Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly

in Memoriam President’s Letter: Remembering Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J...... Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. 31 Remembering Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn ...... Catholic New York, Patrick G.D. Riley, Number 4 Kenneth D. Whitehead, Ralph McInerny, and James Hitchcock winter 2008 articles The Unexpected Fruit of Dissent...... William L. Saunders Pro-life Voters and the Pro-Choice Candidate.....Gerard V. Bradley American Law and the commodification of Man...... William L. Saunders Tolerance...... Jude P. Dougherty Celebrating the Feminine Genius...... Sr. Renée Mirkes, OSF, Ph.D. Walker Percy the Philosopher...... Joseph F. Previtali A Question About Names...... Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton, Ph.D.

Book Reviews Exploring Personhood: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature, by Joseph Torchia, O.P...... Dennis McInerny Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, by Margaret A. Farley...... William E. May Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, by Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.,...... William E. May Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihadism: A Call to Action, by George Weigel...... Kenneth D. Whitehead The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians and Courts, by James A. Brundage...... Jude P. Dougherty The Quantum Ten: The Story of Passion, Tragedy, Ambition and Science, by Sheilla Jones...... Jude P. Dougherty ISSN 1084-3035 The Temporal and the Eternal: Review Essay Fellowship of Catholic Scholars on Cardinal Giovanni Bona's Guide to Eternity.....Anne Barbeau Gardiner P.O. Box 495 Notre Dame, IN 46556 (574) 631-5825 officers and directors www.catholicscholars.org J. Brian Benestad, Editor Books Received [email protected] Ex Cathedra...... J. Brian Benestad

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 1 Pr e s i d e n t ’s Le t t e r

n 12 December 2008 we suffered the loss of a saintly priest, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., at ninety years of age. We will sorely miss his wisdom and his wit and his witness. But we can readily hope that we have in him a new Fellowship of Ointercessor in heaven. Catholic Scholars The motto that he chose for his coat-of-arms speaks vol- umes: Scio cui credidi —“I know in whom I have believed” Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Service to the Church (2 tim. 1:12). From the time of his awakening to belief in God during his days at Harvard College and his subsequent conver- sion to Catholicism, through the decades he spent as a Jesuit Co n t e n t s priest and scholar, this Pauline phrase guided his life. Articles The author of more than eight hundred articles and twen- President’s Letter...... 2 ty-five books, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., has been an inspiring Remembering Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn...... 5 model for many of us in the Society of Jesus. He was a good The Unexpected Fruit of Dissent...... 9 and faithful priest, a world-class scholar, and a wonderful friend in the Lord. I count it a great blessing to have known him over Pro-life Voters and the Pro-Choice Candidate...... 11 the years at Fordham University, where he was the Laurence J. American Law and the McGinley Professor of Religion and Society since 1988. The Commodification...... 14 complete set of his semestral McGinley Lectures has recently Tolerance...... 17 been published by Fordham University Press in a volume en- Celebrating the Feminine Genius...... 21 titled Church and Society (2008). In addition to his many public lectures, he used to give an annual set of conferences to our Walker Percy the Philosopher...... 26 Jesuit novices on the theme of sentire cum ecclesia as an important A Question About Names...... 31 part of a Jesuit vocation. For him, “to think with the Church” Book Reviews meant, first of all, to embrace what the Church teaches, but it also entailed the vigorous use of the intellect that God has given Exploring Personhood: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature...... 34 us in and for the Church. What was especially valuable about Just Love: A Framework for Christian these conferences was for our novices to see before them a man Sexual Ethics...... 38 who so well practiced what he preached. Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by In his autobiography, A Testimonial to Grace (1946), he re- Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.... 41 counts the story of the way in which he came to religious faith. Faith, Reason, and the War One day, after leaving Harvard’s Widener Library where he had against Jihadism...... 42 been reading a part of Augustine’s City of God, he was struck by The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession; the discrepancy between the regularity of order in the universe Canonists, Civilians and Courts...... 44 and the materialist explanations of the universe as the result of The Quantum Ten: The Story of Passion, chance that were being promoted in his classes. “Never, since Tragedy, Ambition and Science...... 45 the eventful day...have I doubted the existence of an all-good REVIEW ESSAY: and omnipotent God.” After two more years of thinking about The Temporal and the Eternal...... 46 the matter, he came to accept the divinity of Christ and the Officers and directors...... 50 truth of the Gospels. Where many writers, he tells us, tried to Books Received...... 50 present Jesus “as a mild, tolerant, and ever gentle moralist,” the Ex Cathedra...... 51 Gospels show Jesus as someone “whom one could hate tremen- dously, as most of his contemporaries did hate Him, for what Reminder: Membership dues will be they took to be His bad manners and extravagant ideas.... The mailed out the first of the year and are moralists never seemed to rise above the obvious. Christ never based on a calendar (not academic) year. paused to state the obvious. He told of things no man had seen.”

2 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Mindful of the ways in which these Gospels logical Journey (fiftieth anniversary edition, 1996), The present Christ as founding a Church, the young Priestly Office (1997), The Splendor of Faith: The Theo- Dulles visited various Protestant churches, out of logical Vision of Pope John Paul II (1999, revised and respect for the Presbyterian heritage of his family. updated edition, 2003) The New World of Faith (2000), But, he explains, the preaching that he heard there Newman (2002), and Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian gave the impression of not conveying the fullness of of the Faith (2007). what Christ taught. By contrast, the sermons that Some theologians with less of a taste for sentire he heard at the Catholic churches he visited seemed cum ecclesia have tried to claim the earlier period of more solid but dry. The statues that he saw did not Dulles’s writings for their ranks, but any fair reading strike him as at the same level of artistic quality that of his corpus will show his remarkable consistency he saw elsewhere, and the “elaborate symbolism” of and his abiding quest to understand why the Church the liturgy seemed daunting. The reading of various has made the claims that she has over the centuries. Catholic intellectuals, however, more than compen- In the lengthy postscript that he added to A Testimo- sated. His autobiography mentions by name such nial to Grace for its fiftieth-anniversary edition (1996), figures as Maurice de Wulf, Etienne Gilson, Jacques Dulles begins thus: “In a sense I could say, as did John Maritain, Martin D’Arcy, S.J., and Fulton J. Sheen, Henry Newman in his Apologia pro vita sua that there who seemed to him to have “expressed that boldly is no further history of my religious opinions, since Christian view of man and the modern world for in becoming a Catholic I arrived at my real home.” which I had sought in vain in Protestant churches.” Philosophically, he has always proven to be a care- His reading brought him to accept the claim that the ful Thomist, supplemented by the thought of such Catholic Church made to be the Church that had contemporary figures as Michael Polanyi. Theologi- been founded by Christ: “The more I examined, the cally, he regularly exhibited a deep appreciation for more I was impressed with the consistency and sub- the nouvelle théologie that was championed by the likes limity of Catholic doctrine.” He was received into of Yves Congar, Jean Daniélou, S.J., and Henri de the Church in 1940. Lubac, S.J. After a year at Harvard Law School, service in It is, perhaps, the frequent misinterpretations of the U.S. Navy, and the years of formation within the his book Models of the Church that have given some Society of Jesus, leading to his ordination in 1956, to suggest that there was a time when Dulles thought Avery Dulles took his doctorate in theology at the differently. Oblivious to the framework that he care- Gregorian University and began a long scholarly fully outlined for using the idea of models as a way career that centered on ecclesiology and fundamental of thinking about ecclesiology, some of his less care- theology. The titles of his many books show his reso- ful readers assumed that they could ignore the in- lute concentration: Apologetics and the Biblical Christ stitutional model for understanding the Church in (1963), The Dimensions of the Church (1967), Revelation favor of one of the other “models” that he describes and the Quest for Unity (1968), Revelation Theology: A in this volume. In fact, the book defends as indispens- History (1969), The Survival of Dogma (1971), The His- able to our understanding the Church’s institutional tory of Apologetics (1971, expanded edition, 2005), Mod- dimension even while reflecting on the fact that the els of the Church (1974, expanded edition with new Church is sui generis and irreducible to anything else appendix, 2002), Church Membership as a Catholic and in creation. Only by pondering the entire variety of Ecumenical Problem (1974), The Resilient Church (1977), the images that the Scriptures use for the Church, A Church to Believe In: Discipleship and the Dynam- he argues, can one possibly appreciate what it is that ics of Freedom (1982), Models of Revelation (1983), The Christ established. It is a mystical communion, a sac- Catholicity of the Church (1985), The Reshaping of the rament, a servant, a herald, the bride of Christ, the Catholicism (1988), The Craft of Theology: From Symbol body of Christ, and much more. to System (1992, expanded edition, 1995), The Assur- A decade later, in an academic context filled with ance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith deconstruction and dissent, his book A Church to (1994), A Testimonial to Grace and Reflections on a Theo- Believe In (1983) made the argument for ecclesiastical

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 3 authority. His measured tones and balanced judg- of the range of positions taken on a question, he artic- ments were then an object of suspicion on the left ulates a calm and balanced argument of his own, re- and on the right, but this was almost inevitable, given plete with needed distinctions and qualifications. His the heat of the clashes in those days. On questions reflections on the nature of his discipline in The Craft that the Church had not yet decided, Father Dulles of Theology, for instance, set forth the criteria for seri- generally tried to keep the possibilities open and to ous scholarship as well as for assessing the catholicity find as much good will as he could on all sides. He of a theologian. Does the individual hold that faith took this posture to be a requirement for the kind and reason are compatible? have a belief in traditional of thinking that sentire cum ecclesia requires. On ques- trinitarian theology? remain in communion with tions that the Church had determined, there could Rome? show fidelity to the Church’s magisterium? be no question but to use one’s intellect to under- have a sense of continuity with the past? To operate stand more deeply the reasons for the determinations within these parameters is to respect the liberty ap- reached by the Church that had been founded by propriate to a theologian and to observe the preroga- Christ. Scio cui credidi. tive of the pope and the bishops to offer authoritative One of the situations that Dulles faced as Presi- interpretations of the doctrines of the faith. On the dent of the Catholic Theological Society of America sometimes disputed notion of the sensus fidelium, Car- during the 1970s is particularly telling. Dissatisfied dinal Dulles labored to distinguish between the genu- with a report on sexual morality (commissioned by ine sense of this term in theology and mere public a previous CTSA president but submitted on his opinion, let alone academic peer pressure. watch) that criticized Pope Paul VI’s affirmation of Among his most recent contributions are books the Church’s traditional opposition to contracep- on faith and on the magisterium. The New World of tion, Dulles and other members of the organization’s Faith shows numerous ways in which the treasury board decided to “receive” instead of “accept” or “ap- of the Church’s teachings can illuminate a variety prove” the document. While some wanted an open of contemporary problems: “The world disclosed to repudiation of this report and many others wanted faith is immense. It opens up vistas that extend be- the organization officially to embrace its clear dissent, yond the world of sense and into a realm not reached this son of a diplomat judged prudence to require by telescopes..., however powerful.... Its population that a clear signal be sent, but in a diplomatic way, includes the living and the dead, saints and angels, one that clearly did not adopt or laud the document and even, at its summit, the divine persons.... We but one that stopped short of shaming or embar- cannot even sketch it, still less enter it, unless we rassing its authors by an outright repudiation. One receive and accept God’s loving revelation.” His lat- might here remember Aquinas’s courtesy to the radi- est published volumes review the nature and history cal Aristotelian Siger of Brabant when he composed of the Church’s teaching office and achieve the same his De unitate intellectus contra averroistas and never so dispassionate sophistication that has ever been his much as named his contemporary adversary, the bet- trademark, the confidence in his Lord that his motto ter to leave him room for the change of mind that proclaims: Scio cui credidi. ✠ Dante’s placement of Siger in Paradise hints as having happened. Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. Dulles’s profound debt to Aquinas is evident even Philosophy Department in the style of his scholarship. After a thorough review Fordham University

4 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 In Me m o r i a m Remembering Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn

“He was very easy to succeed,” he told Catholic New ✠ Obituary in Catholic New York York. “He was very thorough. Everything was in great shape, ready to expand.” He added, “Starting an enter- sgr. Michael J. Wrenn, the pastor emeritus prise like that from whole cloth was a real endeavor. It of St. John the Evangelist parish in Manhat- was beautifully laid out...and it was easy to build on his tan and founder of what is now St. Joseph’s M beginnings.” Seminary Institute of Religious Studies in Dunwoodie, Msgr. Wrenn served as Cardinal John O’Connor’s died Oct. 26 at the Northeast Center for Special Care special consultant for religious education. He was the in Lake Katrine. He was 72. author of the book Catechisms and Controversies: Reli- Auxiliary Bishop Robert A. Brucato, retired vicar gious Education in the Postconciliar Years, (Ignatius Press, general, celebrated the Funeral Mass Oct. 31 at St. John 1991), a critical examination of developments and the Evangelist Church. The homilist was Msgr. Thomas shortcomings in catechesis in the years following the J. Bergin, pastor of St. Charles parish on Staten Island Second Vatican Council. He also was the author, with and former vicar for education. Kenneth D. Whitehead, of Flawed Expectations: The Re- A specialist in catechetics, Msgr. Wrenn founded the ception of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Ignatius Archdiocesan Catechetical Institute, now the Institute Press, 1997). He translated 13 books on theology from of Religious Studies, in 1977 under the guidance of the French. Cardinal Terence Cooke and was its director for 10 Born in the Bronx, he studied at St. Joseph’s Semi- years. “He has to be credited with its initial and ongo- nary, Dunwoodie, and was ordained May 27, 1961. He ing success,” Msgr. Bergin said in his homily. “He had held master’s degrees in theology from Manhattan Col- great vision here, and the present Institute of Religious lege and in education from Fordham University. He was Studies owes him a great debt of gratitude.” named a monsignor in 1986 and was a Knight Com- Referring to Msgr. Wrenn’s years at St. John the mander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre Evangelist, from 1987 to 2001, he said, “He was very of Jerusalem. solicitous about the sick and the lonely. He made many He received the first honorary doctorate from the good friends here who relied on him as priest, pastor International Theological Institute for studies on Mar- and friend.” He added that Msgr. Wrenn had the abil- riage and the Family in Gaming, Austria, in 2000. ity to bring calm to people who were upset by grief or He is survived by a brother, Sean Wrenn. Burial trouble. took place at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne. Msgr. Wrenn presented lectures and seminars on catechetics, including one in St. Lucia in the 1990s. On Reprinted with permission from Catholic New York Dec. 31, 2000, attackers invaded the cathedral in Cas- tries, St. Lucia, killed a nun and severely burned and injured others. Msgr. Wrenn arranged for four victims to be flown to Manhattan for treatment. The U.S. Con- ✠ Patrick G.D. Riley, former edi- ference of Catholic Bishops sponsored the flight, and tor of the National Catholic Register Msgr. Wrenn launched a fund-raising campaign to help defray medical expenses. He visited the victims almost hose of us who were privileged to know Mi- daily at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center and chael Wrenn knew him as a champion of a brought them the Eucharist. Twhole gamut of good causes from sound cat- In 2001 he returned to the Institute of Religious echetics to sound scriptural scholarship, particularly Studies, where he was dean until his retirement in 2005. when they were under assault from within. Not only The institute offers master’s degree programs and post- did he defend such besieged disciplines, he made it a master’s study and enrolls predominantly lay students. point to master their elements. On occasion he entered Msgr. Ferdinando Berardi, pastor of Holy Family par- the lists himself, as when he translated the book of the ish in New Rochelle and a concelebrant at the Funeral scriptural scholar and Jewish convert Francois Dreyfus, Mass, succeeded Msgr. Wrenn as dean of the Institute. Did Jesus Know He Was God?

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 5 In Me m o r i a m

Over the years he was a practiced organizer of yet hardly hard to see when Dr. McInerny delineated events. One such honored his mentor and intimate the history), and finally the future. In dealing with the friend Msgr. George A. Kelly, like him a priest of the last, he got off an archetypical McInernyism: “To make New York Archdiocese. It was a colloquy on Msgr. contraception the key to moral theology is an idea Kelly’s battle for the restoration of Catholicity within worthy of P.G. Wodehouse.” the Catholic Church, particularly among academics and Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that bringing McIn- other intellectual leaders. erny into the Fellowship was a master stroke on the The colloquy was held in the spring of 1999 in the part of Kelly, master of the master stroke. It at once gave vast hall of the New York archdiocesan headquarters, the Fellowship fresh luster reflecting McInerny’s inter- which were within Msgr. Wrenn’s parish boundaries. national reputation as a scholar and novelist, and effec- The speakers, all of them members of Msgr. Kelly’s Fel- tively silenced the plausible complaint that leadership of lowship of Catholic Scholars, were recognized experts the Fellowship clustered around a core of New Yorkers in their own fields: Joseph Varacalli in sociology, J. Brian like Kelly and Wrenn. Benestad in Catholic social teaching, William E. May The Honorable Kenneth D. Whitehead, no New in moral theology, James Hitchcock in history — just Yorker he but former Assistant Secretary for Higher to begin the impressive cast in the order of appearance. Education, detailed the campaign of the Holy See to What they had to say remains relevant to this day, when restore the Catholicity of Catholic higher education the errors and disorders that they delineate and rebut in the United States. That Catholic character had been still flourish, and the remedies that they prescribe re- thrown into question by a declaration of indepen- main valid. dence from “authority of whatever kind, lay or cleri- One important problem that they do not touch cal, external to the academic community itself.” This on would soon loom over the West, namely its demo- so-called Land O’ Lakes Statement was framed by a graphic decline, a direct effect of the contraception that group of Catholic university presidents gathered in the several speakers dissected. Perhaps I should qualify that eponymous northland retreat of Notre Dame president since I am not entirely sure that none of the speakers Theodore Hesburgh. With this declaration, the Land referred to demographic problems created by contra- O’ Lakers adopted the Enlightenment model of higher ception. Had I provided an index to the proceedings, education. which I edited, I could be more certain. Msgr. Kelly The next-to-last speaker, just before Archbishop complained to me about the lack of an index. Pell, was scriptural scholar Scott Hahn. Dr. Hahn, who Actually Father George Rutler, from the audience, had been a Protestant minister before entering the touched on demographics. It was a light touch, deal- Catholic Church, called for a return to the traditional ing with the demographics of the American Catholic four senses of Holy Scripture. This fourfold sense, he clergy. Father Rutler observed that the ranks of priests said, “defines the very task of the exegete.” were declining while those of bishops were rising, and At Msgr. Wrenn’s invitation, extemporaneous re- calculated to the general amusement that by a certain marks from the stage were made by four distinguished date, which I forget, the American Catholic clergy academics: Gerard Bradley, professor of law at Notre would consist of no priests and all bishops. Dame University, and president of the Fellowship of The only bishop to speak from the rostrum was the Catholic Scholars; Father Anthony Mastroeni, profes- ordinary of Melbourne, George Pell, who later became sor of theology at Christendom College; and Robert Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney. He spoke on the parish P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at priesthood, a favorite theme of George Kelly. Princeton University. Ralph McInerny gave full scope to contraception, Msgr. Wrenn arranged for publication of the pro- linking it to his three master themes: the origins of ceedings by Christendom Press in a book titled Keeping theological dissent (a no-brainer), resistance to the urg- Faith: Msgr. George A. Kelly’s Battle for the Church. Typical ing of the Holy See that Catholic higher education be of him were the efforts he expended to promote the faithful to traditional teaching (not quite a no-brainer, work and reputation of another.

6 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 their theological mentors, the Church should be con- ✠ By Kenneth D. Whitehead, author strained to adopt these and other questionable features and enshrine them in the official NCD. It was expected But as for you, man of God, shun all this; aim at that the “consultations” organized by the catechetical righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, establishment would result in the pre-ordained out- gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. come that was desired. —i tim 6:11-12 This expectation failed to reckon with the deter- mination of Father Michael J. Wrenn. Since he was one he Church lost a dedicated priest and a stalwart of Cardinal Terence J. Cooke’s staff educational and champion of her faith on October 26, 2008, catechetical experts, he was able to prepare dozens of Twhen Monsignor Michael J. Wrenn passed proposed amendments to the draft NCD text being away after lying incapacitated for nearly nine months presented by the catechetical establishment. Introduced following an injury sustained in a fall which left him at the bishops’ meeting by Cardinal Cooke and some essentially paralyzed. This lengthy period during which of the other bishops of the New York province, where he was called upon to suffer was an anxious time for they were successfully adopted, these NCD amend- those who had known this large-hearted and outgoing ments significantly modified in a more doctrinally priest in his prime. His typical approach to life, seeing sound direction the National Catechetical Directory a problem, was: “Well, let’s get going and do something text that was finally approved. I was engaged around about it.” But it became his lot not to be able any lon- that same time in getting of hundreds of amendments ger to “do something about it”—except to pray on his to the original NCD draft submitted by chapters of hospital bed. Catholics United for the Faith around the country. I first got to know him when he was head of the Becoming aware of each other’s efforts, Father Michael Archdiocesan Catechetical Institute in New York. His and I collaborated in drafting a number of key amend- dedication to the catechetical apostolate and his desire ments. He himself drafted the essential amendment on to get things right would eventually lead to the first of memorization which got included in the final NCD our several collaborations, but initially I knew him only text—much to the consternation of the catechetical as the helpful and accommodating Institute director establishment. where my wife was studying for her Master’s in Reli- Following this collaboration in the late 1970s which gious Studies, taking one class one semester at a time, helped to insure a better National Catechetical Direc- since she was still engaged full time in those days raising tory, Father Michael and I became fast friends and oc- our young sons. casional collaborators. In the 1980s, during the drafting One thing that first struck me about Father Mi- process for what became the Catechism of the Catholic chael at a time when I barely knew him yet was his Church, we jointly prepared about 80 modi—at least willingness as a priest to go out of his way to help oth- some of which, I believe, were accepted by Cardinal ers. Once when a friend of mine whom he had only John J. O’Connor and his staff and sent to Rome along recently met was hospitalized, he promptly made not with the archdiocesan contributions. Many people still one but several hospital visits—this for a man for whom remember the joint articles which Monsignor Michael he had no pastoral responsibilities but whom he had and I published from time to time through the 1990s simply heard had been hospitalized. I thought at the into the 2000s, usually on catechetical or theological time: this is a man with a real sense of his vocation as a subjects. priest of Jesus Christ. The major collaboration of both of our lives, how- Subsequently, we became close collaborators in try- ever, came when Monsignor Michael somehow got a ing to influence the outcome of the elaborate Church- copy of the proposed translation into English of the wide “consultations” which the liberal catechetical Catechism of the Catholic Church. As is quite well known, establishment of the day organized in the 1970s for the Catechism was originally drafted by its eight bishop- the preparation of a National Catechetical Directory authors in French. Versions in other languages therefore (NCD). This was the heyday of such aberrations as had to be produced. However, the American translator “experiential catechesis” and “on-going revelation,” and originally commissioned to “English” the Catechism ad- nothing would do at that time but that, in the opinion opted radical feminist “inclusive language” throughout of the liberal catechetical-establishment people and (not to speak of some his other theological errors!).

