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Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly IN MEMORIAM Msgr. William B. Smith ARTICLES 32 Is Obama Worth a Mass? ................................. Ralph McInerny Controversial Situations and the Catholic University .............. Number 1 ....................................................... Max Bonilla, SSL,STD Spring 2009 “Walker Percy the Philosopher,” Revisited ...Robert A. O’Connor Is “Beauty” an Objective Reality or Only in the Eye of the Beholder?....................Hamilton Reed Armstrong A Religion of Spirit and Flesh ......................................Jim Gontis REVIEW ESSAYS Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty ......... William E. May The Pope, the Rabbi, and the Antichrist ...........Edmund J. Mazza REPORT The Nassau Community College Center for Catholic Studies: History, Purpose, Activities, Future .....................Joseph A. Varacalli BOOK REVIEWS The Person and the Polis: Faith and Values within the Secular State, and On Wings of Faith and Reason: The Christian Difference in Culture and Science, edited by Craig Steven Titus ............................................................. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. An Ethical Analysis of the Portrayal of Abortion in American Fiction by Jeff Koloze ...................................Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. Embryo: A Defense of Human Life by Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen............................... Greg F. Burke The Vision of Gabriel Marcel: Epistemology, Human Person, the Transcendent by Brendan Sweetman ............ Tim Weldon The Blood-Red Crescent by Henry Garnett .............................................. Sister Mary Jeremiah, OP The Tripods Attack. The Young Chesterton Chronicles I by John McNichol .......................................John Gavin, S.J. ISSN 1084-3035 Chance or Purpose? Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith Fellowship of Catholic Scholars by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn ........ Thomas W. Woolley P.O. Box 495 Meet Mary: Getting to Know the Mother of God, Notre Dame, IN 46556 by Mark Miravalle .......................................... Glenn Statile (574) 631-5825 www.catholicscholars.org J. Brian Benestad, Editor BOOKS RECEIVED [email protected] EX CATHEDRA .....................................................J. Brian Benestad FCS Quarterly • Winter 2009 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 1 IN ME M OR I A M Msgr. William B. Smith, R.I.P. hat’s new is usually not true, and what’s true is usually not new. This old adage is more germane for some Fellowship of fields than for others, but one of the Wfields in which it has special relevance is the field in Catholic Scholars Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, which the late Msgr. William B. Smith practiced— in Service to the Church moral theology. It is not that this field lacks novelties—new CONTENTS topics emerge all the time, and a glance at the list IN MEMORIAM–Msgr. William B. Smith ....... 2 of Msgr. Smith’s publications over the years from ARTICLES his earliest articles in New York Catholic News, for Is Obama Worth a Mass? ............................. 9 which he wrote a weekly column from 1972 to 1981 Controversial Situations through the rest of his life, he dealt with countless and the Catholic University ......................10 novelties, especially in regard to the brave new world “Walker Percy the Philosopher,” of bioethics, a field that seems to churn out novelties Revisited ........................................................15 without stop. Is “Beauty” an Objective Reality or Only in the Eye of the Beholder? ............17 Each of the new techniques and new issues that A Religion of Spirit and Flesh ...................20 come up in a field like bioethics needs a careful con- sideration. But more important than noting their REVIEW ESSAYS novelty is the steady application of the timeless prin- Same-Sex Marriage and Religious ciples of sound moral theology. Msgr. Smith’s articles Liberty ............................................................22 The Pope, the Rabbi, and and columns tirelessly worked to apply the tested the Antichrist ................................................29 principles of Catholic ethics to this domain, with great benefit to the Church. REPORT Msgr. Smith replaced Fr. Joseph Farraher, S.J., an- The Nassau Community College Center other member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars for Catholic Studies ....................................34 as the question-and-answer columnist for the Homi- BOOK REVIEWS letic & Pastoral Review. In a wonderful example of The Person and the Polis: Faith and Values ecumenism, that important post has been honorably within the Secular State, and filled since 2006 by Father Brian T. Mullady, O.P. In On Wings of Faith and Reason: The Christian Difference in Culture and Science ................39 the twelve years of Msgr. Smith’s service he covered a An Ethical Analysis of the Portrayal of vast range of topics, from “Matter for the Eucharist” Abortion in American Fiction .........................40 in his inaugural column (October 1992) to “Without Embryo: A Defense of Human Life ........42 Parental Consent” (January 2006). The Vision of Gabriel Marcel: Epistemology, Human Person, the Transcendent .................. 