Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly

THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER The Year of Faith: Thinking with the Church...... Joseph W. Koterski, S.J.

ARTICLES 35 The Blessings of Liberty...... Gerard V. Bradley Why the Church Has Had to Fight Numbers 2 the Contraception Mandate...... Kenneth D. Whitehead Summer 2012 Casey at Twenty: Lessons from a Judicial Disaster...... William Saunders Interpreting Vatican II: Beyond Continuity/Discontinuity...... Fr. John Conley, S.J. Blessed James Alberione’s Intercessional Cure of Maria Librada Gonzalez-Rodriguez...... Greg F. Burke, MD, FACP Holy Sacrifice of the Mass...... Jude P. Dougherty Paul Ryan’s Austrian Tutors...... Jude P. Dougherty

BOOK REVIEWS The Rise and Fall of Triumph: The History of a Radical Roman Catholic Magazine, 1966-1976 by Mark D. Popowski.... D. Q. McInerny Words of Wisdom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial Tradition by John W. Carlson...... D. Q. McInerny Fire of Love: A Historical Novel about Saint John of the Cross by José Luis Olaizola, Translated by Stephen Caro...... D. Q. McInerny The Problem with Multiculturalism: The Uniqueness and Universality of Western Civilization by John M. Headley...... Jude P. Dougherty Cultural Revolution in Berlin: Jews in the Age of Enlightenment by Shmuel Feiner and Natalie Naimark-Goldberg...... Jude P. Dougherty Moral Reasoning: Rediscovering the Ethical Tradition by Louis Groarke...... Jude P. Dougherty Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration, and the Rule of Law by Richard Epstein...... Jude P. Dougherty God and the Public Square by G. Elijah Dann...... Robert Nicholas Bérard Understanding Abortion: From Mixed Feelings to Rational Thought by Stephen D. Schwarz with Kiki Latimer...... James Harold The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt...... Val J. Peter ISSN 1084-3035 APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS Notre Dame, IN 46556 AN INVITATION TO MEMBERS OF THE FELLOWSHIP (574) 631-5825 catholicscholars.org EX CATHEDRA J. Brian Benestad, Editor The Transformation of Theology in [email protected] Margaret Farley’s ‘Just Love’...... J. Brian Benestad

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 1 The President’s Letter The Year of Faith: Thinking with Fellowship of Catholic Scholars the Church Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Service to the Church by Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. President, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Contents he Congregation for the Doctrine of The president’s letter...... 2 the Faith recently declared that Just Love: ARTICLES A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics The Blessings of Liberty...... 4 (2006) by Sr. Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Why the Church Has Had to Fight Tof Yale Divinity School was “not consistent with the Contraception Mandate...... 6 authentic Catholic theology.” A storm of controversy Casey at Twenty...... 12 ensued. Perhaps it will be helpful to consider this Interpreting Vatican II...... 14 case in relation to the Year of Faith. This special year Blessed James Alberione’s Intercessional Cure of devotion began on October 11, 2012, the fiftieth of Maria Librada Gonzalez-Rodriguez...... 19 anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Holy Sacrifice of the Mass...... 22 Council Paul Ryan’s Austrian Tutors...... 23 In his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict explains that the Year of Faith is timed to BOOK REVIEWS commemorate not only the golden anniversary of The Rise and Fall of Triumph...... 25 the Council but also the twentieth anniversary of the Words of Wisdom...... 27 Catechism of the Catholic Church. As with the encyclicals Fire of Love...... 28 Quadragesimo Anno and Centesimus Annus, the papal The Problem with Multiculturalism...... 30 choice to mark anniversaries is not simply ecclesial Cultural Revolution in Berlin...... 31 sentimentalism. Quite to the contrary, the goal of Moral Reasoning...... 32 calling attention to special dates is to use them in Design for Liberty...... 32 some creative way so as to move matters forward. In God and the Public Square...... 33 reflecting on the forty years since Rerum Novarum, Pius Understanding Abortion...... 35 XI seems to have been as eager to reformulate Leo The Righteous Mind...... 36 XIII’s notion of a living wage in terms of a family wage as he was to articulate the principle of subsidiarity. In honoring the centenary of Rerum Novarum, John Paul books received...... 37 II was not only celebrating the demise of the Soviet notice...... 38 communism but also initiating an examination of APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP...... 38 conscience about the proper purposes of the liberties OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS...... 39 and opportunities of democratic forms of government and capitalist systems of economics. AN INVITATION TO MEMBERS...... 40 It is thus no surprise that Pope Benedict’s invita- EX CATHEDRA...... 41 tion to the Church to undertake a Year of Faith uses the anniversaries of the Council and the Catechism to em- Reminder: Membership dues will be phasize the need for the hermeneutic of continuity in mailed out the first of the year and are the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. The based on a calendar (not academic) year. pope uses the two anniversaries in order to promote