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 7 In Me m o r i a m

I do not know to this day how Monsignor Michael got access to the text of this badly flawed translation— ✠ By Ralph McInerny, professor, which at that point was routinely sailing through the University of Notre Dame approval process. What I do remember is how, in the enervatingly hot summer of 1992, Monsignor Michael onsignor Wrenn, along with Monsignor Kel- quite literally dragooned several of his friends and as- ley and Monsignor Bill Smith, gave mem- sociates competent in French, including, notably, Father Mbers of the Fellowship three indelible lessons Gerald E. Murray of the Archdiocese of New York and on the character and caliber of the New York clergy. Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., of Ignatius Press, into joining Monsignor W loved to recall his time at Dunwoodie him in going over this translation in detail and identi- and as the catechetical advisor to the cardinal. (Only he fying its manifold errors. A detailed critique of it was and Kelly could make “cardinal” sound like ‘Oz.’) Who eventually submitted through channels to Rome. Mon- will ever forget the smiling presence of Mgr. Wrenn signor Michael and I co-authored articles, critical of the at Fellowship meetings, combining benignity with translation, that were published in the United States, gravitas. Or the rather equivocal ring on the appropri- England, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. ate finger of his right hand. He always chuckled when The upshot of all this effort was that the Holy See one genuflected and attempted to kiss the seemingly rejected the translation and commissioned an entirely episcopal ring. He was a man of great enthusiasms—the new translation in English from scratch by the Austra- elevation of Cardinal Dulles rubbed him the wrong lian Archbishop Eric D’Arcy of Hobart, Tasmania. As a way, his work with Ken Whitehead on a variety of proj- result, the official translation of the Catechism into Eng- ects, particularly the CCC, his devotion to the works lish did not appear until nearly a year and a half after of Tresmontant, and lately supporting an effort to find the official promulgation of the Catechism by Pope John in canon law a basis for a formal judgment of heresy Paul II in 1992. The story of all this is recounted in on those who supported abortion. Once he gave me detail, among other catechetical vicissitudes, in the 1996 a photograph of himself on his ordination day, flanked book co-authored by Monsignor Michael and myself, by his proud parents. Age did not diminish his humble Flawed Expectations: The Reception of the Catechism of pride in his priesthood. My favorite anecdote. He spoke the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 1996). of going for an early bird meal in Florida with a prela- The general editor of the Catechism, Christoph von tial friend when the hostess asked, “Seniors?” “No, my Schönborn, today the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, dear, monsignors.” May he rest in peace. subsequently wrote to Monsignor Michael praising him for having sounded the alarm on the defective origi- nal English translation of the Catechism. It was a letter ✠ By James Hitchcock, professor, which Monsignor Michael quite properly framed and put on his wall. St. Louis University Much, much more could be said about the work— and the vital leadership—that Monsignor Michael J. first met Father Michael Wrenn in 1977 or 1978, Wrenn contributed in these last few—critical—years when the Fellowship was getting organized. He was in the life of the Church. One thinks, for example, of Idirector of a catechetical institute of the Archdiocese the conferences he organized in the late 1990s—the of New York, about which I knew very little. I gathered, one on Scripture and the Jesus Seminar, for example, or however, that it was a valiant effort on his part to pro- the one on the important career and work of the late mote authentic religious education at a time when it Monsignor George A. Kelly. Monsignor Michael rarely was being undermined. Like many pioneers of the Fel- or never stopped thinking about ways to advance the lowship, he found that defending Church teaching could cause of the authentic “Catholic faith that comes to exact a price. A few years later, even though he was now us from the apostles.” His scriptural model was: “Teach a monsignor, he was no longer director of the institute, what befits sound doctrine” (tit 2:1). something that I gathered was not entirely his own wish. He was also a good and generous man whom not He became pastor of St. John the Evangelist parish in a few people know gave in precisely the way that the Manhattan, whose church was the ground floor of the Gospel prescribes (mt. 6::3), namely, not letting his left skyscraper archdiocesan chancery office. hand know what his right hand was doing. We shall miss him greatly, I more than most. Requiescat in pace! Msgr. Wrenn had highly entertaining stories to tell

8 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 about the celebrities who lived in his neighborhood. A guile that it did not occur to him to pretend otherwise. lady who came into the church and asked if there was Some of us remember the late-night phone calls, a statue of St. Jude (there was not) was recognized as when the monsignor, brooding over some problem in Greta Garbo. Later, when Msgr. Wrenn was attending a the Church, resolved that something had to be done! parishioner’s wake, the undertaker invited him to visit Once he instructed me to contact the Holy See and the basement: I got Greta Garbo down there. You ought obtain the red hat for a certain unfairly neglected priest. to see her. (Msgr. Wrenn diplomatically suggested that (I would have done it, had I known how.) they pray for her instead.) On a street corner one day Above all he used the resources available to him he laughed at some antic of a small dog, whose owner, to do the maximum good. I was told that he was the the comedienne Hermione Gingold, hissed at him, benefactor of innumerable worthy causes. I know di- “And you call yourself a follower of St. Francis!” rectly of the conferences he organized that brought He was delighted that officials from the nearby together leading scholars from America and Europe, United Nations were among his parishioners. A friend something quite remarkable for a parish to undertake. of his who lived outside Paris relayed the story of how He was untiring in his service to the Church numer- on one occasion, preaching in the local church (he was ous decisive ways, perhaps the best known was his great fluent in French), the monsignor began by announcing effort to assure an accurate English translation of the that he was pastor of the richest parish in New York! Catechism of the Catholic Church. All this might have made him obnoxious, a self- He was, I believe, a man who used to the absolute satisfied society priest, but it did not. One of Msgr. maximum the talents that God gave him. ✠ Wrenn’s endearing qualities was the simple, unselfcon- scious satisfaction he took in his position, so devoid of

Ar t i cl e s The Unexpected Fruit of Dissent

By William L. Saunders is, to exercise our freedom toward the truth. When Senior Fellow and Director of the Family Research we do, we will be healed and restored. We can even Council’s Center for Human Life and Bioethics learn from our mistakes. Working through our freedom, God can always nlike followers of John Calvin, Catho- bring good from evil. Every repentant sinner will lics do not believe that God foreordains impact those around him, and, maybe like St. Paul, everything that happens to us. Rather, transform the world itself. As Paul said, “We know we believe He gives us freedom. With that all things work for good to them that love God”. freedomU comes responsibility. Our freedom is to be As Augustine put it, “God judged it better to bring used to find Him, who is all Truth. good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.” However, we often use our freedom to stray One example of this principle at work is the Fel- from the truth, to find error, to sin. But the great lowship of Catholic Scholars, which just celebrated Good News is that this is not the end of the story. its 31st anniversary at its annual convention, held this For, rather than abandon us to the consequences of year in San Antonio, Texas. Let me explain. our freedom wrongly exercised, God reaches out As we know, America, and American Catholi- to us, to forgive us, to heal us. All we have to do is cism, in the late 1960s and early 1970s was, to put it to assent to God’s unmerited, remarkable offer, that charitably, a mess. Important reform in the Church

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 9 Ar t i cl e s and in the world had been badly misinterpreted. from others who agreed with them, in order to stay Vatican Ecumenical Council II in 1962-65 was strong. (They were not angels or supermen, after all, being interpreted by many as an embrace of the but ordinary men and women, and it is hard for any- world’s views. Humanae Vitae in 1968 sparked a one to endure alone.) wholesale rebellion of academics who took out an It was also a “fellowship” in the sense that it was ad in the New York Times to proclaim they consti- not a corporate entity that took positions on behalf tuted a “second,” or alternative, magisterium. Free- of its members. Rather, the members were, and are, dom had become license…even for those licensed free to exercise their God-given freedom to have to teach the Catholic faith. their own opinions. But those opinions are always This was the Age of Dissent. On Catholic college within the universe of orthodox Catholicism. (It campuses throughout the land, academics somehow is ironic that many non-Catholics think Catholic thought it was a mark of true freedom to disagree, as orthodoxy somehow restricts freedom. Rather, as publicly as possible, with the teaching magisterium of Chesterton noted, by setting limits, it sets one free.) the Church. This is an astonishingly odd claim since And the founding men and women were great the magisterium is simply the Holy Spirit speak- scholars—Jim Hitchcock, Joe Fessio, William Smith, ing through the College of Cardinals. It is bizarre to Bill May, Germain Grisez, Ronald Lawler, George believe that “true” or “authentic” freedom can con- Kelly, Ralph McInerny, among others. By striving to tradict Truth itself. But that is what these Catholic be loyal to the Catholic faith, by refusing to give in academics thought. Associations of academics and to the world’s claim that either God does not exist or intellectuals were drowning in dissent, and poisoning He speaks in a voice too dim to hear, they created a the water as they drowned. wonderful gift to the Church. Academics loyal to the magisterium decided there It is a gift that continues to inspire. At the recent was no one speaking for the Church on campus. So convention in San Antonio, younger scholars like Joe they decided to do something about it—in 1977, they Capizzi of Catholic University and Fr. Anthony Gi- formed the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. ampietro of the University of St. Thomas in Houston As there are the four marks of the Church, there reflected upon the dilemmas posed for freedom of are the three marks of the Fellowship. That is, it is a conscience by an increasingly hostile culture. As such, fellowship, it is Catholic, and it is composed of schol- they are worthy successors to the great men and ars, of those committed to the intellectual enterprise. women who originally founded the Fellowship. Particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, the need for Some of the original founders—such as the simple fellowship was pressing. Academics faithful to cheerfully combative George Kelly and the gentle the magisterium were surrounded by colleagues who and resolute Ronald Lawler—have passed on from berated them for their Catholic orthodoxy. They this life to the next. I have to think they received a were denied promotions and marginalized. They joyous welcome from their Lord for exercising their needed fellowship, human contact with and support freedom in service of the truth. ✠ •

10 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Pro-life Voters and the Pro-Choice Candidate

By Gerard V. Bradley choice” is also, and it is necessarily, a position about Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame what public policies and laws we should have about abortion—specifically, whether abortion should be he “pro-life” position consists, basi- something women are free to choose, or not. “Pro- cally, of these two propositions. One choice” is one answer to that policy inquiry. It is this is that people begin at conception, so answer: the legal protections which protect most of that to kill anyone from conception us from being killed should not protect all of us from onwards is to kill a human person. being killed. Some people—the unborn—are to be TheT second proposition is that it is wrong—morally exposed to deadly violence without legal aid or re- wrong—to intentionally kill any innocent person. dress. And, so, just as ante-bellum Americans who re- Neither proposition is about religious faith. No one fused to own slaves were nonetheless correctly called needs religious faith to see and to say that both of “pro-slavery”—because they affirmed the legal right these propositions are true. You can figure out when of others to do so—Americans who today affirm the people begin, for example, by reflecting philosophi- legal right of a women to have an abortion could cally on scientific facts about human reproduction correctly be called “pro-abortion,” even if they judge and development. And one can figure out that killing abortion an option unworthy of their own choice. is wrong by reflecting upon the natural law which, at This is the “pro-choice” position I have in mind least according to Saint Paul, is inscribed upon one’s in seeking to answer the question previously posed. heart. Or one can consult almost any secular or reli- This “pro-choice” position amounts to a grave in- gious moral code, or almost any society’s civil law— justice, one which “pro-choice” candidates necessar- including our own. ily embrace, support, and choose; it is precisely what So it won’t do to say that one is “pro-life” be- being “pro-choice,” at a minimum, actually means. cause one views abortion with profound misgivings, Anyone who votes for a “pro-choice” candidate or because one regrets that so many abortions occur becomes morally responsible for the grave injustice and that the law should work to make it more rare, of exposing innocent persons to murderous acts. or because abortion is, in some sense, wrong and evil. The “pro-life” voter who votes for a “pro-choice” Abortion is all these things. But abortion is much candidate materially—that is, in fact and as a matter more than all these things. In an abortion someone of foreseeable effect—cooperates in sustaining this who has the same right not to be killed that every- country’s radically defective legal structure about one else has, is killed. This is the “pro-life” position I abortion. Voting for Barack Obama helped him to have in mind in asking: under what circumstances is win the Presidency and thereby helping him to win the “pro-life” voter morally justified in voting for a the Presidency was, perforce, to help him make his “pro-choice” candidate? declared “pro-choice” policies a reality (or, to the But what about the “pro-choice” position? Is extent such policies were in place, to help him block it really the case that someone who is “personally” efforts to repeal them). The “pro-life” Obama voter “pro-life” could coherently be politically “pro- knowingly declined to do what he or she could have choice”? Or, is “pro-choice” really the same thing as done to legally protect the unborn from being killed. “pro-abortion”? In some ways they are different. But The question is, under what circumstances is it in one decisive way they are the same. It is true that morally right to vote for a candidate such as Obama, a “pro-choice” candidate for public office may never who promised to expand the unjust structure by gov- advise any particular women to have an abortion. ern-ment funding of abortion and by removing some The “pro-choice” candidate may even find abortion brakes upon abortion, such as parental notice laws? extremely distasteful and, perhaps, abhorrent. But the To answer this question we have to consider the surgical procedure we call abortion is not the only matter from the perspective of those who suffer the subject matter of the “pro-choice” position. “Pro- foreseeable harm resulting from the perpetration of

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 11 Ar t i cl e s

“pro-choice” policies—the unborn who are killed. in accordance with the truth that every innocent has Then we have to apply the great moral principle we an equal right not be killed. We would not be acting call the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would in accord with the Golden Rule. have them do unto you. The Golden Rule makes us I think we need to apply the Golden Rule in a walk in the others’ shoes, makes us count the stranger very similar way to the question: when is it morally and his or her well-being just as one instinctively and right to vote for a “pro-choice” candidate, in this with ease, welcomes the benefits and avoid the harms analysis, Barack Obama. of what one does when the beneficiary or victim is oneself, or someone near and dear. The Golden Rule pushes back especially hard against our tendency to Argument 1: “Attack the Root discount the harms we visit upon those we do not Cause of Abortion” know, those who cannot object, those who cannot offer effective resistance. The Golden Rule steers his argument proposes to leave the unjust us to the morally right choice despite the fact that, legal structure about abortion in place until though we may believe everyone is equal, we do not Tsome distant future time when, it is hoped, treat them that way. The Golden Rule leads us to be abortions will be so rare that prohibiting them will fair to everyone whose lives and fortunes are foresee- make sense. This argument proposes to now seek a ably affected by our actions—as justice requires. reduction in the number of abortions performed This question about the fairness of lethal side- annually, from the present 1.2 million to some lower effects is in the news almost every day now. Not number. The argument proposes to accomplish the because of abortion, but because of U.S. military reduction by attacking what are said to be abortion’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost every day “root causes,” mainly, a widespread lack of proper there is news of an American air attack or ground health care and income supports. These proposals operation that results in a substantial number of non- include better pre-natal maternal care, better pediat- combatants’ deaths, or there is news about a post- ric care, more income supplements for the poor. The mortem analysis of an earlier deadly attack. (Some moral question is whether this proposal is fair to the days there is both.) The basic scenario and the re- unborn? And that entails applying the Golden Rule. curring moral question are always along these lines: To do that we must take a different example of suppose that there is a wedding feast in Northwest the same basic proposal, an example which substitutes Pakistan. Among the 100 guests are two high level a different set of people called upon to pay the price Al-Qaeda operatives. The military reality is that any of doing nothing to legally restrict a certain class of attack intended to kill those two puts everyone pres- deadly assaults. Let us take the example of domestic ent at grave risk of being killed. Would it be morally violence. Let us suppose that approximately 1.2 million right to launch the airstrike, thus endangering 98 American women are killed each year by domestic innocents to get two who are not? violence. Let us suppose further that a Presidential I do not know for sure whether, all things con- candidate said the following: “Friends, I think we must sidered, the strike should be ordered. I do know, stop wasting resources prosecuting domestic violence. however, that any right answer to the question must Let us get the law out of the picture. Maybe some day go through the Golden Rule, precisely so that we we could arrest men who kill women at home. But do not unfairly off-load fatal effects upon people that day is not today, for anyone can see that arrests who are not like us. Precisely to avoid that form of and convictions have not slowed the rate of domes- unjust partiality towards ourselves and those like us, tic violence very much at all. Besides, we are talking we must ask: would we order the airstike if the feast about private family matters where people make hard were in Zurich? Or in Dublin? Or if the feast were choices. Let us instead join together and attack the taking place, now, in South Bend, Indiana (or your root causes of domestic violence, which causes have to home town)? If the answer to any of these questions do with ignorance and poverty. I propose therefore to is “no” then it is pretty clear that, if we nonetheless give angry men jobs and money to attend anger man- order the strike in Pakistan, we would not be acting agement classes. And I think we should start teaching

12 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 all of America’ children early on that every man and in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event woman deserves to be treated well.” that contraception should fail. The ability of women Anyone who refuses to vote for this candidate to participate equally in the economic and social life but who would vote for a “pro-choice” presidential of the Nation has been facilitated by their control of candidate is, at least presumptively, guilty of failure to their reproductive lives”. apply the Golden Rule. This cluster of assertions by three members of the Supreme Court in the 1992 Planned Parenthood Argument 2: “Obama is v. Casey decision tracks quite closely a very wide- spread conviction cited in support of “pro-choice” Better on Other Issues” candidates. The central claim is that laws guarantee- ome people who describe themselves as ing “choice” about abortion are instrumentally in- “pro-life” supported Barack Obama without dispensable to women’s equality. Now, I do not for placing any faith in the reduce-the incidence- a moment think that the claim is true. But for this S analysis I shall grant the claim, and then apply the of-abortion idea. These people instead maintained that Obama’s positions on other issues, such as the Golden Rule to test the justice of the position ar- environment, taxes, education, were so far superior to ticulated. those of Senator McCain, that voting for Obama— There is no need to imagine cognate claims, to notwithstanding the harm his abortion policies which we must hypothetically apply the Golden would do—was the right thing. These people often Rule. History and current affairs supply countless ex- said that the virtues of Obama’s other positions sup- amples of societies where some of its members have plied a “proportionate” reason for voting for a “pro- obtained equality for themselves by exploiting oth- choice” candidate. ers of its members. Sometimes the numerator (those The question which these people should have who gain) is larger than the denominator (those who asked themselves is this: would they vote for a “pro- suffer). Sometimes it is the other way around. In ei- choice” candidate on the strength of his preference ther event the basic moral question is the same. And for more government-provided health care (than there is little mystery about what just about everyone his rival’s similar but less ambitious plan), if doing so would say in response. exposed their children to mortal danger? If the can- So, was it just for Spanish colonizers in the six- didate’s commitment to a policy of “choice” referred, teenth century to obtain the satisfactions of life in not to so many tiny and invisible people, but instead Central America—where the price was paid in blood to hundreds of thousand of immigrants, or to the by immiserated Amerindians? Was it fair for Eng- same number of dead prisoners or mentally handi- lish men and women three centuries later to enjoy capped or physically infirm people. Would they still the fruits of pastoral life--brought to them on the support that candidate, even if his policies on energy, backs of dead Irishmen? A century-and-a-half ago taxes, and employment were superior to his rival’s? the Supreme Court “facilitated”--indeed, helped to A vote for a candidate who favors “pro-choice” preserve--the equality of all white people. But does policies on abortion by someone who does not anyone today defend Dred Scott as a moral beacon? answer the preceding questions “yes” does not, I If the answer to these questions is “no,” then think, satisfy the Golden Rule. one who takes the Golden Rule to be a principle of justice should not have voted for Obama on the Argument 3: Women’s Equality strength of what the Casey Court proclaimed. ✠ or two decades of economic and social de- This paper is a slightly revised version of remarks de- livered by the author at the University of Notre Dame velopments people have organized intimate on October, 2008 in a public exchange of views on Frelationships and made choices that define Catholics and the presidential election. their views of themselves and their places in society,

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 13 Ar t i cl e s American Law and the Commodification of Man

By William L. Saunders over embryos” (a chilling term if ever there was one) and few to be “preserved” (frozen). Thus, no “demand” he law, as we learned from Aristotle, is builds up, driven by scientific entrepreneurs, to make our great teacher. While it undoubtedly “use” of these embryos in research so they aren’t reflects our existing attitudes, the law also “wasted.” I hope you notice the almost “industrial” shapes them. nature of those terms—product, demand, used, waste, THow has American law contributed to the moral It is just the opposite in America. In the absence problems we face today in the begetting of children? of federal rules, most states are silent, and wealthy And how might the law be reformed to contribute IVF clinics hire powerful lobbyists to keep it that to the building of a culture of life? way. Thus, there are no limits to how many embryos I suppose we should first identify the primary can be created. In fact, since “harvesting” ooctyes moral problem. It is, I would say, our tendency to see is dangerous and difficult for the woman involved, children as products of our own making. Not as we the practice is to take as many in a single procedure Catholics would say, of our begetting, but something as possible. Then, since there are no limits on how that two—or more—people make, “produce.” Such many embryos may be produced, all of those oocytes attitudes are, in a sense, a naturally-flowing conse- are fertilized that can be. This results in many, many quence of the widespread availability and use of as- more embryos than can ever be implanted in a single sisted reproductive technologies. In many ways, the procedure. Though the clinic will implant as many as laboratory has invaded the bedroom. I was going to possible—up to 5—since it can always “reduce” (read, say, “the marital chamber,” but that wouldn’t be accu- “abort”) them later, most are “left-over,” “spares,” and rate since reproductive technologies are not available are frozen. How many are there in the US? Most solely to married people. Indeed they are available to estimates were of 400,000 five years ago. My own everyone, married or single. And of course, that is a estimate, based on discussion with IVF clinics, is that huge part of the problem. an additional 50,000 are frozen per year, putting the As we all know, it is possible to create embryos, total near three quarters of a million embryonic hu- and choose the “best” (or, non-defective) ones. If it is man beings locked in the deep-freeze. not the case today, it soon will be that we can “cor- It is remarkable just how “laissez-faire” the prac- rect traits” in the embryos we don’t like and then we tice of IVF is in the US. There is no limit to the can implant them. It is almost like ordering a new car source of either the sperm or the oocytes. It would or refrigerator. As Bill May and others have said, from seem that, at least theoretically, there could be as such a perspective, the child is no longer a “gift” to many as six “parents” involved. Consider a couple be accepted. One does not control the characteristics who want to have and raise a child but are unable of the gifts one is given. Others—including God— to (often referred to as the “intended parents”) who do that. But one does control (through the power of contract with a sperm donor and an ooctye donor the marketplace) the characteristics of the things one (the genetic parents) to gestate the embryo thereby purchases or manufactures. created in the womb of another woman, the “ges- In the face of all this change, from begetting to tational parent,” who is married at the time. Since making, American law has been largely silent. There there is usually a statutory presumption that a mar- has been no federal law, for instance, on in vitro fertil- ried man is the father of a child born to his wife, he ization. Unlike Italy or Germany, Congress has passed would be parent number 6! How the courts would no laws strictly regulating IVF. In Italy or Germany, sort all this out is anyone’s guess. And statutory law the number of embryos that can be created by IVF is has hardly kept up with these new assisted reproduc- severely limited (i.e., only those that will be implanted tive “possibilities.” in a single procedure). As a result, there are few “left- So, my first point is that the failure of the state or

14 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 national legislatures to regulate IVF has expressed a ever, Justice Blackmun failed to consider the answers de facto approval. to the “difficult question” provided by another disci- My second point is that there were a series of pline—that of embryology. If he had, he would have cases in state courts that ended up treating the em- found it was clear—there was certainly a “consensus” bryo basically as “property.” The most famous, and - that the embryo was a developing human being influential, is Davis v. Davis from Tennessee in 1992, from the very first day, whether conception was or in which the great pro-life geneticist, Jerome Leje- wasn’t a “process” ( a point upon which he placed une, testified. Generally courts have said that embryos some reliance). Certainly by the time of implantation, are property to be disposed of pursuant to the terms there is no doubt that any “process” of conception is of any written agreement between the parties (usu- completed. In short, Blackmun begged the question. ally husband and wife locked in a divorce battle and If Blackmun had recognized the unborn was a contesting the meaning of a prenuptial agreement); human being, he would have been forced to decide in the absence of that, by statutory provisions on why it should not receive the protection the Fifth and property disposition; in the absence of that, the court Fourteenth Amendments grant to “persons” (after all, will “balance the equities.” In fact, when courts have all other human beings receive such protection). By balanced the equities, they have generally held that avoiding the scientific facts about the beginning of whichever parent wins who does not want to be the human life, Justice Blackmun was able to avoid the parent of a born-child. Most cases have relied, as did Constitutional dilemma presented by those facts. Davis, upon abortion cases in their reasoning, and Everyone in this room is well-aware of the ways have found the “right not to become a parent against Roe has affected and distorted American civic life. It their will” to be inferred from these cases. (Of course, has had, likewise, an incalculable effect on issues of we know they are already parents from they day there bioethics. I am engaged in public debates on these was a living embryo.) issues all the time, and it is quite common to hear That brings us to the third important legal in- opponents state that the embryo simply cannot be a fluence on our current situation, and that is Roe v. human being “because Roe said so.” Wade. Roe, decided in 1973, relied upon a “privacy Thus, in at least 3 ways—through federal court right” inferred from the Constitutional text in two jurisprudence on abortion that denies the humanity cases having to do with contraception, Griswold v. of the embryo, through state court litigation holding Connecticut (for married couples) in 1965 and Ei- embryos are mere property, and through legislative zenstadt v. Beard (for single persons) in 1972. Roe, is silence in face of the challenges posed by assisted re- in many ways a remarkable case, but is perhaps no productive technologies, American law has helped to more remarkable than for the way in which Justice produce the quandary we are in today, where many, Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion, if not most, Americans increasingly think of unborn reasoned. Justice Blackmun considered various re- children as something we “make.” Is there anything ligious, philosophical, and historical views on “this American law can do to help to rectify the situation? most sensitive and difficult question [of when human Some points are obvious. If Roe is overturned, life begins].” He also discussed how the common law then the abortion issue is returned to the states. From treated injuries to the fetus in a variety of contexts. one perspective, this is not so good—after all, state He looked at what medical and legal associations legislatures, influenced by decades of Roe-jurispru- were then recommending regarding abortion. Having dence that the unborn are inhuman, might legalize found a lack of “consensus” from these sources con- abortion again. But from another perspective, the cerning “the difficult question of when life begins,” very conversation—and debate—that will occur as Blackmun asserted that the Supreme Court could we struggle to make laws in the states will, hopefully, not and “need not” resolve the question. This enabled help to educate, inform and influence Americans to Justice Blackmun to set up his well-known trimester understand that the unborn are human beings de- system for balancing the interests of the state and of serving of legal protection, not products to be made the woman in the regulation of the Constitutional- and thrown away. right to abortion that he created. Significantly, how- Parenthetically, we must not forget that there

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 15 Ar t i cl e s

may be a discussion on the federal level as well. While It would also help greatly if Congress would regu- few on the Supreme Court would seem to agree, late the assisted reproduction industry, for that is what it is at least arguable that abortion, far from being it is. Such efforts come up against at least two massive required under the 14th Amendment, is actually pro- problems. First is federalism. Our system of govern- hibited by it, under either the due process or equal ment was designed to leave most matters to the states, protection clauses. The Amendment reads in part: though the post-New Deal years have greatly strained, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life… if not changed, that system. Much of the warrant for without due process of law nor deny to any person doing so was found to be in the “commerce clause” of within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the the Constitution, which allows Congressional regu- laws.” It is, I think, clear that those who adopted the lation of “interstate commerce.” Most conservative 14th Amendment intended to cover a class, that is, all judges think the commerce clause has been stretched “persons.” With advances in biological knowledge so too far, and would snap it back in place. If they do so that all know that a human being is such from the and they command a majority of the Supreme Court, moment of conception, is it not likely that the un- the result will be fewer opportunities for national born fall within the class the adopters intended, that legislation. Further, most conservatives, including so- is, all human beings? Can it not be argued that there cial conservatives, want the governing vision of the is no real distinction between “persons” and “human Constitution, that is, true federalism, restored, where beings,” and that unborn human beings are persons most matters are decided by the states. Again, this will under the 14th Amendment, as are all other human bounce the question of regulation of assisted repro- beings? Surely, if so, it would be depriving them of ductive technologies to the states. life “without due process” to kill them for no reason, That may not be so bad. Part of the vision of and it certainly denies them “the equal protection of federalism was that the various states could serve as the laws” against, for example, homicide. As I say, this “laboratories of liberty.” They can experiment, in is disputed and not widely held, but wouldn’t a na- varying ways, with the most effective ways to reign in tional argument on this point help to turn a culture ART. One can learn from another. toward life? After all, we would then be asking the The other problem with regulating ART is simply right questions. whether “the people” want to do so. Perhaps they have Of course, if the unborn are recognized as hu- been so shaped by the current culture that they like man beings, they cannot be disposed of as property. things as they are. But no one said building a culture We have already abolished slavery once in America! of life is easy. Rather it is a great and glorious task to Recognizing them as “human beings” or “persons” which the life-long witness and example of men like would orient the law in the right direction. Suddenly Bill May call us—to give it all we have, all the time. ✠ legal obligations in the states to help those who are frozen might emerge. (For instance, Blackmun indi- cated in Roe that if the unborn were a human be- Delivered during “The Culture of Life versus the ing, then a state would have a compelling interest in Culture of Death: From Humanae Vitae to Clon- protecting it.) Certainly efforts at embryo adoption ing and Assisted Suicide, a tribute to William would significantly increase. It isn’t likely they would May,” sponsored by the Culture of Life Founda- be thought of as “spare” or “left-over,” and that itself tion, September 20, 2008, in Washington, DC. would be helpful.