43 Besides his regular column, Msgr. Smith pub- The Blood-Red Crescent ..........................44 lished some forty articles and book chapters in a va- The Tripods Attack. The Young riety of books, popular magazines, and such learned Chesterton Chronicles I ............................44 journals as Linacre Quarterly, Human Life Review, Social Meet Mary: ....................................................45 Justice Review, Issues in Law and Medicine, Catholic Dos- BOOKS RECEIVED .........................................46 sier, Catholic Lawyer, Dunwoodie Review, Crisis, and, of EX CATHEDRA ...............................................47 course, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, not OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS ......................48 to mention a host of encyclopedia entries. Behind the scenes he labored long and vigilantly in support Reminder: Membership dues will be of the Bishops’ Conference, particularly by his service mailed out the first of the year and are in drafting and revising the “Ethical and Religious based on a calendar (not academic) year. 2 FCS Quarterly • Winter 2009 Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.” Here as well as our gratitude. Frankly, I will say that I feel a the work included concern for the clear statement of terrible loss in his death, not least because it came so moral principles, thoughtful applications of principles suddenly. Last Sunday I was visiting him in the hospital to the situations that frequently arise in health care when a Filipino nurse entered the room who knew me institutions, and firm resistance to various forms of from the parish where I say Mass on Sunday. She said consequentialism and proportionalism in moral the- “Father, is this your father?” I looked at Bill and then I ology that would have compromised Catholic doc- said to her, “Yes, in a certain sense, he is.” Every priest trine for solutions more palatable to utilitarian forms here knows that another priest has been a father to his priesthood. He was mine. of practical reasoning. And I know for all who are here now in the Deadly serious in doctrine, Msgr. Smith also seminary as students, or as faculty or staff, it is a pain- possessed an acerbic wit and often displayed his sense ful hour. Dunwoodie will experience an absence that of humor as an after-dinner speaker for conven- will not lift any time soon. But the impact of this death tions of the Fellowship. Some of his barbs made for reaches far beyond these walls. The priests of the Arch- fine reading in the pages of the FCSQ, including his diocese of New York, young and old, have all lost one 1987 article entitled “Bishops as Teachers and Jesu- of our greatest ever, for so many a friend, for many of its as Listeners”—a colorful reminder of the proper us in the priesthood the finest teacher we ever had, a relation between the ordinary magisterium and the model of exemplary priestly life, a priest’s priest in ev- theologians of religious orders like the Society of ery way. And the wider Church, too, has suffered a great Jesus. In his articles for The Social Justice Review and loss with his death. for Crisis he also took up the question of theological On that latter note, let me share with you some dissent from the magisterium and the authentic un- comments received by his close friend and colleague derstanding of the relation between truth and free- here at the seminary, Sr. Sara Butler, and graciously dom in the area of moral theology. passed on to me. Whatever the venue, the writings of Msgr. Smith Jesuit Fr. Don Keefe, who taught dogmatic theol- always exhibited clarity of thought and complete ogy here in the 1990s until 2001 wrote: “Msgr. Smith has fidelity to the teachings of Christ and His Church. As long been identified with Dunwoodie in my mind and in the minds of many others; he is close to irreplace- we now remember his legacy and pray for his soul, able... a splendid moral theologian who trained two we do well also as fellow Catholic scholars to take his generations of archdiocesan priests, a founder of the example and aim for the came clarity and fidelity in Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and a perduring major our own work. Requiescat in pace. influence in it, a man who has given distinguished ser- vice to the Church for forty years.” Fr. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. Gerard Bradley from Notre

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