2 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 “the ever necessary renewal of the Church” (§5), and Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith received to encourage proper faith formation for Catholics (§12) an inadequate response from her to the questions raised after a long period in which confusion about what the about her work. faith teaches and requires has been abetted by theologi- The core of the defense that she offered seems cal dissent. rather odd from a past president of the Catholic Theo- Throughout Porta Fidei there is an uplifting tone logical Society of America. She said: “I can only clarify that is crucial to the message – the joy that will be part that the book was not intended to be an expression of of wholehearted devotion to the true faith. We see this current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed spe- point in a special way in the summons to charity with cifically against this teaching. It is of a different genre which the letter ends. “The Year of Faith,” Benedict altogether.” The book, she noted, offers “contemporary says, will be “a good opportunity to intensify the wit- interpretations” of justice and fairness in human sexual ness of charity.... Faith without charity bears no fruit, relations as a way of moving away from a “taboo moral- while charity without faith would be a sentiment con- ity” and drawing on “present-day scientific, philosophi- stantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each cal, theological, and biblical resources.” These scholarly require the other...” (§14). terms risk disguising an abandonment of the genuine The interesting reference here to being “constantly principles of Catholic morality in the area of sexuality at the mercy of doubt” presumably has reference both that is the topic of this book. to the unsettling ambiguities possible in a personal life As will be evident from a review of her book else- that is not rooted in religious faith in God and those where within this issue of the Quarterly, the book in ambiguities prevalent in a culture whose Christian question contains an attempt to present a theological presuppositions are no longer taken for granted. Pope rationale for same-sex relationships, for masturbation, Benedict describes the latter situation when he writes: and for remarriage after divorce. Thankfully, Sr. Farley “It often happens that Christians are more concerned does admit the discrepancy between her position and for the social, cultural, and political consequences of Catholic teaching in her official response to the Vati- their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a can’s assessment: “I do not dispute the judgment that self-evident presupposition for life in society. In reality, some of the positions contained within it are not in not only can this presupposition no longer be taken for accord with current official Catholic teaching.” granted, but it is often openly denied” (§2). Such an honest admission is welcome to a scholarly The solution to these problems, he insists, comes ear, but frankly much more is needed from the perspec- from the alliance of true faith and genuine charity. tive of the mutual assistance that faith and charity need Professing the faith of the Church will give wisdom in to supply for one another. Real charity for Christ’s all areas of life, and that faith will be ever more cred- faithful requires that one give them sound moral ad- ible by the witness of real practical charity. Among the vice in conformity with the teachings of the Church forms that this practical charity sometimes needs to that is known to us by faith, and the obedience of faith take is fraternal correction, precisely for the upbuild- requires that scholarly writing from someone with her ing of faith. It is in this spirit that we should understand credentials and influence in the field of moral theology the corrective delivered to Sr. Margaret Farley after the not be “a cause of confusion among the faithful.” ✠ •

catholicscholars.org

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 3 Articles The Blessings of Liberty

by Gerard V. Bradley election, thus removing one temptation—a potential pay-grab—to use government service for private Gerard Bradley is Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law enrichment. School and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute. Ratified in 1992 the 27th Amendment nonethe- less links us directly to the founders, who proposed it hen we think of “liberty” our minds to the states in September 1789. It was the second of naturally turn to the Bill of Rights. twelve alterations passed by the first Congress; our First Then we think of the Supreme Court, Amendment was number three on their list. The first and some of us get a lump in our of the twelve mercifully still languishes: it would limit Wthroats. For in this complex of thoughts “liberty” refers congressional districts to less than 50,000 people. Today mainly to an individual’s prerogative to pursue his pas- that would mean a House comprised of 6,000 members. sions or to live her dream, even if doing so imposes The “liberty” to govern ourselves is a great and great social costs, and even if one’s path is contrary to precious good, in season and out of season. We would the community’s deepest moral convictions about hu- do well to cherish it more. I said that the founders were man flourishing. In this view, the Bill of Rights is our mainly—which is not to say, exclusively—interested in country’s birth certificate, and the Supreme Court is it. They were also keenly aware of the importance of our protector. The Justices (some of them, at least) stand individual liberties. They affirmed the value of bills of ever-alert on the parapets, shielding us from the group- rights. Several states had them. The national govern- think and lifestyle conformity to which—as this story ment soon acquired one. The founders were genuine goes—our democracy would consign us. Thank heaven: pioneers of certain individual rights, religious liberty without the Court I could not be me, whoever I turn chief among them. They also recognized the limited out to be! upside possibility of independent courts standing fast It is not just Democrats or liberals who think this by a bill of rights. And the founders had a more subtle, way. This birth narrative’s climax was supplied by three richer and—all things considered—better conception Republican Justices (O’Connor, Kennedy, Souter) who, of individual rights and how to embed them in a de- in 1992, declared that “the heart of liberty is the right mocracy than we do. We would do well to cherish this to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, legacy, too. of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” Here are four of the many different ways in which When America’s founders thought of “liberty” their the founders understood and promoted individual lib- minds did not gravitate to a “bill of rights,” much less to erty better than we do. the Supreme Court as guardian of the lonely dissenter. Let’s start with the many protections of individual One reason is that the founders understood “liberty” rights which the founders wrote into the original (that to be mainly a community’s right to govern itself ac- is, unamended) Constitution. Among these are the cording to laws made by representatives caring for the prohibitions on: religious tests for federal office; laws public weal. Individuals enjoyed the manifold blessings impairing the obligation of contracts; bills of attainder of living in such a regime. Some had the further satis- and ex post facto laws; and, perhaps most significantly, the faction of participating in collective self-governance by guarantee in Article III (repeated in the Sixth Amend- the leave of no man, as equal and independent citizens. ment) of a jury trial for crimes. Each not only protects You need look no further than the bookends of individuals against a certain sort of government imposi- our Constitution to see this picture. “We, the People” tion (upon religious belief or vested contract expecta- established the Constitution (mind you, then with no tions, for example). Each is also a structural protection of separate bill of rights) to “secure the blessings of liberty limited and responsible self-government. to ourselves and our posterity.” Now take a look at the So the ban on religious tests eliminated one source last amendment ratified, the 27th. It postpones the ef- of “faction”—sectarian rivalry—in national politics. The fective date of any “law varying the compensation of” ban on contract-impairing laws removed a temptation members of Congress until after an intervening House for legislators to enrich affiliated interests or to satisfy

