACCU) be decertified Rome. We must be prepared to as a bargaining agent in the Ameri- withdraw accreditation from col-

MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM

These three decisions represent President Clinton, who describes April Is the our culture’s latest massive attacks himself as a believing Christian, Cruelest Month: on the dignity of the human per- would respond to some key moral son. We would do well to briefly questions: Springtime Reflections on review each of these actions. They * What does the president consider Three Decisions Regarding represent a conspiracy against life at the human fetus within the womb Human Life and Dignity every level. to be in the third trimester of preg- nancy? Does the president simply + J. Francis Stafford 1. Veto of the partial-birth equate the preborn human being Archbishop of Denver abortion ban with a nonhuman animal? Sixth Sunday of Easter, Mother’s Day On April 10, President Clinton May 12, 1996 vetoed a bill that would have * Does the president agree with banned partial-birth abortions, abortionists like Dr. Warren Martin except in cases when the life of the Hern of Boulder that the human I. Three Decisions mother is endangered. In such late- fetus is a morbid growth, a parasite term abortions, the child is deliv- — in Hem’s exact words, preg- Brothers and sisters ered feet-first. When only the head nancy is “a neoplastic, endoparasitic in Christ Jesus, remains inside the mother, the . . . autoinfection” — in the attending physician pierces the mother’s womb? Dr. Hern has hree recent decisions by baby’s skull with scissors. A tube is been influential in the decisions of individuals from various inserted, and a vacuum extracts the public policy-makers legalizing Tgovernmental bodies cry child’s brain matter. The skull is abortion, including former Gov. out today for reflection, discussion collapsed. Richard Lamm and Congress- and action by Catholics. Three more inches and the woman Patricia Schroeder. Yet he All three decisions occurred in child would be fully born and en- advises fellow abortionists against early 1996: the veto by President titled to constitutional protection. sharing details of their “medical Bill Clinton of a partial-birth abor- Three more inches and the “proce- procedures” with the media. Is the tion ban; the invalidation of a dure” would be considered legal president willing to pursue the Washington State law against as- murder. The “procedure” — motives for Hern’s reluctance? Are sisted suicide by the U.S. Court of which the president of the United we? Appeals; and the veto of legislation States, by his actions, approves — 2. Invalidation of a law against by Gov. Roy Romer that would borders on infanticide. The Second assisted suicide have prohibited same-sex marriages Vatican Council calls both abortion In March, the U. S. Court of Ap- in Colorado. We have had the and infanticide “abominable peals for the Ninth Circuit invali- springtime to reflect on their crimes.” dated a Washington State law meaning. One is forced to wonder how against assisted suicide. The Appeals

24 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 Court drew upon past U.S. Su- secularized culture, self-murder drama of human freedom and di- preme Court decisions on abortion cannot be anything other than a vine freedom. This drama unfolds to put the interests of the person in graceless tragedy. in the death of priests, relatives and power ahead of the life of the vul- On the other hand, Christians others who through the compan- nerable. It argued that since a state’s facing betrayal, sickness, suffering, ionship, sympathy and support of authority “may vary with the pro- death and despair continue to trust other Christians are comforted and gression of the pregnancy . . . the God against all odds. To be sure. consoled by God in their afflictions state’s interest in protecting people Jeremiah’s lament is on the lips of (2 Cor 1:4). from physician-assisted suicide many Christians, “O Lord, thou varies “at different points along the hast deceived me, and I was de- 3. Veto of legislation prohibit- life cycle as a person’s physical or ceived” (Jer 20:7). But they are ing same-sex marriages mental condition deteriorates.” unequivocal about the dependence Also this spring, Gov. Roy Romer The court bluntly asserted that of freedom upon truth. This de- vetoed legislation that would have the lives of younger or healthier pendence is expressed most clearly prohibited same-sex marriages in individuals are more valuable to the and authoritatively in the words of the state of Colorado even if such state than the lives of the sick or Christ: “You will know the truth, unions were recognized elsewhere. elderly. The court’s ruling suggests and the truth will set you free” (Jn Under current law, homosexual that life’s value is connected with 8:32). And the truth is that the Son “marriages” granted in other states what is physically and economically of Man alone holds “the keys of would be recognized in Colorado. convenient. One doesn’t need death and hades” (Rev 1: 1 8). Without even a hint of the historic much imagination to see that the Disciples live their suffering in import of his veto, the governor choice to die is near to being co- Christ. To die to the Lord (Rom undermined by legal fiat what had erced. Nowhere is the cruel, blind 14:8) is to choose freely the su- been the foundation of civilization power of money more evident. preme obedience to resist in hope for the past 1,500 years. The court’s decision engages us the final trial. When all is collaps- Until the present moment, in a decisive conflict between the ing, when nothing is possible any- people have read reality through its Christian and post-Christian views more except the nobility of endur- nuptial/marital/covenantal mean- of death. With the court, post- ance in Christ, even when the ing. From the very beginning, the Christians assert a radicalized will to struggle from a “natural” point of premier sign of God has been the personal freedom. They treat free- view — becomes grotesque, Chris- nuptial union of man and woman. dom as the absolutely highest good tians still embrace the anguish and “So God created man in his own and deny its dependence on truth. pain leading to death. Their action image, in the image of God he In ratifying the legality of assisted is not unlike St. Francis’s final em- created him; male and female he suicide, the court denies the brace of “Lady Poverty” in the created them” (Gn 1:27). Anglo- millennial truth that God alone is church of St. Mary of the Saxon law was rooted in such an the Lord of life and death. “It is I Portiuncula in 1226. His biogra- insight found in the early medieval who bring both death and life” (Dt pher writes that “he accepted death rite of Sarum, the preferred rite of 32:39; cf 2 Kg 5:7; 1 Sam 2:6). singing” and “loved his own to the the English Churches, and before To choose suicide is an act of end.” Yes, Christians even rejoice that in the Gregorian despair. It is to judge that one has in their sufferings for the sake of Sacramentary. The Sacrament of been fundamentally deceived by their brothers and sisters, and in the Eucharist is the apex of reality life. Death by assisted suicide is their flesh they complete what is as nuptial/marital/covenantal. reduced to no more than “a medi- lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the That early and medieval cal problem,” a “natural and salu- sake of his Body, that is, the peoples interpreted the very nature tary release” from the absurd con- Church (Col 1:24). of reality through the covenantal tradictions of life. It is the final The greatest graces of my epis- and bridal relationship of God and alienation. The suicide has no copacy and priesthood have come creation, of Yahweh and Israel, and “Thou” who can form a bridge about when I have been present to of Christ and the Church is clear leading out of the lonely self. Even witness in faith this mysterious, from this text contained in the within the enclosed universe of our surprising, unutterably loving ancient Gregorian Sacramentary:

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 25 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM

“O God, you consecrated the begun to be perceived as “the cru- sadder? We’re not allowed to union of marriage by a mystery so elest month.” So even for older believe anyone anymore. . . . One profound as to prefigure in the Americans, creation was fast be- result is a corrosion of the soul, a marriage covenant the sacrament of coming a loveless place without chronic dishonesty and fear. . . . In Christ and the Church.” This beauty. this world, peace of mind is a uto- foundational insight about reality Our young people know little pian concept.” lasted until this decade. or nothing of that receding world One senses here that a process As archbishop of Denver, I of beauty and of love. Their read- of unraveling has begun. Daum wish to emphasize again — as I ing lists include such authors as speaks of “a specter of death that have said repeatedly in the past — Fraser, Nietzsche, Freud and others floats above the pursuit of” inti- that the acceptance and promotion whose writings have undermined mate interpersonal relations be- of homosexual activity as a valid that civilization. As students they tween young adult men and moral option are a direct assault on look into the modern abyss created women. One recalls the troubling the ancient moral vision which, for by these men, and they interpret words of Pope John Paul II that more than 15 centuries, has estab- the fearful spiritual confusion there is “a culture of death” at lished both the private and public which they see as “interesting,” and work on a planetary scale. His responsibilities indispensable for the even “exciting.” Reflect upon words point out the bitterly achievement of the free order of today’s music. Too often, the ugly painful quality of the world’s guilt. society. The governor’s veto is a and cruel have become the con- The three recent decisions will repudiation of the basic foundation temporary world’s standard of value hasten the sense of weariness one of the state and society as we have — not beauty and goodness and finds in many young Americans known them. truth. today. Having already grown tired Young people instinctively and empty within, they experience recognize the absence of love and the further decline of wonder and II. Some Springtime beauty in their world. And in their awe and adoration before the mys- Reflections hunger for truth and goodness, they tery of life and death. Their non- look for if “emergency rations.” chalance, a close kin to boredom, n developing these reflections, They seek interpersonal relations of does not sustain them in the drama I wish to express a special con various sorts to fill the void in a of human and divine freedom. Icern for young Americans. world that is at best impersonal, at But these three decisions affect What effect will these three deci- worst hostile and Darwinian. us all. The dignity of human life is sions have upon them? Evil laws World Youth Day ’93 in Den- being eclipsed for everyone. The will only increase their mistrust and ver indicated that many young marriage covenant is no longer skepticism. The older generation people are burdened with the pain how our civil and media pace- matured in a society that was still in of their loss of God. They look setters interpret family, civilization touch with the past. They knew upon one another, they long for and religious faith. The modern something of the life-giving culture the gaze of love to be returned. world is being drained of authentic built up over the past 1,500 years. What do they find? They com- life. The absence of objective truth Yet, the violence of this cen- monly discover the futile gaze, the in the exercise of personal freedom tury had already forewarned us of empty gaze, or no gaze at all. opens the door to the manipulative how far we had drifted from the In an article appearing recently abuse of power and totalitarianism. medieval Christians’ perception of in The New York Times, Meghan Against our will, a new kind of the world. The poet Chaucer cap- Daum, born in 1970, writes about well-heeled, spin-controlled bar- tured that vision well when he her generation’s experience of such barism is being insinuated into described April with its “sweet, relations. “Three decades after the daily life, and into the fabric of our musical showers” as a time of pil- pill put a government-approved families. grimage. Since publication in 1922 stamp on premarital sex, we’ve How else are we to interpret, of the great T. S. Eliot poem “The entered a period when mistrust the ‘right’ given by the president Waste Land,” April — normally a equals responsibility, when fear and federal court to a family to kill time of new life and rebirth — had signifies health . . . . What could be

26 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 their own members, whether chil- God’s secret how many of us today dren or aged parents? What other and in the years to come will be ANNOUNCEMENT meaning can be assigned to the admitted to share in the suffering of News from the Society of decision of the governor of Colo- Jesus in Gethsemane. rado, who evidently no longer Life with the Son of God is a Catholic Social Scientists: defines the family as founded upon discipleship of folly. This shouldn’t The SCSS’s fourth annual the relation of man and woman? come as a surprise. We have known national meeting-conference These decisions are an urgent from our morning days that folly in will take place on October warning about the apathy of our the eyes of the world — has been 25-26, 1996 at Franciscan people. It. is impossible to overesti- the form of the Christian life. University of Steubenville, mate the mischief of these deci- Francis of Assisi dramatized that sions. They strike at the heart of truth for us in the creation of the Steubenville, Ohio. At the our civilization. Mothers and doc- first creche at Greccio, where the conference, Fr. Francis tors, at one-time universal signs of infant Jesus rests among rough ani- Canavan, S.J. will receive the life, have too often become today mals. Nor can we forget that the SCSS’s Pope Pius XI Award signs of the destruction of life. One whom we call Lord and Master for “Contributions toward The direction of the modern later preferred to ride the donkey the Building of a True Catho- state is against the dignity of human rather than the elegant stallion. Nor lic Social Science.” For fur- life. These Spring decisions harbin- did He choose the soaring eagle or ger a dramatic intensifying of the hawk as the image of the Holy ther information, call the conflict between the Catholic Spirit, but rather the modest dove. Conference Office at Church and governing civil au- Today our weapons cannot be Franciscan University of thorities. the same as the weapons of those Steubenville: (614) 283-6314. who stand for a “culture of death.” This year, the SCSS is launch- Coercion and violence of any kind ing a new scholarly journal, III. The Catholic are not the Christian way. Ours Response rather are the weapons of the Gos- The Catholic Social Science pel. “Take the whole armor of God, Review. For information, call here should Catholic that you may be able to withstand in Dominic Aquila: (614) 283- men and women stand the evil day, and having done all, to 6243. The SCSS is also bring- in this struggle about W stand. Stand therefore, having ing to completion an anthol- our civil and moral foundations? girded your loins with truth, having ogy entitled Defending the Obviously, this is not the first put on the breastplate of righteous- Family, co-edited by Paul Vitz conflict between Church and state ness, and having shod your feet with in history. Many of our ancestors the equipment of the gospel of and Stephen Krason. Publica- faced similar confrontations when peace; above all taking the shield of tion plans are not yet final- they immigrated to what they per- faith, with which you can quench ized. It is also working on a ceived (then) to be “this land of all the flaming darts of the evil one. series of pamphlets which freedom.” But wherever they And take the helmet of salvation, seek to apply the principles of lived, our ancestors understood and the sword of the Spirit, which is Catholic social teaching to themselves to be walking on pil- the word of God. Pray at all times grimage through a strange country. in the Spirit, with all prayer and major American public issue Our pilgrimage today is also in supplication.” (Eph 6:13). areas. For general informa- company with Jesus, the “lamb Do not be afraid! “Death and tion about the SCSS, call standing, as though it had been life were locked together in a Stephen Krason: (614) 283- slain” (Rev 5:6). He has already unique struggle. Life’s Captain died; 6416. drawn the sting from death. So now He reigns, no more to die” Christians can face the future, de- (Roman Missal, Easter Sunday Se-  spite its anxieties and challenges, quence). ✠ with courage and joy. It remains