16 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Tolerance

By Jude P. Dougherty arises, how tolerant can Europe be in the face of a Dean Emeritus, School of Philosophy largely Muslim influx whose Islamic leaders are con- The Catholic University of America vinced that they will one day rule the continent. Are we driven to Spengler’s pessimistic conclu- I sion, albeit for different reasons? Perhaps not. In any event, intellectual honesty demands that we ac- hen Oswald Spengler published knowledge the many formidable obstacles confront- his multivolume study, The ing not only the defense of Europe but of Western Decline of the West, few outside culture itself as it faces an alien and self-confident of professional academic circles Islam convinced that it will one day govern. Those understood his thesis or took bold enough to predict that the future portends an Wthe epitaph seriously.1 Today, a century later, no at- “Islamic Republic of France” or the inevitability of tentive historian can ignore the cultural shift that what Bat Ye’Or has called “Eurabia” are given little took place in the West in the last half of the twenti- credence, are largely ignored by major media, and eth century, one that seriously eclipsed the spiritual can expect their books to be banned or removed resources that formerly animated it. As a philosopher from the shelves of major booksellers. Absent the of history, Spengler’s study of the past and his cyclical moral and intellectual resources which prevailed, for view of history led him to the pessimistic conclu- example, in the decades preceding the founding of sion that just as other cultures before it have decayed, the American republic, Europe’s ruling elites may be Western culture has not only peaked but faces a pe- hard pressed to defend the republican institutions and riod of irreversible decline. For more than 200 years the culture they have taken for granted. the Western intellectual tradition has been subjected to the nihilistic criticism of forces launched by the II Enlightenment. The result: we are now experiencing in the social order the eighteenth-century repudia- n both sides of the Atlantic, any effort to tion of the classical and Christian sources of Western recapture the moral tradition that shaped culture. There is little doubt that Europe is living off Othe Declaration of Independence and the U.S. a dying past, perhaps nearing the end of a great cul- Constitution as well as the U.N. Universal Declaration of ture, not unlike that experienced before the fall of Human Rights is handicapped by the current propen- Rome when internal corruption made possible the sity to regard all moral claims as equal. The concept barbarian invasion. The decline of morals apart, the of “procedural democracy,” now regnant in Western birthrate of the native European population alone intellectual circles, militates against the government’s would attest to decline. The ruling elites of Brus- casting its weight behind any one conception of the sels and the European capitals seem confident that good. The state according to this mode of thinking the constitutive elements of what was once called must remain neutral in the face of competing moral “Christendom” can be maintained without reference claims, favoring none. No moral system can claim su- to their source. Absent Christianity, Europe has little periority, it is argued, since each is merely the prod- to defend but its material culture as it faces a tide uct of its time and of the place-bound preferences of of immigrants that threaten its very character. The people advancing it. newcomers, largely from Africa and the Middle East, Procedural democracy itself is supported by two who are attracted by the material culture of Europe, ancillary principles, one, the seemingly innocent nevertheless remain attached to their old ways and call for “tolerance,” and the other, the malevolent in refusing to assimilate extract privileges and excep- doctrine of “separation of church and state.” The tions to the common law that further contributes to principle of tolerance augurs against an unabashed their isolation within the larger society, The question defense of one’s own tradition, whereas the separa-

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 17 Ar t i cl e s

tion principle surrenders moral authority to the state the contrary, Roget’s venerable English Language Dic- or, worse still, is employed to eradicate religion from tionary of Synonyms and Antonyms gives as synonyms both the academy and the public square. To offer an for tolerance: leniency, clemency, indulgence, laxity, egregious example of misplaced tolerance, one need sufferance, concession, and permissiveness, terms gen- recall only that the 57-member Muslim Organization erally regarded as designating questionable behavior. of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has prevailed upon Of course, certain technical meanings of the term the United Nations Human Rights Commission to may be identified. “Tolerance” in biology is the abil- adopt a resolution requiring the effective evisceration ity of an organism to endure contact with a substance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hence- or its introduction into the body without ill effects. forth, the guaranteed right of free expression will not “Tolerance” in the industrial order is the range within extend to any criticism of Islam on the grounds that which a dimension of a machined part may vary. “Re- it amounts to an abusive act of religious discrimina- ligious tolerance,” which many have in mind when tion. Western officials and governmental agencies ap- they use the term, is the intellectual and practical ac- pear increasingly disposed to go along with efforts to knowledgment of the right of others to live in accor- mute warnings about the danger that the recognition dance with religious beliefs different from one’s own. or incorporation of Sharia law poses to the West. The Religious tolerance, though not confined to liberal attempt to silence criticism of Islam threatens Christianity, seems to have a particular appeal to the to criminalize behavior that has long been regarded Christian conscience. Perhaps it does so for reasons as merely “politically incorrect.” If we follow the intrinsic to Christianity itself. Hindus and Muslims, by liberal agenda vis-a-vis Islam and its demand to rec- contrast, show no similar tolerance toward Christians ognize Sharia, we will mutate Western law, traditions, in their midst, either subjugating them or forcing them values, and societies beyond recognition. to flee. The classical and biblical sources of Western civilization, although under attack for the past 200 III years, may still remain the basis of Western culture, but that said, it must be acknowledged that the Western alls for tolerance abound, from papal state- respect for intellect and for its role in the formation of ments to European conferences. Bumper law and the practice of religion is not characteristic of Cstickers and postal imprints proclaim its all who seek shelter within the West. Social cohesion value. One can understand John Paul II and Benedict becomes impossible if the classical and biblical heritage XVI seeking tolerance for a Christian minority liv- of the West is not respected by the immigrant whose ing amongst a largely Hindu population, but one is enfranchisement can be used to undermine the insti- mystified by an apparent campaign for tolerance in tutions and freedoms of the host country. The call for the open societies of Western Europe, Australia, and a tolerance that ignores a de facto conflict of cultures North America. Considered abstractly, it would be is inconsistent and destructive of its own warrant. We easier to make the case that tolerance is a vice than may ask, is it not incumbent upon the West to defend to justify its putative status as a virtue. To employ a its intellectual and cultural patrimony while yet ac- few homey examples: a parent cannot tolerate dis- commodating the other? obedience in the child; a teacher, sloppy homework Goethe, when discussing tolerance in his Maxims or cheating on an examination; a military officer, and Reflections,2 offers this insightful distinction. Toler- insubordination; a CEO, deviance from company ance, he thinks, is best understood as a state of mind policy; or an ecclesiastical body, divergent doctrinal in transition to something nobler, namely, “recogni- teaching or liturgical practice within its ranks. No tion.” The latter is a mark of true liberality, an attitude state can tolerate irresponsible fiscal policy nor can equally removed from mindless appropriation and any state permit disrespect for its laws. An entity must the outright rejection of the other’s point of view or preserve its unity to preserve its very being. culture. The recognition of those who think and act The promotion of the notion that tolerance is a differently is a feature of a confident mind. Upon our virtue is of relatively recent origin. Tolerance is not first encounter with another, we may derive pleasure mentioned as a virtue by Aristotle or by the Stoics. in finding points of agreement, in a feeling of good Nor does Aquinas speak of tolerance as a virtue. To will that follows a friendly contact. Upon closer

18 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 acquaintance, differences are likely to become ap- lished churches in nine of the thirteen colonies. At the parent. The important thing, says Goethe, is not to time of the founding the positive role of religion in retreat but to hold fast to points of agreement and society was simply taken for granted. It was commonly strive for a clear understanding of points of dispute recognized that man is by nature a spiritual and a ma- without seeking an artificial agreement on them. terial being and that government should not impede Throughout history, political entities have rec- growth in either domain. ognized the need for unity of outlook among their As a principle, religious tolerance prevails peoples. At times in classical Greece and Rome, athe- throughout the West, but the battle to shape the ism could be punished by death. Modern socialist common mind has been shifted from the pulpit to regimes, whenever they come to power, recognize the classroom. While John Locke, David Hume, and the influence of ideas and work to suppress religious Adam Smith favored religious establishment, their education, if not religion itself. Within the Western contemporary disciples, recognizing the need for democracies practical accommodation is one thing, civic unity, are in the forefront of those who would but a nonjudgmental, nondiscriminating acceptance achieve that unity by giving the state exclusive con- is another. How tolerant can a society be and yet trol over education. Whereas David Hume main- maintain itself in existence? Of course, where noth- tained that, “The union of civil and ecclesiastical ing is prized, everything can be tolerated. power serves extremely, in even civilized government, Those who advocate tolerance must first establish to the maintenance of peace and order,” and Black- the context in which it should be recognized and its stone could hold that uniformity in religious matters limits. It is better to clearly designate a specific activ- is a civic good, contemporary defenders of “establish- ity that calls for toleration than to reify an abstrac- ment” have shifted their focus to the control of edu- tion. There are times when leadership must insist on cation, effectively denying parents a choice education propriety, respect of the inherited, and adherence to of their children. In the United States, in the name of the rule of law. In short, context determines whether separating church and state, the choice of a religious- tolerance is a virtue or vice. ly informed education, though not denied outright, is rendered financially difficult if not impossible for IV most families at the crucial primary and secondary levels. rocedural democracy,” as currently defended Unfortunately with the dismissal of religion in academic circles rests upon the assumption often goes that other support of republican govern- Pthat there is no way to determine the good. ment, the classical learning which informed the The state in formulating its policies is not to draw political philosophy of the founding fathers of the upon any one moral tradition, certainly not on one American republic. At the time of the American advanced from a purely religious perspective or by an founding, Cicero’s discourses framed the issues that ecclesial body. Religion is deemed a purely private or were addressed in the Declaration of Independence and subjective affair, not a trustworthy source of principles The U.S. Constitution, topics such as liberty, the nature applicable to public policy. In this context, particularly and source of law, the common good, security, pa- in the United States, the separation doctrine is often triotism, toleration, and the role of religion in society. invoked, but that doctrine is not found in the U.S. Eighteenth-century readers understood Cicero to be Constitution. It is rather the construct of a maverick a defender of rectitude, virtue and conservative cus- interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court acquiesc- toms and the indispensable role which religion plays ing to the secular humanists who vigorously lobbied in fostering these values. For Cicero, the highest aim the Court. Any student of the American founding will of the ruler is the security and welfare of the com- recognize that the Constitution in its First Amend- munity because the common welfare is the indis- ment sought only to prevent an established church pensable condition for personal advancement. Secu- for the nation as a whole and did not intend to undo rity justifies the use of force against aggressors, but establishment in the colonies where it prevailed. It the maintenance of morality in the populace is also a doesn’t take much research to discover that at the out- fundamental responsibility of the ruler. The ruler, of break of the American Revolution there were estab- necessity, must be able to distinguish between what is

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 19 Ar t i cl e s truly good (the bonum honestum) and what is merely republic, including the minister of culture, two for- expedient (the bonum utile). Cicero acknowledges mer presidents, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Jacques that from one point of view, the pursuit of the bo- Chirac, and the current mayor of Paris. Given the num honestum is but a means for the realization of the setting of his lecture, Benedict said, “We are in a place common good in which it finds its purpose and limit; that is associated with the culture of “monasticism,” this makes honestum a form of utile. But Cicero also reminding his listeners of the Benedictine “l’amour identifies honestum with the common good and utile des lettres et le désir de Dieu,” and the role that with individual interest. To what extent, then, is the monasticism played in the development of Western common good to be pursued against the interest of civilization. He went on to speak of the nature of the the individual? Church herself and of European culture. “A purely This is the issue which confronts policy makers positive culture,” he said, “which drives the question throughout the West. No ancient text can provide a of God into the subjective realm, as being unscien- ready answer to contemporary problems, yet the an- tific, would be the renunciation of reason, the renun- cients can speak to us across the ages about human ful- ciation of its highest possibilities, and hence a disaster fillment and the ends of government. In his own day for humanity with very grave consequences. That when he wrote of a failing Rome, Livy recommended gave Europe’s culture its foundations—the search for to his contemporaries the study of its founding. God and the readiness to listen to Him—[and] re- mains today the basis for any genuine culture.” I invite the reader’s attention to the much more Prime Minister François Fillon, in his farewell serious consideration of the kind of lives our an- remarks to the Holy Father, told Benedict that you cestors lived, of who were the men and what the have reminded us that “the fundamental separation of means, both in politics and war, by which Rome’s church and state does not prevent either from dialog- power was first acquired and subsequently ex- ing or from being mutually enriched.” The prime panded. I would have him trace the processes of minister spoke of an “open and reflective secularism” our moral decline, to watch first the sinking of the and stated, “The republic, profoundly secular, respects foundations of morality as the old teaching was al- the existence of the religious fact. She appreciates the lowed to lapse, then the final collapse of the whole role of the Christian tradition in her history and her edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the cultural and immaterial heritage.” He thanked Bene- dict for “placing our civilization on guard regarding remedies needed to cure them.3 its material weakness.” A weak acknowledgment of Respect for ancestry, heritage, or tradition deter- the role of religion in society, to be sure, but never- mines concretely the emphasis placed on the study theless an expression of what President Sarkozy has of history, languages, art, and on the observance of called a “more positive laicité.” As a militant Islamic religious and civic ritual. Failure to appreciate and presence in Europe increases, even the secular elites defend the uniqueness of the moral and spiritual of Brussels may be faced with the limits of tolerance traditions of what was once called “Christendom” and the handicap imposed by their commitment to or in the name of tolerance treat them as only one procedural democracy. ✠ among many can only end, as Spengler predicted, in the suicide of the West. Endnotes Benedict XVI could have been taking a page from Livy when he touched on these issues in his 1. Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1926-28). 2008 visit to Paris and again in his October visit to 2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections (Lon- the Quirinal Palace in Rome. Assembled to hear him don: Penguin Classics, 1999), p. 116. at the Bernardines, the ancient Cistercian abbey in 3. Titus Livius, Preface to his History (Cambridge, MA: Loeb Paris, were the leading civic leaders of the French Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1924]), p. I.5.

20 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Celebrating the Feminine Genius

By Sister Renée Mirkes, OSF, PhD feminine capacity “to discover”5 and of what might Director, Center for NaProEthics, this objective phase of a woman’s self-knowledge the ethics division of the Pope Paul VI Institute consist? I am convinced that the pope’s idea of feminine was a year punctuated by a trinity discovery presupposes his extended reflections on the 2008 of anniversaries symbiotically second creation story of Genesis6 with its primor- celebrating the dignity and vocation of woman. July dial male/female “discovery” and its implications for 25th, 2008 marked 40 years since Paul VI promulgated embodied personhood and marriage. Hence, I think the encyclical, Humanae Vitae1 (HV); April 1st, 2008 the pope is suggesting that whenever a woman com- feted 30 years since Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers and his pares and contrasts her own corporeal nature with colleagues inaugurated the Creighton Model Fertility that of every other embodied entity, she concludes Care System2 (CrM FCS) and August 15th, 2008 com- (i.e., ingeniously discovers) that, unlike the “objects” memorated 20 years since John Paul II publicized the of the rest of the created order, she is a “subject;” that, apostolic letter, Mulieris Dignitatem (MD). unlike the “somethings” of every other species of the At the outset of this piece, I will investigate two animal and plant kingdoms, she is someone, a unique seminal ideas pertaining to woman’s dignity and vo- and unrepeatable “I”; that, unlike all other mamma- cation: the salience of recognizing feminine genius,3 lian animal organisms that are intended to be used a central thesis of MD, and the moral goodness of the as a mere means to others’ goals, she is a person, a natural regulation of fertility, the salubrious teaching being who, though she has been created for her own of HV. To conclude, I will demonstrate how mar- sake,7 is a co-subject with the man and cannot know her ried women who access CrM FCS and field-test its own subjectivity save by making a gift of herself to male family planning protocols are actively exercising and persons. celebrating these respective themes. The foundation of a woman’s genius, then, lies in her capacity to know that she is an embodied, i.e., Mulieris Dignitatem and sexual, person whose essential nature is defined by her specific gifts of rational intelligence and freedom the feminine genius (self-determination or self-realization). Again and again, John Paul II underscores the point that femi- n MD John Paul II offers a comprehensive ex- nine genius, fundamentally defined as every woman’s planation of feminine genius. Not satisfied with capacity to know her personal truth, importantly, Iprobing the concept theoretically, the pope is also reveals to the woman that she is man’s “sister in also keen to demonstrate how women practice or humanity” and, therefore, equal in dignity to male exercise their genius in day-to-day life. Character- human persons.8 And to every married woman—the izing the theoretical or foundational aspect of a woman’s focus of this investigation— theoretical genius reveals genius as her ability to discover the truth of her nature, that she possesses a parity of dignity and personhood John Paul subsequently distinguishes the practical or with her husband. structural aspect of feminine genius as a woman’s capacity As God would have it, the ends of the founda- to act on that truth.4 tional gifts of rational intelligence and freedom— Stated as a principle, this is John Paul’s insight on knowing the truth and embracing the true good— theoretical feminine genius: the grounding of femi- succinctly define the woman’s vocation, her genius nine genius is the woman’s natural capacity to know, delineated in terms of praxis. Within the rational act of in the sense of having the ability to discover, what it discovering the truth of her nature and through the means to be someone who is created in God’s image free act of making a sincere gift of herself—expe- and likeness. But what does John Paul mean by the riencing the gospel hermeneutic of finding self by

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 21 Ar t i cl e s

giving self away, each woman simultaneously discov- dren, exercising her spiritual maternity in bringing to ers her natural feminine vocation: to know God and flower their personhood in wholeness and holiness. other human persons and to enter into a communion of love with them. Thus, in the natural, practical act As a liberated lover: A woman discovers her true of genius whereby a married woman discovers her- liberation in the truth of Christ’s teaching, particular- self by giving herself away, she also discovers her Ur- ly that demonstrated in his attitude toward and rela- vocation, precisely what she is called to do by nature tionship with the women of his day. Like the fallen of being a feminine person: to freely enter into soci- woman in the gospel who anointed Christ’s body for ety or communion with, in the first place, the Per- burial, the contemporary woman exercises her practi- son of God and, secondarily, with the persons of her cal genius manifested in the freedom that redounds husband, children, and those within society who are to her from her acts of repentant, extravagant—that within her sphere of influence.9 is, “wasted”—love. Like the women who remained What’s more, the feminine vocation to interper- with Christ throughout his agonizing death on a sonal communion is fulfilled in a married woman’s cross, married women of today exercise their genius everyday exercise of a subset of peculiarly female in actively binding up others’ wounds—those of fam- capacities which complete the structure of her femi- ily members, fellow-parishioners, and co-workers— nine genius. The practical face of her genius, what John with their acts of unswerving, unconditional love. Paul II defines as a woman’s capacity to act on the truth Like the evangelizing love of the woman at the well of her being, uses natural female inclinations—being who had a “special sensitivity to Christ, his mystery a handmaid,10 mother,11 liberated lover,12 prophet,13 and his mission,”18 every married woman has the moral guide14 and a life companion15—to build on capacity for a disciple’s love, ingeniously turning her her foundational capacities of being a feminine per- children and those persons in her circle of influence son, a subject, an “I” who is created for “interpersonal toward Christ and his truth. communion.”16 As prophet: Another facet of a woman’s practi- As handmaid: The married woman evinces her cal genius is to be a prophet: to fearlessly proclaim to practical genius when in a myriad of ways she serves her family, friends and colleagues that God knows us and safeguards, in the sense of consents to and carries through and through, loves us despite our failings, and out, God’s plan for her as a human person and a mar- challenges us (just as the Incarnate God challenged the ried woman. With Mary of Nazareth, every woman is woman in the gospel) to “go, and sin no more.” ingeniously capable of uttering a “fiat” to her voca- As moral compass: The practical feminine genius tion to be genuinely human and genuinely feminine. of receptivity to life and being “for” others mark the As mother: Every married woman who is blessed “ethos”19 of every woman. And, when these ethical with children pursues her genius in being a mother. dimensions are lived out in reference to God and Created in the image of the Radical Giver, the mar- others, they transform the married woman into a ried woman and her husband possess the heterosex- living moral compass capable of ingeniously guid- ual capacity to create a new human being, with the ing guiding her family and friends to the true good. help of God. Exercising the fruitfulness so essential In turn, those in her ken, recognizing the woman’s to her feminine genius, a mother mirrors the divine “great energies of spirit,”20 not only “lean on” this template of fecundity quintessential to the inner life feminine person for moral strength, but also tend to of God. As John Paul describes it, woman-as-mother adopt her “ethos” for their life’s journey. participates “in the eternal generativity of God.”17 Al- As life companion: The genius of a married ways standing ready to receive God’s gift of the life of woman’s spousal love flowing from her personal another human being, a married woman pays loving “I” brings her into a “unity of the two,”21 a nuptial attention to, indeed, pours out her very life for the communion, with the person of her husband. In this sake of, her children, whether biological or adopted. lifelong union in which she is a “suitable helper” or Having understood and wrestled with the mystery of an equal partner to her husband, a woman’s genius evil and sin in both its “original” and personal mani- is best summarized in the term companion. With festations, a mother is prepared to educate her chil- its Latin derivatives (cum, panis), companion defines