4 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 rent-seekers. The jury trial guarantee established an er, the pervert. The Court worries enough about its “le- indubitably democratic institution between the larger gitimacy” to attempt marriage between its antipopulism (and often more distant and sometimes ill-motivated) and populism. The justices tell us stories about how they government and an accused individual. The constraints are our better selves or our constitutional conscience, or upon legislative targeting of individuals (bills of at- about how they really hanker for a constitutional con- tainder) and retroactive legislation promoted what legal versation with us. All these shotgun weddings fail. philosophers today call principles of legality, namely, Where the people’s support is avidly sought (as the that all legislative acts be general and prospective. founders thought it should be), judicial opinions are A few clauses in the Bill of Rights as the Court bound to be more muscular and principled, the pace of now interprets them might possess this dual character as doctrinal development is almost sure to be slower, more democracy-reinforcing individual rights guarantees. But organic, and the content of any constitutional innova- not many do. And the Court’s dominant interpretive tions which happen to emerge are unlikely to be at war grid pits claims of individual rights over and against the with the common morality. stated requirements of collective security, public moral- Third: the Mystery Passage is all sail and no anchor. ity, and other social necessities or amenities. It rests upon the value judgment that what makes a be- Another way that the founders joined together what lief about life or the universe worthy of constitutional the Court has since put asunder involves thinking of it protection has nothing to do with the truth, validity, as the people’s Constitution. The founders were famously soundness of that belief. All that counts is that the belief skeptical that courts could serve as bulwarks of consti- be acquired absolutely freely, that it is purely voluntarily tutional liberties. They feared that bills of rights would held, and that it is (therefore) an exquisite expression of rarely be more than “parchment barriers,” partly because who someone—anyone—really, deeply, is. (they further held) courts would often lack the political Now, voluntariness of acquisition is indeed in- courage to stand fast. But bills of rights could still func- tegral to the value of holding some beliefs—those tion effectively by educating the people and by providing concerning religion are the prime example—but it is a touchstone of popular resistance to unjust laws. never all that counts. (False religious beliefs can lead Even where a constitution protects a liberty so vital people into lives of moral degradation.) And it is more as that of the press, Hamilton wrote in Federalist 84, “its often the case that the soundness of beliefs counts security, whatever fine declarations may be inserted in more than freedom in acquisition. This is true about any constitution respecting it, must altogether depend moral beliefs as well as about scientific and other de- on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the scriptive accounts of the way things are. Individual people and the government.” Here, in the people’s un- lives go better when people affirm, for example, the derstanding and embrace of rights, and in their willing- moral truth about human dignity and basic norms of ness to fight for them, Hamilton concluded, is “the only morality such as the Golden Rule. solid basis of all our rights.” The founders were guilty of no such evaluative Madison thought that in times of crisis the Con- error as the Mystery Passage implies. They held fast to stitution could serve as a rallying point and as a plat- the distinction between worthy and unworthy claims form for popular action to keep the government on to possess an individual liberty, and one strict crite- its appointed—i.e., constitutional—course. In his first rion was moral truth. Although they did not use the inaugural Jefferson said that the Constitution was “the terminology, the founders would have affirmed the text of civil instruction—the touchstone by which to proposition that one could not have a right, strictly try the services of those we trust.” In 1819 Chief Justice speaking, to do a moral wrong, no matter how sin- John Marshall stated that judicial “opinions should be cerely motivated the claimant might be. (They would written to be understood by the public.” say that these claims involved “licentiousness,” their Judicial opinions today are too prolix and too tech- marker for morally debauched acts.) The founders un- nical for public consumption. They are written by spe- derstood that a moral consensus on matters pertaining cialists for specialists. They read like law review articles. to the political common good—human dignity, hu- The substantive content of opinions concerning civil man equality, justice—was a great benefit to collective liberties unfolds in conscious opposition to what the prosperity as well. And so they would have instantly people think; the leitmotif of civil liberties jurispru- seen how subversive it would be to drop morality into dence is precisely protecting the unpopular, the dissent- a centrifuge, as the Mystery Passage does.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 5 Articles

Lastly: the “Mystery Passage” does not lead to a net chaste, or to respect the integrity of B’s body, save fear increase in “liberty,” even if we hold for the moment of consequences. that “liberty” consists of such extraordinary self creation. This impasse is structurally similar to that engi- The “heart of liberty” says that everyone has a valid neered by Hobbes, who thought that men had the most (prima facie) liberty interest in doing whatever it is they rights—and the largest liberty—in a state of nature, a desire to do. Missing so far from the Court’s “liberty” is hypothetical location bereft of legally enforced obliga- any illumination of responsibility, duty, forbearance, and tion. “[I]n such a condition, every man has a [r]ight to limits. Note well: I say illumination of limits, not a list every thing; even to one another[’]s body.” But this is of them. For there is no question of there being limits, to say no one has an objective duty to respect another’s or of persons being held responsible. In fact, there is body. Which is to say that no one has a right to bodily no necessary relationship between the sheer volume of integrity, save by dint of stipulation by human lawmak- legal regulation in a given society (on the one hand) ing authority. and the guiding principles of the regime (on the other). We can now see how the Mystery Passage leads Put differently: there may be no less law in a regime to the heart, not of liberty, but of darkness. The legal committed to the Mystery Passage than there would be constraints which seem ever to multiply in our world in a society whose law was basically determined by, say, cannot be experienced by liberty-lovers (as the Mystery the goal of cultivating good people and sound citizens. Passage defines them) as reasonable requirements of free There might even be more law in the former world; just and fair cooperation among persons for the common think of how rule-generating identity politics and po- good, save by those victims of happy accidents who litical correctness can be. have constructed mental worlds redolent of the found- Where the uber-value is the liberty to live in one’s ers. According to the Court’s experiment in liberty, own world, the only public ethic really imaginable is “liberty” has no internal guidance mechanism to ab- something like: “liberty for each one, consistent with a solve law from being experienced as brute restraint, as like liberty for all others.” This leads, however, to a zero shackles or fetters or as leaden weight. The law looms— sum game, in which A’s liberty to do X—say, to be free as does bad weather or traffic jams—as raw impedi- from being seduced—simply takes away from B’s lib- ments which one seeks to avoid or at least to survive: a erty to seduce. A has, or may well have, no reason to be millstone around the necks of the Court’s free spirits. ✠ Why the Church Has Had to Fight the Contraception Mandate