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 27 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM

The Mission of a Since this is a faculty meeting, I with Jerusalem?’ remains the abid- will confine my comments to the ing question, but now exponen- Dominican College need for our mission to be accepted tially expanded: what do Socrates and understood by our faculty and and Augustine, Shakespeare and Rev. Philip A. Smith, O.P. to those aspects of the mission Michelangelo, Marx and Einstein, President of Providence College statement that relate to academics: Sartre and Solzhenitsyn have to do Faculty Address, April 17, 1996 liberal arts, Catholic identity, Do- with us, or to say to us?” minican perspective and educating Since its inception, Providence Introduction students to be “responsible and College has responded to the Ath- t my first faculty meeting productive citizens in their own ens-Jerusalem question by provid- on September 28, 1994, I society and the world community.” ing its students with a liberal arts Astated that I considered My remarks about the mission curriculum designed to educate “my primary responsibility to be statement are about many things: them in the great ancient and mod- the implementation of our mis- fashioning an educational vision ern traditions that have shaped our sion.” Our Mission Statement is that will enhance academic excel- present world. To this end, we crucial for the future of Providence lence and will prepare students for have developed a core curriculum College because it is the document life in society. They are about fi- consisting of the humanities, the that expresses our self-understand- delity to our intellectual and reli- fine arts, the natural sciences, the ing and character, our purpose and gious traditions, our philosophy of social sciences and mathematics. philosophy of education. It is the education and my responsibility to For more than a quarter of a cen- ultimate standard for allocating implement the mission of the Col- tury, the centerpiece of this core resources, shaping the curriculum, lege. curriculum has been the Develop- evaluating present programs or ment of Western Civilization Pro- introducing new ones, and setting Liberal Arts gram, a team-taught approach that the direction for the future. In the y comments on the situates ideas in their historical and end, Providence College will be liberal arts will be brief cultural context. successful only to the degree that M since they have been The goal of all liberal educa- the outcomes we achieve match discussed at length in the process of tion is the liberation of the mind the goals and objectives we estab- our curriculum review. But first, I from the restraints of ignorance, lish to fulfill our mission. want to reaffirm my conviction and the elevation of the spirit to Our new mission statement is that academic excellence must be know and embrace the values that the result of a long and careful the coin of the realm at Providence enrich human life with dignity and process involving every segment of College. In any college or univer- meaning. A liberal education, the campus. It has been endorsed sity worthy of the name, scholar- therefore, must enable students to by the Faculty Senate and approved ship must be pursued and truth seek knowledge, recognize beauty, by the Board of Trustees. sought for their own sake in every cultivate character, practice virtue The importance of the mission discipline. and foster community. The com- statement is emphasized in the first Religious affiliation cannot mitment of Providence College to standard for accreditation of the substitute for scholarship. If Provi- liberal education and the specific New England Association of dence College does not fulfill its form it takes on our campus is Schools and Colleges. This stan- proper role as an educational insti- rooted in its Dominican educa- dard also asserts that the mission of tution, it fails to fulfill its mission tional tradition shaped mainly by the institution must be “accepted and undermines any role faith St. Thomas Aquinas. and widely understood by its . . . might play in academic affairs. In the Dominican tradition, faculty and administrators,” and Commenting on the impor- Athens has a lot to do with Jerusa- that “specific objectives, reflective tance of a liberal arts education, the lem. Reflecting the Thomistic of the institution’s overall mission late Dr. Rene Fortin framed the unity of the human person, our and purposes” be developed for issue like this: “Tertullian’s famous liberal arts education is designed to each area of the institution. question, ‘What has Athens to do nurture the whole person. The

28 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 core of our academic program theology department, or to pastoral embrace legitimate new ideas, has provides students with opportuni- counseling or liturgical celebra- reacted with repression and coer- ties to advance their critical think- tions, however important these cion. The Catholic tradition is not ing and communication skills, to may be. unique in that regard. In discover and evaluate their spiritual Rather, our religious identity any case, I am more interested in life and experiences, to study the must permeate the work and life of shaping the future today than in achievements of the past, ponder the College. This notion of perme- defending the past. the meaning of the present and ation represents a philosophy of The meaning of tradition is prepare for shaping the future in a education broader than academics very important in this context. This manner that includes the divine and an understanding of religion is not an exercise in nostalgia, an dimension of reality. broader than a confessional creed. academic version of “Dances With Our commitment to an inte- It requires nothing less than the Wolves.” Tradition is not an irrel- grated program of liberal studies existence of a Catholic culture that evant relic of a dead past, but the demands that our core curriculum cuts across the curriculum and the dynamic development of Catholic requirements reflect this vision of campus and finds expression in thought over the centuries. I have liberal education. It is not enough what we say and do, both as an found the work of Margaret simply to provide different courses institution and as individuals. Steinfels, the Editor of Common- in different disciplines. The various I regard the Memorial Mass weal, helpful for understanding the components must relate to one celebrated on March 27th to com- nature and the implications of tra- another, to the core in general and memorate the tragic deaths of our dition. She describes tradition like to the rest of the curriculum. A two young students as a fine ex- this: “A tradition is…a focus for well-integrated core curriculum ample of what I mean by a Catho- questioning, a framework for or- will enable the College to achieve lic culture. While representing and dered inquiry, a standard for pre- its educational goals of not only incorporating individuals from ferring some sets of ideas (and val- transmitting cultural traditions but every segment of our College com- ues) over others; tradition is the also of preparing our students to munity, the memorial liturgy tran- record of the community’s conver- deal with broad intellectual issues, scended every one of them. It was sation over time about its meaning questions of value, problems of an excellent expression of how an and direction. A living tradition is a change and concerns that relate to academic community in the Catho- tradition that can raise questions the future development of society. lic tradition grieves over the loss of about itself.” loved ones. This culture can be Actually, Catholicism has an Catholic Identity created and sustained only if the incredibly rich and diverse intellec- faculty, administration and staff are tual tradition, stretching back to t is relatively simple to identify supportive of our mission and well- the first Christian university in the essentials of the liberal arts disposed to Catholicism, whether third-century Alexandria led by the and to indicate how the vari- I or not they share that belief. brilliant Origen. The task of schol- ous components relate to one an- The Catholic intellectual tradi- arship is to retrieve the best of that other within the core and to the tion is central to our Catholic iden- tradition and bring it to bear on rest of the curriculum. It is more tity because Catholic education is our current educational efforts. challenging to identify what the rooted in tradition. I know some Since it is alive and oriented to the adjectives “Catholic” and “Do- agree with George Bernard Shawls future, the Catholic tradition must minican” add to the liberal arts to quip that a Catholic university is a dialogue with contemporary cul- make Providence College distinc- contradiction in terms. I am also ture, but it must also weigh the tive and unique. aware that some identify the new ideas and theories of our plu- Our Catholic and Dominican Catholic intellectual tradition with ralistic society in light of the heritage must be understood care- oppression, narrowness and dogma- memories, beliefs and practices of fully. It cannot be reduced to the tism. I acknowledge that sometimes its tradition. inspirational phrases found in our the tradition has been untrue to its Fidelity to the intellectual tra- recruiting and development litera- own principles, has been slow to dition requires that theology ture, to courses taught in the

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 29 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM courses be included in the curricu- hunger and homelessness, war and of prayer and meditation. Although lum and that student learning be the arms race, health care and wel- Dominic’s focus was on preaching, evaluated by examination. These fare reform, immigration and the education was included within the courses must be taught with the role of government in life. Today, scope of the Order’s ministry al- same rigor as other academic disci- Providence College can also make a most from the beginning. In fact, plines and by professors whose distinctive contribution to higher the Dominican tradition has always academic training is in Scripture education by committing itself at been intellectual at its core. and Catholic or Christian theology. the very center of its educational Moreover, many aspects of St. However, that is not enough to efforts to the philosophical, theo- Dominic’s vision are as valid for ensure a Catholic identity. It is logical and moral dimensions of the academics as they are for preaching: possible that theology courses questions it addresses. his emphasis on the integration of could meet the standards of aca- Personal and institutional wit- study and spirituality; his passion demic excellence and instruction ness are also crucial for Catholic for truth; his recognition of the without ever coming to grips with identity. Pope Paul VI once stated human person as the image of God; our Catholic heritage, if it is not that “contemporary people listen his compassion for those mired in reflected elsewhere in the curricu- more willingly to witnesses than to darkness and despair; his burning lum. How can that be done? teachers or if they listen to teachers, desire to communicate his message I hope that we are past such it is because they are witnesses.” It to his listeners. polemical questions as: Is there a is the actions of individuals and the One of St. Dominic’s most Catholic chemistry, biology, ac- institution that legitimate or negate important legacies was the necessity counting or mathematics? Clearly, the claim of Providence to be of personal witness for effective the Catholic intellectual heritage Catholic. We weaken our ministry. His own preaching does not pertain in exactly the credibility if we proclaim “Truth” against Albigensian dualism suc- same way and to the same extent as our motto but engage in decep- ceeded only when his life and ac- to every discipline and program. tive practices; if we maintain that tions preached as eloquently as his The tradition is more relevant to every person is an image of God words. He reminded his followers literature and economics than it is but treat members of the College that the success of their ministry to chemistry and biology. Reli- community and others with disre- would hinge on the credibility of gious and moral issues should never spect; if we promote a value-ori- their lives. They must first experi- be forced into classroom discus- ented philosophy of education but ence the “light” and live the sions. Where they are pertinent, separate the transmission of knowl- “truth” they proclaim. St. they should be treated like any edge from the cultivation of char- Dominic’s vision took academic other topic: openly, fairly and ac- acter. form largely through the efforts of curately, with opportunity for the great 13th century saint and discussion. The classroom is not The Unique Dominican genius, Thomas Aquinas. A num- the place to preach nor should ber of themes he developed and professors be evaluated on the basis Perspective refined have become distinctive of their piety. he Dominican perspective features of the Dominican educa- However, even if there is no on education springs from tional perspective ever since. Let Catholic “biology” or “chemistry” Tthe unique vision of St. me reflect on just a few of them as such, there is a Catholic perspec- Dominic which inspired it. He that have implications for the mis- tive on the meaning and use of the established his order of Preachers sion of Providence College today. data when they impinge on moral, because he was convinced that the 1) The relation of faith and religious and ethical questions. problems of his day called for noth- reason: The Dominican tradition Through its long and rich heritage, ing less than a conversion, not only has always regarded faith and rea- the Catholic tradition has made of heart but also of mind. Thus, he son as distinct but inseparable. Faith enormous contributions to national insisted that his followers prepare illuminates reason but does not and international problems such as for ministry by engaging in serious destroy it. Far from being at odds, social justice and economic policy, study and combining it with a life faith and reason are one in the