22 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 the woman as the person who breaks daily bread with ity, fulfills them as male and female persons/spouses. her husband, the spouse with whom she is “equal Accordingly, as the Church tries to point every mar- in personhood and dignity.”22 The nuptial meaning ried couple to a natural method of family planning, of their interpersonal union—to exist not just side mater ecclesia is attempting to insure that the trajectory by side but “mutually ‘one for the other’”23 all the of the couples’ love-making emulates God’s life-giv- while practicing “mutual subjection”24—enables the ing love. married woman to love her husband like God loves Pope Paul VI refused to frame the issue of the within his Trinitarian family. In this manner, the regulation of fertility as some of his protagonists: viz., woman ingeniously mirrors to the world “the com- either the Church changes its teaching on the use of munion of love that is in God,” a unity within diver- contraceptives, or she is guilty of condemning wom- sity of persons.25 en to having endless numbers of children. In HV The married woman, acting on her dignity as a Paul VI insists that the real choice before a woman feminine person, becomes a handmaid of God’s plan; a and her husband in the arena of family planning is biological and/or spiritual mother; a lover liberated from between spacing children responsibly or morally (that bondage to sinful inclinations; a prophet proclaim- is, with their acts of marital intimacy open to life and ing to each human being that, in and through Christ, the basic good of fertility through natural methods) they are the object of God’s love; a moral compass who versus planning a family irresponsibly or immorally guides others to spiritually battle the powers of evil in (that is, with their acts of intercourse closed to life the world; and a life-long companion to her husband. and fertility through contraception). In other words, In short, in her various practical activities, the married Pope Paul VI and his theological co-authors do not woman fulfills her vocation to be an embodied, intel- question the validity of limiting births for valid rea- ligent, free and ingeniously feminine human being. sons,28 but choose to use the encyclical to carry out their pastoral duty (a) to turn married women and Humanae Vitae and the moral their husbands toward a good means to the good end of achieving and avoiding a pregnancy as circum- goodness of the natural stances of their marriage dictate and (b) away from a regulation of fertility bad means. To understand precisely why HV endorses the s its first priority, Humanae Vitae challenges morality of a natural system, it would help to exam- the married woman and her husband to ful- ine the basics of one model of natural fertility regula- fill their lofty vocation to love each other as tion, the CrM FCS. What we see clearly is that, when A 26 God loves. Hence, just as the union of God’s love is a couple use this sort of natural method to plan their at once life-giving and the generativity of his love at family, the man and woman always respect, rather once unitive, so the interpersonal union of the love than suppress, the gift of their fertility. That is—to of a husband and wife demands, activates and defines borrow terminology from MD—they act in ac- its procreative capacity, and vice versa. In this way, cord with their vocation and dignity as heterosexual just as God’s love manifests its perfection in giving persons called to a “unity of the two” through their life, so ought marital sexual love. mutual “gift of self.” In the second place, HV challenges married A woman records on a linear chart the fertile and spouses to plan their families in a way that cooper- infertile phases of her cycle. The days of menses are ates with the natural truth of marital sexual love marked with red stamps; followed by infertile days and its divine template, the fruitful love of God. The marked with green stamps (indicating she does not encyclical’s central teaching—natural methods used observe either bleeding or cervical mucus); followed unselfishly help a couple plan their family in a moral by fertile days marked with white baby stamps way27—invites all husbands and wives of good will to (indicating she observes cervical mucus at the vulva experience the healthful benefits of a natural means and, therefore, is fertile and could conceive); fol- of fertility regulation, a means that, precisely because lowed by infertile days marked with green stamps it always honors the basic human good of their fertil- (when she no longer observes cervical mucus and,

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 23 Ar t i cl e s hence, is infertile). In the fertile or ovulatory phase seemed to be providing, and puts the pieces together of her cycle, the woman observes a cervical discharge [in] an effort to facilitate health [biopsychosocial at the vulva that begins as sticky/cloudy or tacky/ well-being], not just pregnancy.”29 cloudy mucus and eventually becomes clear, stretchy The Cr M System also creatively activates the or lubricative mucus. The presence of mucus tells the practice of feminine genius in the woman using it: woman and her husband that they are fertile and in As handmaid: The comprehensive versatility of the periovulatory phase of their cycle. She marks the CrM springs from the fact that it can be used by last day of her mucus discharge that is clear, stretchy, women in a variety of reproductive situations— or lubricative with a “P” to indicate the Peak Day avoiding pregnancy, achieving pregnancy, breastfeed- of cervical mucus and the Peak Day of the couple’s ing and infertility—and from the ingenious way that fertility. it networks procreative health with general health. With this chart, the woman and her husband In short, CrM FCS enables the woman to practice know their window of fertile days or the vulvar mu- her genius of being a handmaid—a stewardess over cus cycle. They know that if their intent is to avoid her body’s reproductive system, so that she is better a pregnancy for good reason, they need to honor able to fulfill God’s plan for her as a sexual (feminine) the gift of their fertility by avoiding genital contact person: to make a sincere gift of herself to the Person during their fertile phase (and confining their acts of God, her husband and her children. of intimacy to days of infertility). In other words, As mother: The maternal-child affective bonds according to a natural system, the couple does not that are poignantly evident in the ingenious way a enter into fertile acts of sex and then directly render mother cradles and looks at her baby appear, to this those acts sterile by something they do before, during observer, to be even stronger when the woman and or after the act. If the couple of normal fertility in- her husband have achieved a pregnancy by means of tends, on the other hand, to achieve a pregnancy, they a natural system of family planning. You see, the CrM honor the gift of their fertility by having intercourse FCS has provided the couple, especially the woman, during their fertile phase. This form of family plan- sundry opportunities to intelligently and freely ning is salubrious in its promotion of both physical prepare for their child’s conception, gestation and and spiritual/moral health for the woman, her hus- coming-out party. Cycle after cycle husband and wife band and their children. evaluate the circumstances of their marriage—health, In sum, when used either to avoid or achieve a finances, demography—seek God’s guidance in their pregnancy, a natural system of fertility appreciation reproductive plans, and decide, when the current like that of CrM is moral since couples who use it for circumstances of their marriage dictate, to use their either purpose (a) never directly suppress the basic human fertile days to conceive a new human being. And good of their fertility (the procreative dimension of their then, with the added genius of spiritual maternity, the love) and, as a result, (b) never threaten its correlative- woman cements the maternal-child bond by spend- ly-linked unitive dimension and, as a further result, (c) ing a lifetime of educational mothering, i.e., generat- never assault the integrity of their marital love and, ing, the spiritual and moral life of her child. ultimately, the stability of their marriage. As liberated lover: Conversations with women who use the CrM FCS have taught me again and CrM FCS: celebrating the genius again how the system works its own graces. Ever so gently, the daily use of the Creighton System helps a (vocation and dignity) of woman woman disentangle herself from selfish attitudes and sinful inclinations; frees her from the enslavement of ccording to anecdotal reports, the Creighton self-centeredness so as to be able to embrace, ever Model Fertility Care System helps women more readily, her vocation to be “for” others. In short, Awho use it to discover the foundational di- this natural method of family planning unleashes the mension of their feminine genius: they are persons woman’s genius of becoming “one flesh” with her who are fearfully, wonderfully made. As one woman husband and becoming a gift to her children, friends wrote, it takes “into account the clues that my body and co-workers.

24 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 As prophet: The most effective means of advertis- tentiveness and love.” (HV #17, quoted in Janet E. Smith, Humanae Vitae: A Challenge to Love [New Hope Publications: New Hope, KY] 199?, ing the CrM FCS is by word of mouth, one woman p. 39.) In Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II underscores the injustice of a speaking to another. Female users of the system in- husband’s discriminatory practices against women within, among other social circumstances, a contraceptive marital relationship: “The matri- geniously prophesy to others about its usability, reli- monial union requires respect for and a perfecting of the true personal ability and morality—testifying how they have expe- subjectivity of both [husband and wife]. The woman cannot become the rienced its use as something good for them and their ‘object’ of ‘domination’ and male ‘possession.’ . . . . Burdened by heredi- tary sinfulness, they bear within themselves the constant ‘inclination to marriage: a method that (a) confirms their personal sin,’ the tendency to go against the moral order which corresponds to the feminine worth and (b) really works! In short, these rational nature and dignity of man and woman as persons” [10.2-3]. Even more directly, JPII counsels: “Consequently each man must look within female-users of the CrM FCS confidently encourage himself to see whether she who was entrusted to him as a sister in hu- others to experience its “genius-friendly” benefits. manity, as a spouse, has not become in his heart an object of adultery; to see whether she who, in different ways, is the co-subject of his existence As moral compass: The CrM FCS helps to bolster in the world, has not become for him an ‘object,’ an object of pleasure, of the moral leadership of its female-user. The woman exploitation” [MD 14.4]. who invests substantive time and energy in find- 2 Reviewing the thirty-year history of Creighton Model Fertility Care System, (the standardized ovulation method) from the view point of (1) ing and using a method of family planning that is teachers trained to instruct couples in its use or from the (2) women/ moral—that is, in accord with her own good—is the couple users of the method, Hilgers and his faculty estimate that they have trained thousands of practitioners who, in turn, have provided in- woman who speaks volumes through her choice. She struction in CrM FCS to tens of thousands of women/couples nationally witnesses, by example, that as human beings we all and internationally. 3 It is interesting to note that the Latin derivative for the English “genius” need to be vigilant of choosing only those things that is gigno (gignere, genui, genitum) (originally geno) with its English transla- are truly good for us, including and especially that tion of “to beget, bear, bring forth.” John Paul II mines the generative underpinnings of the concept of feminine genius in his favorite moral of a family-planning method that brings us closer to metaphors describing the “ethos” of woman: her vocation to be a spouse; God. In this way, her decision to use the CrM FCS to receive and give a spousal love; to make a sincere gift of self and to gives the woman an ingenious way of being a moral receive the other as gift; to enter into a communio personarum; and to be a person created “for” others. compass capable of helping others find, through their 4 4 John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 6.1-2; 7.1-2; 7.4,6,7,8; 9.2; 13.8; 18.1; reproductive decisions, the way to a truly good life. 30.3; 31. 4. 5 Ibid. 7.5; 11.8-9; 31.2. As life companion: It is reported that women who 6 In Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul summarily explicates the Yahwist ac- use a natural method like the Creighton System are count of creation (Gen. 2) and its implication for the original couple’s discovery of the nuptial meaning of the body—a man and woman less apt to divorce or, stated positively, are more able entrusted to each other—and the sacramentality of marriage, all of which to practice their genius of being a life companion to he had previously explained, in systematic fashion, in his general Wednes- their husbands. Of course, a statistic like this makes day audiences between October 10, 1979 and April 2, 1980. 7 Ibid., 7.6-7; 13.8; 18.1; 30.1. perfect sense and is entirely predictable. With the 8 Ibid., 6.4-5; 12.3-4; 16.4. practice of the CrM, the woman and her husband 9 Ibid., 10; 21.2-3; 29.5. 10 Ibid., 5.2. day-in and day-out pay intellectual and volitional re- 11 Ibid., 8.4-5; 13.1; 18.2-7; 19.1. spect to the gift of their fertility and therefore to the 12 Ibid., 10.3; 13.6; 15.1-3. 13 Ibid., 16.2; 29.6. integrity of their love and marriage. The more this is 14 Ibid., 11.1-3; 30.2,4,5,6. the case, the more likely is it that the bond between 15 Ibid., 6.4; 7.5. 16 Ibid., 7.3. them as the “unity of the two” will endure. The more 17 Ibid., 8.4-5; 18.5. this is case, the more sure is the prospect that, as CrM 18 Ibid., 16. users, the husband and wife will be breaking bread 19 Ibid., 7.3-5; 9.4; 14.2; 29.4. 20 Ibid., 30.6. together until death do they part. ✠ 21 Ibid., 7.3-4; 10.2, 4; 11.5; 14.4; 23.2; 26.2; 29.2. 22 Ibid., 16.3-4; 25.5. 23 Ibid., 7.4. Endnotes 24 Ibid., 24.2,4,5. 1 Humanae Vitae subsumes the dignity and vocation of woman under 25 Ibid., 7.2; 16.4. the aegis of the couple’s dignity. However, in section 17, the encyclical 26 Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (1968): 8.1. reminds us of the negative consequences of a contraceptive mentality, 27 Ibid., 16.2–4. some of which do threaten the dignity of married women directly: “. . . it 28 Ibid., 10.4; 16.2. is to be feared that husbands who become accustomed to contraceptive 29 Jean Packard, ed. Women Healed (Pope Paul VI Institute Press: Omaha, practices will lose respect for their wives. They may come to disregard NE) 2004, p. 99. their wife’s psychological and physical equilibrium and use their wives as instruments for serving their own desires. Consequently, they will no longer view their wives as companions who should be treated with at-

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 25 Ar t i cl e s Walker Percy the Philosopher

By Joseph F. Previtali, San Francisco Archdiocese bad and to which the beast responds accordingly as it has evolved to respond, how is man to be understood he integration of faith and reason is a if he feels bad in the best environment?”6 Indeed, central theme in the Catholic intellec- Percy’s own 20th century American culture provided tual tradition. Enlightened by knowl- him with many examples of human beings who lived edge both from divine revelation and with an overabundance of material wealth and com- natural scientific inquiry, the believer fort, but were still profoundly unhappy and dissatis- Tseeks to understand Being in its fullness and to com- fied with life. From this experience, Percy concluded municate this truth to others.1 The Catholic novelist that it must be inadequate to say that man is simply and philosopher, Walker Percy, was keenly aware of a material organism living in an environment. Thus the importance of making credible to the rational did he endeavor scientifically to investigate what he mind the revealed truths of the faith and of doing so already knew existentially and intuitively to be true. with reference to the “signs of the times.”2 Thus, in Writing in the postmodern7 age, Percy recog- the context of the secular-humanistic materialism of nized that “all the attributes of man which were ac- the English-speaking intellectual world of the 20th cepted in the old modern age are now called into century, Percy embarked on a journey to articulate question: his soul, mind, freedom, will, Godlikeness.”8 the Catholic understanding of the mystery of the hu- These attributes were used in earlier times to help man person.3 human beings to understand why they can, as Percy In Percy’s time, as in ours, there were put forth put it, “feel bad in a good environment.” Further- predominantly two competing and contrary views more, in searching for a clear articulation of the truth about the nature of the human person. There was the about human nature, Percy sought to depart from “materialist” view, which asserts that all that exists in a point that left behind any biases of the materialist reality is matter, and that therefore the human being and the spiritualist. In order to do this, he had to dis- is purely material.4 The other was the “spiritualist”5 cern what characteristic of human beings neither the view, most often articulated in the Judeo-Christian materialist nor the spiritualist would deny. “Instead tradition, which claims that human beings have some of starting out with such large vexed subjects as soul, spiritual (immaterial) dimension that makes them mind, ideas, consciousness, why not begin with lan- essentially different from the rest of the visible world. guage, which no one denies, and see how far it takes This essential difference, it is argued, is found princi- us toward the rest?”9 Thence Percy was to proceed, pally in the human being’s ability to think rationally studying human language in its entirely—as a single and to choose freely. By observing the nature of the phenomenon—in order to draw conclusions about phenomenon of human language use, Percy sought what the human being is, particularly in relation to to show that, contrary to materialism, man is not the material world around him. Percy believed that merely a material organism, and that the human in- language provides us with the gateway necessary for tellect must have some immaterial element. our age to understand the uniqueness of the human Percy’s quest to understand the nature of the being. human person was sparked by his insightful observa- Perhaps no Catholic thinker—or any thinker, tion that only human beings can feel bad in a good for that matter—of the twentieth century was more environment; that, unlike animals, which are content qualified than Percy to explore the question of what as long as their physical needs are satisfied, the state the phenomenon of language can tell us about the of man’s happiness is not dependent solely on his nature of the human intellect. It is a pursuit that in- physical well-being. “If beasts can be understood as volves expertise in linguistics, biological and chemical organisms living in environments which are good or science, and metaphysics. As a novelist, Percy lived in

26 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 the world of language and of the word, and he was When the bell rings, the dog is given food, time and an amateur practitioner of the science of semiotics, time again. Pretty soon, the dog begins to salivate which studies the use of symbols and signs in human each time the bell rings, in anticipation of the food. experience. He earned a Doctorate of Medicine from For the dog, the event of the bell ringing has become Columbia Medical School, and so could speak with connected dyadically to the event of receiving food. some expertise on biology and chemistry, and he was The second kind of event in the natural world is the versed in the many modern psychological theories. triadic, or three-part, event: He was also a published philosopher and could speak But there is another kind of event, quite as real, authoritatively on metaphysical questions as well.10 quite as natural a phenomenon, quite as observable, Percy’s observations about the phenomenon of which cannot be so understood; that is, cannot be human language use find their philosophical foun- construed by the dyadic model. It is language. The dation in the semiotic theory of triadic language simplest example I can think of—and it is anything use of the nineteenth-century American pragmatist but simple—is the child’s early acquisition of lan- philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce. Percy describes guage, an eighteen-month-old suddenly learning himself not as a disciple of Peirce, but as a “thief of that things have names. What happens here is the Peirce.”11 That is to say, Percy recognizes the goodness same sort of thing that happens when a lecturer in Peirce’s philosophy—namely, his insight into the utters a complex sentence about the poetics of T.S. triadic nature of human language—and makes use of Eliot. 13 it in expositing his own view of human nature, while Percy’s example of this event is when a child learns at the same time leaving Peirce behind in pursuit of a that the small, furry, four-legged feline creature he broader theory of man. sees is called “cat”—not in the sense in which it is to Peirce’s great contribution, according to Percy, elicit some response or action from the subject him- was his insight that “there are not one but two kinds self, but rather “cat” as a simple naming of an object of natural events in the world.” One he called dyadic, of the subject’s experience. “And means it in a very that is, two-part. Dyadic events are the subject matter special way: does not mean: look over there for cat, of the physical sciences. Biologists, physicists, chem- watch out for cat, want cat, go get cat—but: This is a ists, etc. would all be very familiar with such events. cat.”14 Peirce calls them “a mutual action between two Peirce called words, “symbols,” from the Greek things.” That is to say, A interacts with B, and B inter- symballein, meaning, “to throw together,” because acts with C, and C interacts with D, etc. An example when the child uses words, he “throws together” the of a dyadic event is the stimulus-response phenom- word and the object in reality to which it refers. A enon found in Pavlov’s dogs. triadic explanation is necessary for this phenomenon Even an event as complex as Pavlov’s conditioned of “throwing together” because one entity—the dog salivating at the sound of a bell can be under- child—throws together the word and the object. In stood as a ‘complexus of dyads’—the sound waves the case of Percy’s example, the three parts of the from the bell, the stimulation of the dog’s audi- phenomenon are the child, C-A-T the word, and cat tory receptors, the electrical impulses in the effer- the thing in reality.15 ent nerves, the firing of the altered synapses in the brain, the electrical impulses in the efferent nerves To understand the profound difference between to the salivary glands, and so on—the whole un- the two types of events Percy turns to the famous derstandable as a sequence of dyadic events. The story of Helen Keller’s experience of language ac- entire event, complex as it is, can be represented quisition. Percy explains that until the point of her quite adequately by a simple drawing which shows breakthrough into triadic language use, Helen, who structures (dogs, neurones, axones, glandular cells) was deaf and blind, had operated in a purely dyadic and arrows connecting them (energy exchanges, fashion. For example, whenever she wanted cake, sound waves, electrical impulses). Such is the dyadic she would spell C-A-K-E in the hand of her care- model.12 taker, Anne Sullivan, and she would receive cake. For Helen, C-A-K-E was in the strongest possible

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 27 Ar t i cl e s sense identical to the cake. C-A-K-E the word was living merely as an organism interacting with an cake the thing in reality.16 There was no distinction environment, she was now living as a language-using between the operation of drawing the letters in the person, interacting in a world.18 It was her acquisition caretaker’s hand and receiving the taste and nourish- of language that allowed her to understand her exis- ment of the food. It was a stimulus-response dyadic tence as taking place in a world—which included the sequence of events. However, there was one day environment, but was more than the environment. when Helen was on a walk with her caretaker and There were thoughts, feelings, and reflections upon her consciousness of her existence was transformed. the environment, but also other thoughts, feelings, Her teacher and caretaker, Miss Sullivan, put her and reflections not entirely related to the immediate hand under a sprout of water. Percy quotes her ac- environment. In short, her acquisition of language count from her autobiography. made her conscious of her personhood.19 As the cool stream gushed over one hand, she Percy, in reflecting on this experience of Helen spelled into the other the word water, first slowly Keller, makes a bold claim. “If one had an inkling of then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed what happened in the well-house in Alabama in the upon the motion of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a space of a few minutes, one would know more about misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a the phenomenon of language and about man himself thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mys- than is contained in all the works of behaviorists, tery of language was revealed to me. I knew then linguists, and German philosophers.”20 that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool some- Percy then goes on to discuss how this experi- thing that was flowing over my hand. That living ence of Helen Keller is indeed an irreducibly triadic word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set event. He explains that there are two independent it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barri- relationships at work simultaneously in the case of ers that could in time be swept away. Helen’s naming water. The first is the relationship I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything between the spelling of W-A-T-E-R in one of her had a name, and each name gave birth to a new hands and Helen’s intellect. (In the case of a non-dis- thought. As we returned to the house every object abled child learning language, this relationship would which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That ordinarily occur through a parent speaking the name was because I saw everything with the strange, new of an object to the child.) The second relationship is sight that had come to me. On entering the door I the one between the object being experienced—in remembered the doll I had broken. [She had earlier this case, the water pouring over the other hand— destroyed the doll in a fit of temper.] I felt my way and her intellect. The great mystery of the event is to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vain- that there is a final relationship between the water ly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with and the word W-A-T-E-R: language has mean- tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first ing! This connection between language and real- time I felt repentance and sorrow. ity is mysterious because there is no causal relation I learned many new words that day. I do not re- between the two, yet the sign and the signified are member what they all were; but I do know that somehow connected in the mind of the person using mother, father, sister, teacher were among them—words language. W-A-T-E-R and the water were connected that were to make the world blossom for me, “like in Helen’s brain. This third relationship gives us a Aaron’s rod with flowers.” It would have been diffi- three-part, or triadic, natural event. Percy explains his cult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my own experience of discovering this mysterious phe- crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over nomenon: the joys it had brought me, and for the first time What dawned on me was that what happened longed for a new day to come.17 between Helen and Miss Sullivan and water and the word was “real” enough all right, no matter Helen’s experience of acquiring language trans- what Ogden and Richards said, as real as any S-R formed the way she lived. Whereas she had been [Stimulus-Response] sequence, as real as H2 SO4

28 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 reacting to NaOH, but that what happened could not To answer this we must examine the phenomenon be drawn with arrows.21 itself.24 It is clear that at least sometimes the signified What Percy had stumbled upon was what he object is purely material. For example, we can signify calls a “nonlinear nonenergic natural phenomenon, a rock, which is purely material. Similarly, it is clear that is to say, a natural phenomenon in which energy that the language symbol is at least sometimes purely exchanges account for some but not all of what hap- material; for example, a word written on a piece of pens.”22 paper. Therefore, it follows that the coupler—the The next step in his examination of this remark- human intellect—must be that which has an imma- able phenomenon was to discern the nature of the terial element. We know this because at least one of “stuff” apparently located inside Helen’s brain that the three parts must have immateriality every time made the word W-A-T-E-R connect with the thing the human being uses language. Since we know that water? That is to say, what enabled Helen to say, “This there are some times when the signified and the sig- is water”? According to Percy, there is one thing nifier are purely material, we can conclude that the about this substance that is for certain: “By whatever intellect, at least sometimes, must be that which has name one chooses to call it—interpretant, interpreter, cou- immateriality. pler, whatever—it, the third element is not material.”23 To But is the intellect always that which provides emphasize the immateriality of the coupler, Percy the immaterial element or can, at other times, the asks the reader to draw a picture of someone assert- symbol or signified object provide the immateriality ing a proposition or judging a painting or compos- necessary for the triadic phenomenon? In Percy’s ing a piece of music. As the reader comes to learn, Aristotelian/Thomistic metaphysical view, nature is Percy knows that it is not possible to do so. Here we a permanent characteristic of a thing and therefore it have the climactic discovery of Percy’s investigation would make no sense for the immaterial character of into human nature: the human intellect must have an the coupler to be present one time and not at anoth- immaterial element in order to account for the phe- er time. It seems absurd to think that if the human nomenon of human language. mind has immateriality in one instance of language Logically speaking, Percy is very careful in the steps use (which we know it does as shown above), then it he takes to arrive at this conclusion. He begins with would not have that immateriality in any other in- the assumption that all purely material natural phe- stances. For Percy, the nature of immaterial substances nomena are exchanges of energy. This is the funda- is that they are always immaterial.25 Anything else mental thesis of the materialist—that all reality can does not pass the common sense test.26 be explained with reference to energic exchange. He Engaging the objection, Percy is profoundly then states that all exchanges of energy are dyadic aware that this discovery about human nature gives relations. From this, it follows that all purely material rise to many important questions that the world of events are dyadic. Percy believes that he has shown modern science itself must answer if it is to pursue that the phenomenon of human language is not a the truth about man in an honest humanistic manner. dyadic event, but rather is a triadic event. Therefore, it We now know, at least an increasing number of follows that the phenomenon of human language is people are beginning to know, that a different sort not a purely material event. of reality lies at the heart of all uniquely human In giving us this dramatic insight into man from activity—speaking, listening, understanding, think- the phenomenon of human language, Percy locates ing, looking at a work of art—namely, Charles the immaterial element of the triad in the human Peirce’s triadicity. It cannot be gotten around and intellect. But the question remains, How can we be must sooner or later be confronted by natural sci- 27 sure that the immateriality cannot be accounted for ence, for it is indeed a natural phenomenon. in the language symbol or the signified object? Why Having discovered the immaterial element of does the immateriality of the triad prove man’s im- the human intellect (no small feat!), the follower material element and not language’s, for example? of Percy’s argument remains challenged by Percy’s

