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AN INVES'l'IGATION OF THE HORAL PRINCIPLES EMPLOYED BY FATHER GERI\LD KELLY , S. J . I N DISCUSSING ABORTION by Sister Mi ldred Cheramie, D. C., B.S. in Nr . A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette Univers ity, in Partial Fulfillmen t of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Milwaukee , Wisconsin Sept ember, 1975 TABLE OF CONTENTS I NTRODUCTION 1 Chapt er I . THE PROBLEH OF THE NATURAL RIGHT 'I'O LIFE PRINCIPLE 6 II. BASIC MEDI CO-MO RAL PRINCIPLES 1 8 The conse nt of the individual The i nviolabi l ity of innocent human life The principle of totality The intrinsic finality of the sex faculties Doing good and avoiding evil The principle of the double effect The principle of "liberty" III. FOID1ULATION OF SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES CONCElli~lNG ABORTION . 37 According to Divine Law and Specifically with Reference to the Fifth Comma ndment According to the Sacrame nt of Matri~ony According to Ecclesiology Specific Princi ples Governing the Morality of Abortion IV. APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF GERALD KELLY, S.J. 64 V. THE VALIDITY OF FATHER KELLY'S PRINCIPLES TODAY. 67 Ecumenism Legalism Situationism Roman Catholicism CONCLUSION . 79 SELEc'rED BIBLIOGRAPHY 93 ii I NTRODUCTION The purpose of this thesis is to investi gate the basic moral principl es i n the thought of Geral d Kelly, S.J., in r eference to the problems of abortion. In attempting to i solate these principles and to des cribe the ir development (or formulation) an attempt ",as made to follow the major avenues of thought present in his writings. Any attempt to recapture the thought of an intellectual giant of past years necessarily entails a purification of the strata of experi- ence, tradition, and thought in which he lived and wrote. His writings reve al an incorporation or compilation in large portions of the thought of others, i.e., writings of popes, theologians, legal and medical experts, etc~ At times it is an impossible task to isolate his thought from the person he i s quoting. This me·thod of development which runs the gamut of his writings is emphasized because it is crucial for an understanding of Father Kelly's position on the morality of abortion. Father Kelly received a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1937. A scholarly ~ presentation of The Theologians' Concept of Venereal Pleasure was his dissertation. In 1941, his first book, Modern Youth and Chastity, was published. It was translated into several languages and sold more than a million copies. In 1942, he 1 2 was cofounder of the Revi ew for Re ligious and was its editor for s eventeen years . Gui dance for Religious, a v olume of selected \vri tings, was com:;?iled from his wri-tings i n the Review. In the l ate 19 40s at t he invitation of John J . Flana- gan, S.J., Executive Director of the Catholic Hospital Asso- ciation, Father Kelly began to direct his writings to the unique and complicated problems of medicine and hospitals . Many of his articles appeared in Hospital Progress, the offi- cial journal of the Catholic Hospital Association, and in The Linacre Quarterly, journal of the Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Hospitals, a model of theologica l preciseness, was principally a work of Father Kelly's genius. He wrote a serieb of booklets calied Medico-Moral problems,l a detailed co~mentary on the Directives, which were revised in 1958 into a book by the same title. His process of formulation of basic medico-moral principles is a long and arduous one as Father Kelly tells in his article, "The Moral Code of Catholic Hospitals.·,2 Before his principles were formulated , a special committee was organized, diocesan codes of united States and Canada were reviewed and a preliminary draft of a new code was sent for ... lThe revised book, Gerald Kelly, S.J., Medico-Moral Problems (St. Louis: Catholic Hospital Association, 1958), does not contain all the material published in the booklets. 2Gerald Kelly, S.J., "The Moral Code of Catholic Hospitals," Review for Religious 12 (July 1953): 205-06. 3 c r iticism to a l arge number of doctors and moralists in var- i ous parts of the United States and Canada. The consultants, Catholic and non-Catholic, were chosen for proficiency In their profession and not because of religious belief. After the consultants had given their cri ticisms these were care- fully studied and new formu las were devised. The formulas were submitted again to t he origina l critics; more sugges- tions were offered; and the code was finally formulated in a manner that met with universal approval. 