30 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 arduous task of probing the myster- formed Western Christianity by issues of human rights and the ies of the universe and the meaning philosophical insights drawn from common good, life and death, of the Gospel. Thus, following in Aristotle and Plato, Arab Muslims hunger and health care, peace and the footsteps of such saints and and Jewish thinkers. It is simply justice, economic policy and the scholars as Aquinas and Albert the impossible to understand the intel- political theory, participation in Great, the Dominican tradition can lectual tradition apart from philoso- community and environmental study all created reality according phy. Philosophy is necessary for concerns. to the rigorous standards of human grasping the meaning of the human 4) Aquinas hs left a methodol- inquiry because we believe that the person, probing the ethical basis of ogy that is important for education. natural order is intelligible. This human behavior and developing a In his great theological masterpiece, compatibility of faith and reason systematic and disciplined approach the Summa Theologiae, he devel- encourages the search for truth and to the real. oped his search for truth by asking the pursuit of academic excellence Aquinas’ philosophical under- questions. He died before the across the entire spectrum of standing of the unity of human Summa was finished. That the knowledge and rejoices in human person has far-reaching implica- Summa be incomplete was provi- accomplishments. tions for the Dominican educa- dential because a method that pro- However, while compatible, tional tradition. Education is ad- ceeds by asking questions about faith and reason are also distinct. dressed not only to the mind but to mystery can never be finished. The Dominican tradition has al- the whole person. The integration After the manner of Aquinas, each ways understood the human person of the liberal arts with specialized generation must refashion the tra- in the light of faith as an image of disciplines and the relation of spiri- dition in a way suited to its own God, but it has consistently re- tual, moral and social growth to time and place. Each generation jected fundamentalistic interpreta- intellectual development flows must contribute to the growth of tions of Scripture. Similarly, as directly from the Dominican phi- the tradition and the search for Steinfels has noted, discoveries in losophy of education designed to truth by asking questions about its psychology, sociology, anthropol- embrace every dimension of the complex issues and mysteries. Ask- ogy, history and the sciences enrich person. ing the right questions is essential our understanding of who we are 3) The goodness of creation: for reaching the correct answer and and what we do, they do not ex- The Dominican insistence on the is just as important. haust the meaning of the human basic goodness of the human per- At its General Chapter in Avila person nor determine the human son and created reality stems from in 1986, the order urged its mem- journey. St. Dominic’s struggle with the bers to exercise their ministry on Human persons are not solely Albigensians who maintained that the frontiers. In our context, a genetically or socially determined. all material creation was evil, in- frontier is the dynamic outer edge There must always be room for cluding the human body. Follow- of a living tradition. The Avila divine grace and free will, thought ing Dominic, Aquinas placed the Chapter identified five of these: the and faith, conscience and choice. human person as the image of God frontiers between life and death, This perspective is the rationale for at the center of his research and humanity and inhumanity, Chris- the requirement in moral theology. writings. Centuries later, two tian experience and the great world Moral behavior must be grounded Spanish Dominicans, De Vittorio religions, religious experience and in an understanding of person that and Las Casas, appealed to the secular ideologies, the Catholic transcends individual disciplines dignity of the human person to tradition and other Christians. and affirms the human person as defend the rights of Native Ameri- This list is by no means ex- the image of God. cans against exploitation by Spanish haustive nor is it easily adapted to 2) The role of philosophy: colonials. In our own time, the the academic enterprise. However, Because of the importance given to dignity of the human person and while frontiers do not dictate the reason, the tradition places a special the goodness of creation have content of the curriculum, they can emphasis on philosophy and philo- enormous implications for our shape our attitudes toward sophical thinking. Aquinas trans- program of studies concerning change. They suggest that the most

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 31 DOCUMENTATION

fundamental issues facing education thought has long regarded the not merely as individuals without today arise from our broader social common good as the general end any mutual bonds, but by making and cultural context. Thus, the of social life, it is always in relation them into a single people . . . . “ current challenges facing us are not to the dignity of the individual. As However, for humans to flourish in so much frontiers of education as Pope Paul XII declared, “The community, it must be a place they are frontiers for education. In person . . . is the subject, the foun- where they can experience and the words of Vatican II, we dis- dation and the end of social life.” actually live the basic human values cover the frontiers for educational Since education is the primary of truth, justice, freedom, friend- efforts by “reading the signs of the means of sustaining and developing ship and love. times.” The challenge for Provi- culture, society’s ability to achieve This communal concept of dence College is to bring the rich- the human good for each citizen person has implications for how we ness of our tradition to bear on the will depend largely on its educa- understand freedom. Freedom issues emerging from the frontiers tional efforts. cannot be defined solely as the of our culture. I have already noted that edu- right to be left alone by others. cation on the frontiers entails read- Authentic freedom in society is Responsible and ing the “signs of the times.” Even positive, the freedom to do some- Productive Citizens… a casual reading of the “signs of our thing. Its exercise depends on the in Society and the World times” reveals a highly pluralistic communal relationships that give and a deeply divided nation as individuals a measure of real power rovidence College cannot evidenced by the bitter conflicts to shape their lives and environ- fulfill its mission if it focuses and debates over such issues as ment. Certainly, oppression and only on academic excellence P unemployment and illegal immi- infringement on dignity and rights and fidelity to our religious and gration, human rights and health violate the very foundations of intellectual legacy, independently care, the elderly and the homeless, freedom. However, an understand- of how people live and die in our abortion and assisted suicide, affir- ing of freedom that restricts it to broader society. We must also be mative action and welfare reform, immunity from interference by concerned about the kind of stu- environmental protection and job others strikes me as incomplete. dents we graduate because the preservation to mention just a few. The biblical freedom described in College influences the thinking and These and similar social conflicts the Exodus account is not simply values of society primarily by shap- appear to be insoluble by means of freedom from oppression but also ing their insights and morals. Obvi- the individualistic presuppositions freedom for participation in the ously, we must prepare students that are so prevalent in our society. shared life of a people. Liberation well academically for careers, pro- I think an education rooted in the was from bondage into commu- fessions or graduate school. We common good can make an impor- nity. must also educate them to be re- tant contribution to the challenges The human good in commu- sponsible citizens in society. Our facing society. nity cannot be achieved without goal should be to graduate young The Catholic tradition of the justice. In their Letter, Economic men and women with the intellec- common good rests on the convic- Justice For All, the American bish- tual vision and the moral values, tion that it is only in relationship ops offer the following minimum the sensitivity to human suffering with others that human persons can definition of justice: “Basic justice and the commitment to service achieve dignity and the fullness of demands the establishment of mini- necessary for making the world a life. This concept of person is mum levels of participation in the brighter and a better place. rooted in the biblical notion of the life of the human community for I will use the Catholic tradition Covenant. God called Israel as a all persons.” Put negatively: “The of the common good as a frame- people, not as individuals one at a ultimate injustice is for a person or work for discussing responsible time. It was reaffirmed by the Sec- group to be treated actively or citizenship. In doing so, I want to ond Vatican Council which pro- abandoned passively as if they were acknowledge my indebtedness to claimed that “it pleased God . . . to nonmembers of the human the thought of Father David make (people) holy and save them race.” The bishops call this exclu- Hollenbach. While Catholic

32 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 sion “marginalization,” the exclu- also a growing quest for traditional reveal that Providence College sion from social life and from par- and common values and for the stands heir to an incredibly rich ticipation in the common good of need to connect with others to legacy. We are a dynamic institu- the community. Robert Bellah discover meaning and a sense of tion, rooted in the past, poised on describes communities who direction in life. I believe the the edge of the present and oriented “marginalize” as “lifestyle en- Catholic tradition of the common toward the future. However, for claves,” a kind of club whose good can contribute to this quest our future to be viable, we must be members are united by shared liv- by offering a vision of life in com- clear about our identity, carve out a ing patterns, leisure activities or munity whereby the individual niche in the academic world and be mutual self-interest. In a commu- person can flourish by experiencing excellent at what we do. We simply nity of the common good, there is essential human values and contrib- cannot do everything and do it well. an active and genuine concern for uting to their development by Our challenge is to fashion an the well-being of others, with a witnessing to those values in deal- educational vision that matches the special obligation to care for the ings with others. talents of our students, fosters aca- poor, the weak and the powerless. demic excellence, retrieves the best We live in a society deeply, Conclusion of our tradition, meets the demands and perhaps even dangerously, ur revised statement has of the present and prepares for the divided along the lines of religious clarified our identity, opportunities awaiting us in the beliefs and value systems, social O reaffirmed our philoso- Third Millennium. There is no behavior and political ideologies, phy of education and confirmed need to fear tomorrow. Together, national origin and ethnic back- our commitment to service. we can forge a future that will dawn ground, race and class. In the midst My reflections on the meaning bright with promise and hope! ✠ of this social fragmentation, there is of four elements of our mission

A Special Seminary leaving there to return to my prov- Father Eusebe Menard. He ince this summer. Holy Apostles is founded also the community of t would please me immensely a hard place to leave. But it de- missionaries of the Holy Apostles, if Fellowship members would served a rector younger than I, and who run the seminary. A chief Itake some interest in Holy found an ideal new rector in Fr. concern of Father Menard was to Apostles Seminary. Located in a Douglas Mosey, CSB. establish a school for later voca- small Connecticut town, Materially, it is a poor semi- tions. But he also planted in Holy unpromisingly named Cromwell, nary. Its buildings are old; it has no Apostles a great spirit. Holy Apostles is an altogether ex- marble halls; its financial underpin- From its beginning, he taught ceptional place. nings are fragile; and it does not all at Holy Apostles to have a great When Professor John Haas, of have the long tradition of many love for the Church. He planted the splendid St. Charles Seminary seminaries. But I found it a great deep within it a strong and manly in Philadelphia, was commenting seminary. It has a splendid faculty, spirit of prayer, a great love for the on TV (EWTN) on Pope John an excellent formation team, a clear Eucharist, earnest devotion to the Paul II’s visit to St. Joseph Semi- vision, and a magnificent spirit. Blessed Virgin, and an astonishing nary in the New York Archdio- And over the last decades, when spirit of fraternal generosity. cese, he offered a very short list of vocation shortages are so great, it He taught it also a spirit of the best seminaries in the country has each year sent large numbers of Gospel poverty and simplicity. (he named three), Holy Apostles graduates to serve as priests — as Every student at Holy Apostles has was on the list. priests who love the Church always been required to give at I have been rector at Holy deeply. least three hours of manual work to Apostles for five years, and am Holy Apostles was founded by serve the seminary community, and

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 33 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM each takes a turn doing dishes. In They spelled out at length the place to become a priest. the evaluations we ask the students elements of this spirit. In words Holy Apostles needs financial to give us each year of all aspects of seldom found in such academic help too. It is not supported by a seminary life, they tell us never to reports, they wrote that the first diocese or by a prosperous religious lose these signs of Gospel poverty element of this spirit is “a great community. It is seeking now to and fraternal service. love of the Church,” which gives set up a real Office of Develop- At the recent Vatican visitation focus and direction to all that is ment, but finds that expensive. In of seminaries, the team visiting Holy done there. They felt that the spirit puzzling ways, a devout lay group Apostles was tempted to urge that it was well served by the exceptional that pledged to assist the seminary be closed. For its financial base was personal services given to the stu- (and other concerns of their own) very weak; and lack of money dents — in educational assistance, years ago, got control of the names (dreadful though money is) can lead in counseling, in spiritual guidance. of most of our benefactors, and to weaknesses almost everywhere. They spoke of the warm spirit of refuses to give us access to them. But the team noted also that there cooperation that ruled everywhere, We ask for prayers that they may was a spirit at Holy Apostles that and even added that there was at change their minds, and that those had to be saved. They urged the Holy Apostles “a serious but joyful who would want to help this spe- three bishops of Connecticut to pursuit of holiness.” cial seminary may be able to do so. serve on the Board of the seminary, They spoke also of the excel- But God certainly takes care of to preserve what was excellent in it, lence of the theological faculty, and what he wishes to flourish. If any and to guide its necessary growth. of the important structural im- in our Fellowship know people They have done so generously. provements in the school over who would be pleased to know Father Francis Lescoe, who was recent years. about and pray for our school, and, a rector at Holy Apostles for many Many things contribute to the when possible, occasionally help years before I came, did great things spirit of Holy Apostles. Certainly a materially as well, the seminary for the school. Especially he per- first place must be given to the fine would be happy to send to anyone suaded excellent professors to come faculty, the devoted formation who is interested its Newsletter. to Holy Apostles, to serve a semi- team, and the whole staff. But Holy Apostles needs the prayerful nary that was generously Catholic, perhaps the seminarians themselves support of many (happily we have and filled with good students who contribute most. The seminary has in a special way the earnest prayers loved the Church, and their priestly many students of a more mature of all the Poor Clare Monasteries in calling. age, men who had been physicians, the Immaculate Conception Fed- Recently a team of educators lawyers, and held other sorts of eration). Those who might have (not all of them Catholics) was sent secular positions. It has also many some interest in helping may write to Holy Apostles by the Commis- students of a more standard age. to: Very Rev. Douglas Mosey, sion on Higher Education of the The majority are diocesan students, CSB, Holy Apostles Seminary, 33 New England Association of but there is a good minority of Prospect Hill Road, Cromwell, Schools and Colleges to assess our members of religious communities. CT, 06416. ✠ application for re-accreditation. And something splendid happens: After their visit, this team pre- the best of every element works to sented an astonishing report to the encourage and support all the oth- Commission and to us. They chose, ers. in this academic evaluation, to speak Holy Apostles needs more first of what they called the “spirit” students: we had about seventy of Holy Apostles. For, they said, five in theology this year, but we “Because of this spirit Holy Apostles would do better with about twenty  is a particularly beautiful and unique more. We would wish that Fellow- example of the great variety of insti- ship members who might come to tutions of higher education . . . in know of the seminary would speak New England.” to others about it. This is a good