by Kenneth D. Whitehead under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) might be compromised by what the in- Kenneth D. Whitehead is the author, principally, of One, terviewer said was the fact “that the priests and bishops Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church haven’t upheld the Church teaching on contraception Was the Catholic Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, as well as they might have done.” 2000). His most recent book is Affirming Religious This HHS Obamacare mandate, of course, be- Freedom (St. Paul’s/Alba House, 2009). came effective on August 1 of this year with only an extremely narrow “religious” exemption in place. As rchbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, individual and company insurance policies are renewed chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Com- and/or new policies acquired, the mandate will eventu- mittee on Religious Liberty, was asked in ally require nearly everyone except parish churches to a recent interview whether the Church’s purchase and carry health insurance—which themselves Afirm stand against the birth prevention mandate of the will henceforth obligatorily have to cover free con- U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) traception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs.

6 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Anyone morally opposed to these procedures will be No matter that the Church officially continued to obliged by law to accept and pay for them anyway. teach that these methods were morally wrong: Catho- Archbishop Lori candidly replied to the interview- lics nevertheless proved ready in massive numbers to er who didn’t think priests and bishops had upheld set this teaching aside anyway. Nothing quite like this the Church’s teaching against contraception very well had ever happened in the history of the Church—that by noting that “our opponents have cleverly chosen a Catholics should suddenly feel able to abandon a sol- wedge issue. They know it’s not a popular teaching. It emn Church teaching while continuing to present hasn’t been well defended, and so by trying to make themselves as “practicing Catholics” in perfectly good it a fight about contraception, they are using it as a standing. It was as if acceptance of the Church’s moral wedge to open the door to greater violations of reli- teaching was no longer a necessary component of gious liberty.” Catholic faith and practice. The Baltimore prelate added, however, that the This same attitude came to be exhibited by not a Church’s necessary defense of “the sacredness of human few Catholic politicians and public figures, who showed life and its origins,” which is what is involved in oppos- themselves able to favor and promote legalized abor- ing this mandate, could nevertheless be a “wonderful tion while continuing to present themselves as “good moment” for the Church. The Church did not choose Catholics.” Think former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. this public battle over contraception and the other im- Think Vice President Joseph Biden. moral birth-prevention procedures, but the archbishop One of the reasons why this anomalous contem- clearly saw that it redounds to her credit and honor to porary phenomenon of the “contracepting Catholic” have been called to fight the battle. and the “pro-choice Catholic politician” has persisted And he was also surely correct in thinking that, surely goes back to the fact mentioned by Archbishop in imposing the mandate, the Obama Administration Lori, namely, that the Catholic teaching against contra- surely does see it as a “wedge issue” to divide Catholics ception “hasn’t been well defended.” It would be more while it puts in place its policy of free, universal birth accurate to say that over many years in the advanced control billed as “healthcare.” It should not be forgotten, societies of North America and Europe, it has hardly moreover, that in imposing this policy the Obama Ad- been defended at all. ministration shows itself to be a genuine “true believer” When the pope and the bishops were confronted in contraception as an unalloyed boon and human with the massive rejection of Humanae vitae, they really good. This is undoubtedly the majority view in Ameri- did not know what to do, and, as is quite common in can society today, in fact. Furthermore, Archbishop human affairs, when someone doesn’t know what to do, Lori’s comment that the Church’s teaching “hasn’t been the end result is often that nothing is done. This proved well defended” is really quite an understatement. to be the case with the Church’s teaching against con- When Pope Paul VI issued his 1968 encyclical Hu- traception: essentially nothing was any longer said or manae vitae affirming the Church’s traditional teaching done about it. Certainly Pope Paul VI had to reaffirm that every marital act must remain open to the trans- the Church’s teaching in the encyclical; the Holy Spirit mission of life—that is, condemning on moral grounds would never have allowed any other outcome—for the the modern birth control methods otherwise almost simple reason that the teaching is true, and the Catholic universally accepted and used today—this Church Church is “the teacher of truth” (Vatican II, Dignitatis teaching immediately encountered open dissent and humanae, n. 14). The Church had to uphold the teach- rejection by what was probably a majority of the work- ing regardless of what the modern world had come to ing Catholic theologians of the day. Instead of fulfill- believe about it; and once the pope had spoken, the ing theology’s proper task of expounding, explaining, bishops too had to go along as well. and developing Church teachings, the theologians of But none of this meant that the teaching was ef- the day instead mostly set their faces against the teach- fectively being upheld. Quite the contrary. Moreover, ing of Humanae vitae and presumptuously counseled those holding official positions in the Church, while the Catholic laity to ignore this particular teaching, as openly dissenting from the encyclical, were by and if they, the theologians, and not the bishops, were the large not corrected or disciplined. Discipline was only primary teachers in the Church. Polls soon verified that insisted upon by Rome in a few notorious cases such modern contraceptive methods were being resorted to as that of Fr. Charles E. Curran (think Cardinal Ratz- by Catholics almost as frequently as by anybody else. inger!). In those cases the bishops loyally went along