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 29 Ar t i cl e s would-be objectors to provide some account of the Heidegger’s Dasein suffering a Verfallen, a fall, Ga- classical problem of the interaction between the im- briel Marcel’s Homo viator, man as pilgrim, one material and the material in the human person. More might even explore its openness to such traditional specifically for the linguistic argument, How is it that Judeo-Christian notions as man falling prey to the the immaterial part of the intellect interacts with our worldliness of the world, and man as pilgrim seek- brain matter in the phenomenon of coupling the ing his salvation. But that’s a different story.30 sign and the signified? This has long been a material- ist objection to any sort of view of man as a spiri- An earlier version of this essay was published in the 2004 tual animal. Unfortunately, Percy does not attempt edition of Catholic Studies Review, a journal of Catholic to answer this question directly. However, he does scholarship published annually by the Catholic Studies Program at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. clearly state that he does not mean to be a Cartesian dualist, in which the immaterial part of the coupler is Endnotes a separate substance from the material and resides in 1 For an excellent example of the centrality of the faith-reason question the brain as a ghost in a machine. Indeed, Percy sees in the tradition—as well as for a beautiful meditation on the question— any separation between mind and body as an attack see Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 1998. Obviously, “rational scientific on human nature and the modus operandi of the forces inquiry” is not meant to exclude metaphysics and other non-empirical forms of knowledge. th 28 of evil in the 20 century. 2 Cf. for example, Percy’s rather existential approach to faith and apologet- Given his disdain for dualism and his commit- ics in Robert Royal, “Conversations with Walker Percy,” National Review (March 28, 1986). ment to Catholicism, it is reasonably likely that the 3 Percy’s understanding of the mystery of the human person is evidenced Aristotelian hylomorphism of St. Thomas Aquinas in his essay, “Questions They Never Asked Me,” Signposts in a Strange Land, Ed. Patrick Samway (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1991): would be Percy’s response to the question of interac- “This life is much too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end tion, and it does seem to be the most cogent answer of it and then to be asked what you make of it and have to answer ‘Sci- 29 entific Humanism.’ That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a to this problem of interaction. In this view, the hu- delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing man being is a single substance composed of a unity less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e. God. In fact, I of body and soul, of materiality and immateriality. demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less.” 4 A contemporary example of someone with the “materialist” view is The material and the immaterial interact in the sense Richard Dawkins. that the immaterial, as the form, gives life to the ma- 5 This is a most infelicitous term, given as it is subject to dualistic or ide- alistic misappropriations. Nonetheless, I think it captures aptly the wide terial, the matter, and is the principle of the unity and variety of anthropologies which attribute to man some spiritual aspect. motion of the material. The mechanics of this inter- 6 Walker Percy. “The Delta Factor.” In The Message in the Bottle. (New York: Picador USA, 2000), 7. action are not observable in the fullest sense because 7 I use this term as a matter of convenience. I am most sympathetic to of the immateriality of the soul, but the soul exists those who hold that, rather than “post-modern,” our age ought to be in all the parts of the body, acting as its life force or called “hyper-modern.” For this insight, I am particularly indebted to Dr. Brian Clayton, Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University. form. Given Percy’s desire for an anthropology that 8 “The Delta Factor,” 7. expresses an integration of body and soul, this view 9 “The Delta Factor,” 17. 10 Tom Harmon. “An Analysis of Walker Percy’s Semiotic Theory of Triadic would seem to be most in line with his thinking. Language Use and an Application of that Theory to Claims that Animals However, for Percy, writing in the postmodern Can Use Language.” (Senior Philosophy Paper. Philosophy 499: Senior Seminar in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Presented to Dr. David age, such metaphysical questions are finally only as Calhoun, Gonzaga University. April, 2003), 1. I am deeply indebted to important as the fundamental questions of human Mr. Harmon, a fellow alumnus of Gonzaga University, for his perspicac- ity in formulating for me for the first time the general lines of Percy’s existence. In this light, the ultimate end of Percy’s argument, especially in his lecture at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s quest is to discern the implications for human exis- conference on Percy at Gonzaga University in 2004. tence of this newfound discovery that man is indeed 11 For further study on the role of Peirce in the thought of Percy, see P. Samway, Ed., A Thief of Peirce: the Letters of Kenneth Laine Ketner and Walker more than just an organism interacting with an en- Percy (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1995). vironment. Percy proposes that our unique nature is 12 Walker Percy, “The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind,” Signposts in a Strange Land. (New York: Picador USA, 2000), 279- such that our search for fulfillment reaches beyond 280. the here and now. 13 Ibid., 280. 14 Ibid., 280. And, lastly, with this new anthropology in hand, 15 Ibid., 280. Peirce’s triadic creature with its named world, 16 Harmon, 5.

30 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 17 “The Delta Factor,” 34-35. 25 Harmon, 12-13. 18 Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos (New York: Picador USA, 1983), 96. 26 This can be taken both in the broader Chestertonian notion of “com- 19 It is important to note that, for Percy, she was always a person—even mon sense,” as well as the idea of le sens commun in the metaphysics of R. when not using triadic language. Her language use, however, makes her Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. aware of her personhood, which does not enhance her intrinsic dignity 27 “The Fateful Rift,” 287. but rather makes possible her flourishing. 28 Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins. (New York: Picador USA, 1971), 328. 20 Lost in the Cosmos, 35-36. 29 Allowing, of course, for problems related to the survival of the soul after 21 Ibid., 39. (The emphasis is Percy’s.) death and the soul’s state between death and the resurrection from the 22 Ibid., 39. dead. 23 “Fateful Rift,” 287. (The emphasis is Percy’s, but it would be mine, too!) 30 “The Fateful Rift,” 290-291. 24 Here I am particularly indebted to Mr. Harmon’s presentation at the 2004 ISI conference on Percy at Gonzaga.

A Question About Names: Roman Catholic Church–Catholic Church– Orthodox Church/Churches–Eastern Orthodox Church/Churches

Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton, Ph.D. the “Catholic Church.” The former phrase, for ex- Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church ample, will not be found in the text (excluding foot- notes) of the Second Vatican Council documents. The he Ravenna Statement1 (October title of the bishops’ conference in the United States 2007) issued by the Joint International is the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Commission for the Theological Dia- The national directory for church institutions and logue between the Roman Catholic personnel is titled the Official Catholic Directory. Church and the Orthodox Church Civil law documents, however, often use Ro- Tmarks a new and encouraging step in the process man Catholic to distinguish the Catholic Church, of reconciliation between Catholic and Orthodox as popularly identified, from other Churches that Christians. This note, offered for discussion and de- have Catholic in their titles. For example, some An- bate, deals solely with the designated names of the glicans describe themselves as Anglo-Catholic; some two Church bodies conducting this dialogue. What Anglican splinter bodies (splintered from The Epis- is the proper name of these respective Church bod- copal Church-USA or from the Anglican Church ies? Is there a difference between the names Church of Canada) have “Catholic” in their official names. bodies give to themselves and those which others A U.S. Eastern Orthodox Diocese—the Carpatho- may give to them? More precisely, is there a differ- Russian Greek Orthodox Catholic Diocese, based in ence between their ecclesiological names as seen by Johnstown, Pa. includes Catholic in its official title. themselves but perhaps diversely by others, and the A church deriving originally from an 18th -century sociological designations they accept?2 And what is schism in Utrecht, Holland, but enlarged by an influx the significance of these differences and how should of persons departing the Catholic Church after the we deal with them? First Vatican Council (1869-70) calls itself the Old The Catholic Church (here understood for Catholic Church. Several mini-churches claiming an discussion purposes as the communion of all the origin from this Church also have Catholic in their Churches of whatever rite with the Bishop and See official titles. Catholic parishes using the Roman of Rome) does not refer to itself in its official docu- Rite liturgy are incorporated as Roman Catholic ments as the “Roman Catholic Church,” but simply Churches and commonly bill themselves as such.

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 31 Ar t i cl e s

The phrase Roman Catholic can be used and is as the communion of the Churches with Rome and used in several ways: a broader and larger understanding that would en- To identify the Roman Rite Church - the com- compass potentially all Christians. munion of all local Churches following the Roman We may note here, too, that the phrase “Ro- liturgy and canon law, the latter called the Code man Church,” sometimes used to denote the entire of Canon Law for the Latin Church. The Eastern communion of local Churches with Rome, belongs (Catholic) Churches in communion with Rome do properly only to the (geographical) Church (Dio- not follow the Roman Rite liturgy, have their own cese) of Rome and its bishop’s curia. Though used, distinctive liturgies and canon law. They usually refer as mentioned, particularly in the past, to characterize, to themselves as Greek Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, the entire communion of Churches with Rome or Armenian Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Melkite, the “Latin Church of the West” alone, it is not used Maronite, etc. And ordinarily they do not wish to properly in this way. There is only one Roman (local) be referred to as “Roman Catholic.” Their code of Church and one Roman bishop and he is the Bishop canon law is called the Code of Canon Law for the of Rome. Other bishops in communion with him are Eastern Churches. They especially abhor the name Catholic bishops, some of the Roman Rite, some not. “Uniate,” a term of disparagement, as they see it, By using officially in reference to itself only given them by their Orthodox counterparts. “Catholic Church,” this church makes clear its own To refer to Churches of whatever rite in com- self-understanding that it is the Catholic Church munion with Rome. Various non-Catholic church of Christ or that the Church of Christ subsists in it groups often use the phrase in this sense, which does alone. It does not subsist in any other Church body not take account of the distinction between the Ro- though other Churches may contain many, even in man Rite and the several Eastern Rite “sui iuris” some cases, most of the endowments of the Church churches. Other Church communities commonly of Christ. Thus Catholic Church—in its own self- use the phrase directly as a “limiting qualifier” since understanding—is its proper ecclesiological name. they do not accept the Catholic Church’s self-under- Orthodox theologians commonly refer to their standing that it is the Catholic Church of Christ or autocephalous (self-heading) churches as the Ortho- that Christ’s Church subsists uniquely in the Catholic dox Church but they also use the phrase Catholic Church. In other words, “Roman Catholic” used in Church of their own communion to guard against this context signifies their evaluation of “the Roman weakening in any way their conviction that the Catholic Church” as a part of the Catholic Church Orthodox Communion of Churches constitutes designated in the Creeds, not simply the Catholic the Catholic Church of Christ. Both Church com- Church of and by itself. Most Orthodox hierarchs munions, Catholic and Orthodox, rightfully use in and theologians, together with other Christians not their own documents only that terminology which in communion with Rome, regularly use the phrase correctly presents their authentic self-understanding. in this sense. Those Eastern Churches that departed the universal The Orthodox believe that the communion communion after Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) of canonical Orthodox Churches is the “Catholic refer to themselves as (431) the Catholic Church of Church” and all others are heterodox, that is, adher- the East or the Assyrian Church and (451) the Ori- ing to false doctrine at least in part. Anglo-Catholics ental Orthodox Churches, as they do not want to believe the Catholic Church is constituted in three be referred to as (431) “Nestorian” or (451) the non- branches—Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican. Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches or the “lesser” They use “Roman Catholic” in this qualifying sense, Eastern Churches. as Reformation Church Christians use it to signify Orthodox Church or Orthodox Catholic Church: their understanding that all faithful Christians to- Because Orthodox theologians consider their gether form the Catholic Church. In these latter two communion of canonical self-heading Orthodox cases “Roman Catholic” particularizes or draws a dis- Churches with the Ecumenical Patriarch to be the tinction between understanding the Catholic Church authentic “Catholic Church,” they sometimes use

32 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 the phrase Orthodox Catholic Church. All Chris- together with their Church authorities, must follow tians outside this communion are not the Catholic their own convictions based on their ecclesiologi- Church and their relationship to it is variously ex- cal doctrine as to the terminology which they use to plained by different Orthodox theologians. Thus, for refer to themselves. But they must acknowledge—in the Orthodox, the Catholic Church, in its own self- dialogue—their diverse positions, treat the dialogue understanding, is a proper ecclesiological name and is partner with complete respect and use the terminol- a proper designation of its church or its communion ogy the other uses of itself without any implication of churches. that it represents a mutually agreed terminology or As Catholics, we customarily speak of the Or- ecclesiology. The Orthodox delegation at Ravenna thodox Church (signifying one fully united commu- in 2007 was concerned to make this point by the nion of Churches). But should we understand, rather, only footnote appended to the Ravenna Statement. the Orthodox Churches? As has been said, Orthodox Catholic leaders and theologians willingly refer to theologians generally hold that their Church—the the “Orthodox Church” but Orthodox leaders or various autocephalous and autonomous Churches theologians rarely if ever refer to the communion of and the separate jurisdictions, existing simultaneously all the Churches with Rome as the Catholic Church. in the United States and some other countries—con- Understandably they studiously avoid such a designa- stitute one fully united Church. For them, doctrinal tion. unity and a shared apostolic sacramental life con- Conversely, the Catholic Church (communion of stitute this unity. That these Churches are factually Churches with Rome) has never officially designated divided and that their separate leaders are sometimes itself as the Orthodox Church although it is fully in sharp conflict with one another does not, from convinced that doctrinally it is uniquely orthodox. their perspective, affect this unity. Nevertheless, these The latter name—meaning “right-believing”—has Churches have not been able to hold a general (or been associated with the Eastern Churches of the old ecumenical) council in more than 1200 years. Al- (Eastern) Roman Empire because important heresies though they called for such a council almost 50 years circulated there in the 4th and 5th centuries and the ago and began to prepare for it, we hear little about great councils that rejected them (Ephesus 431; Chal- this project today. cedon, 451) were held in the Eastern part of the Em- Catholic theologians, on the other hand, basing pire and were attended principally by “Orthodox” or themselves on the self-understanding of the Catholic right-believing bishops from these Eastern Churches. Church as specified, for example, in Vatican II, hold Thus “Orthodox” or “Eastern Orthodox” became that beyond doctrinal unity and a shared apostolic the common way of designating these churches. sacramental life, the Lord Jesus Christ endowed His Orthodox bishops and theologians generally omit Church with a unity of governance, a practical soli- the “Eastern” today because their churches now are darity, and that the instruments to insure this solidar- represented all over the world. They commonly use ity lie in the Petrine Office and the college of bish- “Uniate,” however, to characterize those Eastern ops, with the various other primacies that may exist Churches in communion with Rome. Because this among the bishops. To possess fully the unity willed usage suggests that these Churches are irregular ap- by Christ for His Church, a Church community pendages, it is to be hoped that this usage will end. must exhibit all these components of unity. Another, although less contentious, example of Therefore the Catholic understanding of the Ortho- terminology doctrinally imprecise but sociologically dox Communion of Churches is that they do not in acceptable is the self-designation of the Protestant fact at present exhibit the full unity of the Church of Episcopal Church in the USA as simply, The Epis- Christ. They are, in the final analysis, a communion copal Church (TEC). Indeed, this church professes or federation of Churches that lacks necessary ele- to have the Holy Orders of bishop (Latin: episcopus), ments of the unity with which Christ endowed His priest, and deacon. Several other Christian Church Church. bodies profess to have the same threefold ministe- Clearly both Catholic and Orthodox theologians, rial order; and so no one Church can claim to be

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 33 Ar t i cl e s

uniquely The Episcopal Church. However, in fact, Endnotes and references few object to such a designation, understanding it 1. Information Services, PCPCU, Vatican City (2007/IV), No. 126, not as an ecclesiological statement but as a sociologi- pp.178-84. 2. The only footnote to the Ravenna Statement reads: Orthodox par- cal identification; and The Episcopal Church is a ticipants felt it important to emphasize that the use of the terms “the relatively small Church community. It would surely Church”, “the universal Church”, “the indivisible Church” and “the be found objectionable if dialogue partners insist on Body of Christ” in this document and in similar documents produced by the Joint Commission in no way undermines the self-understanding referring to The Episcopal Church as the Protestant of the Orthodox Church as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, Episcopal Church. of which the Nicene Creed speaks. From the Catholic point of view, the same self-awareness applies: the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church A relaxed attitude towards the names Churches “subsists in the Catholic Church” (Lumen Gentium 8); this does not claim as their own is acceptable in popular discus- exclude acknowledgement that elements of the true Church are present outside the Catholic communion. sion. But in ecumenical dialogue, more precision is 3. For a candid discussion of Orthodox disunity, especially in North Amer- needed. An agreed protocol on the proper use of ica, by an Orthodox official, see Ajalat, Charles “ Regarding Orthodox Unity,” Part I in The Word, Vol.52, No.3, March 2008, pp.4-9 and Part II, a church’s name as employed in various contexts “Orthodox Unity in America,” Vol.52, No.4, April 2008, pp.4-9. would be helpful, not for polemical reasons but so 4. At the October 10-12, 2008 Synaxis or Assembly of the Heads of the 14 that the various Church communions will be under- autocephalous Orthodox Churches and an additional 50 bishops in Is- tanbul (Constantinople, the Phanar), Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stood as to how they wish to be referred to in ecu- I who presided at the meeting was at pains to lament disputes that had menical dialogue and what they understand by these marked the relationship of some of the autocephalous churches in recent decades and to reject the image of Orthodoxy as a federation or confed- names. eration of churches rather than a strict unity. He particularly urged the activation of a consultation established in 1993 for settling the problem of the relationship of the various daughter churches in the diaspora and a moving ahead with plans for the Great and Holy Council first an- nounced fifty years ago.

Bo o k Re v i e w s

Exploring Personhood: An Introduc- (or alternatively, between mind and What Fr. Torchia’s survey reveals is tion to the Philosophy of Human body)” (xii). The governing ques- the fact that, almost from the time that Nature, by Joseph Torchia, O.P. New tion of the study he states as follows: serious thought was first given to the York: Rowman & Littlefield Pub- “What does it mean to be fully human, questions of human nature and per- lishers, Inc., 2008, 336 pages, Paper, and what are the fundamental constituents sonhood, there have been two warring $29.95. of our personhood on its most fundamental perspectives in response to them, the Reviewed by Prof. Dennis McInerny, level?” (xv, emphasis his). The author teleological and the mechanistic. Ac- Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Lin- surveys an array of seminal thinkers cording to the teleological view, the coln, NE who have over the years propounded human person is what he is, by reason theories relating to human nature, of the foundational meaningfulness ather Joseph Torchia, who is an personhood, and the self, beginning of his life, that is, by reason of the fact Associate Professor of philoso- with the Presocratics and ending with that he had an eternal destiny which is Fphy at Providence College, and the Postmodernists. In between those fulfilled in his returning to the Source the editor of The Thomist, explains, in two collectives, he gives close and of his being. In sum, the nature of the the Preface to Exploring Personhood: considered attention to the thought human person, if it is to be correctly An Introduction to the Philosophy of of Socrates/Plato, Aristotle, St. Augus- understood, must be understood, Human Nature, the scope and purpose tine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, ultimately, in terms that transcend the of the book: “In its broadest terms and Hume. The book culminates in purely natural. The mechanistic view, this volume explores the metaphysical the presentation of his own views on the other hand, denies outright underpinnings of theories of human on the issues under examination, that there is any realm other than the nature, personhood, and the self, with views which reflect the Aristotelian/ natural, and therefore human nature special attention to accounts of the Thomistic tradition, as expressed in a and personhood are to be interpreted relationship between soul and body poignantly developed way. in exclusively naturalistic terms. Man

34 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 is simply an animal among animals– cause that stands apart from the world’s it securely in the terrestrial realm. what differences he has from the other constituents.” (34) The chief concern For Aristotle, the human person is a animals are to be regarded as differ- of the Sophists, who followed upon substance composed of body and soul, ences in degree, not in kind–and his the Presocratic philosophers, was mo- of matter informed by an animating personhood, such as it is, assumes so rality, but it was a concern which too principle. The relation between body vague and indeterminate a quality as often devolved into an advocacy of and soul is not tangential, much less not to be considered as something moral relativism. They gave the kind adversarial, but integral. The soul is which is unique to homo sapiens. It is of emphasis to the individual which is the substantial form that determines the author’s design to examine the a common feature of our own times, a human body to be precisely that– reasoning that has been advanced over one that “is bound up with a spirit of a human body. Aristotle remained the course of Western philosophy in egoism and its assumption that moral enough a Platonist in his anthropol- defense of these two diametrically judgments are based on considerations ogy to confer primacy of place upon opposed positions, while not disguis- of practical expediency alone.” (41) the soul, for the soul was the seat ing, in the process, the point of view It was the pertinacious opposition of that peculiarly human activity from which that examination is being to the sophistical spirit of relativism, which is intellection. Soul and body made. He states forthrightly that “this and to the wanton advocacy of indi- complemented one another. It was volume defends the somewhat con- vidualism, that became for Socrates the soul that was capable of soaring to troversial position (at least by contem- the backbone of his life’s work. In the heights in contemplation, but its porary standards) that humanness and delineating Plato’s thought on hu- flight was not possible without initial personhood coincide (i.e., that every man nature and the person, Fr. Torchia assistance from the body. There is no human being qualifies as a person in focuses his attention on the Phaedo, skepticism regarding sense knowledge his or her own right).” (2) for which he provides a pointed and to be found in Aristotle. Far from A purely reductionist rendering of illuminating explication, especially something to be denigrated, it was human nature, it is Fr. Torchia’s intent in dealing with Plato’s arguments for to be revered, for who does not, for to show, is fatally limited. The anemic the immortality of the soul. Plato can example, take rightful delight in the “nothing but” approach to the human be identified as both a dualist and an mere act of seeing? Only a human be- person–prominently characterized essentialist: a dualist for the way he ing can look upon a rose as a rose was by the equation of mind and brain– accentuates the difference between meant to be looked upon. ends up by effectively eradicating any body and soul, to the decided benefit St. Augustine provided a prominent meaningful understanding of person- of the soul and detriment of the body, turning point in Western thought with hood. In countering the now not an essentialist for the way in which respect to the ideas of human nature uncommon attitude which refuses to he equates soul with person. The es- and personhood, and the ultimate ex- recognize the inseparableness of being sence of the human person, for Plato, planation for this is his Christian belief. human and being a person, Fr. Tor- is the soul, which in its earthly state is It is with St. Augustine that we get the chia mounts a staunch defense of “the temporarily imprisoned in the body, first fully developed Christian account mode of existence appropriate to per- and sorely hampered by the fact, but of what it means to be human, an ac- sons as dynamic centers in their own which can look forward gratefully to count which bore “the special burden right who participate in human na- death, when the soul will be released of navigating between two worlds, so ture even as they transcend it in their from its corporeal incarceration and to speak, and thereby upholding the uniqueness.” (11) We share a human free to resume its presumably natural unity of the whole person.” (100). In nature, but personhood is something state as pure spirit. Of course, if the that impressive navigational feat, the which is unique to each of us, and Platonic doctrine on this score is true, marked influence of Platonism (spe- it is only Christianity which, giving i.e., that man is essentially soul, then cifically Neoplatonism) is not to be full recognition to that fact, thus gives there is no real ontological difference missed, and thus there is a strong ac- proper honor to the individual. between human beings and angels. cent given by St. Augustine to soul, as What then does the history of One of the more unfortunate conse- is evident in passages where he writes philosophy have to tell us of the ways quences of Plato’s lop-sided anthro- things like, “man as he appears to us is men have thought about human na- pology, which has had an enduring a rational soul, making use of a mortal ture and the human person? It was the and deleterious effect on Western and earthly body.” (109). However, Presocratic philosophers who first lent philosophy, is the skeptical attitude whatever distorting effects his reliance studied attention to these subjects, and he took toward sense knowledge, an on Neoplatonism might have had on although they were severely limited by attitude which will be given renewed his anthropology, they were remedied the metaphysical materialism to which life with the advent of modern phi- by the central role which Christology they too quickly succumbed, nonethe- losophy. played in his thought, and the keen re- less there was a noteworthy positive It is often said, not incorrectly, that alization this gave him of the profound character to their thought in the rec- Aristotle brought formal causality implications for human personhood ognition that “an adequate explana- down from the celestial sphere, where which result from the commanding tion of a changing world requires a Plato had established it, and relocated fact of the Incarnation.