34 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 Review Criticizes helpful to the Catholic community A. Examples of Inaccurate at large. This review was prepared or Misleading Statements New Edition by the staff of the Committee on Doctrine and is published with the 1) The Impeccability of Father McBrien’s authorization of the committee. of Jesus Christ Catholicism This review provides an out- Catholicism insists that it is possible line of the major difficulties that to hold the faith of the church the book poses from the standpoint The third edition of Catholicism,by while maintaining that Jesus Christ of those who are concerned to Father Richard McBrien, “poses pasto- could have sinned. “It is not that monitor the possible effects of the ral problems particularly as a textbook Jesus Christ was absolutely incapable book, not on theological specialists, in undergraduate college courses and in of sin, but rather that he was able but on theological beginners, the parish education programs,” says a not to sin and, in fact, did not sin” vast majority of the people of God review of the work prepared by the (p. 547). The book argues that in every age. Insofar as Catholicism National Conference of Catholic Bish- “both views — the one favoring is a work of speculative theology, ops’ Secretariat for Doctrine and Pasto- impeccability and the one that does professional theologians may evalu- ral Practices. McBrien is a theology not — are within the range of ate it; insofar as the book is an professor at the University of Notre Catholic orthodoxy” (p. 547). This introductory textbook of Catholic Dame. The review, sent to the U.S. position, however, cannot be rec- theology, it has certain shortcom- bishops by the NCCB Committee on onciled with the Christology of the ings from the pastoral point of view 2 Doctrine, was made public April 9. councils. In two natures, Jesus that will be examined in this re- Christ is only one hypostasis (or view. n a recent letters to Father person), the hypostasis of the The problems which Catholi- Richard McBrien, Archbishop Word. With Christ there is no cism poses as an introductory text John R. Quinn, chairman of possible subject of the verb to sin. I fall into three categories. First, the National Conference of Catho- There are indeed two wills in some statements are inaccurate or lic Bishops’ Committee on Doc- Christ, but only one person, one at least misleading. Second, there is trine and Archbishop Daniel E. subject. The contention that Jesus in the book an overemphasis on Pilarczyk, acting chairman upon could have sinned, if followed to its the plurality of opinion within the Archbishop Quinn’s retirement, logical conclusion, inevitably im- Catholic theological tradition that expressed disappointment that the plies a Nestorian or an adoptionist makes it difficult at times for the new edition of Father McBrien’s Christology, though it must be said reader to discern the normative book Catholicism did not suffi- that Catholicism does not draw such core of that tradition. Third, Ca- 3 ciently correct several deficiencies extreme conclusions. tholicism overstates the significance that the committee had identified of recent developments within the in its examination of the first two 2) The Virginal Conception Catholic tradition, implying that editions of the book undertaken in of Jesus the past appears to be markedly the early ’80s. This examination Catholicism presents the virgin birth inferior to the present and obscur- culminated in a 1985 statement of Jesus as being of uncertain and ing the continuity of the tradition. specifying a number of deficiencies perhaps even doubtful historicity.4 Falling within the latter two cat- that the committee hoped would The book argues that belief in the egories are difficulties that reappear be corrected in any future edi- virgin birth should be considered a throughout the work; they consti- tions.1 theologoumenon, “a nondoctrinal tute a pattern that could be over- In addition to bringing this theological interpretation that can- looked by an exclusive focus on matter to the author’s attention, not be verified or refuted on the particular passages. the Committee on Doctrine has basis of historical evidence, but that also determined that a more general can be affirmed because of its close review of the book would now be connection with some defined doctrine about God” (p. 542).

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 35 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM

While the adjective non-normative never systematic. The matter is linked with the fostering of asceti- has been deleted from the new discussed in terms of a descriptive cism, which supposedly arose only edition’s definition of history of the development of this in the third century. After pointing theologoumenon (in the study belief, an account that itself appears out the absence of evidence for this edition, p. 516), the book contin- in the course of an overview of the belief in the New Testament and ues to describe belief in the virgin development of veneration of Mary second-century fathers, including birth as “nondoctrinal.” This be- in general (pp. 1078-1100). This the opposition of Tertullian, the lief, however, has been a constant overview has a decidedly skeptical text continues: part of church teaching from the tone, emphasizing the lack of refer- “Mary’s perpetual virginity, first century and has been reaf- ence and the occasionally negative however, came to be almost uni- firmed by the Holy See since references to Mary in the New versally accepted from the third Vatican II.5 Testament and in the early church, century on. By now consecrated It is confusing to say, as Ca- the influence of apocryphal and virgins had been established as a tholicism does (p.543), that the co- particularly Docetic writings, and special state in the church, and operation of Joseph in the the opposition of major saints and Mary was presented to them as conception of Jesus was not ex- theologians (Bernard, Bonaventure, their model” (p. 1083). cluded by any explicit definition. Aquinas) to doctrines such as the Although Catholicism does not That point has been implicitly immaculate conception. arrive at any explicit conclusions as taught in the creeds, and the impli- The book stresses that the New to the status of the belief in the cation has been spelled out by con- Testament says nothing about the perpetual virginity of Mary, the stant and repeated magisterial perpetual virginity of Mary (rather, description of the history of the teaching since the fifth century. it speaks of brothers and sisters of development of this belief gives the The 1985 statement of the Jesus) and asserts that even in the impression that rather than a truth Committee on Doctrine pointed to second century there is no evi- that the church only gradually (among other matters) the treat- dence for this belief apart from the uncovered, the belief in the per- ment of the virginal conception of apocryphal Protoevangelium of petual virginity of Mary was a cre- Jesus in Catholicism as one of those James (pp. 1081-83). According to ation of the third-century church as that were found “confusing and Catholicism, the development of part of its program to promote ambiguous.” This description also belief in the perpetual virginity of virginity and asceticism. The book applies to the treatment of this Mary “coincided with a newly apparently favors the view that question in the new edition, for it positive assessment of virginity” Mary had “normal sexual relations remains substantially the same. The (p. 1083). While the book does not after the birth of Jesus” and that book seems to suggest that as a explicitly conclude that the cause Jesus had blood brothers and sisters, result of modern biblical scholar- for the acceptance of belief in the while admitting, however, that the ship the scales tip against the factual perpetual virginity of Mary was the New Testament evidence does not historicity of the virginal concep- church’s desire to promote virgin- constitute an “insuperable” barrier tion. Interpreted in this way, Ca- ity as an ascetical state, the reader to the belief that Mary remained tholicism comes very close to deny- seems to be invited to draw this ever a virgin (p. 1081). ing, if it does not actually deny, an inference. It was because the While the perpetual virginity article of faith. church sought to foster the “glori- of Mary may rank lower in the fication of the Virgin Mary for hierarchy of truths than the virginal 3) The Perpetual Virginity ascetical reasons” that the church conception of Jesus, it must be of Mary ignored the opposition of those like reckoned as a constant teaching of While Catholicism offers an exami- Tertullian who recognized that the church, and not as an open nation of the virgin birth and con- such a doctrine “introduced a new question.6 The net effect of the cludes that this belief is a danger of Docetic trends” (p.1083). discussion of the point in Catholi- theologoumenon, its treatment of The acceptance of belief in the cism is to leave the impression that the belief in the perpetual virginity perpetual virginity of Mary is pre- the teaching of the church on this of Mary is purely descriptive and sented as closely if not inextricably matter is not to be trusted.

36 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 B. Overemphasis on Plu- tures from Catholic tradition and does not provide the beginner with rality Within the Catholic what are not. The danger here is enough information to assess the Theological Tradition that the reader could simply be- place of these positions within the come confused about what the Catholic theological tradition as a 1) The Focus on Description church believes. It is a weakness of whole. atholicism is committed to this book that, by devoting so One of the schools of thought presenting a wide plurality much attention to the presentation presented is that of feminism. The C of theological positions, of the multiplicity of opinion, it label feminism connotes a broad both Catholic and non-Catholic. provides insufficient direction for range of concerns and opinions. This emphasis on description, those seeking to know what is truly While a feminist theology has however, leaves the necessary task at the core of the faith. made an important contribution to of synthesis relatively neglected. Catholic thought, some of the The book gives an overview of the 2) The Mainstream positions taken by feminist theolo- theological scene in all of its variety and the Fringes gians are in fact quite far from and presents numerous brief sum- Catholicism’s emphasis on the plu- mainstream Catholic theology, if maries of many positions. It con- rality of theological positions on not actually inconsistent with or- fronts the reader with a broad various issues is that by including so thodox belief. The problem is that range of opinions and requires the many positions it leaves the reader Catholicism embraces feminist the- reader to make judgments among with the impression that all of these ology as a category in toto, without them. The problem, however, is positions are part of the mainstream making any distinctions, and gives that the reading of the text itself theological conversation, when in no hint as to the extent to which does not prepare the reader to do fact a number of them are decid- some forms of feminist theology this. The rapid succession of brief edly on the fringes. The burden is are in tension with the Catholic summaries does little to help a on the reader to discern which theological tradition. The book beginner to understand, for often positions are in the mainstream and portrays feminist theology as part of such summaries are only useful if which are not. the established consensus of con- one already has knowledge of the For example, when the book temporary theology and adopts its subject. The book does not do places the Christology of Hans language, speaking in terms of enough to enable the reader to Kung between that of Karl Rahner “patriarchy” and “androcentricism” grasp what is the main current of and Walter Kasper, it implies that (pp. 350-355, 533). In the Preface, the Catholic teaching and theologi- all three are equally representative the book presents the emergence of cal tradition.7 of the Catholic theological tradi- feminist theology as the foremost The central problem is the fact tion. Similarly, the opinion of a example of positive change in the that the intended audience of the radical feminist such as Rosemary church since 1980 (p. xliv). One of book is those who are just begin- Radford Ruether appears among the essential criteria offered for ning to study theology. The book the Catholic positions on Catholic Christology is a congru- requires the reader to find his or ecclesiology (p. 704) and worship ence with a feminist interpretation her own way through what is (pp. 1073-74). Matthew Fox is of Christ: sometimes a bewildering number treated as one of the major figures “Christological explanations and variety of positions. There is a of post-Vatican II spirituality; the which interpret the maleness of difference between respecting the only hint that the text gives as to Christ in an androcentric way or intelligence of the reader and mak- Fox’s position on the outer fringes the headship of Christ in a patriar- ing unrealistic demands upon one’s of Catholic theology is the under- chal way effectively deny the proc- intended audience. While a trained stated caution that “the titles of his lamation and praxis of Jesus regard- theologian may have little trouble early trilogy of spiritual books ing the universality of God’s love negotiating through the various tended to veer somewhat from the and the openness of the kingdom positions presented, a beginner conventional” (p. 1048). This de- to all, women and men alike” does not have a developed sense of scriptive approach, with its succes- (p. 533). what are really important depar- sive summaries of various positions, Catholicism offers no explana-