3 His book, Medico-Moral Problems , had a sales record of more than 33,000 copies at the time of his d eath in 1 96 4 . It has been the unofficial "bible" of Catholic Hospitals and has been given great approval by theologians, physicians , and administrators of other religious affiliations as well. For fifteen years Geraid Kelly continued as special consultant to the Catho lic Hospita l Association and initiated the popular medico-moral institutes for hospital and medical personne l. These institutes have b een attende d by thousands over the y ears and h ave presented an opportunity for discus- sion and interpretation of specific moral questions and prob- lems. 3 . John J. Lynch, S.J., "Death of Rev. Gerald Kelly, S. J . ," Linacre Quarterly 31 (August 1964): 110 . Father Lynch r emarks: "His files at St. Mary's College literally · bulge with a lifetime's correspondence with physicians all over the world. Because he talked the langua ge of doctors with medica l and theological e x actitude he was, to a large extent, personal\y responsible for the mutual understanding and respect which has long existed between Catholic physi­ cians and moral theologians in this country." 4 The Cardinal Spellman Award was given to him in 1953 for outstanding theological wri t ing and particularly for his work in the medico-moral field . From 1947 to 1954, he wrote the annual "Notes on Moral Theology," a comprehensive review of the y ear's work in t he fie l d , publi shed in Theological Studies. With Rev. John J. Ford , S.J. , he coauthored two volumes of Contemporary Moral Theology . These two volumes were published in 1963 and have been cited by many a u thors who are knowl edgeabl e and reputable physicia ns and the ologians. Father Kelly was a charter member and former presi- dent of the Catholic Theolog ical Society o f America. As an eminent teacher, lecturer, and writer , he was intern ationally know~ and recognized for his keen p erception and clarity of I . \ expr~ssion of solutions to moral problems . "The outstanding ability shown in Fa ther Kelly's writings to enter into the most complex problems and emerge with comprehensiveness and clarity h as its background, no doubt, in continued succe ss in breaking the ground of moral issues for beginning theolo­ gians.,,4 For a year an endeav or was made to locate Father Kelly's professional correspondence which Father Lynch men- tlons. ln. Llnacre. Quarter 1 y. 5 It was never 1 ocate d . 4"Editorial," Theology Digest, winter 1963, p. 194. Also r e leased to secular and diocesan newspapers by Catholic Hospital Association at the time of Father Kelly's death in 1964. 5 See above, p. 3, n. 3. 5 Apparently the correspondence was misplaced or destroyed in the move of the School of Divinity of the Jesuits from St. Mary's, Kansas, to St. Louis university in St. Louis, Mis- souri. It would have added an interesting comparison between the challenges in the theological and medical thought of his actual time and the challenges of the 1970s. CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF THE NATUR~L RIGHT TO LIFE PRINCIPLE Among the many problems moral theolog i ans are called upon to solve, perhaps none are of more frequent occu rrence than medical problems. This is not surprising, for t hough medicine a s a science i s not directl y concerned with morality, yet the practice of medicine is inevitably bound up with such things as the right and duty to pre­ s erve life and bodily integrity, and these are definitely moral problems. l In this prece ding quote, Father Kelly succinctly states the importance of medico-moral problems and the prin- ciples formulat ed to govern the solving of them. The problem is not the questioning of the importance of moral principles; even the antinomians regard the moral principle of love. Rather the problem i s how doe s one come t o form moral prin- ciples which govern or guide man in his behavior. The po~nt under question is Father Kelly's formulation and explanation of the p rinciple of the inviolability of innocent human life. It should be noted that contemporary theologians, Catholic and non-Catholic, are seriously questioning the "old codes" of morality because of new insights and practice. The "old codes " of morality were formulated iri a former time, and lGerald Kelly, S.J., Medico-Moral Problems, I (St. Louis: The Catholic Hospital Association, 1949), 15. 6 7 Fathe r Kelly i s historically viewed as of this past era. More modern theologians would consider Father Kelly a "tradi- tionalist, natural law defender , a manualist, a moral theo- l ogian using a picture-book concept of reali ty , and solving conflict situations by emphasis on physical structure and causality of act alone, i.e., physi calism or biologism .

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