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 7 Articles but rarely—almost never—did they initiate any such Church’s opposition to taxpayer subsidized birth con- disciplinary cases themselves. Dissenters from Humane trol. Califano negotiated this agreement with Fr. Francis vitae remained “in good standing” in the Church. Over T. Hurley, later archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska, act- several decades, dissent from the encyclical was rarely— ing with the consent of the then president of the U.S. again almost never—considered a disqualifying factor bishops’ conference, Detroit Archbishop (later Cardinal) for holding a pastoral or even a teaching position in the John Dearden. According to Califano, it was agreed that Catholic Church. “if the president phrased his policy in terms of ‘popula- While some Catholics may have dimly recalled tion control’ (which allowed for the Church-approved from time to time that there was a Church teaching rhythm method of family planning as well as contracep- against contraception, most seemed able to consider it tion) the bishops would cool their rhetoric.” (Today it is merely a “technicality,” or perhaps a “non-essential”— hard to see how anyone could ever have imagined that or they put it out of their minds entirely. “population control” was any less opposed to Catholic What then happened was that pretty nearly ev- moral teaching than contraception!) erybody in the Church just stopped talking about However accurate this account of Joseph Cali- contraception. Priests stopped preaching about it; fano’s may be, the U.S. bishops did in fact cease their teachers stopped teaching about it; nor does it seem to public opposition to publicly funded family-planning have figured importantly in marriage counseling any programs, a new Church policy which then endured longer, or perhaps even in confession. Any mention of for decades nearly up to the present day. These U.S. it, in fact, largely disappeared from Catholic discourse. government programs continue to be massively funded, Perhaps many thought, if they ever thought about it of course, but the Church became mute with regard to at all, that the teaching eventually would just be qui- them. The earlier expected “wrath” of the U.S. bishops etly dropped (forgetting that the Catholic Church never materialized and effectively did get laid aside. In never just “quietly drops” her authentic teachings). contrast to the consistent and commendable opposition A dissident moral theologian, the late Fr. Richard A. to legalized abortion which the American bishops have McCormick, S.J., periodically published in the Jesuit always maintained, government subsidized family-plan- magazine America a succession of articles each entitled ning and population-control programs got a free pass “The Silence since Humanae Vitae.” That was precisely as far as the public stance of the Catholic Church was the case; there was silence. concerned. Nor was this silence confined to intra-Church There is, of course, no requirement that the Catho- discourse. It was around the same time, that is, dur- lic Church must always actively oppose every evil that ing the Johnson Administration in the 1960s, that the finds its way into the public square. The Church has Catholic Church in the United States ceased its former long recognized that the social cost of attempting to public opposition to U.S. government family-planning stamp out some obvious evils (e.g., prostitution) can and population-control programs. Beginning in the sometimes exceed any benefit. In the case of govern- 1950s, these programs had come to be thought desir- ment-subsidized birth control, however, with the Sexual able if not essential by American’s social-engineering Revolution in full swing, the Church’s official passiv- elites. The Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy Admin- ity in the matter could only contribute to the already istrations all dearly wished to get on board with family widespread belief that the Church was not, and could planning and population control programs—but they not be, really serious in her opposition to contracep- feared the wrath of the Catholic bishops of the day; tion; this Church teaching surely had to be considered they didn’t dare propose any such thing as taxpayer an anachronism, a “nonessential” that could surely now funding of them. safely be left aside, as many contracepting Catholics However, as revealed in a Washington Post op-ed and dissenting theologians had laid it aside. Surely the article published on December 2, 2009, Joseph Califano, Obama Administration was thus not altogether mistak- President Lyndon Johnson’s principal domestic affairs en in assuming that it would be laid aside when it came advisor (and later, President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary to the mandate. Hasn’t the Church been nonjudgmen- of Health, Education, and Welfare), recalled how the tal, if not actually indulgent, of the Catholic politicians Johnson Administration reached an agreement with the and public figures who promote legalized abortion? U.S. bishops’ conference of the day in accordance with They continue on without any rebuke or correction which the bishops would cease to press publicly the from the Church.

8 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 It was in this climate, precisely, that the Obama memorably in defense of religious liberty. The USCCB Administration elected to impose the Obamacare HHS website recorded similar activities in more than ninety mandate, henceforth requiring pretty nearly everybody U.S. dioceses during this same Fortnight for Freedom. to carry and pay for health insurance covering free One especially notable thing in the case of all these contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients. From all activities was the degree to which the Catholic people public accounts, it seems that the Obama Administra- seemed to be rather solidly behind their bishops. De- tion entirely did not anticipate anything more than murrals by a few liberal Catholics here and there have pro forma opposition from the Catholic Church. The not taken hold, or resonated; and, indeed, these have Church long had been wholly silent on public funding seemed more than a little half-hearted. No doubt there of birth control, and Catholics themselves were divided are Catholics who do not like what the bishops are on the issue. In other words, it was considered the kind doing—a few have spoken out—but few others seem of “wedge issue” spoken of by Archbishop Lori that disposed to strongly oppose or “fight” the bishops. The would surely further divide Catholics. campaign in favor of religious liberty seems to have Instead, within a little more than a week follow- largely taken hold. Even Catholics who disagree with ing the announcement of the mandate by HHS Sec- the Church about the wrongness of contraception can retary Kathleen Sebelius on January 20, the Obama nevertheless see that what the government is attempting Administration suddenly found itself confronted by to force upon the Church is unprecedented and indeed the virtual monolithic opposition of the Catholic outrageous, an unexampled violation of religious liberty Church in America. All of the 181 dioceses in the on anybody’s interpretation. United States—that’s all of them—issued public state- Meanwhile, on June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ments in opposition to the mandate as a gross viola- declined to overturn Obamacare on constitutional tion of the religious liberty of Catholics. Nothing even grounds. The mandate thus remains in place. However, remotely like this had ever happened in the history of by this time no less than twenty-three lawsuits have the Church in this country—but then nothing like the been filed against it, including twelve separate chal- mandate that the U.S. government was presuming to lenges by some forty-three Catholic dioceses, schools, impose upon a whole faith community in violation of hospitals, social service agencies, and other institutions. the moral teachings of that same faith community had These lawsuits collectively represent very serious chal- ever been attempted by the U.S. government, either. lenges to a government mandate which, on its face, On the contrary, American law and practice had tradi- seems to be in clear violation not only of the First tionally allowed fairly wide latitude to “conscientious Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that supposedly objectors”—a policy which the Obama Administration guarantees the free exercise of religion in the United seems to have deliberately eschewed in this case. States, but also of other laws such as the Religious Free- Thus, the Church’s opposition turned out to be dom Restoration Act. anything but pro forma, and it has continued apace, All these court cases have to be adjudicated, of gathering speed and strength. Among numerous mani- course, and even though federal judges in Nebraska festations, the U.S. bishops themselves sponsored a Fort- and Washington, D.C., rather quickly dismissed two of night for Freedom of prayer, special events, and demon- them—basically on the grounds that the plaintiffs had strations against the mandate. This nationwide campaign as yet suffered no real restrictions or penalties—the took place between the Feast of Sts. Thomas More and decisions in these two cases hardly touched upon the John Fisher, martyrs to religious liberty, on June 21, and real and essential question of whether anyone’s religious American Independence Day on July 4. It began with liberty was really being violated or not. It did not seem a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Lori in Baltimore’s likely that these legal challenges could all be dismissed National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary attended quite as cavalierly as this, nor that the Obama Admin- by a capacity of crowd of more than 1,000 worship- istration could easily conclude that its plans and inten- pers, and concluded a fortnight later with another Mass tions could still be carried through in the face of the estimated to have been attended by as many as 5,000 substantial opposition, both legal and otherwise, that has held in Washington’s National Shrine of the Immacu- now emerged. late Conception; this latter Mass was celebrated by Certainly, the apparent original notion that the Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, while Catholic teaching against contraception could safely Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput preached be ignored because Catholics themselves were divided