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 37 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM tion of the meaning of the terms The problem is not that the book cited in the 1985 statement that has patriarchy and androcentrism, how- describes positions in opposition to not been corrected. Again, the ever, and fails to give the reader a those of the magisterium, but issue is handled simply as a “dis- sense of the degree to which as- rather that its presentation often puted question” in theology. The pects of feminist methodology are lends them more weight than the official teaching of the church is in tension with the tradition. magisterium itself. The method in inserted in a section headed “argu- Particularly troubling are the several controversial questions is to ments against,” thus giving the discussions of the fatherhood of present the official teaching and impression that whatever doctrine God” and “God language” (pp. then to follow it with a rebuttal by the church may have on the ques- 352-55) and the treatment of the Catholics who disagree. The im- tion is not binding. maleness of Jesus in a chapter on pression is thus given that the “offi- A further weakness is that the Christology (pp. 512-13). It seems cial” teaching is only one among a arguments on each side are pre- to be implied that the practice of number of opinions, in no way sented so succinctly that they are speaking of God as Father or Son binding on the faithful. hardly intelligible unless one con- and of Christ as bridegroom is For example, the presentations sults the documents to which the “patriarchal” and “androcentric.” of the questions of contraception, book refers. In particular, Catholi- The reader is not alerted, however, homosexuality and women’s ordi- cism gives an oversimplified sum- to the difficulty of reconciling these nation all take for granted that mary of the 1976 report of the radical theses with biblical usage these are open questions; the offi- Pontifical Biblical Commission. and the Catholic tradition. The cial church teaching appears as The book maintains that the com- biblical and traditional language, merely one of the options for the mission “reported that it could find even in cases where it is figurative, reader.8 Different positions are no support for the exclusion of cannot be reduced to freely chosen presented, and it is left to the women from the ordained priest- metaphors for which we may sub- reader to make a choice, while the hood on the basis of the biblical stitute others at will. Titles such as text implies that the “official evidence alone” (p. 776, emphasis Father, Son and bridegroom are indel- church position” is erroneous on added). It does not report the ibly inscribed in the Christian con- all three points.9 commission’s statement that “the sciousness and have authentically In the treatment of contracep- masculine character of the hierar- theological reasons behind them. tion — one of those matters chical order which has structured The admittedly demanding but pointed to in the Committee on the church since its beginning thus nonetheless crucial questions of Doctrine’s 1985 statement as “con- seems attested to by Scripture in an revelatory language and of the fusing and ambiguous” — it might undeniable way.” While acknowl- “analogy of faith” at issue here do have been appropriate to mention edging that the New Testament by not receive adequate treatment. that five popes since 1930 have itself alone does not “settle in a clear consistently taught that contracep- way and once and for all the prob- 3) Insufficient Weight Given to tion is intrinsically evil. For this lem of the possible accession of Magisterial Teaching and other reasons, Catholics who women to the priesthood,” the While Catholicism is concerned to reject this teaching would be in- report did say: “Some think that in include a wide range of voices in vited to reconsider their positions. the Scriptures there are sufficient the theological conversation, the The treatment of contraception in indications to exclude this possibil- teaching of the pope and bishops is Catholicism, however, does not ity, considering that the sacraments often reduced to just another voice encourage such Catholics to under- of eucharist and reconciliation have alongside those of private theolo- take a reconsideration of their a special link with the person of gians. By presenting the range of views on the matter, but rather Christ and therefore with the male views, the text is obviously in- confirms them in their lack of ac- hierarchy, as borne out by the New tended to reflect the fact that there ceptance of magisterial teaching. Testament.” is serious debate over certain ques- Likewise, the question of Finally, there are passages in tions in the contemporary church. women’s ordination is another the book that speak of popes hav- problematic aspect of the book ing “erred in matters of faith” (p.

38 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 781; cf. p. 762) and having “come Joseph is not explicitly defined” (p. The text is at times quite harsh in down on the side of a heretical 543). The implied conclusion of its criticism of patristic and medi- position” (p. 479) without explain- the discussion of the belief in the eval thought (pp. 163-65).10 From ing the scope and significance of virgin birth is that as long as one the perspective of Catholicism, such errors. In the absence of fur- affirmed that in some way Jesus modern thought has definitively ther explanation, such statements shared an intimate communion superseded ancient and medieval could serve to cast doubt on the with God from birth, then the thought. reliability of church teaching. Ca- virginity of Mary is not essential (p. “Significant scientific, philo- tholicism gives insufficient clarifica- 542). Similarly, the text often im- sophical and theological advances tion on such issues. plies that the most intellectually in our understanding of human respectable position is the existence did not occur until the 4) Doctrinal Minimalism minimalist position, the one that 18th and especially the 19th centu- Also in keeping with the emphasis makes the least demands upon the ries, with the discoveries of Darwin on the plurality of opinion within believer in terms of reconciling and Freud, the new social analysis the Catholic tradition, the overall belief with current attitudes of of Marx and the new focus on the direction of the text of Catholicism thought, as in the argument for human person as subject in the is toward reducing to an absolute positing ignorance in Jesus, where philosophy of Kant, in idealism and minimum the church teachings and the book asserts that “there is no in modern psychology. The medi- beliefs that are to be considered incontrovertible proof that [Jesus] eval view of human existence essential to the Catholic faith and claimed a unique sonship not open could not, and did not, do justice to which one must adhere in order to other persons” (p. 551). to the special character of the per- to consider oneself Catholic. In It is against this backdrop that son” (p. 164). part, this is the result of the afore- the brief section on the “binding In this view, only with the mentioned inclusion of a range of force” of the Marian dogmas (pp. Enlightenment do we have the widely divergent and sometimes 1102-4) appears somewhat trou- basis for an adequate anthropology contradictory positions in the theo- bling and ill-advised, even if the and thus for an adequate theology. logical discussion, an inclusion that conclusions, drawn from the “In the final accounting, the En- implies that there is very little that Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, are in lightenment marks the division these positions hold in common. themselves quite nuanced. It seems between an often precritical, au- At the same time, a tendency to fit into a pattern of setting mini- thority oriented theology and a toward minimalism also arises from mum requirements for belief. critical, historically sophisticated what appears to be the book’s con- and philosophically mature theol- cern to accommodate those who C. Overemphasis on ogy” (p. 641). may have difficulty accepting some Change and Development Thus the contemporary theo- part of the Catholic faith as it has logian who has absorbed all the traditionally been understood. At atholicism’s clear affirma advances of modern thought is in a times, the text seems to make every tion of the superiority of superior position with regard to the effort to provide Catholics a way modern theology and tradition as a whole (and also to C ecclesiastical authorities who may out of accepting church teachings modern anthropology — based or beliefs that are controversial or upon the advances made by mod- be still operating from a pre-mod- difficult to understand in terms of ern science and philosophy — ern or preconciliar point of view). contemporary ways of thinking. provides a crucial background for For Catholicism, modern thought For example, the book seems to go its presentations of various posi- becomes the prism through which out of its way to allow someone to tions. The problem is that this the tradition must be viewed and remove the doctrine of the virgin embrace of modernity is so enthu- judged. This is the basis for the birth from any connection with siastic as to imply a certain naive book’s emphasis on change in the history by asserting that “whether denigration of pre-modern thought tradition. After the Enlightenment, the Holy Spirit’s involvement posi- (and thus of all forms of thought everything is now subject to revi- tively excluded the cooperation of that do not embrace modernity). sion because of the attainment of

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 39 MDOCUMENTATIONAGISTERIUM

this higher vantage point. “Because theologians are pointing to the little weight to the teaching of the of the scientific, philosophical and future of the church and that the magisterium, at least where there theological developments outlined pope and the bishops have not yet has been no explicit dogmatic defi- in Chapter 4, the time for an an- caught up. In this sense, the theo- nition. At many points the book thropological recasting of all the logians — and by implication the treats magisterial statements on the traditional doctrines is at hand” (p. readers — have a superior vantage same level as free theological opin- 166). The book often does not point from which to look upon ions. On a number of important explicitly say that some traditional church teaching and tradition. issues, most notably in the field of teaching must be discarded, but it Church teaching can be effectively moral theology, the reader will see points the reader in this direction dismissed simply by being classified without difficulty that the book by noting that history seems to be as reflecting “preconciliar regards the “official church posi- moving in a certain direction, thus thought.”12 tion” as simply in error. implying that the traditional doc- This review has focused exclu- trines are soon to be superseded. Summary and Conclusion sively on the problematic aspects of Examples would be belief in the Catholicism. Certainly, as the 1985 virgin birth and the intrinsic evil of atholicism poses pastoral statement of the Committee on homosexual acts.11 problems particularly as a Doctrine affirmed, there are many Catholicism interprets Vatican II C textbook in undergraduate positive features to be found in the as the justification for this approach college courses and in parish edu- book. Nevertheless, this review to theology. In this view, Vatican cation programs. The principal concludes that, particularly as a II marked a great change in direc- difficulties with the book lie not book for people who are not spe- tion because the church ceased to only in the particular positions cialists in theological reasoning and oppose and instead welcomed the adopted, but perhaps even more in argumentation, Catholicism poses modern world and sought to incor- the cumulative effect of the book serious difficulties and in several porate the advances of modern as a whole. The method is to offer important respects does not live up thought (pp. 77-80; 92; 95; 166- a broad range of opinions on every to its ambitious title. ✠ 67; 910-11; 1214). Preconciliar and topic with the apparent intention premodern are here effectively con- 1 Origins, vol. 15, no. 9 (Aug. 1, 1985): 130- of allowing or stimulating the 32. The Preface to the new edition of Catholi- vertible. Left unmentioned are the reader to make a choice. This cism is somewhat misleading when it character- ressourcement movement leading up places a heavy burden on the izes the Committee on Doctrine review as to the council and the council’s “careful and essentially sympathetic,” thereby reader, especially since some of the implying that the bishops had no serious con- own calls for renewal through a opinions described do not stand cerns with the book. In fact, in the way that the further ressourcement by a return to within the central Catholic tradi- Preface refers to the committee investigation and statement, they appear almost as a subtle en- the sources of the tradition. In tion. The reader who is a theologi- dorsement of the book or as a guarantee of its Catholicism, the council appears cal beginner could easily assume reliability as a guide to Catholic teaching in the simply as an aggiornamento, a one- sense that the book has withstood the careful that all the authors cited are equally scrutiny of the Committee on Doctrine of the sided embrace of modernity. a part of the mainstream Catholic National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The overall effect of this exal- conversation, whereas some of the 2 In the anathemas against the Three Chapters, tation of the modern over the tra- authors are closer to the margins. the Second Council of Constantinople (553) condemned the opinion attributed to Theodore ditional is to provide a justification While the book could be a helpful of Mopsuestia that Jesus attained impeccability for those theological positions that resource to theologians looking for only with the resurrection (Denzinger- call for a much greater accommo- a survey of opinions on some ques- Schontnetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum 434). dation of church teaching to con- 3 It is not that Catholicism is overtly Nestorian tion, it might well be bewildering or adoptionist. The book does uphold the temporary culture and at the same and unsettling for Catholics taking divinity of the Son and the doctrine of the time a distancing from traditional undergraduate courses in theology. Trinity in general (p. 318). It explicitly affirms beliefs that are considered out- that the Word of God became human for our For some readers it will give en- salvation (p. 480) and that “Jesus Christ was, in moded or incompatible with mod- couragement to dissent. his very being and from the beginning, the ern thought. The book often im- The problem is further aggra- Word made flesh” (p. 556). Yet although the book at some points talks about maintaining plies that the “progressive” vated because Catholicism gives very both the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ,

40 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 at other points it seems unclear about the single- the Nicene Creed, the Fourth Lateran Council 9 The presentations of the conflicting positions ness of the hypostasis or the identity of the and the Second Council of Lyons. often fail to be evenhanded, for the expositions person. For example, the book speaks of the of the dissident opinions are usually more fully 6 See Lumen Gentium, 52 and 57; Denz.- question of Jesus’ sinlessness as being a question developed than those of the “official” position, Schon. 291, 294, 427, 442, 503, 571, 1880. of “the intimate communion of Jesus with God” particularly since the expositions of the dissident (pp. 548-49). Jesus Christ “was so completely in 7 In the chapter on Christology, the book itself opinions include the counter-arguments that union with the Father that he was in fact abso- reveals an awareness of the problem of making respond directly to the arguments used in lutely without sin” (p. 547). Because of the one’s way through the wide range of Christo- support of the “official” position, whose hypostatic union Jesus was “aware of himself as a logical positions briefly summarized in the text: counter-arguments are not presented (e.g., pp. subject in whom God was fully present and as “How does one even begin to evaluate such a 983-89; pp. 777-78). wide array of theological positions?” (p. 530). one who was fully present in God” (p. 556). 10 The book also at points presents a superficial Such statements certainly admit of an orthodox The book does speak of “an objective and objectifiable Christian and Catholic tradition” understanding of patristic and medieval theology interpretation, yet there is a somewhat confusing as when it asserts: “We are not composite (p. 530) and offers six “Christological criteria” to tendency to juxtapose Jesus and God, as if they beings, made of body and soul as two separate were somehow separate. help the reader discern this tradition. This parts (as the medieval Scholastic philosophers 4 attempt at synthesis, however, is extremely brief The book identifies two factors that have (three pages) compared with the 35 pages of had it)” (p. 159). brought to an end the “virtual unanimity of summaries of various Christologies. (The fact 11 As pointed out above (Footnote 4), the book belief” in the virgin birth and led many to deny that these three pages are followed by another 30 asserts that the factors that have led many now to the virginal conception of Jesus — “a newly treating “special questions in Christology” that deny the virgin birth are clear advances on the critical way of reading the New Testament, and either cast doubt on church teaching or at least part of modern thought and modern theology a newly evolutionary way of perceiving human reflect unfavorably on it does not help with this (p. 543). Likewise, with regard to homosexual- existence and human history” (p. 543). problem of discerning the core of the Catholic ity, it is because “new questions are arising in Throughout the book, both of these are pre- tradition.) light of new developments and scientific research sented as unambiguous advances of modern in medicine, psychiatry and psychology” that the thought and modern theology. Indeed, the book 8 On birth control: “There are two sides to the traditional teaching must be re-examined (p. points out that the two factors that have led birth control question in Catholic moral theol- 996). many to deny the virgin birth are “two of the ogy” (p. 982). With regard to homosexuality, same factors which generated a change in our the book summarizes the current state of theol- 12 For example, with regard to the question of understanding of Jesus Christ and of Christian ogy by presenting three positions, the “official natural law and the new approach proposed by faith itself” (p. 543). The implication is that magisterium” view standing at one of the some contemporary moral theologians, the book those who embrace the new theology (suppos- extremes and the position of Charles Curran and argues that “the hierarchical magisterium . . . has edly vindicated at Vatican II) are those who Richard McCormick representing a “mediating” continued to employ the philosophical approach deny or at least call into question the virgin position (pp. 996-1000). At the end of the of the preconciliar manuals of moral theology,” birth. discussion of the ordination of women, the book as in Veritatis Splendor (p. 962). begins its conclusion with: “Whatever position 5 The book itself refers to the Apostle’s Creed, one takes on the ordination question…” (p.779).