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In the thought of St. Thomas is closely associated with the machine ultimate explanation of which, as well Aquinas we find a remarkably com- he motors about in. Indeed, for Des- as of many other aberrant notions in plete and balanced account of human cartes, the body was a machine, which his philosophy, is to be found in his nature and personhood. Following in was given impulse and direction by rejection of the seminal concept of the footsteps of Aristotle, the Com- the soul. Descartes’ thought also rep- substance, a rejection so serious that mon Doctor regarded substance “as resents a reversion to Platonism in it is tantamount to putting oneself the irreducible referent for discussions the flagrant skepticism he displayed at odds with reality. Having gone of the really real,” (128) which meant toward sense knowledge. Like Plato, that far, it is little wonder that David that personhood itself is for him an ir- he was a dedicated advocate of in- Hume eventually began to wonder if reducible reality. The human person is nate ideas, which is not surprising, there was really a David Hume. Thus a substance, a composite of body and for such advocacy goes hand in hand the perils of armchair philosophizing. soul, where soul acts as the determin- with a distrust of the deliverances of Given his denial of any fixed personal ing form. The soul is the actus essendi, one’s senses. Descartes’ methodologi- identity–the self is just a bundle of the active principle of being which cal doubt might be regarded as the perceptions–it is clear that we cannot founds human personhood. Soul is inevitable outcome of his sweep- look to Hume for any reliable ac- foundational, then, for esse is para- ing rejection, in theory at least, of count of personhood. The self is little mount, but soul and person are not all philosophical antecedents to his more than a fiction, Hume believed, to be equated, for it is body and soul own system. By effectively positing and whatever tenuous personal iden- together, the perfect psychosomatic the cogito as the only proper starting tity we can lay claim to has its source union, which constitutes the human point for serious philosophizing, he in memory. But if that is the case, person. “By means of his creative managed to get things precisely back- one has the temerity to ask, Whose adaption of Aristotelian principles,” wards, and for that reason set Western memory? If the self is but a fiction, Fr. Torchia notes, “Aquinas overcame philosophy on a wayward course from the memory of that self could only the difficulties of earlier Christian which it has yet fully to recover. As be a fiction within a fiction, no more anthropologies that displayed an ex- Etienne Gilson once pointedly ob- stable than the vaporous self which cessive spiritualism or naive material- served, he who starts with the cogito depends upon it. Fr. Torchia notes ism regarding human nature.” (138) ends with the cogito. Systematic doubt that Hume reminds one of Heraclitus, It was St. Thomas, with his subtle and serves inevitably as the foundation for that Presocratic thinker for whom all thoroughgoing analysis, who brought doubtful philosophical systems. things are in flux and nothing stays personhood into its proper light, The upshot of Descartes’ anthro- the same. The implications of that, where it can be clearly seen as a status pology was that it undermined the if taken as a comprehensive account of the most noble kind. psychosomatic unity constitutive of reality, is that no real distinction As the result of the telling influ- of the human person. Fr. Torchia can be made between observer and ence of René Descartes, the great comments trenchantly: “For bet- observed, in which case no meaning- accomplishments on behalf of a sound ter or worse, Descartes’ bifurcation ful observations can be made about anthropology which had been set of the human being into a thinking anything. Those who are one with the in place by Aquinas were not to see substance of mind and an extended flow cannot even be conscious of that continuation and development in the substance of body would exert an fluid fact. mainstream of Western philosophy af- incalculable influence on subsequent We now live in a particularly in- ter the seventeenth century. Since that theories of human nature.” (162) teresting age because, among other century, which marked the beginning And then there comes along, in reasons, we, like the citizens of the of what we now broadly identify as the following century, the urbane and eighteenth century, have saved fu- modern philosophy, we have wit- cosmopolitan Scotsman, Mr. David ture historians the trouble of naming nessed the prevailing dominance of a Hume, who, Fr. Torchia writes, “brings our age by naming it ourselves. For dualistic view of man, which we owe home the full implications of a rejec- those living in the eighteenth century, directly to Descartes. Descartes sought tion of metaphysics in discussions of theirs was the Age of Enlightenment, to sever the essential union of body personhood.” (185) There are so many or the Age of Reason. Today, we tell and soul–in the process incoherently foundational confusions in Hume’s ourselves, we live in the Age of Post- making of each a distinct substance– thought that one is hard pressed to modernism, the chief characteristic and returned to what was, at bottom, know where to begin, though his of which–and this is considered to a Platonic way of regarding the hu- idea of an idea might be as good a be a virtue–is an ardent dedication man person. Man was, for Descartes, place as any. The problem there is that to skepticism and relativism. The two in his essence a “thinking thing”; he makes an idea virtually indistin- are, of course, opposite sides of the mind, or soul, constituted his fun- guishable from a sense image, which same coin. Fr. Torchia offers a very damental identity. He conceded that guarantees a garbled psychology and apt general description of the post- soul had a close association with body, epistemology. Hume’s impoverished modern mind-set when he identifies but somewhat in the way that a driver metaphysics is given prominent ex- it as antifoundational, meaning that seated behind the wheel of his Dodge pression in his notions of causality, the it represents a frank repudiation of

36 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 metaphysics. To do that is essentially with ears, and a pesky penchant for has settled like smog upon contempo- to give up on reason, which the post- reacting in allergic fashion to a high rary culture. “We can enter into in- modernists have done, and that is why pollen count. “In the postmodernist terpersonal relations with others only they regard the unconditional trust context,” Fr. Torchia writes, “a person because we are already substantial as which the eighteenth century invest- is defined principally on the basis persons.” (249). ed in reason to have been egregiously of overt behavioral characteristics, In the final analysis, however, there wrongheaded. The modern age prides rather than in terms of what one is, can be no right understanding of itself in touting a “rationality” which by virtue of a uniquely human nature personhood without a thoroughgoing has been reduced to feeling, and a or distinctive mode of being.” (209) consciousness of our existential sta- “reality” which looks upon the objec- Again, the postmodernist project is to tus as creatures of God, made in His tive order as a playground where an try to sever the bond between being image and likeness. “In the absence of untrammeled subjectivism can romp human and being a person. Ontologi- an understanding of persons as cre- about freely. cally, it of course cannot be done, but ated in the image of a good, loving, For the postmodernist, language the postmodernists have been depress- and benevolent Godhead, any account is seen as basically self-referential, not ingly successful in promoting their of human dignity must rest on vari- as the means by which mind con- agenda on behalf of the unreal. able naturalistic factors alone,” (252) nects with world, not as the ground Before proposing his solution to Fr. Torchia writes, and the naturalistic on which human community is built. the various problems relating to a account is, to say the least, woefully The interpretation of a written text right understanding of human nature inadequate. We are, as human persons, thus becomes a matter of ingeniously and personhood, the most serious of embodied spirits, possessed of free superimposing upon it the full pano- which came in with modern philoso- will, whose human nature is what it ply of one’s own ideological preten- phy, Fr. Torchia cites the work of Alas- is because of its being grounded in sions. The correspondence theory dair MacIntyre as offering a response metaphysical laws whose ultimate of truth gives way to the coherence to those problems which, though not source is at once the very Source theory. Directly germane to the sub- above criticism, is decidedly positive of our being. Human nature is not ject which is the central concern of in its basic orientation, principally by something which we define, but that Fr. Torchia’s book, postmodernism at- reason of the fact that MacIntyre re- by which we are defined. The human tempts to do away with human nature turned to Aristotelian and Thomistic person, the self, is irreducible, which, as it has been traditionally understood, sources to discover there rich veins of paradoxically perhaps, makes us ca- which serves to provide a justification philosophic soundness and sanity. pable of our becoming more than for the re-invention of personhood. Fr. Torchia recommends an un- ourselves. “We are the beings that One of the more bizarre results of this qualified rejection of the mechanistic carry within ourselves an aptitude for project is to deny to human beings model of personhood--which, given the totality of things and a dynamism any exclusive claim to personhood. In the dire influence of postmodernism, to self-transcendence.” (277). the mind of the postmodernist, per- now seems to hold sway over much Exploring Personhood is an excel- sonhood becomes so flexible and user contemporary philosophic thought– lent book. Fr. Torchia has provided us friendly a concept that it is thought and a return to the teleological model with a rich and inventively explored capable of being applied promiscu- which has its roots in the thought of historical context in which we are ously to just about any creature which Aristotle and St. Thomas. Mechanistic enabled better to see what human nurtures itself, grows, reproduces, and or naturalistic interpretations of man nature and personhood are really can move from place A to place B– fail to “really explain the dynamism all about. His survey of prominent but these applications are being made, inherent in our humanity,” (244) a thinkers, from the Presocratics to the please note, by human persons only. dynamism which finds instantiation in postmodernists, is replete with pen- Apparently certain privileges in the the ongoing drama of the acting per- etrating and provocative insights. The assignment of terms accrue to those son. Countering the tragic attempt to contribution he makes by this book is who take it upon themselves to rede- separate humanness and personhood, distinctive, even unique, for his choice fine the terms. Whether pet rocks will Fr. Torchia stresses the point that every of subject matter, and for the fertile one day be considered fit candidates human being is a person simply by manner in which he develops it. It is a for personhood remains to be seen. virtue of the fact of being human. very valuable contribution. The book In the naive monistic materialism The two are inseparable. The mod- would serve as a first-rate text for a that is the hallmark of postmodern- ern mind needs to introduce itself to college course, and it should be in the ism, Cartesian dualism is briskly the seminal concept of substance; if library of every institution which is done away with by the deft move of we can succeed in getting substance interested in making available to read- reducing soul to body. Platonism in straight, then our getting personhood ers an accurate and extraordinarily reverse. We are now instructed that straight will follow automatically. It perceptive account of the intellectual mind equals brain. Man ceases to be will be possible for real community to and moral climate in which we now a thinking thing and becomes some- be born, and genuine love can dissi- live, and how it came to be what it is. thing along the lines of a computer pate the cloying sentimentality which

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Just Love: A Framework for Chris- be a “divided self” (pp. 119-126), she well in contrasting it to “freedom for tian Sexual Ethics by Margaret A. argues that the most dramatic experi- excellence.”2 Farley likewise regards Farley. New York: Continuum, 2006. ences of disunity nonetheless show persons, i.e., “embodied spirits, inspir- xiii+322 pp. A paperback edition was the unity of the person. These experi- ited bodies,” as autonomous agents, i.e., published in 2008.1 ences are possible only “in unified, as agents who are a law unto them- Reviewed by William E. May inspirited bodies, embodied spirits. It selves precisely because they have “the Emeritus Michael J. McGivney is as such that we are self-constitut- capacity to set their own agendas.” Professor of Moral Theology, ed….If you touch my arm you touch Obviously unborn children are not Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies me….The bodies that we ‘have’ are autonomous agents in this sense. They on Marriage and Family at The Catholic the bodies that we ‘are’” (p. 127). are far from being autonomous agents; University of America She continues by emphasizing that rather they, and young children as Senior Fellow, Culture of Life our embodiment is “transcendent” well, are totally dependent on others. Foundation,Washington DC because we are, first, free to determine Farley’s understanding of human ourselves by our free choices and, freedom of choice, moreover, is far arley’s book needs to be given second, free to enter into relationships different from the way this freedom is serious attention and critique. with other persons. Whatever tran- understood by Pope John Paul II, for FProfessor of Chrisstian ethics scendence is ascribed to spirit must example, in his Veritatis splendor, where at Yale University, she is also a Sister also be ascribed to body, “for they are he contrasts “autonomous” freedom of Mercy (although the book does intimately one” (pp. 128-130). Finally, from what he calls, following Gaudium not indicate this) and a well-known she stresses that at the heart of the et spes, a “rightful autonomy” or bet- Catholic theologian, who has served Christian tradition is the affirmation ter a “participated theonomy” (Veritatis as president of both the Catholic that the human body is not only good splendor, nos. 40-41). Theological Society of America and but also intrinsic to being human (pp. the Society of Christian Ethics. 130-131). The Significance of Gender and In Chapter 1 she identifies the To this I say “amen.” But, as I will “Complementarity” book’s “modest task” as a consider- now show, we must question her un- In her lengthy discussion of gender ation of “some of the elements for a derstanding of all this. I am convinced (pp. 133-159) and the distinction comprehensive sexual ethic.” She then that Farley “speaks with the voice of between “sex” as a biological category provides an overview of the rest of the Jacob but her hands are the hands of and “gender,” considered as a socially book: chapter 2 provides an historical Esau.” For example, in chapter 6 (p. constructed category (133-135) Farley perspective for Western culture; chap- 210, note 3), after saying that she will argues that “considerations of sex and ter 3 offers an examination of issues not answer the question of who is to gender…begin… as efforts to correct of cross-cultural difference; chapter 4 count as a person she immediately or reinforce previous understandings explores human embodiment, gender, adds: “all those born of persons can and to challenge or deny imbalances and sexuality; chapter 5 takes up pre- be included” (emphasis added). Why of power based on gender” (p. 136). liminary questions for formulating a are not the unborn included in the She surveys the Christian tradition framework for sexual ethics; chapter 6 category of “persons,” i.e., incarnate found in the Fathers, the Schoolmen contains her proposal for a framework spirits, inspirited bodies? We find the and others—a misogynistic tradition for a human and Christian sexual answer to this question in her analy- in her judgment—along with bibli- ethics; and chapter 7 considers three ses of “autonomy,” “relationality,” and cal insights, the thought of John Paul “patterns of relationships” involving “person” in chapter 6. II (which, as I will show, she fails to sexuality, namely, marriage and family, understand), and feminist writer Mary same-sex relationships, divorce and “Autonomy,” Relationality,” Rose D’Angelo (pp. 137-144). remarriage (p.16). and “Person” Toward the end of this section I will focus on key themes and Farley affirms that the two basic fea- Farley says that the gender divide does ideas central to Farley’s proposals for tures of human personhood are autonomy not lie in an uncritical understand- a framework for a human and Chris- and relationality. These, she maintains, ing of “complementarity” (156-157). tian sexual ethics, beginning with her “are ‘obligating features’ because they Farley understands this to mean “that presentation of human embodiment. ground an obligation to respect per- we are ‘halves’ of persons who will sons as ends in themselves…. Persons be ‘whole’ only when we find our Human Embodiment are autonomous in the sense that they gendered complement” (p. 157). This Farley centers on “experience” to have a capacity for free choice…,self- understanding is what Prudence Allen explore what it means to be “embod- determination,” that is, she continues, calls “fractional complementarity,”3 ied spirits” and “inspirited bodies” “the capacity to set our own agenda”(pp. and it implies, as Allen says, that we (pp. 115-116). After examining vari- 211-212). This is most important. Farley are moving “to an androgyny.”4 This ous experiences of disunity between clearly regards our freedom of choice understanding of “complementarity” body and spirit, when the body is felt as the “freedom of indifference” that is utterly incompatible with and other as a burden and one feels oneself to Servais Pinckaers, O.P. described so than the “asymmetrical” male-female

38 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 complementarity we find in John Paul and Responsibility and to contrast her Chapter 8. II’s “theology of the body” and in the evaluation of emotional love, romantic Do no unjust harm is a self-evidently thought of Robert Joyce and others.5 love, and pleasurable (erotic or sen- true proposition because by defini- Farley completely ignores this under- sual love) with Wojtyla’s magnificent tion “unjust” harm cannot be just. standing of complementarity. analyses of “sensuality” and “affectiv- But what specifically counts as “un- ity” (=sentiment, intimacy) as “raw just harm”? Farley lists many kinds Sexuality and Its Meanings materials of love” that need to be of behavior that are surely prima facie (pp. 159-173) integrated into the person in order to harmful in an unjust way: violent sex For Farley sexuality includes ev- be love. (e.g., rape), battering, deceit, por- erything pertaining to the sexual: nography, prostitution, pedophilia, physical, psychological, emotional, Moral norms for a just love and similar deeds. Among behaviors intellectual, spiritual, personal and (pp. 200-204) causing unjust harm she also includes social, individual, relational, species This is the heading of a section in “negligence regarding knowing what and cosmic, private and public, etc. Chapter 5. Farley maintains that the we must do for sex to be ‘safe-sex,’” (159). She thinks that as yet we do not basic criterion or norm is “the con- along with “terrible things done to understand that “the ‘sexual’ fits well crete reality of the beloved…a love is those who deviate” (p. 217). To what with our contemporary recognition right and good insofar as it aims to does she refer here? I suggest, in light that so much of the meaning of body, affirm truthfully the concrete reality of what Farley later says about “mu- gender, sex and sexuality is socially of the beloved. This is in large part tuality” and “same-sex relationships” and historically constructed” (160). what I mean by a ‘just love’” (p. 200). that the reference is to the “terrible “In most sexual experiences,” she She says that this is so “in large part,” things” done to those who engage in writes, “pleasure is a key component. because “it must also be ‘true’ to the sodomitic sex. This is one reason sexual activity can one loving and to the nature of the rela- Farley prefers mutuality (pp. 220- be desired for its own sake; pleasure is a tionship between lover and beloved” 223) to the older “complementar- good in itself (emphasis added), (though (p. 200). ity” “steeped in images of the male not all traditions have thought this, Among topics taken up in Chap- as active and the female as passive” and it remains for us to consider ter 6 are “Justice,” “Norms for a Just (p. 221). She declares that today we whether sexual pleasure is in every Sex,” and “Special Questions.” In know “the possibilities of mutuality context and circumstance an overall considering “Justice,” she argues, as exist for many relationship—whether or moral good)” (162). we have seen already, that the basic heterosexual or gay (emphasis added), Here Farley is badly mistaken. features of personhood are “autonomy whether with genital sex or the mul- Pleasure is not something good in it- and relationality.” They are “obligat- tiple other ways of embodying our self. In fact, it can be evil and pain can ing features” “because they ground an desires and loves” (p. 221). Coupling be good. If I put my hand on a hot obligation to respect persons as ends in this passage with her fervent defense stove and it feels pleasurable rather themselves.” We have likewise already in Chapter 8 (pp. 271-295) of “same- than painful I soon may not have my seen and criticized her claim that sex relationships” that in some way hand, and that is not good.6 human free choice is the autonomous embody the seven norms set forth in Sex is also a language and mode “capacity to set our own agenda” Chapter 7, it is evident that “gay” sex of communication, “procreative” (in (212). In “Norms for a Just Sex” Far- is a good illustration of “mutuality.” ways not limited to generation of new ley enumerates 7 norms: 1. Do no un- With respect to commitment (pp. life), and above all, power is associated just harm (216-218); 2. Free Consent 223-226) Farley first asserts that in with sex (p. 163). Farley understands (218-220); 3.Mutuality (220-223); 4. the Christian past commitment was love as “simultaneously an affective Equality (223) 5. Commitment (223- “largely identified with heterosexual response, an affective way of being in 226); 6. Fruitfulness (226-228); and 7. marriage” (does this imply that there union, and an affective affirmation of Social Justice (228-230). can be homosexual marriage?) and what is loved” (p.168). She declares “was valued more for the sake of fam- that “only a sexuality formed and Applying these norms ily arrangements than for the sake of shaped with love has the possibility I will comment on some of these the individuals themselves” (p. 224).7 for integration into the whole of the norms as presented by Farley in or- She then speaks of ways persons can human personality” (164). Nowhere, der to help us see how Farley herself keep alive the power of sexual de- however, does she consider love as the understands the norms she proposes. sire within them. One way, which gift of self, its key meaning in Christian This can be shown more clearly when she endorses, is “through a relation- thought, as Vatican II and John Paul II we relate the norms both to two “spe- ship extended sufficiently through have insisted. cial questions” she takes up in Chap- time to allow the incorporation of Farley’s analyses of love are su- ter 7 (teen sex and sex with oneself, sexuality into a shared life and an perficial. One ought to contrast her pp. 232-236) and to her discussion of enduring love,” which seems possible analyses with those offered by Karol marriage and family, same-sex rela- “through commitment” (p. 225). In Wojtyla in chapter two of his Love tionships, marriage and divorce in the next chapter she deems this kind

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 39 Bo o k Re v i e w s of commitment—and not a commit- ods, using contraception (or abortion) Endnotes ment based, as Vatican II teaches in to prevent conception of children if Gaudium et spes (no. 48) “in the con- one judges that they will be born in 1. This is a somewhat abridged version of a re- jugal covenant of irrevocable personal the context Farley sketches. In these view in National Catholic Bioethics Quar- terly 8.4 (Winter, 2008). consent”—sufficient to ground het- sections she also makes it clear that 2. Servais Pinckaers, O.P.,The Sources of Chris- erosexual marriage (see p. 265 where couples (heterosexual or gay) can be tian Ethics, translated by Sister Mary Noble, she sees a lifelong permanent com- “fruitful” in many creative ways that O.P. (Washington, D.C., The Catholic Uni- mitment as an ideal but by no means do not involve the generation of new versity of America, 1995, pp. 327-378. only kind of commitment on which life. 3. Prudence Allen, “Man-Woman Complemen- such a marriage can be based). And Teen Sex. Farley considers this a tarity,: The Catholic Inspiration.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 9.3 in that chapter she discusses same-sex “special question.” Although she is (Summer 2006), 67-108. unions at length (pp. 272-294), set- certainly not a strong advocate of teen 4. Allen, “Integral Sexual Complementarity and ting forth criteria for “just” same-sex sex, she leaves open the possibility the Theology of Communion,” Communio: genital relations and, on pp. 293-294, that some teens can have the maturity International Catholic Review 17 (1990), affirming that the more persuasive and capacity for just sex. This is clearly p. 533. position regarding same-sex marriage what she proposes on pp. 234-235. 5. On this see Chapter Two, “Marriage and the Complementarity of Male and Female” is that “the possibility of gay marriage Sex with oneself or masturbation. in my Marriage: The Rock on Which the would actually reinforce the value of Farley regards masturbation itself as Family Is Built (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1995) commitment for heterosexuals as well “morally neutral,” and believes that [A substantively revised edition of this work as for homosexuals.” “masturbation actually serves relation- will be published in 2009]. See also Robert Fruitfulness, treated in Chapter 6 ships rather than hindering them” (p. Joyce, Human Sexual Ecology: A Philosophy (pp. 226-228), in her discussion of 236). and Ethics of Man and Woman (Washington; University Press of America, 1980), pp. 70-75; children in marriage (pp. 269-271), Divorce and Remarriage. This is Pope John Paul II, Man and Woman He Cre- and again in the discussion of same- considered at great length on pp. ated Them: A Theology of the Body, intro- sex unions (see especially p. 290) of 296-312. Farley definitely believes duction, translation, and index by Michael Chapter 7, encompasses a great deal that some marriages, including those Waldstein (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, for Farley. It obviously refers to the whose husbands and wives would 2006), p. 197, Catechesis 17, par. 6). generation of new life or procreation, acknowledge that they were valid 6. Germain Grisez, Christian Moral Principles, Vol. 1 of his The Way of the Lord Jesus but it has a far wider ambience. As far marital unions, surely fail and that (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1993), 119-120, as procreation is concerned, Farley the proper response to such failures is 210-212. adopts a sophisticated version of the divorce followed by remarriage. 7. This assertion is grossly unjust to the Christian slogan, “No unwanted child ought Conclusion. Farley’s work is obvi- tradition. St. Augustine, for instance, spoke ever to be born,” and of course one ously incompatible both with the highly of the sweetness of the relationship way to assure that no unwanted child teaching of the Church on human between husband and wife in his De bono coniugali, and St. Thomas and St Bonaven- is born is to use contraceptives in the sexuality and sexual ethics, and in- ture wrote of the “singular, intense love that exercise of “responsible parenthood.” compatible too with sound philo- is to exist between husband and wife,” etc. Farley articulates this view when she sophical ethics. On Thomas, Bonaventure and other medieval writes: “Traditional arguments that appreciations of love in marriage and the if there is sex it must be procreative I think it important to note how M. personal nature of the bond between husband have changed to arguments that if A. Scaperlanda, a mother, concluded and wife see the eye-opening two part article by Fabian Parmisano, O.P., “Love and Mar- sex is procreative it must be within a a review she wrote of Farley’s book riage in the Middle Ages,” New Blackfriars context that assures responsible care of for Amazon.com. She ended with the 80 (1969) 599-606, 649-660. Farley seems offspring” (p. 227). In Chapter 7 after following excellent advice: “Those totally ignorant of this and similar studies, reviewing new modes of reproduction who believe that ‘just sex’ and ‘just written partly to correct misinformation and social conditions affecting child- relationships’ are possible should read found in John T. Noonan’s celebrated Contra- rearing, Farley offers a “principle” to Karol Wojtyla’s groundbreaking work ception (Cambridge, MA; Harvard Belknap Press, 1965). See also Germain Grisez, “Mar- guide us and that can perhaps extend Love and Responsibility with, or bet- riage: Reflections Based on St. Thomas and to the “consequences of sex.” It is ter yet, instead of Farley’s book. My Vatican Council II, The Catholic Mind (June, this: “no children should be con- college age children asked me to 1966), 4-19. ceived who will be born in a context read Love and Responsibility earlier in unconducive to their growth and the year. Since then I have come to 8. http://www.amazon.com/Just- development in relationships, or un- believe that it will provide the frame- Love-Framework-Christian-Sexual/ dp/0826429246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&S conducive to their ultimately becom- work for Christian sexual ethics in =books&qid=1215603872&sr=1-1, accessed st 8 ing autonomous, morally responsible the 21 century.” July 9 2008. for themselves” (p. 271). This principle obviously does not exclude having children by new reproductive meth-