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 9 Articles about it has turned out to be a distinct nonstarter. The For Catholics, the clerical sex-abuse crisis that Obama Administration appears not to have had any exploded in 2002 and after adds an element that is es- inkling of the opposition that was going to arise. This pecially troubling. How could the Church’s legitimate was a very serious miscalculation and overreach on the practice of clerical celibacy have been so wrongly used part of the Obama people. The “wedge” hasn’t worked as a cover for deviants to abuse children and young as planned. Moreover, the opposition to the mandate people? The rest of America is currently learning that has hardly been confined to Catholics. Protestant, Or- such deviancy is scarcely confined to abusing clergy. thodox, Jewish, Muslim, and even some secularist voices But the obvious conclusion applies generally: namely, have been raised in opposition to it. On June 11, more that moral judgments do have to be made about some than 150 Protestant leaders signed an open letter to this sexual behavior, and society (like the Church) does have effect, and this was only one manifestation of this kind to enforce certain standards. “Anything goes” doesn’t go of ecumenical support. Anyone who seriously looks any longer! at the issue, after all, has to realize that if the govern- Contraception, the supposedly neutral “method” ment can successfully impose this kind of mandate on that made possible the Sexual Revolution in the first Catholics and the Catholic Church, it can undoubtedly place, is now coming to be recognized as something henceforth impose practically anything on anybody. else besides the “liberating” thing it was originally wel- So what has come about, perhaps unexpectedly for comed as. In fact, it has been the “enabler” of sexual some, is that the opposition to the mandate has held behavior that, too often—in fact, regularly—turns steady and coalesced and increased: there is not just a out to be both wrong and harmful. As this conclusion majority but a virtual unanimity of the Catholic bish- dawns upon more and more people, often as a result of ops of the United States, with the membership of what painful experience, belief in and recourse to contracep- remains America’s largest Church in numbers basically tion begins to diminish. It has now once again become behind them, as well as solid and welcome further sup- possible to say out loud that contraception is wrong, as port from society at large. How did it come about, then, the Church has taught all along. that a Church which had benignly tolerated for decades In November 2009, the U.S. bishops, who had been dissent within her own ranks, as well as taxpayer sub- silent on the subject for decades, turned around and sidies to Planned Parenthood, suddenly decide to turn issued not one but two pastoral letters that underlined around and cry, in effect, “Hell no! We won’t go!”? both the truth and the importance of the Church’s First of all, the turn was not quite as sudden as it teaching about contraception. The first of these pastoral may have seemed. For some years the conviction has letters, entitled “Marriage and Love in the Divine Plan,” been growing for an increasing number of people, contains a firm defense of the Church’s teaching about and not just Catholics, that the Sexual Revolution has marriage generally, making good use of Pope John Paul hardly been an unalloyed success. The dysfunctions and II’s “theology of the body” (expressly developed in pathologies it has brought in its wake have increasingly the wake of the dissent against Humanae vitae, and as a come to be seen as deleterious not only to individual counter to it). lives but to the life of society generally. Infidelity, di- The second of these two 2009 pastoral letters, vorce, cohabitation, promiscuity, STDs, out-of-wedlock “Life-giving Love in an Age of Technologies,” deals pregnancies, fatherless families, delinquency, abor- with the problems of infertile couples tempted to resort tions—all such manifestations, and yet others (such as to modern technical methods and procedures which the actual penalties now being imposed in some places may be gravely immoral. The upshot of both of these for not recognizing that two partners of the same sex episcopal documents is that the U.S. Catholic bishops are “married”) have pointed ineluctably to the conclu- are now very much back in the business of actively ex- sion that the major premise of the Sexual Revolution is pounding and defending the Church’s teachings against quite simply—wrong! contraception—just in time, it turns out, to have to face This major premise, of course, is that no moral up to the Obama Administration’s bold attempt to force judgments or criticisms or penalties are ever to be the Church to violate these teachings. made with regard to the sexual behavior of consenting Not uninterestingly, the retired archbishop of An- adults. It is a false premise, and much harm has fol- chorage who, according to Joseph Califano, negotiated lowed in the wake of society’s more or less tacit accep- the original neutrality pact on birth control with the tance of it up to now. Johnson Administration, voted against the bishops’ two