MREVIEWAGISTERIUM A RTICLE Review of Henri Nietzsche, the second with the includes these two essays: the first, atheism of Auguste Comte, and the showing specific dimensions of de Lubac, The Drama third with the Christian prophet “new man” formed by Marxism; chosen by de Lubac to answer the second, describing Nietzsche’s of Atheist Humanism modern atheism, the Russian nov- quasi-mystical experience of the (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, elist, Dostoevsky. Though the Eternal Return. The book has also 1995). 539 pp., $24.95. author always regarded this book, been expanded by inclusion of completed in 1943, during the extensive footnotes omitted in the by Sister Joan Gormley German occupation of France, as 1949 English edition. Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary somewhat fragmentary and unfin- In his preface, the author tells Emmitsburg, Maryland ished, he never substantially revised us that his purpose is not to pro- or expanded it. He did, however, duce a theoretical or theological Introduction refer interested readers to two discussion of atheism but to pro- he first edition of De other essays of his, which were vide an “historical survey” of rep- Lubac’s classic study of published together in 1950: “The resentatives of contemporary athe- T contemporary atheism was Search for a New Man” and ism. The word “drama” in the title divided into three parts, the first “Nietzsche as Mystic.” Happily, should be taken literally, for the dealing with the atheistic human- the present edition has been ex- dramatic element remains strong ism of Feuerbach (Marx) and panded by a fourth part which throughout. Each of the represen-

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 41 RMEVIEWAGISTERIUM A RTICLE

tatives of modern atheism is shown, God and the spiritual and social project upon God his strength, thus in his turn and in his circumstances, bondage of man. leaving himself weak and depen- making the choice to reject God dent. Special venom is heaped and then devising plans to trans- Representative Atheists: upon Christianity which, with its form the world and society in the Feuerbach (Marx); doctrine of grace, summed up for liberated man’s image. With pas- Nietzsche; Comte Nietzsche all that was wrong with sion and willingness for sacrifice, religion in general. He was all but these thinkers pursue their schemes he first figures to occupy intoxicated with joy at the thought to get rid of God and restructure center stage are Ludwig of murdering God and proclaiming the world. What de Lubac is at TFeuerbach and his more his death to the world, and this, in pains to show is that, however radical disciple, Karl Marx. Basing spite of the fact that he could see auspicious and promising these himself on the Hegelian dialectic, the horrors to be unleashed upon utopian schemes might look for Feuerbach declared God to be the world in the new era of the man in their beginnings, they in- nothing more than the sum of Superman. He foresaw darkness variably lead to his enslavement. man’s positive attributes, projected over Europe and wars the likes of The choice to reject and annihilate by man outside himself and then which had never been seen. At the God invariably brings with it the named God. This is tantamount to prospect he exulted: “‘Thanks to choice to reject and annihilate man. saying that the god for man is man. me . . . a catastrophe is at hand. A But the dramatic action of de Awareness of this transference or catastrophe whose name I know, Lubac’s study lies not only in the alienation, Feuerbach maintained, whose name I shall not tell . . . . choices and struggles of atheists but would effect a turning point in Then all the earth will writhe in also in the contrast between the history. Adopted and adapted by convulsions.’” fervent engagement of atheists in Marx and Engels, Feuerbach’s con- De Lubac devotes much space their atheism and the tepid com- clusion became the cornerstone of to Nietzsche. He seems to recog- mitment to living their faith on the the Marxist system for the transfor- nize the legitimacy of at least some part of many Christians. While the mation of society. It is curious that, aspects of his critique of contempo- proponents of atheism act from given the enormous influence of rary Christianity, especially in its what appears almost like a sense of his thought, Marx receives so little accommodation to Hegelian ratio- vocation, the great majority of attention in this book. This might nalism and historicism. He under- Western Christians, de Lubac be one reason why de Lubac con- stands the scorn Nietzsche ex- thinks, are carried along by a “a sidered The Drama to be incom- presses in face of the mediocrity of sort of immense drift,” towards plete. In any case, the essay in Part the Christian life and piety he saw abandonment of their Christian IV of the present edition, “The around him: “‘If they want me to heritage, and even of belief in God. Search for the New Man,” helps to believe in their Saviour, they’ll One of the goals of The Drama is to fill in the gaps. It shows Marxism as have to sing better hymns! His make Christians aware of the spiri- a system which builds upon the followers will have to look more tual situation of modern times — a total elimination of God from life like men who have been saved.’” situation which, we might add, still and results in the formation of a But perhaps more than that, de prevails today, more than fifty years “new man” and a new society Lubac bears compassion for this after the book appeared. Christians totally at odds with the Christian poor man desirous of giving a total have to recognize the influence of view and totally destructive of ‘Yes’ yet ruined by his revolt Comte, Feuerbach and Marx, and man. against God and resentment to- Nietzsche — and their successors Like Marx, Nietzsche built wards Christ and Christianity. — on all areas of life today: social, upon Feuerbach’s notion that God The question inevitably arises political, economic, pedagogical. was the projection of what is best as to what the Christian response to For the underlying, often unrecog- in man. Nietzsche, however, saw atheism should be. De Lubac main- nized, movement of the systems the projection in terms of strength tains that the only effective re- inspired by these atheistic and anti- and weakness: what man does sponse to Nietzsche, and those like theistic thinkers is the rejection of when he believes in God is to him, can be found, not in apolo-

42 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 getic discourse, but in the witness serve as model for the system that to allegiance to social programs are of authentic Christian life. That would be the basis of the new so- continuing temptations which bear answer he finds personified in the cial order. Thus Comte came to a family resemblance to the fanta- nineteenth century figure, Soren see himself as founder of a universal sies of Comte. But most clearly, de Kierkegaard, whom he describes as positivist Church with its center in Lubac sees in Comte the reality “a witness chosen by God” to re- Paris. He fully expected to be that, when God is removed, some- call Christians from rationalism to preaching positivism from the pul- thing will be found to replace him. faith, from immanentism to tran- pit of Notre Dame Cathedral by He also sees that the elimination of scendence. Kierkegaard had said 1860. God leads inexorably to the en- that “preparation for becoming Borrowing elements from slavement of man. In Comte’s attentive to Christianity does not Catholicism, Comte elaborated a system, with the worship of God consist in reading books or in mak- kind of dogmatic system. “Human- removed from life, man is forced to ing surveys of world history, but in ity” would take the place of God; submit himself, like a slave, to the deeper immersion in existence.” The scientists, schooled in “systematic will of other men. same is true of giving a credible generality” would assume the role response to atheism. Christians of priests; there would also be cer- The Christian Response need to rediscover Christ and then emonies, dogmas, sacraments, and to Atheism: Dostoevsky live their Christian faith with cour- feasts. He even constructed a age and heroism. Christian life that “Trinity” consisting of the Great he principal representative is weak and tepid, instead of pro- Being, the Great Fetish, and the chosen by de Lubac to viding a counter witness to Great Environment. As a stage on Toffer the Christian response atheism’s rejection of God, lends the way to the revolution, there to modern atheism is the novelist, support to that rejection. would be unlimited free thought, Fedor Dostoevsky. In simple but The last protagonist in the and pictures of future happiness compelling terms, the nineteenth- nineteenth century drama of atheis- would be painted to appeal to the century Russian author explains tic humanism is Auguste Comte. imagination. Once the revolution the situation of the West: “‘The His fame rests largely upon his law was in place, however, positivism West has lost Christ and that is of the three successive stages of the would be imposed, and all would why it is dying; that is the only human mind and of society: the be expected to accept without reason.’” The one basic choice first two stages, the theological and question the teaching of the scien- placed before modern man is that philosophical, belonged to man’s tists. An active police force would between the man-god of the athe- immaturity and were now past; the ensure that no accommodations to ists and the God-man of Christian third stage, the physical, in which religious faith or differing opinions revelation. Dostoevsky had faced natural laws are at work, marks the would be permitted. that choice himself and made it in onset of man’s maturity and a new De Lubac admits the almost favor of Christ and the faith of the era. Comte’s schema does, of comic aspects of Comte’s enter- Church. He saw the same choice course, involve the elimination of prise, including his almost fantastic placed before every man. God, who is conceived of as be- attempts to enlist the Jesuits, and Many atheists pass across the longing to man’s childhood, and even the pope, in his schemes for pages of Dostoevsky’s novels. consequently, to be abandoned the establishment of positivism. It is Through them, Dostoevsky shows when man comes of age. hard to imagine a more dreary in dramatic fashion that, without Having disposed of God to his prospect than the totalitarian social God, man has nothing but false- own satisfaction, Comte set about order and secularized religion pro- hood and inevitably becomes an the task of devising a new social posed by Comte. But de Lubac enemy to himself, and ends by or- order. With Marx and Nietzsche, realizes that Comte’s de-Christian- ganizing the world against himself. he shared an abhorrence of Chris- ized version of Catholicism contin- He shows the disaster coming upon tianity. However, he admired Ca- ues to have its proponents and man as a result of those revolution- tholicism and thought it possible to followers. The removal of Christ ary ideals which are the legacy of de-Christianize it so that it would and the reduction of Christian life Western liberalism and its project

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 43 MREVIEWAGISTERIUM A RTICLE of eliminating God and secularizing Cross. When asked why she made speaking of eternity. This might society. No matter how valid is this this sign, the woman answers: “‘All touch the heart of the atheist, who or that element in the secularist cri- the joy that a mother feels when she being really more idolater than tique of society, Dostoevsky sees sees her child smiling for the first atheist, is searching for someone to the truth that those who “kill” God time . . . God feels every time He worship. Through contact with true also kill man. He also saw that man sees . . . a sinner praying to him Christians who preach the gospel by without God cannot remain free. from the bottom of his heart.’” their lives as well as by words, the As the curtain is about to fall From this event, Dostoevsky takes atheist might be converted and en- on the drama played out in the hope, seeing that the very heart of ter into the spiritual world, the gate pages of de Lubac’s work, we Christianity is expressed by a poor of which is guarded by the mystery might ask if he sees any hope. Since woman of the people. Such simple of Christ. this book is a deeply Christian faith is the most compelling answer Such a conversion occurs in meditation on the Christian situa- to today’s atheism. Crime and Punishment, when tion, the answer is necessarily affir- Another reason for hope is the Raskolnikov, converted in Siberia, mative. De Lubac allows power of the gospel itself. Dosto- opens the New Testament. This, Dostoevsky to respond for him. evsky does not despair of the gospel says Dostoevsky, is the beginning of The first sign of hope is in the touching the heart, even of the athe- another story. For the meeting with faith of those Christians who have ist who thinks man has invented Jesus Christ and with his Church continued to believe from the God. The key to reaching such a always marks the beginning of a heart. Many of these are unlearned person is to announce the gospel new era for every individual person and poor. For example, a character from personal experience of the and for society as a whole. In that in one of his novels meets a young Church’s faith, thus showing that encounter alone begins the other peasant woman with a baby. When faith is not just words. The Christian story, the “drama” of a true Chris- the baby smiles for the first time, must speak of his meeting with tian humanism and the salvation of the woman makes the Sign of the Christ, telling what he has seen and the world. ✠

THANKS TO MICHAEL LETTENEY

For the past several years, Michael Letteney has served as managing editor of the Newsletter. Now, as he completes his graduate studies in philosophy at Notre Dame and takes his wife and three children to Cincinatti where he will teach in Xavier University’s department of philosophy, I want formally and publicly to express my thanks to Mike for the superb and conscientious job he has done. He is what T. S. Eliot called Ezra Pound—il maglior fabbro. RMcI