40 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Na- of their faith, including their right to their political responsibilities. [For this see tion by Living Our Catholic Beliefs participate fully as religious people in chapter 6.] in Political Life, by Charles J. Chaput, the public market place. Their faith was In chapter 7 Chaput reports with O.F.M. Cap., New York: Doubleday, not a “private” matter with no bearing sadness that in contemporary America 2008. 258 pp. $21.25. on public life (pp. 86-87). far too many Catholics, instead of Reviewed by William E. May, Religious bigotry, particularly transforming the secular culture in Emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of against Catholics, has been and still is which they live have capitulated to it Moral Theology, Pontifical John Paul II a problem, as has been atheistic oppo- and its values, placing them above the Institute for Studies on Marriage and Fam- sition to all belief in God. But Chaput truths central to the Catholic faith. ily at The Catholic University of America. does a marvelous job in describing He points out that unfortunately Senior Fellow, Culture of Life contemporary phobia of God in the John F. Kennedy, allegedly our first Foundation U.S. He notes that it comes in two “Catholic” president, in fact made it forms: hard and soft. The hard variety clear that for him his Catholic faith his timely book by the Arch- pushed by people like Richard Dawk- was a purely private matter with no bishop of Denver is of crucial ins is, he thinks, more honest and not relevance to public life. And that, Timportance for all American as serious a threat to the exercise of unfortunately, seems to be true of far Catholics, who should all be struggling one’s religion in the public market too many Catholics in public office to combat the “culture of death” and place. The soft variety is subtler and today. Chaput likewise notes that tra- develop the “culture of life.” One of more dangerous. Its song is that a ditionally, particularly since the time his major reasons for writing the book pluralistic society like ours must avoid of FDR’s new deal, Catholics have was that he was becoming increasingly sectarian warfare by keeping religion as a whole found their home in the tired “of the church and her people out of the national public conversa- Democratic party, but that its com- being told to be quiet on public issues tion. The soft variety simply contemns mitment to the so-called “pro-choice” that urgently concern us” (p. 3). He religion and fosters what C.S. Lewis position has forced more and more wrote it to challenge “all of us who call described in The Abolition of Man as a Catholics to leave the party. He notes ourselves Catholic…to recover what civilization of “men without chests,” that neither major party’s platforms it really means to be ‘Catholic.’…[and] people who have plenty of comforts nor policies are fully compatible with to find again the courage to be Catholic but no greatness of soul. This, it seems politically relevant truths of the faith. Christians first—not in opposition to to me is what he thinks is our real en- He likewise notes that laypeople, our country, but to serve its best in- emy today in “serving our nation by who have unfortunately been badly terests” (p. 7). Although speaking as an living our Catholic [or other deeply instructed in the faith over the past American Catholic to American Cath- felt religious beliefs] in political life.” forty years, are not alone in failing to olics, he hopes “many other people [On all this see pp. 23-30, 33.] live their Catholic faith fully—bishops of good heart will see the importance Chaput offers a marvelous over- have their shortcomings, weaknesses, of these issues and find value in these view of the true achievement of and failings to atone for. pages” (pp. 6-7). Vatican Council II, particularly in its In the final two chapters of his Chaput reminds us that the Dec- final documents, Dignitatis Humanae book Chaput gets into the nitty gritty laration of Independence has a broad (Declaration on Religious Freedom), of the crucial political/moral question religious resonance, referring several Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Re- facing us: abortion, along with the respon- times to a Creator or Supreme Being. lation of the Church to Non-Chris- sibilities of Catholic legislators. The issue Moreover, and more importantly, that tian Religions), and Gaudum et Spes of abortion is front and center in the document is shaped by natural law (Pastoral Constitution on the Church penultimate chapter. Chaput recog- principles rooted in Christian medieval in the Modern World). He masterfully nizes that the moral difference among thought that in turn was nourished by corrects grave misunderstandings of social issues is crucial. But, he goes on the Hebrew tradition, Greek thought these documents and sets forth their to say, “some acts are so evil that tol- and Roman jurisprudence (pp.83- major teachings accurately. He also erating them itself becomes a poison 86, 94-96 and elsewhere). Chaput gives his readers a magnificent vision that weakens the whole of society….. shows that its principles have histori- of what precisely living as a faithful In our day, sanctity-of-life issues are cally formed the core of the “truths” Catholic entails, reminding Catholics, foundational—not because of anyone’s the American people held that made clerical and lay, that they are called to ‘religious’ views about abortion… them a people and not a motley holiness, to be saints, to love with a but because the act of dehumanizing crowd. Similarly, he shows that the healing, redemptive love, to sanctify and killing the unborn child attacks first Amendment to our Constitution, their work and to change the world, human dignity in a uniquely grave while forbidding the establishment of including the political world in which way. Deliberately killing the inno- religion, far from hindering citizens they live, for the better. The lay faith- cent is always, inexcusably wrong” (p. from bringing their religious convic- ful, in particular, are called to live their 207; emphasis in original). He stresses tions into the political arena guaran- faith in the day to day secular world in that bishops must give clear Catholic teed their right to the public exercise which they work and play—and exercise teaching. He thinks that they have

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 41 Bo o k Re v i e w s done so in their 1998 statement Living questions. The first is “What would to allow abortion, one that we could, the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to Ameri- I do if a Catholic public official… “with an honest heart, expect the can Catholics. While recognizing that publicly acting against Catholic moral unborn victims of abortion to ac- Catholic public officials are obliged to teaching on a grave moral issue like cept when we meet them and have to promote respect for human persons abortion…presented himself for explain our actions” (p. 230). Chaput’s at all stages and work to resist the Communion?” He then makes a dis- final question is the problem facing violence of war, the scandal of capital tinction. If the official is not from his Catholics when both major candidates punishment, and to help alleviate pov- diocese and he received no contrary are both “pro-choice.” Here he thinks erty, etc., they emphasize that “‘being guidance from the individual’s own there is no “right” answer. Commit- right’ on such matters can never excuse bishop he would assume his honesty ted Catholics could either vote for the a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on and goodwill and not refuse him major candidate more closely fitting innocent human life [emphasis in the Communion and would so instruct the moral ideal, for an acceptable third original]” and they go on to declare: his priests. But if the person were of party candidate, or refrain from voting “If we understand the human person his diocese he would first instruct (pp. 230-231). as ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’— and admonish the official in private As one can see, this is a most sig- the living house of God—then these and if that failed to persuade him not nificant book. Some of Archbishop latter issues [war, poverty etc.] fall log- to present himself for Communion Chaput’s positions will undoubtedly ically into place as the crossbeams and he would then, should he so present be challenged, particularly regard- walls of that house. All direct attacks on himself, publicly ask him not to take ing well known Catholic legislators innocent human life, such as abortion and Communion and explain why. If he who year in, year out, vigorously euthanasia, strike at the houses’s founda- persisted in presenting himself Chaput support pro-abortion legislation, go- tion {emphasis in original].” This is would then refuse him Communion ing even so far as to oppose efforts most clear and has obvious implica- “because of his deliberate disregard to stop partial-birth abortion, and tions for political life. for the rights of other Catholics and misrepresenting Catholic teaching in The final chapter takes up the the unity of the church” (pp. 227- their public statements. But Chaput, issues of refusing to allow Catholic 228). it seems to me, holds that if this is legislators who support abortion to He then asks whether a Catholic so then those legislators ought to be receive Communion and of voting for in good conscience could vote for a denied Communion, for he writes specific candidates. Regarding the first “pro-choice” candidate. His answer: explicitly: “Catholics who actively and Chaput first makes it clear that no “I couldn’t. Supporting a ‘right’ to prominently work to advance per- one has a “right” to receive the body choose abortion simply masks and missive abortion or any other serious and blood of Christ in the Eucharist evades what abortion really is: the violation of human dignity, persons and he reminds readers of St. Paul’s deliberate killing of innocent life” (p. who deliberately treat the church, her words in 1 Corinthians 11: “Whoever 229). But he knows some Catholics, people, and her sacraments as political eats the bread or drinks the cup of the troubled by war and other serious theater to attack Catholic convictions Lord in and unworthy manner will problems, who judge differently. They and faith, should never present them- be guilty of profaning the body and struggle with abortion and “keep selves for Communion and should blood of the Lord.” He also writes fighting for a more humane party never be surprised at being denied if that “if we ignore or deny what the platform—one that would vow to they do” (pp. 228-229). church teaches, or refuse to follow protect the unborn child” (p. 229). He what she teaches, we are not ‘in com- respects their judgment of conscience munion’ with the Catholic faith…. and will not judge them. They think If we receive communion anyway, that there is a “proportionate reason”* we engage in a lie” (p. 224). Denying Faith, Reason, and the War anyone Communion is a grave matter * Here I must note that Chaput is using the against Jihadism: A Call to term “proportionate reason” not in the sense and “should be reserved for serious it has been and is used by those theologians Action, by George Weigel, New cases of public scandal where it can who think that no specific moral norms such York: Doubleday, 2007; 195 pp.; HB; actually make a difference” (p. 225). at the one proscribing the intentional kill- $18.95 He declares: “Catholic officials who ing of the innocent are absolute but can be Reviewed by Kenneth D. Whitehead, act against Catholic teaching in their violated if there is a “proportionate reason.” author political service on a foundational John Paul II condemned this understand- matter like abortion should not pres- ing of “proportionate reason” in Veritatis mong commentators on na- ent themselves for Communion” (p. Splendor. Chaput is using the expression tional and foreign policy issues 225). What if they do? After citing a “proportionate reason” in the classical sense in which it was used to articulate the fourth Ain the United States today, few 2004 statement by the U.S. Bishops condition of the principle of double effect, can claim any genuine competence that leaves the issue up to the pru- namely, a proportionate reason for “tolerat- in the areas of Catholic teaching dent judgment of individual bishops ing” or “allowing” the unintended bad effect and theology. A notable exception is Chaput then raises and answers some of an action having more than one effect. George Weigel, author of the 1999

42 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 magisterial biography of Pope John face, but that it is urgently necessary do, apparently, is “convert 1.2 billion Paul II, Witness to Hope, as well as of a for us to return to the sources of both Muslims into good secular liberals.” respected biographical study of Pope faith and reason in our tradition if This is foolishness, and it is hardly an Benedict XVI, God’s Choice, published we are to succeed in understanding adequate response to the challenge in 2005. A fellow of Washington’s and ultimately winning the new kind that we do, in fact, face. For it is what Ethics and Public Policy Center, Wei- of war that has been thrust upon us. Weigel correctly calls a “new kind of gel is among other things an acknowl- Simply to talk in terms of a generic war” that we have only partially and edged just war theorist, who has ably “war on terror” is to misunderstand not always effectively begun to fight. defended America’s role in both the the kind of war that it is. Thus, among “Jihadism” is the appropriate term Gulf War and the Iraq War at a time other things, this book is an examina- chosen by the author to make clear when many have tended to assume tion and elaboration of some of the that that there is unfortunately an that any authentic “Catholic” view themes of Pope Benedict XVI’s well- inescapable Islamic religious dimen- would necessarily have to be against, known Regensburg Address. sion or component in the brand of or at the very least, seriously question, It is of particular importance, in terrorism that confronts us today. This these American military forays into the author’s view, among other things, term correctly identifies the Islamic the heart of the Middle East. that we achieve a true understanding religious dimension in the new kind In some minds, the difficulties of Islam and of Muslims and of how of war in which we are engaged encountered in the course of the Iraq we must relate to them. Not all Mus- without thereby implying a blanket War have even served to discredit lims are terrorists, but the terrorists condemnation of Islam as a world what President George W. Bush has who are determined to fight against religion with which we surely have to called the “war on terror,” as if it were America today generally are Muslims, co-exist. somehow not a war that was declared a fact that is too often passed over and Understanding that “the great hu- on us! For his part, George Weigel has is sometimes even denied. In any case, man questions today are ultimately no doubt that a war has been declared American policy makers and policy theological,” Weigel competently ana- on us, a war that he believes we per- executors, oriented as they are towards lyzes both Islam itself and the lethal force have to fight and win, not only the contemporary secularist mind- variant of it that is jihadism. While he for the sake of our country, but also in set, have a long-standing and built-in does not pretend to be an academi- the long term interests of the Chris- reluctance to deal with the question cally qualified expert on Islam, he tian way of life itself. of Islam as such, or, indeed, with that intelligently draws upon the work of This book, Faith, Reason, and the of any religion, as having any possible such experts as Bernard Lewis. He has War against Jihadism, subtitled “a Call bearing on current events. Religion, surveyed a good deal of the current to Action,” is a relatively short but according to the typical American pertinent literature on the subject, spirited account of where we stand in secularist mind-set, is not supposed in fact, and, among other things, this the United States and what we have to have anything to do with policy. book provides leads to further reading to do, more than a half dozen years Church and state are supposed to be that some readers may wish to pursue. after the deadly 9/11 terrorist attacks separate in this country. Policy makers Following an Introduction entitled on the twin towers of the World Trade and public officials need not, indeed, “Deadly Serious Business” describing Center and the Pentagon. These at- must not, allow religious consider- the nature of the terrorist challenge tacks supposedly woke America up to ations of any kind to enter into their that we face, the author then makes the dangers of what Weigel aptly calls thinking. So goes the thinking. his case in fifteen relatively brief “les- “Jihadism”—a thesis about which the But these are ideas that can only sons,” as he styles them, divided into author is seriously doubtful, if he is prevent us from understanding Islam, three major sections with the head- not actually alarmed at the degree to or Muslims, or how we should deal ings “Understanding the Enemy,” which Americans still fail to under- with them. “Rethinking Realism,” and “Deserv- stand what happened to us on 9/11, Added to this tone-deafness about ing Victory”—for he believes that and what it really means. whether religion just might still have we definitely must rethink what most “Jihadism,” the author explains, is some effect on the world is the preva- people consider to be “realism” in the the religiously inspired ideology that lence of today’s political correctness, light of the unique nature of the en- calls upon Muslims to employ violent which dictates that those who are cul- emy we now face, just as he believes and lethal means, not only including, turally different from us such as, e.g., that we must also truly understand, in but actually featuring, the killing of Muslims, must not ever be singled order to “deserve,” victory. He be- the innocent, in order to establish in out in any way. Such attitudes virtu- lieves, moreover, that only the United the world a version of Islam believed ally guarantee that we are not going States has the ability and the resources by the terrorists enlisted in the war to be able to understand and respond to lead the fight against jihadism that against America to be the true reli- adequately to the actual terrorist chal- is necessary. gion of God. Weigel believes that not lenge that currently faces us. George The case he makes is quite com- only has America not taken the true Weigel aptly remarks on the currently pelling, and deserves the attention measure of the jihadist challenge we prevailing idea that what we need to of serious Americans, particularly

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 43 Bo o k Re v i e w s

Catholics as well as Christians gener- Rome, by the beginning of the sixth appear regularly in the courts after the ally. Weigel’s own theological back- century, had ceased to be the principal vulgate version of Gratian’s Decretum ground and training provide him with center of imperial administration, but (1150) had taken its final form. What understanding and insights that are that was to change with the growth had been an academic occupation in sometimes woefully lacking in today’s of papal power during and after the one generation had become a learned typical secular analyses. This is an pontificate of Gregory the Great profession in another. By the end of aspect of this book which Christian (590-604). It was the See of Peter the twelfth century at least a few men readers will appreciate. In Weigel’s that guaranteed Rome’s continuing were able to make a living arguing on view, the new kind of war which has importance. As Roman civil adminis- behalf of litigants. been thrust upon us by the jihadists, tration began to fade away, popes and By the mid-thirteenth century and which we cannot escape having bishops stepped in to manage much many lawyers held academic degrees to fight, is going to occupy us for a of the day-to-day machinery of lo- in law. Law faculties and law curri- long time to come whether we like it cal government, taking over a host of cula began to emerge in the nascent or not. We might as well be prepared. functions previously performed by universities of Bologna, Paris, Oxford, civil servants. Thus we find bishops and Cambridge. University law facul- proving wills and supervising the ties furnished students with systematic administration of descendants’ estates, study of Roman and canon law. Law- The Medieval Origins of the Legal provisioning garrisons, supervising yers by the mid-thirteenth century Profession; Canonists, Civilians and the maintenance of roads, bridges, were professionals in the sense that Courts, by James A. Brundage, Chica- and aqueducts, operating schools, and they had been formally admitted to go: University of Chicago Press, 2008. overseeing tax collection. practice in one or more courts and xvii + 607 pp. Cloth, $49.00. Brundage is primarily interested at the time of their admission had Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, The in the period 1150-1250, when the pledged themselves to a code of legal Catholic University of America. practice of canon law in the eccle- ethics. The word “profession” itself, siastical courts became a full fledged Brundage relates, has religious roots ames Brundage traces the history profession. In the middle of the insofar as it is connected with making of the legal profession from its twelfth century only a small number a solemn profession or undertaking, Jbeginning in ancient Rome of jurists were teaching Roman and much as theologians and monks made to its rebirth in the early Middle canon law and practicing in the eccle- a profession of faith. The ethical aspi- Ages when it enjoyed a resurgence in siastical courts in a handful of cities rations formulated in the thirteenth- the courts of the medieval canonists. The evidence shows that prior to the century admission oaths remain large- The book, Brundage tells us, has been mid-twelfth century there was noth- ly unchanged to this day. Throughout forty years in the making, and given ing that existed anywhere in Europe the West modern oaths of admission its richness, the reader can be grateful that could be described as a legal to the bar strikingly resemble their for those decades of research. profession in the strict sense of the medieval counterparts. Brundage is convinced that “the term. When the Roman law schools Another element in the creation of fall of the Roman empire” is a mis- faded away toward the end of the a legal profession had to do with the leading phrase. The eastern half of sixth century, no social or vocation fact that the jurisdiction of medieval the empire, he tells us, remained rea- identity remained. That was the case church courts, despite variations in sonably intact throughout the early until the mid-decades of the twelfth practice among different regions of Middle Ages. The “fall” affected only century. During the one hundred Western Christendom, transcended the western territories. Although years that followed, namely by 1250, political boundaries between king- the Roman government did eventu- professional lawyers had set up shop doms and principalities. Properly ally crumble in the west, its demise in every major European city. Brund- trained members of the legal profes- was slow, in fact, so silent that a great age detects a paradigm shift. Roman sion could practice their trade just as many of those who lived through the and canon lawyers who were writing well in Riga, Rouen, Regensburg, period failed to notice that the empire during the second half of the twelfth or Rome. Brundage finds that by the was no longer there. Europe’s popula- century and the opening decades of last quarter of the twelfth century, tion suffered a decline through the the thirteenth were primarily interest- popes and bishops had begun to del- third and fourth centuries and did not ed in the intellectual or philosophical egate their routine juridical duties to stabilize until sometime after the year problems that the law presented. By officials who had some training in 600. By the end of the sixth century, the middle of the thirteenth century Roman and canon law, thus contrib- only a handful of substantial cities their successors were far more preoc- uting to the expansion of the legal remained in the west. In Italy, these cupied with the details of legal prac- profession. Four distinct practices or included Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona, tice and procedure. The lawyers of the callings soon emerged, those of ad- and Otranto. Pavia continued to be an late twelfth century may have argued vocates, proctors, notaries, and judges. important administrative center, and on behalf of clients with some regu- Development of a professional iden- Milan remained relatively populous. larity, but trained jurists only began to tity among the canonists became the

44 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 model for other professional groups. The Quantum Ten: The Story of Pas- ter that the symbols and mathematics Brundage finds that the study of law sion, Tragedy, Ambition and Science they used might or ought to have any attracted a great many of the most by Sheilla Jones. Oxford: Oxford link with the physical world. Nobel original and talented minds in the University Press. 2008. pp. 336. $24.95 laureate Murray Gell-Man is quoted centuries that followed, to the disad- (Cloth). as saying, “We all know how to use it vantage of philosophy, theology, and Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, and apply it to problems; and so we other academic disciplines. The Catholic University of America. have learned to live with the fact that There is an interesting chapter on nobody can understand it.” After 80 the formation of an educated elite he Quantum Ten is obviously years physicists are still having trouble and, one might say, an amusing chap- not a metaphysical treatise, but reconciling the classical and quantum ter on the rewards and hazards of the Tit may be appreciated by any worlds. legal profession. Almost as soon as philosopher who has ever grappled Jones finds her big ten (among trained lawyers became a recogniz- with the ontological status of quanta. them seven Nobel Prize winners) able social group, people at every Metaphysicians and philosophers of in attendance at the l927 Brussels level of society and in all walks of life science have devoted many a paper to Fifth Solvay Conference. Any col- began to denigrate them. Brundage the seemingly irreconcilable discon- lege physics student will recognize writes, “Lawyers inspired admiration tinuity between the classical and the their names, although some are better as well as envy, hostility mixed with quantum worlds, between Newtonian known than others: Bøhr, Ehrenfest, respect, together with dependence on mechanics and quantum mechanics. Einstein, Born, Schrödinger, Pauli, de their skills.” The more prominent and From the very beginning it has been Broglie, Heisenberg, Dirac, and Jordan. successful that lawyers became, the recognized that the quantum world of She could have added to the list with more complaints about them grew atoms and electrons does not operate equal justification Boltzmann and in volume and vehemence: “Theolo- by the same rules of physics that gov- Planck, who played important roles in gians, merchants, preachers, popes and ern the everyday, classical world. the creation of the new physics. It was poets complained that lawyers were Sheilla Jones has written a fascinat- the failure of Newtonian physics in bloodsuckers, hypocrites, sacrilegious, ing account of one of the most excit- the nineteenth century to construct foul-mouthed, devious, deceitful, ing periods in the history of modern a mechanical or atomic model of treacherous, proud and arrogant.” science. Max Planck is credited with matter and aether that would explain Brundage quotes Hugo von Trimberg introducing the word “quanta” into thermal and magnetic properties that (1230-1313) who observed that de- the lexicon of physics in 1900, and led Boltzmann to develop his proba- spite its utility in worldly matters, the he was to play a significant role in the bilistic physics in a seminal article in study of law fails to teach men to live “quantum revolution” of the mid- 1887 and Planck to introduce the no- virtuously and Robert of Flambor- l920s. Jones acknowledges that a dis- tion of “quantum” a little more than ough who, in his Summa de poenitentia tinction can be made between quan- a decade later. Boltzmann’s statistical (1208-1215), suggested a series of tum mechanics and quantum theory mechanics, not only assumed the exis- pointed questions that priests ought but elects to speak of the package as tence of invisible molecules but relied to put to lawyers and judges who “quantum physics.” on mathematical probabilities instead came to confess their sins. There is no obvious point at of experimental measurements. For This book is obviously more than which the old order of physics gave that he incurred the scorn of Ernest an account of the genesis of the legal way to the new order of quantum Mach and the positivists of the Vienna profession. It is a fascinating record of physics, just as there was no obvious Circle. Mach’s positivism, following a development within the common- point at which Newtonian physics the lead of the French philosopher law tradition that has made Western replaced Aristotle’s natural philosophy. Auguste Comte, denied the power of civilization possible and upon which Mathematical physics may be used intellect to reason from the seen to it continues to depend. Brundage to describe how the quantum world the unseen and led Mach to oppose concludes his study with this thought: operates (quantum mechanics), but the use of atoms and probabilities in “The legal professions, together with explanations of why the quantum scientific explanation. The only mean- the universities, the papacy, the corpo- world behaves as it does are another ingful statements a scientist can make, ration and constitutional government, thing (quantum theory) and defy Mach held, are about what can be are institutions that must rank among the imagination. In classical phys- measured, counted, tested or which the most influential and most endur- ics, energy flows in a continuum, otherwise rest on the experience of ing creations of the thousand years but in quantum physics it comes in the senses. Mach refused to accept the that constitute the European Middle chunks or quanta, which can only be existence of atoms even when pre- Ages.” described mathematically. For most sented with experimental evidence. physicists it wasn’t necessary to vi- Jones remarks, “‘Positivism,’ perhaps sualize the quantum world so long more accurately called ‘negativism,’ as their calculations matched their had all but killed theoretical physics experimental results. It did not mat- in France.” The dramatic shift from

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 45 Bo o k Re v i e w s

the certainty of Newtonian physics to sonal lives. We learn that Niels Bøhr World War II, when the center of the puzzling world of quantum gave was once a celebrated soccer player, physics moved from Germany to the rise to many a philosophical treatise. that Heisenberg was an accomplished United States. Whereas there had Aware of the philosophical landscape pianist, and that Einstein initially been no American physicist at the at the time, Jones, in a humorous pas- objected to the rules of quantum first Solvay Conference in 1911 and sage, offers her assessment: “Positivism physics because they appeared to only two at the 1927 Conference, has no God and no external world; preclude any means of reconciliation of the 60 invited participants to the logical positivism has no God and no with the classical rules upon which 2005 Solvay Conference, more than external world but it does have math- his generalized theory of relativity was half were Americans. Much like the ematical logic; Kantianism has no ex- based. We witness the cooperation of 1911 and 1927 conferences, the 2005 ternal world but does have God; and the principals as they learned from conference ended, as David Gross put realism allows for both God and an and incorporated into their theories it in his wrap-up speech, “in utter external world.” German mathemati- each other’s work. One of the unsung confusion.” The unification of quan- cians and physicists, while not philo- heroes of the quantum movement tum mechanics and relativity theory, sophically illiterate, did not usually is Paul Ehrenfest, whose hospitality sought by Bøhr and Einstein, re- demonstrate philosophical leanings, at and spacious living room served as a mained as elusive as ever. In the fall of least not on the job and for the most meeting place for high-level discus- 2007 Gross placed his hopes on string part did not try to bring their scien- sions among colleagues and visitors, a theory as the most likely source of a tific activity into logical connection catalytic role that once brought Bøhr unified theory, but with this qualifica- with their philosophy. By the 1930s and Einstein together for a week-long tion: “Even those of us who work in most physicists simply abandoned the discussion, each occupying one of the the field aren’t really sure what string need for a philosophical theory of two spare bedrooms in the Erhrenfest theory is or what it is going to be. quantum physics. household. When you are in this kind of specu- The Quantum Ten is not a straight- From Graz, Vienna, and Prague lative, explanatory science, it is im- forward history of the development to Breslau, Leiden, Copenhagen, portant to have faith because you are of quantum physics. Jones’s narra- and Manchester the saga of quan- out on a limb.” Whether Sheilla Jones tive is interspersed with biographical tum physics develops as a remarkable intended it or not, the message is snippets of her dramatis personae and multinational European enterprise. clear; philosophers should be wary of some gossip surrounding their per- A seismic shift was to occur after becoming entangled in string theory.

