Suffering, the Body, and Christianity
SUFFERING, THE BODY, AND CHRISTIANITY The Early Christians Lived the Theological Basis of Catholic Health Care o term in current Catholic its owner, God, willed it so; like other objects thought is more frequently that God owned and sanctified—the marriage BY FR. JAMES F. invoked as the theological bond and the temple, for example—life cannot be KEENAN, SJ foundation for health care than violated.1" The sacredness rests not in anything "sanctity of life." Surprisingly, the intrinsic to the marriage bond, the temple, or terNm itself is rather new: No Catholic dictionary human life; it rests on the claim of God, who or encyclopedia before 1978 had an entry on it. made and owns the sacral quality of the marital For instance, in the 15-volume New Catholic bonds, temples, and human lives." 1 Encyclopedia of 1967, the term has no entry. Pope John Paul II has significantly developed (It appeared as a modest afterthought in the later the term. In 1987, in his apostolic exhortation, supplement.-) Nor is it found in new theological Christifideles Laid, he speaks at length about the dictionaries from the United States, England, inviolable right to life, saying, "The inviolability or Germany. ' It did not appear in the German of the person, which is a reflection of the absolute Fr. Keenan is Concise Dictionary of Christian Ethics, although inviolability of God, finds its primary and professor of there was a passing reference in the Italian fundamental expression in the inviolability of theological ethics, 4 12 counterpart. human life." Nowhere does he refer to God's Boston College, "Sanctity of life" certainly has its roots in dominion or prerogatives.
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