44 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Board of Directors Rev. Cornelius Buckley, S.J. Dr. William May University of San Francisco John Paul II Institute of the Fellowship of San Francisco, CA 94117 487 Michigan Ave. NE Catholic Scholars (O) (415) 666-0123 Washington, DC 20017 (O) (202) 526-3799 1993-1996 Sister Timothea Elliot, RSM (H) (301) 946-1037 St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie Yonkers, NY 10704 Dr. Joseph P. Scottino PRESIDENT (O) (914) 968-6200 Gannon University Prof. Gerard V. Bradley Erie, PA 16541 219 Law School Sister Joan Gormley (O) (814) 871-7272 Notre Dame, IN 46556 Mount St. Mary’s Seminary (H) (814) 459-6258 (O) (219) 631-8385 Emmitsburg, MD 21727-7799 (O) (301) 933-1279 Dr. Janet E. Smith VICE PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT (H) (301) 447-5295 University of Dallas ELECT 1845 Northgate Dr. Rev. Joseph Fessio Dr. John Haas Irving, TX 75062 Ignatius Press St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (O) (214) 721-5258 2515 McAllister St. 1000 E. Wynnewood Rd (H) (214) 650-0785 San Francisco, CA 94118 Overbrook, PA 19096-3099 (O) (415) 387-2324 (O) (610) 667-3394 Msgr. William B. Smith St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie PRESIDENT EMERITUS Dr. Michael J. Healy Yonkers, NY 10704 Rev. Msgr. George A. Kelly Franciscan University of Steubenville (O) (914) 968-6200 Ext. 8248 107-10 Shore Front Parkway Steubenville, OH 43952 Rockaway Beach, NY 11694 (O) (614) 283-6228 Rev. Earl A. Weis, S.J. (H) (718) 945-4856 (H) (614) 282-2146 Loyola University Chicago, IL 60626 EXECUTIVE SECRETARY/TREA- Helen Hull Hitchcock (O) (321) 274-3000 SURER Women for Faith & Family Dr. Jude Dougherty P.O. Box 8326 Dr. Kenneth Whitehead Catholic University of America St. Louis, MO 63132 809 Ridge Place Washington, DC 20064 (O) (314) 863-8385 Falls Church, VA 22046 (O) (202) 391-5259 (H) (703) 538-5085 (H) (301) 299-7886 Dr. James Hitchcock University of Saint Louis PRESIDENT EMERITUS and DIRECTORS St. Louis, MO 63103 EDITOR OF FCS NEWSLETTER Dr. Carl Anderson (O) (314) 658-2910 Prof. Ralph McInerny John Paul II Institute (H) (314) 863-1654 Jacques Maritain Center 2900 N. Dinwiddie St. 714 Hesburgh Library Arlington, VA 22207 Rev. Ronald Lawler, OFM. CAP. Notre Dame, IN 46556 (O) (202) 526-3799 Holy Apostles Seminary (O) (219) 631-5825 (H) (703) 534-9144 33 Prospect Hill Road (H) (219) 232-2960 Cromwell, CT 06416 Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J. (O) (203) 632-3010 MANAGING EDITOR OF Homiletic and Pastoral Review Fax 203-632-0176 FCS NEWSLETTER 86 Riverside Dr. Michael Letteney New York, NY 10024 Dr. Joyce Little Jacques Maritain Center (O) (212) 799-2600 St. Thomas University 714 Hesburgh Library Houston, TX 77006 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (O) (713) 522-7911 (O) (219) 631-5825 (H) (301) 956-1936

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 45 46 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 BOOK REVIEWS

Marriage: The Rock on Which the Review of Catholicism, Liberal- essay on subsidiarity. Adherents of the Family Is Built ism, and Communitarianism: politics of the left and of the right have by William May The Catholic Intellectual Tradition misunderstood the language of human Ignatius; 1995; 143 pages; and the Moral Foundation of rights employed by the Council in paperback, $9.95 Democracy, ed. K. Grasso, G. Bra- viewing it as a capitulation to modern liberal democracy. Grasso shows that dley, and R. Hunt. the Council perceived what was true his book consists in great part in contemporary “rights talk” and of articles published previ- atholicism, Liberalism and Com- developed a new and robust formula- ously. It is an excellent presen- T munitarianism makes a genu- tion of Catholic political theory that is tation of the teaching of the Church’s C ine contribution to American completely faithful to the tradition. Magisterium on many aspects of mar- political thought. This fine volume Wolfe argues that the principle of ried life. contains essays that are diverse in sub- subsidiarity provides a more solid May shows that marriage is the ject and in approach, as well as direct ground for limited government than divine plan for human beings, and in their address to political questions of the doctrines of social contractarians, explains why (1) it requires that there immediate concern. while avoiding many of the difficulties be but one man and one woman, Each of these essays would stand that social contract theory presents. (2) children, equal in dignity to their alone as exceptionally thoughtful and Many find even the term “subsidiarity” parents, must be conceived in their well written, but in this carefully confusing, but Wolfe’s essay is utterly parents’ loving embrace, (3) the planned collection they come together lucid. spouses must give one another love, to form a coherent and powerful argu- There is disagreement among (4) the marriage must be open to pro- ment for the guidance that Catholic the contributors on the question of creation, (5) it must respect the wife’s social thought could provide contem- whether the cultural problems that fertility, (6) it must be a domestic porary democracies — were it to contemporary democracies experience Church, (7) parents are their children’s receive serious consideration. After an have been caused by a perversion of primary educators, not the State or the introductory chapter that argues per- the principles of democracy or Church, (8) the family must serve suasively for the need for a volume whether these difficulties may in fact society by works of social service, such as this, the following two chapters constitute a working out of the logical while the State foster family life, establish first principles, explaining, conclusions of the philosophy of (9) the family must defend its rights, respectively, the anthropology that democratic government. In any case, it (10) the State must respect and com- underlies Catholic social thought and appears that most of the contributors pensate mothers who remain at home the political principles articulated by do not take seriously the potential to care for their children, and (11) the the Second Vatican Council. The next contribution of communitarian State must support the marriage bond five chapters tackle specific problems thought to the renewal of democracy. if men are to be fathers to their chil- of modern democratic government: For a subject that is contained in the dren. One chapter deals with the religious freedom, the ground of lim- book’s title, communitarianism re- complementarity of the sexes, another ited government, judicial review, and ceives very little attention and when it with Pope Paul VI as a prophet, an- city and world government. The fol- is mentioned at all, it is in an uncom- other with laboratory generation, and a lowing three chapters examine the plimentary context. fourth with what it means for a family contribution that such Catholic think- Perhaps the most encouraging to be a domestic Church. ers as Maritain, Murray, and contem- thing about this volume is that most of In an appendix a summary is given porary Thomists have to make to its contributors have two or three of Pope John Paul’s 1994 Letter to modern political thought. Chapters 12 decades of scholarship ahead of them. Families. and 13 evaluate the potential contribu- Most of the ideas presented in this The book contains the chief truths tion of Catholic thought from Protes- volume are hardly popular, but these of our faith today as they relate to tant and Jewish perspectives. A con- scholars have world enough and time family life, with an explanation of why cluding chapter attempts an overview to see to it that Catholic social thought these truths are beneficial, why they of the preceding discussions. is given due consideration by those in protect spouses and children from Especially deserving of mention in authority. many evils. There is enought material this collection are Kenneth Grasso’s in this small book for months of ser- interpretation of the political theory of Mitchell Muncy mons or classes. Vatican II and Christopher Wolfe’s University of Dallas Leonard A. Kennedy, C.S.B.

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 47 BOOK REVIEWS

The Large Family: A Blessing ters is “Large Family Research.” Here dren which families would embrace And a Challenge the “small family system” is contrasted according to personal and spousal by Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. with the “large family system.” The preference. Ignatius Press — San Francisco small family system is dominated by The author endorses permissive- Catalog No. 0-89870-571-1 planning and parenting is likely to be ness in the supervision of playtime in 165 pages $9.95 intensive with interaction characterized children and he particularly disap- by cooperation and democratic rela- proves of the intrusive adult and pa- tionships. Parenting in large families rental involvement in juvenile athletics here are two principal path tends to be extensive rather than inten- and competition. In the chapter on the ways to the understanding of large family living. The first is sive with less concentrated care, over- “Adolescent,” however, he recognizes T sight and possessiveness. Group em- the strong need of children in this to experience it by being the parent or a member of a large family. The sec- phasis and awareness predominate and most vulnerable period for direction, ond is to observe large families and authoritarian rather than democratic role-models and appeals to idealism counsel them as a professional dedi- roles are played. Large family living, and religious conviction. Large family cated to the care of the parent-child viewed from the outside may seem to living may well be the preferred setting relationship. By these standards, Dr. be more chaotic than systematic but for emancipation into adult responsi- Eugene Diamond, the author of The the reality, as this chapter elucidates, is bility. Large Family: A Blessing and A Chal- a contrast in systems. This is not really a “how-to” book lenge is uniquely qualified to write such Some of the most difficult themes but there is a lot of material that is a book. His expertise is compounded of large family group dynamics are worth emulating in the chapters on of empirical knowledge as the father of illustrated in the chapters on “Family “The Economics of a Large Family” a family of thirteen children and special Morale” and “Preserving Individual- and “Priorities in a Large Family.” insights derived from forty years expe- ity.” While it may appear to be almost Feeding, clothing, and educating a rience as a practicing pediatrician impossible to preserve individuality in large family are obviously potential treating families of all sizes. His style is a large variegated group of infants, sources of stress but the maintenance a mixture of a warm personal and children and adolescents, the author of discipline, ideals, and the work ethic descriptive portrayal of his daily in- seems to be comfortable that this can require just as much ingenuity if not volvement in the dynamics of large be readily achieved. He rather looks to more. The overall impression which family living and a more detached the preservation of Family Morale as emerges from the book is that of a scientific and sociological evocation of the much more difficult group chal- warm personal experience which was the internal and external forces which lenge. To an extent, preserving indi- eminently worth living. The success influence the large family’s special viduality tends toward the preservation seems to have resulted not so much position in society. of morale but a group of strong indi- from special techniques and planning The chapters on “The Mother of viduals do not necessarily coalesce into as from a fundamental reliance on a Large Family” and “The Father of a a group with high morale and identity. Divine Providence and the grace of Large Family” are almost unavoidably Experience in business, sports, military God. As the author states in his epi- personal but the author demonstrates units and the like tend to authenticate logue, “The large family is indeed a an ability to generalize legitimately the author’s view that the maintenance blessing and a challenge with God as from the intimate experiences of his of morale demands both skills and the source of both.” own forty-five year marriage. The dedication. This book would be a worthwhile parenting skills involved in managing a The chapters on “Preservation of and educational experience for clergy, large family inevitably evolve as the the Large Family,” “Population Hyste- teachers and parents of families of any size of the family increases. The chal- ria,” and “Maternal Deprivation” are size. If the Federal Government lenges will recapitulate themselves more scholarly and dependent on data through the Department of Health and however and parental responses be- and the sociological and scientific Human Services were to decide to come more measured and less emo- literature as well as intuitive responses. fund an in-depth long term study of tionally-charged. Older children be- Likewise the “Free Choice of Family large families, the results could not come assistants and surrogates to Size” is an astute exposition of the exceed the cumulative wisdom of the facilitate the negotiation of the many many subtle and overt disincentives author’s experience. routine and unexpected tasks and that political and bureaucratic entities problems of daily living. bring to bear on the freedom of Herbert Ratner, M.D. One of the more fascinating chap- couples to choose the number of chil- Editor, Child and Family