10 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 pastoral letters! Interestingly, too, the USCCB General disedifying mandate business is how the Obama Ad- Counsel’s office has resumed after many years silence ministration’s “house Catholics”—again, think former registering the Church’s public opposition to subsidiz- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or Vice President Joseph ing contraception in U.S. government family-planning Biden, or, especially, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius programs. herself, who has been the president’s principal agent in In the case of these government programs, un- all this—seem never at any point to have realized, and desirable and immoral as they undoubtedly are, there therefore to have been able to advise their president, has at least not been any direct, formal cooperation by that the Administration was attempting to impose on the Catholic taxpayer in sponsoring them. In the case Catholics and the Catholic Church something they of the Obamacare HHS mandate, however, Catholic could not comply with! And this in an election year no employers, like Catholics generally, are now going to less! Thus, it has been the president’s own “Catholic” be obliged to purchase and pay directly for insurance collaborators who have allowed him to stray into what policies that obligatorily provide for the use of meth- has to be considered an overreach that has resulted ods and procedures judged to be gravely immoral by in the mobilization of virtually the entire Catholic the teaching authority of the Church—in other words, Church in America against him. Nothing like this has they will be obliged to act in direct violation of the ever happened in the Catholic Church in America! Church’s teaching, something no Catholic with a cor- We do not yet know how the Obamacare HHS rectly formed conscience can morally do. The essence mandate issue is going to be resolved, whether through of mortal sin is to act to do evil, knowing it is evil. the courts, the ballot box, or otherwise. What we do There can thus be no compromise whatsoever with know—something the Obama Administration apparent- what the government is now demanding. The Church, ly does not yet understand—is that the Catholic Church therefore, has had to fight the contraception mandate. in the United States, because of the mandate, is fully and The main reason the U.S. bishops have been so strong irrevocably committed to its repeal. The mandate cannot and unanimous in making clear that the Church cannot stand. It must be opposed, even if this entails suffering comply with the mandate is that the bishops clearly see and possibly even outright civil disobedience. that the Church herself cannot comply with it. USCCB At the same time, something else has been brought president Cardinal Dolan of New York plainly and about by this crisis: in opposing the mandate, the explicitly told President Obama precisely this—that the Catholic Church is once again publicly articulating Church cannot comply—when the president telephoned and defending her authentic teaching about contracep- him back in January to inform him that the mandate tion. The silence since Humanae vitae has been broken. was going to be put in place. For his part, the president Priests once again are preaching about contracep- told the cardinal that the Church was being given a tion; once again it has come to figure again in religion grace period of a year to figure out how to comply. The courses as well as in marriage preparation and counsel- president simply does not understand that the Church ing (and no doubt also in the confessional!); Catholics will not and cannot comply. are standing up for the teaching in the public forum; The very day before the mandate was announced, it is no longer seen as the oddity or anachronism that on January 19, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI reminded a the Catholic Church alone was attempting to uphold. group of American bishops on their ad limina visit to The teaching against contraception that almost no- Rome that what the mandate would be requiring of body wanted to defend thus turns out to be a teaching all Americans is nothing less than an “intrinsic evil.” that imperatively has to be defended. It thus may well Nobody compromises on something believed to be an be that in the end the opposition to the mandate by intrinsic evil; nor do the American Catholic bishops Catholics and the Church will prove to be the “won- have the power to modify or water down the Church’s derful moment” that Archbishop Lori spoke about—the teaching in any way in the matter, as the Obama people Church of Christ rising up in defense of “the sacredness perhaps imagine. The bishops are going to have to hang of human life in its origins.” ✠ tough. They are hanging tough. One of the more remarkable facts about the whole Copyright 2012 the Witherspoon Institute. All rights reserved.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 11 Articles Casey at Twenty: Lessons from a Judicial Disaster

by William Saunders reverse Roe. Though it recast or abandoned many of the important aspects of Roe (e.g., substituting “substantial William Saunders is the Senior Vice President and Senior burden” for strict scrutiny, and apparently dropping Counsel of Americans United for Life. the trimester framework for a viability standard), the This piece originally appeared on July 2, 2012, in Public majority (composed of two pro-Roe diehards and three Discourse. Copyright 2012 the Witherspoon Institute. others who will be discussed extensively below) refused All rights reserved. to overturn Roe. (Its “reasons” for doing so have been subjected to scorching critique by many, most notably The lesson of Casey is that the nomination and Professor Michael Paulsen.) confirmation of judges with a sound judicial philosophy Many—including the majority in Casey—expected is an essential foundation stone of a culture of life. the decision to end the matter. Pro-life Americans were expected to take their pro-life convictions into the wenty years ago last Friday the Supreme privacy of their homes and their individual consciences, Court announced a landmark decision, and to abandon the public square. Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Casey concerned That—thank God—did not happen. Instead, build- whether Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision es- ing on the Court’s decision upholding most of Penn- Ttablishing a constitutional right to abortion, would be sylvania’s restrictions (despite its incoherent reasons overruled or would remain the law of the land. What for doing so), pro-life forces strove to enact legislative Casey did, in effect, was to ratify Roe. And that effect is restrictions. breathtaking—twenty more years of abortion on de- For example, Casey was the first decision allow- mand, with millions of unborn human beings dead and ing detailed informed-consent requirements. So fifteen millions of women scarred physically, psychologically, states since Casey enacted such laws. Fourteen other and emotionally. states, which had such laws before Casey, significantly It didn’t have to turn out that way. strengthened them afterwards. The political process had been churning ever since Similarly, since Casey upheld Pennsylvania’s parental Roe was decided. Many states sought ways to limit or involvement law, eighteen states enacted such laws after eliminate abortion despite Roe, and passed various Casey. Eight other states strengthened previously en- kinds of restrictions. Cases contesting those regulations acted laws in this area. made it all the way to the Supreme Court on more Likewise, expanding upon notions of informed than one occasion. In particular, in 1989, Webster v. R e - consent, in the past decade, twenty-one states have en- productive Health Services produced, for the first time on acted ultrasound requirements. the Court, a five-vote majority upholding state abor- It is essential to note that these laws were not en- tion regulations. Given that the votes in favor of Roe acted to make peace with a landscape of pro-abortion had been diminishing steadily from the high water conquest in the wake of Casey. Rather, these laws were mark of seven (in Roe itself), the momentum seemed enacted to hem in abortion, to show it for the evil it is, to be growing in the courts not only to uphold tighter and to limit it as much as possible, as soon as possible. restrictions but even to overturn Roe. But they aim for more. They aim to overturn the One of the states that had been encouraged to abortion-on-demand regime inaugurated by Roe and strengthen its abortion limits by the Webster decision affirmed (and entrenched) by Casey. They aim to do was Pennsylvania. And it was Pennsylvania’s regula- so by expanding the few openings left by Casey. They tions that were the subject of the case that next reached aim to identify within Casey the seeds of its own de- the Supreme Court. While the Court upheld most of struction. And they aim to bring that seed to fruition the Pennsylvania restrictions, what it did not do was to through a decision of the same body that inaugurated