Re v i e w Es s a y The Temporal and the Eternal: Review Essay on Cardinal Giovanni Bona’s Guide to Eternity

by Anne Barbeau Gardiner, Prof. Emerita like the Stoic Seneca. To these maxims and the tomb! Try if you can make of English, John Jay College of CUNY Bona added his own insights to create the sun stand still but one day, one a universal remedy for human folly. In hour, one moment. No, no, it will not ardinal Giovanni Bona (1609- his preface, he calls the world a “large be. Time is inexorable and will hold 1674) is best known for his hospital” where he resides not as a on its course till it has brought all Cmarvelous Guide to Eternity physician, but as a fellow-patient. This created Nature to destruction.” There- (in Latin, Manuductio ad Coelum), essay offers only a few highlights from fore, we need to rescue ourselves from translated into English three times this truly wise, brilliant, witty, and time by an anticipation of Eternity. in the early 1670s, with the palm for edifying work. When we lavish excessive affection literary excellence going to the high- Bona finds a “monstrous” careless- on creatures, we offer up to them not church Anglican Sir Roger L’Estrange, ness in us regarding our final destiny. just “an ox or a goat, but ourselves whose version appeared in 1672.1 There’s nothing we see more often and our salvation.” Although the Day This translation of the Guide went than death and nothing we forget of Judgment draws near, we continue through seven editions and even more more quickly. Yet death is the condi- to laugh and amuse ourselves until printings in England before 1722. tion annexed to life, because every death arrives, and then we are lost Cardinal Bona was a Cistercian abbot generation must make room for an- for lack of preparation: “Who but a who lived an austere, truly exemplary other. Bona reflects: “What is time, madman, when he may put to sea in life, and his Guide is a collection of but the passing of a shadow? Life, but fair weather, will linger for a storm?” inspiring maxims drawn from both a point? or less, if possible. How small Caution comes too late when one is the Church Fathers and ancient sages a distance is there betwixt the cradle “under water.”

46 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 The reason death inspires us with loves, and loves not God,” Bona ex- hatred. But rather, we should “turn all so much fear is that we squander our claims, for “what proportion is there our fear and all our hatred to the fear time here below in vanities and sins between a corruptible object and the and hatred of sin.” and forget to lay up something to give immortal soul!” There is no place so In one of his great, spine-stiffening us hope for life hereafter. Half the remote as to exclude the omnipresent passages, Bona asks: “What have I now labor we dedicate to worldly projects God in whom we live, move, and have to fear? Bodily sickness? My soul will would secure us a “blessed Eternity.” If our being. Therefore, we should live as be the better for it. Poverty? My life this thought tempts us to grieve over if there were only God and us in the will be the safer and the sweeter for lost time, we lose yet more time, for world, cheerfully accepting whatever it. ...Banishment? I’ll travel and banish the worth of a day or an hour is “in- Providence sets before us, even if it’s myself. Loss of my eyes? It will deliver estimable,” and the loss of it “irrepara- adversity. Just as the sunbeams warm me from many temptations. What ble.” It might be the work of a single the earth and are “at the same time in if men speak evil of me? It is but day to come to “the highest pitch of the great luminary that sends them,” what they are used to do and what holiness if we would but turn with so is “the soul of a perfect Christian” I deserve. Shall I fear death? It is the our whole hearts from the creature to in Heaven while we “enjoy his com- very condition I came into the world the Creator.” This is so because our pany here below.” upon. Well, but to die in a strange life is not measured by years, but by country! All countries are alike to him how well we employed those years. If that has no abiding-place here. But the oldest man alive were to subtract Victory in Adversity for a man to die before his time! As the time he spent doing nothing, or if a man should complain of having nothing with respect to salvation, he Bona’s Guide teaches us how to be his shackles knocked off and being would find that after a hundred years steadfast and victorious in adversity. discharged of a prison before his time. he dies a child. One of his chief maxims is this: “A We are not to look upon death, or We die in peace if we have weaned good man cannot be properly said banishment, or causes of mourning as ourselves from the world beforehand to lose anything; for whatever can be punishments, but only as tributes of by parting from the possessions we taken from him is no part of himself.” mortality. It is a senseless thing to fear are soon to leave behind. Then, at the He urges us to keep a distance be- what we cannot shun.” Here he’s like last hour, there is less stuff for death tween ourselves and transitory goods, a general rallying the troops for battle. to work on. To develop a proper because nothing here below is truly St. Paul states that in affliction he contempt for the world, we need ours except the virtue that “immor- has become a “spectacle” before God. to reflect each day that we are soon talizes even our mortality.” He draws Bona comments that God loves the to leave it. Bona is not surprised at a sharp contrast between the grief spectacle of a brave man in adversity how hard it is to bring our mind to we show when we lose our money gaining the victory over fear, anger, “a contempt of life, considering that or when our house burns down to and impatience. We are not to despair (short of Heaven) it is of all comforts, the calmness with which we “part under the crosses He sends: “The Pilot incomparably the greatest blessing.” with our modesty, our honesty, our deserves to be thrown overboard that Yet he thinks it unwise for a Christian constancy.” Yet only in the latter case quits the helm in a storm and sets the to regard death as an evil, for it is “the do we lose “a substantial good and ship adrift at the mercy of the billows; end of evils and the beginning of life what’s our own too.” We thank and but he that stands to his tackle and everlasting.” reward the surgeon who amputates bears up against foul weather (though We cannot conceive of the one of our limbs to save our life, but he sinks with the vessel) perishes yet “boundless Eternity” that awaits us. when God sends adversity to save with honor and the comfort of hav- Bona calls it “an everlasting instant” our soul we grumble and complain ing done his duty.” In another passage and “a restless wheel.” Indeed, “it is a and “mistake that for a loss or misery on being stalwart in adversity, Bona continued and endless and still com- which both in the intention and in says the brave man “keeps his legs mencing beginning.” Whoever reflects the effect is a cure.” If the poverty and when others are at their length upon that the pangs of Hell are always sickness we endure could speak to us, the ground. It is not dishonor, repulse, starting and never ending must have they’d rebuke us in this manner: “have exile, oppression, no, not prisons, “a heart of flint” not to be moved to we taken away any of your prudence, tortures, nor even death itself that can repentance. Surely, too, if we set our justice, fortitude, or anything else that startle him.... He presses forward still, hearts on Eternity we’ll never envy was good and you could call your acquits himself of his duty.” Here he anyone else’s enjoyments on earth, for own?” We cannot call our own such rallies us not just to ordinary courage, that would be as if a prince envied a temporal goods as our perishable but to all-out heroism. cobbler. All the pleasures of this world bodies, our wealth, or our reputation, One of his unforgettable maxims are no more than “a leaf, or a feather” and therefore sickness, poverty, and regarding adversity is this: “If it may when weighed against the smallest disgrace are not within our control. be borne, we are not to despair but to portion of eternal happiness. Neither are such afflictions evil in endure it; if not, it will make a quick “How miserable is that man that themselves or worthy of our fear and end both of itself and of us too, and

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 47 Bo o k Re v i e w s we are not to despair there neither.” says Bona, it’s a shame rather to fear hill?” Here he calls our mortal body And again, “The more danger the to be despised. “A wise man reckons a “dunghill” to take down our pride, more honor. Man, when he is truly nothing disgraceful but sin; for he while elsewhere he calls it ironically a himself, can do more than we think.” governs himself not according to the “carcass”: “we are born to nobler ends He repeats in another place that we judgment of men, but of God.” This is than to be slaves to our carcasses”; and can accomplish heroic feats beyond why he bears his joy in his own heart. “of all our possessions, we shall have our imagining if we’ll only stick to Bona offers yet another consolation only so much as will serve to cover a our duty in times of trial: “Does not to the victim of detraction or slander: cold and rotten carcass.” He uses this He that made us what we are and “When any man is ill spoken of, let rhetoric to draw a stark contrast be- gave us what we have know best what him consider; if I have not deserved tween the temporal and the eternal. we are able to do? Blind and impious it, I am never the worse; if I have, I’ll In a passage that may have inspired temerity! That dust and ashes should mend.” The victim should consider, Swift, Bona writes: “A man could presume to expostulate with the most too, that this earth “is but a point, and hardly forbear laughing to see a horse high God! As if he imposed more this is done but in a corner even of or a dog take upon himself an author- upon us than we are able to perform; that point.” Besides, no one escapes ity over the rest of his kind: and is it and designed rather our misery than the lash of a slanderous tongue, not not more ridiculous for a man to do our salvation.” He exhorts us continu- even the most powerful and most it because he has more money per- ally not to “undervalue ourselves,” holy: “Nay, our Blessed Savior himself, haps or more power? Proud dust and but rather to trust that “God will when he was upon earth suffered un- ashes! to exalt himself upon his own not desert his soldiers, but give them der contumely and reproach.” Hence, bottom, when he has nothing good (even for the asking) ability sufficient we must not let the opinions of others in him but what he has received from for any warrantable undertaking.” A disturb our peace, for “no man shall above.” In another such passage, he good man regards adversity merely as ever be happy whom contempt can writes about how weak and corrupt something “for his patience to work make miserable.” we are, despite our grandiosity: “What upon, as the instrument of divine We ourselves, however, should is man? A weak and sickly body; a grace, and that which opens him a always speak and write the truth, be- pitiful, helpless creature exposed to way to eternal glory.” At all times he is cause “nothing can be more scandalous all the injuries of time and fortune; comforted by his “good conscience,” than a false tongue in the mouth of a a mass of clay and corruption, prone the only substantial joy on earth. Christian.” We must never “speak one to all wickedness, and of so perverse The type of adversity that is per- thing and think another,” as hypocrites and depraved a judgment as to prize haps hardest for us to bear is an at- do, but state things as they really are, earth above Heaven, temporal plea- tack on our good name. Yet even in “without aggravating, amplifying, pal- sure before eternal felicities: Every this case Bona urges us to maintain liating, shifting, or juggling. Plain truth man living is altogether vanity. He is equanimity. We are to consider that must have plain words.” Moreover, we one of the most furious, lustful and “Nothing can hurt us, unless we join must keep our word, and be willing to timorous creatures of the Creation: with it to hurt ourselves. The mind is break our heart sooner than our word, what have we then to be proud of?” safe and inaccessible; out of the reach even when it was given to an enemy. Even when he gives us this Juvenalian of injuries and accidents. It moves Once our word has been given, we lashing, Bona wants us to remember itself and in judging of externals it are to stand “firm as a rock,” unless the we have an eternal destiny, and so he makes everything only to be as it is promise was unlawful in the first place, rebukes us here for putting “temporal taken.” We can remain still, then, even and then the obligation ceases. pleasure” before “eternal felicities.” if the world is heaving around us. It is because of our ridiculous Should one become so angry as to Humility and Heroic pride that we refuse to confess our desire revenge, Bona tells him to go Exploits sins and repent. When a physician says ahead and fall first on his worst foe, we are gravely ill, we thank and pay his own anger: “Let him begin with One of Bona’s great themes is the him, but when a friend tell us “we are his extravagant fury and rage. Is not absurdity of pride, which he defines sick of burning lusts, vain opinions, he a madman that runs into the streets as being “enamored of an outside.” It inordinate affections, it puts us into a to beat boys for breaking his windows, is folly to spend much care and cost rage.” We might as well quarrel with when he has thieves in his house that on our appearance while we abandon a mirror as with one who tells us the are ready to rifle him and cut his our souls to crookedness and filth: “It truth about our sinful minds. We are throat?” It is wrong to imagine that is not gold and pearl that will keep not ashamed to present our diseased slander can really harm us, for “Such any man from being deformed who is bodies to a physician to be cured, yet as we are with God, such we truly are, not clothed with Christ’s righteous- we try to cover the “infirmities of our and neither the better nor the worse ness. This is the everlasting beauty souls, as if to conceal them were really for the opinion or discourse of men.” that shines in the soul when the flesh to take them away.” The victim may protest that it’s a is worm’s meat. Who but a madman The remedy for our pride is hu- shame not to vindicate his honor. No, will be at the charge to gild a dung- mility: “If we may compare to a Tree

48 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 the Old Man in us that derives his not only to gain victory over ad- the branches that will serve the turn.” original from the infected seed of versity and to overcome our pride This interior combat can only end Adam, we may resemble self-love to with humility, but also to withstand with life. the root, a perverse inclination to the the perils and snares of the world. To conclude, Bona provides us trunk, perturbations to the branches, We are no sooner born than “we are with a vivid sense of the exalted dig- vicious habits to the leaves, evil works, encompassed with dangers, as if we nity of human nature by taking its words, and thoughts to the fruit. Now were dropped into the quarters of an measure against the backdrop of Eter- the way to hinder all subsequent enemy.” There is so much disorder nity. He raises our awareness of the corruptions and wickedness is to lay in the world that we could call it an vast difference between the temporal the axe to the root and to begin with insane asylum, except that the “mad- and the eternal, a difference much ob- self-love.” We must become humble, men” outnumber the sane and their scured in our own day. Bona deplores then, and “not fear either the scorn or great number is their “justification.” our attachments to the world and the the displeasure of men.” People imag- In public places there are more vices flesh as so many “remoras” that slow ine that humility involves the “mere than men, laws are turned into snares, down our ship on its voyage to the contempt and abjection of ourselves,” and wicked judges are more criminal port of Heaven: “How shall any man but this is not the case. Rather, it in- than the prisoners. On one side we think to partake of the joys of Heaven volves “the just and moderate pursuit see a pack of perjured scoundrels, and so long as he carries the corruptions of honor and glory; of glory, not for on the other, a troop of bootlicking of earth and flesh about him? Every ostentation, but for the virtue itself, parasites. How can we remain inno- pleasure, every vanity, every vicious of which that glory is the reward.” cent in the midst of so much wicked- affection stops him in his full course, Humility leads one to engage in “il- ness? If we are not corrupted, we will endangers the whole lading, and keeps lustrious exploits without danger of surely be hindered in our progress him from his port. God is unity, and being puffed up,” for the humble man toward Heaven. The best way, Bona takes no joy in a soul that is divided.” knows full well “how little it is that he counsels, is “to retire into ourselves, And finally, he warns against the in- can contribute out of his own to the where we may look upon the world temperate pursuit of knowledge, the works of virtue.” without being endangered by it.” vain appetite for “subtleties and curi- Humility also teaches us the love Besides the world, we also have to osities” in learning, urging us instead of neighbor, making us judge our- cope with the “restless enemy” that to meditate daily on the life and Pas- selves by what is “our own” and lurks in our own veins: “nay, the one sion of Christ, because “That story esteem others by “what they have half of us is in a conspiracy against the is the Book of Life and sufficient to received from God.” Thus we set our other.” Curbing our passions is a more bring us to Heaven, if all the librar- faults against the virtues of others, and heroic feat than conquering a city. ies in the world, authors and all, were by this rule the most perfect person Even so, Bona declares, “I am not for utterly destroyed.” alive will see himself as worse than a Stoical apathy,” for if we take away others. Furthermore, humility pre- all affections we take away all virtue Endnotes vents us from hating anyone, because as well: “Where there is no combat, we realize that no one is so bad as not there can be no victory.” Though we 1. Cardinal Bona, A Guide to Eternity, [trans- to have “some mixture of good in cannot prevent the “first motions of lated by Sir Roger L’Estrange], with notes him” and that the only thing that is nature,” we must “keep a strict watch and introduction by J. W. Stanbridge, B. D. (London, Methuen, 1900). This translation really hateful is sin. And so, we should over them that they do not grow by L’Estrange – who was a great defender hate, not the man, but the “wicked- upon us; and if we find them unruly of the English Catholics in the time of the ness,” and “it is there only that we can or impetuous, to subject them to the pretended Popish Plot (1679-1682) – is faith- justify our hatred.” government of reason. We may better ful to the original. The other two excellent struggle with beginnings than with translations are by the Benedictine Thomas habits.” Once we have formed bad Vincent Sadler, published in 1672, and by the Unceasing Combat secular Catholic priest James Price, printed at habits, however, we must tear them Rouen in 1673. Bona’s Guide was also turned In his Guide to Eternity Bona presents up by the roots so they’ll never shoot into a poem in the same period. the good life as unceasing combat, up again: “It is not the bare lopping of •

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 49 Of f i c e r s a n d Di r e c t o r s

OFFICERS PAST PRESIDENTS ELECTED DIRECTORS Mrs. Helen Hitchcock [email protected] President Prof. William May (2006-2009) [email protected] Rev. Joseph Koterski, SJ [email protected] [email protected] c/o [email protected] Prof. Carol (Sue) Prof. Patrick Lee Abromaitis [email protected] Vice-President Rev. Msgr. William B. [email protected] Mr. William L. Saunders Smith Dr. Kenneth Whitehead [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Max Bonilla [email protected] [email protected] Executive Secretary Rev. Earl A. Weis, S.J. (2008-2011) [email protected] (Cheryl Dean Kristin Burns Rev. Msgr. Stuart Swetland Prof. Stephen Miletic Newson) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Dr. James Hitchcock Prof Joseph Capizzi Editor of FCS Quarterly Fr. Peter F. Ryan, SJ [email protected] [email protected] Prof. J. Brian Benestad [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Ralph McInerny Dean Gladys Sweeney Sr. Timothy Prokes, FSE. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Gerard V. Bradley (2007 – 2010) Prof. Nick Eberstadt [email protected] Prof. Christian Brugger [email protected] Dean Bernard Dobranski [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Bo o k s Re c e i v e d Please consider If you would like to receive a Christian Humanism: Creation, contributing complimentary copy of one of Redemption, and Reintegration, the books below in order to re- John P. Bequette, University Press to the Fellowship view it for a future issue, please of America: Lanham, MD, (2007) This past year the Fellowship received a chal- email your request to Alice Os- Paper, 178 pp. berger at [email protected] lenge-grant for up to $10,000, to establish a The Holiness-Pentecostal Move- special fund to support the travel and lodging If there are books you know of ment, Charles Edwin Jones, The that should be reviewed, let Dr. Scarecrow Press: Lanham, MD, expenses of the speakers at our annual conven- Brian Benestad know at benest- (2008), Hardcover, 500 pp. tions. Heretofore the Fellowship has had to [email protected] depend upon the generosity of our speakers ———————————— Answering the New Atheism: Dis- —— mantling Dawkins’ Case Against and their home institutions to pay these costs. Jesus of Nazareth, From the Bap- God, Scott Hahn & Benjamin I am happy to report that many of the individu- Wiker, Emmaus Road Publishing: tism in the Jordan to the Trans- als who serve on the FCS Board have already figuration, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Steubenville, OH (2008), Paper. Benedict XVI), Ignatius Press: San 160 pp. stepped forward and personally pledged over Francisco, CA (2008). Includes A Escape and Return: The Search for half of that amount, and the anonymous donor Study Guide. Identity, A Cultural Journey, Anne has now awarded $3000 to match the cash do- The Audacity of Spirit: The Mean- Paolucci, Griffon House Publica- nations thus far received. But we remain in need tions: Middle Village, NY, (2008), ing and Shaping of Spiritual- of donations from others if we are to meet the ity Today, Jack Finnegan, Veritas Paper. 460 pp. entire amount of this challenge-grant. Difficult Publications: Dublin, (2008), 400 Wellness: Life, Health and Spiri- pp., Paper. tuality, Richard J. Woods, O.P., as it is to ask for money during these difficult The Language of Poetry as a Form Veritas: Dublin (2008), Paper. 271 times, we need to put this request forward for of Prayer: The Theo-Poetic Aes- pp. your consideration. Please help us if you can. thetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christ in His Mysteries: Blessed Francis X. McAloon, The Edwin Columba Marmion, trans. Alan Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. Mellon Press: Lewiston Queen- Bancroft, Zaccheus Press: Bethes- ston Lampeter, (2008), hardcover, da, MD, (2008), Paper. 466 pp. FCS President 245pp. Philosophy Department Constitutional Adjudication: The Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Costa Rican Experience, Robert S. Fordham University Catholic Church, Leon J. Podles, Barker, Vandeplas Publishing: Lake Bronx NY 10458 Crossland Press: Baltimore, MD, Mary, FL, (2008), Paper. 180 pp. (2008), hardcover, 675 pp.

50 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 Ex Ca t h e d r a Beauchamp and Childress Endorse “Physician-Assisted Dying”

very popular book used for many Not to respect a person’s request for death-producing years in bioethics courses around the drugs “shows a fundamental disrespect for the per- country is Principles of Biomedical Eth- son’s autonomy.” ics (sixth edition), written by Tom L. For medical practice to be consistent, it should Beauchamp and James F. Childress. The expand the right of patients to refuse nutrition and Aformer works at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and hydration to the right to receive aid-in-dying from teaches in the Department of Philosophy at George- their doctors. The two authors argue that “respond- town University; the latter teaches in the Department ing to a request to provide the means to hasten death of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. seems morally equivalent to responding to a request After mentioning some of the arguments against the to ease death by withdrawing treatment, sedating to legalization of “physician-assisted dying,” the authors coma, and the like.” pronounce them unconvincing because of Oregon’s Not surprisingly they offer as a kind of conclu- experience with the Oregon Death with Dignity sion to their arguments the appearance of a link with Act (ODWDA). In the judgment of Beauchamp and previous understandings of the purpose of medicine: Childress the predicted abuses have not come to “We maintain that physician assistance in hastening pass. Our authors say that they would not support death is best viewed as part of a continuum of medi- physician-assisted dying “if legalization were to bring cal care.” That’s not all. In addition to respecting au- about unwarranted, involuntary deaths, reduce the tonomy and constituting a form of medical care, the quality of palliative care, result in deep-seated and physician’s role in bringing about the death of patients widespread mistrust of physicians, and the like, ….” is beneficent, nonmaleficent, just and compassionate. Everything is going well, they say. In fact, they think Beauchamp and Childress are introducing new that patients and their families are even likely to mis- modes and orders by redefining terms that used trust doctors if they fail to help patients end their to have nothing to do with administering death- lives when suffering seems unbearable. Moreover, our producing drugs. Lethal pills are called medication; authors further argue that the Oregon doctors are helping suffering patients to kill themselves is called not really killing patients “in any meaningful sense.” virtuous (beneficent, just, etc.). Not helping these They just prescribe the lethal “medication” and pa- patients is a failure to respect their dignity. The prin- tients decide to take it or not. In fact, one third of ciple of consent is misused to make physician-assisted patients requesting help in dying decide not to take dying seem right. Beauchamp and Childress also the lethal pills. avoid using such terms as euthanasia or physician- The decisive considerations for Beauchamp and assisted suicide to describe the death-dealing actions Childress are their understanding of autonomy and they are defending. In fact, the hastening of death by consistency with the present practice of allowing the physicians in Oregon, they say, is really not properly withdrawal of nutrition and hydration in order to called killing. bring about death. Once a patient says that he regards This is not the place to make a full-blown death as personal benefit for him because of pain and argument against the practice of physician-assisted suffering, then a physician does no harm or wrong in dying or assisted suicide. My main purpose has been prescribing a lethal dose of drugs. The consent of the to make known typical arguments in defense of patient removes any moral culpability on the part of euthanasia that are persuasive to many people. I will physicians. They are simply showing their respect for simply mention three considerations, based on reason, the patient by honoring the principle of autonomy. which Beauchamp and Childress have failed to

FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008 51 consider sufficiently. In his Life, Liberty and the Defense suicide to their suffering relatives or conspire with of Dignity Leon Kass presents three cogent arguments willing doctors to have overdoses of pain medication against the so-called right to die. “First, the right administered. The attending family members could to die, especially as it comes to embrace a right to easily hide their own self-interest from themselves ‘aid-in-dying,’ or assisted suicide, or euthanasia, will behind the face of compassion. “Third, the medical translate into an obligation on the part of others profession’s devotion to heal and refusal to kill—its to kill or help kill.” This necessarily means that the ethical center—will be permanently destroyed, and state “would thus surrender its monopoly on the with it patient trust and physicianly self-restraint.” legal use of lethal force.” Private individuals could Once doctors have the right to prescribe lethal drugs, legally participate in the killing of fellow citizens. the public will worry, for example, that they will not Second, as the experience of involuntary deaths always keep the well-being of patients uppermost in the Netherlands shows, once physician-assisted in their minds. Financial considerations, such as dying is legalized, “[n]o one with an expensive incentives from insurance companies, could interfere or troublesome infirmity will be safe from the with their best medical judgment. ✠ pressure to have his right to die exercised.” Some family members will subtly or not so subtly suggest J. Brian Benestad

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52 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2008