48 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 Virginity: A Positive Approach to which the Lord Himself is instituting. In this way, it models the life that Celibacy for the Sake of the King- This new form of living is not to be flows from the virginal and celibate life dom of Heaven seen as a depreciation or diminishment of the Master Himself. Every believer is Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap. of the married form. It does, however, called to the purity of a generous chas- Alba House, New York, 1995 point emphatically to the great tity, whether consecrated or married. eschatological form of life of the blessed But, as Cantalamessa points out: 96 pages who “neither marry nor are given in the virgin must appropriate (this paschal marriage, because they are no longer form of life) by a wholly special title, so uring the late 1980’s, my wife able to die — they are like angels and that he or she becomes its witness and and I had the marvelous are children of God, since they have sign for everyone in the Church.” (p. Dopportunity of living in attained the resurrection.” (Lk. 20:34- 47) Rome for two years. Regularly on 36; cf. Mt. 22:30) Although every believer’s paschal Sunday evenings, an exuberant Capu- Fr. Cantalamessa also discusses the union with Christ should overflow into chin appeared evangelizing on the missionary dimension of celibacy and service to others, the consecrated be- Italian television waves . . . Padre virginity. Here, the fruitfulness of vir- liever is more readily available to imita- Raniero Cantalamessa. It was only ginity is recognized as being rooted in tively manifest God’s very own gratuity later that we learned that he had previ- the virginal fecundity of the Trinity and generosity: ously been a professor of Church Itself: History and the Origins of Christianity when they love and care for children at the Catholic University of Milan, Yes, the first virgin really is the holy who are not their own according to the that he had served on the International Trinity, not just because the first gen- flesh, nurse the sick people of others, eration of the Word by the Father is care for other people’s old folk, and Theological Commission (1975-1981), virginal, but also because the Trinity when — especially in the case of the and that in 1980 he was nominated created the universe alone, without the Church’s cloistered monks and nuns — Preacher of the Papal Household. aid of any other principle, not even they carry the weight of other people’s In his new work, Virginity: A some kind of “pre-existing matter.” sins, bringing them before God in inter- Positive Approach to Celibacy for the Sake (p. 7) cession for the world. (p. 18) of the Kingdom of Heaven, his ability as a He carefully comments on St. The second part of the book is writer rivals that of his preaching. In a Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians titled, “How to Live Virginity and form that is both exhortatory and wherein he counsels the unmarried to Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.” profound, he addresses virginity and remain so that they might be wholly Both marriage and virginity are to be celibacy lived for the sake of Christ “concerned with the Lord’s affairs.” seen as charisms from God. On this and His Kingdom. In his brief intro- Where celibacy and virginity were point, it is worth noting that in Mt. duction, he decries the vigorous attack previously embraced in other religious 19:3-12, Christ, both after specifying the of the dominant culture on virginity traditions for the sake of ritual purity indissolubility of the marital union and and celibacy and reminds us that what or undistracted meditation, the Chris- inaugurating the life of those who re- Christ has planted in this world no one tian virgins’ intentions are thoroughly nounce sex for the sake of God’s reign, will ever be able to uproot. He then personal, they are focused on the Per- states that each of these paths of life are moves into the first of the two parts son of Christ, and their “fruitfulness is for those who “can accept this teach- into which the work divides itself: spousal in nature.” (p. 18) They are ing.” Both are gratuitously bestowed “The Biblical Motivation for Virginity “Spouses of God’s Majesty! Spouses of by God and both require a correspond- and Celibacy for the Sake of the King- the Absolute!” (p. 25) In this sense ing acceptance and gratuitous self- dom of Heaven.” (The second part the consecrated believer epitomizes the bestowal on the part of the recipients. deals with the living out of that virgin- entire virginal Church. It is by a nup- Every charism is a particular ity and celibacy). The more important tial union, consummated on the “mar- “manifestation of the Spirit” (cf. 1Cor. section seems to me to be the first, for riage bed” of the cross, that redeemed 12:7) and requires — in the recipient in it he sets forth an apologetic for this humanity receives the new birth from — humility, joy, peace, and freedom. form of life and indicates its specific above. Cantalamessa points Fr. Cantalamessa sketches for us an contours. unswervingly to the salvific fecundity interior portrait of the virginally conse- Cantalamessa sees the Mt. 19:10- of what Paul calls our “co-crucifixion” crated using these qualities as the prime 12 text (“and there are eunuchs who (sustarurao — Rm. 6:6; Gal. 2:19) colors. He insists that the consecrated have made themselves so for the sake with Christ: life must never become self-serving: of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let any- A virginal and chaste life is therefore one accept this who can”) as the “Ma- The gift [of celibacy and virginity] is in a very profound sense a paschal life.” destined only for some, for those who gna Carta” of a second state of life (p. 47) are called, but are its beneficiaries. (p. 63)

FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 49 ers,

BOOK REVIEWS PRESS RELEASE

It is a life lived for the common Catholic Family Perspectives Catholic Family Perspectives Weekly good, for the sake of the whole Body Weekly Magazine to Be will be published and edited by John of Christ. It must be cultivated, he Launched on the Internet F. Wagner Jr. and Helen Ann Wagner adds, by mortification. Here, I found of Rochester, New York. The Cantalamessa’s arguments especially Beginning June 2, 1996 (Trinity Sun- Wagners are the parents of six chil- well-formulated and persuasive. I day), Catholics and others from around dren, aged 4 to 14. Mr. Wagner, a might add, speaking as a married man, the world with access to the World senior editor with Thomson Legal that a definite mortifying continence is Wide Web on the Internet will be able Publishing, is an attorney and member required of every believer. If one to receive a free weekly electronic of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, cannot come to contain oneself, one has magazine — or “ezine” — which will a national association, and the St. nothing to give anyone, either to feature hypertext-linked articles and Thomas More Lawyers Guild in Christ or to others in Him. A healthy information on issues which affect Rochester. Both Mr. and Mrs. knowledge and acceptance of the families generally or the Catholic Wagner are professed members of the goodness of one’s sexuality is also family in particular. Secular Franciscan Order. crucial, says Cantalamessa. He ac- The premiere issue of the ezine, “In bringing Catholic family knowledges that what the consecrated to be called Catholic Family Perspectives culture to the Internet, we are follow- is renouncing for the love of the Lord Weekly, will include articles by well- ing the lead given to us by Pope John is good in itself and yet that: known pro-family advocate John Paul II,” Mr. Wagner said. “As early as his message for World Communica- Only God knows the fragrance of this Cavanaugh-OKeefe of Laytonsville, sacrifice, which touches not just the Maryland; San Diego, California canon tions Day in 1989, the Holy Father heart or the body, but the very being of and civil lawyer Dr. Edward Peters; recognized that the Church must avail the creature. (p. 81) Jan Fredericks of Rochester, New herself of the new resources provided York, who along with his wife Dr. by computer technology, and the Another major feature of the Vatican launched its own Web site last virginal life is community and this not Barbara Fredericks has adopted and cared for children with disabilities; and year. While there are numerous other just for the sake of the good company. Catholic outreach ventures on the “Relationships constitute the person,” Professor Dominic Aquila, Chairman of the Department of History and Internet, ours will be an interactive writes Cantalamessa, precisely because publication written from the perspec- we are co-united in the image of the Political Science at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. tive of the family — the ‘domestic Tri-Personally united God. Among the church.’” Fathers, it was the “Ever-Virgin” Future issues will include articles from other invited and unsolicited contribu- Catholic Family Perspectives Weekly (Aeiparthenos) Mary, who after “the can be accessed on the World Wide Arch-Virgin” (Archiparthenos) Christ, tors who wish to share their love of the Catholic Church and the family Web at the following Uniform Re- portrays the boundless gratuity of the source Locator, or URL: Infinite One. Cantalamessa cannot with interested readers, or users, on the close without a rich meditation on her. Internet. http://www.vivanet.con/ He quotes the great Akathist Hymn: The capabilities of the World ~jwagner/cfpw.htm Wide Web will allow users of Catholic Hail, mother and nurse of virgins! Family Perspectives Weekly to quickly Submissions of articles for possible Hail, you who lead souls to the access with the click of a mouse the Bridegroom! publication in the ezine, as well as complete text of referenced documents Hail, Virgin Spouse! (p. 89) comments or questions, can be sent via that are available on the Internet, e-mail to Mr. Wagner at the following William Riordan official Catholic pronouncements such address: Sacred Heart Major Seminary as the 1983 Charter of the Rights of the Family and selected World Wide Web [email protected] 2701 W. Chicago Blvd. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner can also Detroit, MI 48206 pages containing hypertext link collec- tions, such as “Catholic Resources on be reached by telephone at (716) 254- the Net.” 1811.

50 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996 BOOKS RECEIVED

AVON BOOKS, 1350 Avenue of FRANCISICAN PRESS, Quincy The Vatican and Communism During World the Americas, New York, NY 10019 University, 1800 College Ave, War II: What Really Happened?, Robert Visons of Mary, Peter Eicher. 228 pages. Quincy, IL 62301-2699 Graham, S.J. 199 pages. $12.95 sewn $5.50 paperback. ISBN: 0-380-78270-7. Marriage: The Sacrament of Divine-Human softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-549-5. Communion, Sister Paula Jean Miller, Saint Dominic and the Rosary, Catherine CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF F.S.E. xiv + 268 pages. $24.95 paper- Beebe. 161 pages. $9.95 sewn softcover. AMERICA PRESS, 2200 Girard back. ISBN: 0-8199-0967-X. ISBN: 0-89870-518-5. Ave., Baltimore, MD 21211 We’re on a Mission from God: The Genera- Commentary on the Book of Causes, St. IGNATIUS PRESS, 2515 McAllister tion X Guide to John Paul II and the Real Thomas Aquinas (trs. V. Guagliardo, Street, San Francisco, CA 94118 Meaning of Life, Mary Beth Bonacci. 213 O.P., C. Hess, O.P., and R. Taylor). A Christian Mother’s Reflections: Pregnancy pages. $11.95 sewn softcover. ISBN: 0- xxxvii + 193 pages. $26.95 hardback. Diary, Mary Arnold. 149 pages. $9.95 89870-567-3. ISBN: 0-8132-0843-2. sewn softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-564-9. A Collection of Poems, Mother Mary PRESIDIO PRESS, 505 San Marin CENTRAL BUREAU, CCUA, 3835 Francis, PCC. 176 pages. $11.95 sewn Drive, Suite 300, Novato, CA 94945 Westiminister Place, St. Louis, MO softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-573-8. Convenantal Theology: The Eucharistic 63108-3472 Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, Order of History, Donald J. Keefe, S.J. xv Power over Life Leads to Domination of David B. Currie. 215 pages. $11.95 sewn + 784 pages. Hardback. ISBN: 0-89141- Mankind, Michael Schooyans (trs. J. softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-569-X. 605-6. Miller, C.S.C.). 75 pages. $8.00 paper- back. ISBN: 1-887567-01-1. Catholic Education: Homeward Bound, SIMON & SCHUSTER, Simon and Kimberly Hahn & Mary Hasson. 400 Schuster Building, 1230 Avenue of CROSSROAD, 370 Lexington Av- pages. $14.95 sewn softcover. ISBN: 0- the Americas, New York, NY 10020 89870-566-5. enue, New York, NY 10017 Breaking Through God’s Silence: A Guide Contemporary Christian Morality: Real Ecumenical Jihad: Ecumenism and the Cul- to Effective Prayer, David Yount. 224 Questions, Candid Responses, Richard C. ture War, Peter Kreeft. 172 pages. $10.95 pages. $20.00 hardback. ISBN: 0-684- Sparks. xix + 159 pages. $12.95 paper- sewn softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-579-7. 82419-1. back. ISBN: 0-8245-1578-1. Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, Michael D. Guest in their own House: The Women of O’Brien. 596 pages. $24.95 hardcover. SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS, Box Vatican II, Carmel McEnroy. xvi + 309 ISBN: 0-89870-580. 5284, Manchester, NH 03108 pages. $15.95 paperback. ISBN: 0-8245- Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Medita- The Essential Rosary, with Prayers, Caryll 1547-1. tions on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Erasmo Houselander. 96 pages. $5.95 deluxe Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Leiva-Merikakis. 746 pages. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 0-918477-36-0. Eschatological Imagination, James Alison. softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-558-4. THE UNIVERSITY OF 203 pages. $19.95 paperback. ISBN: 0- The Heart of Virtue: Lessons from Life and SCRANTON PRESS, Linden and 8245-1565-X. Literature on the Beauty of Moral Character, Monroe, Scranton, PA 18410 The Struggle for Theology’s Soul: Contesting Donald DeMarco. 231 pages. $12.95 sewn softcover. ISBN: 0-89870-568-1. Scripture in Christology, William M. Th- No Higher Court: Contemporary Feminism ompson. xii + 310 pages. $39.95 hard- The Large Family: A Blessing and a Chal- and the Right to Abortion, Germain back. ISBN: 0-8245-1543-9. lenge, Dr. Eugene Diamond. 165 pages. Kopaczynski, OFMConv. xxiii + 247 $9.95 sewn softcover. ISBN: 0-89870- pages. $29.95 hardcover. ISBN: 0- FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS, 571-1. 9040866-50-1. University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458 The Saints Show Us Christ: Daily Readings Peirce’s Philosophical Perspectives, Vicent on the Spiritual Life, Fr. Rawley Myers. Potter (ed. Vincent Colapietro). xxvii + 364 pages. $14.95 sewn softcover. ISBN: 212 pages. $30.00 hardcover. ISBN: 0- 0-89870-542-8. MOVING? 8232-1615. Tell the Fellowship. Call (219) 631-5825 FCS PO Box 495 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (the Post Office does not forward 3rd class mail)

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52 FCS Newsletter • Summer 1996