12 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 the abortion regime, the Supreme Court. Who were the Casey Three? None of them was There is no reason to believe this cannot be ac- a holdover from Roe. Indeed, they were all confirmed complished. Roe and Casey are incoherent as matters in the years after Roe, when the unsoundness and in- of constitutional interpretation. The implied-privacy- justice of Roe were very much a part of the cultural right basis of Roe is not taken seriously anywhere, even and political debate. All three justices were nominated within the pro-abortion legal academy. The “individual and confirmed under Republican presidents—San- liberty” basis of Casey (“At the heart of liberty is the dra Day O’Connor (nominated by Ronald Reagan in right to define one’s own concept of existence, of 1981 and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 99-0); meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human Anthony Kennedy (nominated by Reagan in 1987 and life”) is similarly ridiculed (as is its conclusion-begging confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 97-0); and David reliance on stare decisis). At some point, a majority of Souter (nominated by George H.W. Bush in 1990 and the Court will admit that there is no right to abortion confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 90-9). under the Constitution, and return the matter to the Clearly, what matters is not the political party that state legislatures. supports the judge. What matters is the judicial phi- That seems an unassailable conclusion. losophy of the judge. Does he take the view of the And, yet, such a conclusion seemed unassailable in 1992 Casey Three that the Court is free to “find” substan- as well. I believe that if we do not learn the essential tive rights in general terms such as “liberty”? Does he lesson of Casey, we will be as disappointed in the future agree with them that once the Court has spoken the as we were in past. issue is closed? That it is all but impossible to reverse Casey was a 5 to 4 decision by the Court. That is, clearly wrong rulings on the most pressing issues of Roe was upheld by a single vote. There were four votes the day? Or does the judge take a restrained view of to directly overrule Roe. After twenty years struggling his role, one consistent with the original intentions of to right the wrong that was (and is) Roe, the pro-life the Framers, one that corrects wrong decisions because cause had four votes to overturn it. And then something they are wrong, because they are not required by the happened. Constitution? Three justices blinked. Last Friday marked the twentieth anniversary of a Three justices joined with two unabashed support- highly significant case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The ers of Roe to uphold it. decision, however, by upholding some state statutes Three justices refused to follow the logic of their restricting abortion, may contain the seeds of its own own evaluation of Roe, all but explicit in their opinion destruction because it enabled citizens to enact regu- in Casey, that Roe was wrong as a matter of constitu- lations of abortion, regulations that will continue to tional interpretation, and strike it down. Rather they be challenged in the federal courts, giving subsequent demanded that pro-life Americans accept what the Supreme Courts the opportunity to reverse both Roe Court had wrought in Roe as something that could and Casey. However, that will not happen if future jus- never be overturned because to do so would be to damage tices are confirmed whose judicial philosophy is like the institutional prestige of the Court. They asserted that to that of the Casey Three, a freewheeling interpretation recognize a wrong and to correct it would damage the of constitutional provisions combined with an ironclad Court’s role and American democracy, but failing to requirement that the people submit to the Court’s in- do so would maintain the Court’s prestige and essential terpretations, even when wrong. role. The lesson of Casey is that the nomination and That, it must be remarked, is an astounding propo- confirmation of judges with a sound judicial philoso- sition, hardly one that most Americans would accept or phy is an essential foundation stone of a culture of life. respect. Ordinary Americans do not, I believe, respect That culture cannot be built if judges feel themselves the Court merely because it speaks. Rather, they re- empowered to knock it down. Our Constitution no- spect it because they believe it speaks truth—it eluci- where recognizes a right to rule by “enlightened” dates what the Constitution actually means. The view judges. The people we select for high judicial office of what we might call “the Casey Three,” however, must understand this and their judicial philosophy must reflects a view of the judiciary that is truly imperial—if reflect it. We forget this lesson from Casey not only at the Court says it, whether it is true or not, Americans our peril, but at the peril of millions of unborn children must obey it. and their mothers. ✠

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 13 Articles Interpreting Vatican II: Beyond Continuity/Discontinuity

by Fr. John Conley, S.J. of a certain age saw in the 1960s. The product promot- ed by the commercial was a mint called Certs. The ad s we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the opened with two people (often twins or other siblings) convocation of the Second Vatican Coun- arguing about the mysterious identity of the product. cil, many Catholic scholars are disputing One person argued, “Certs is a breath mint.” The other whether we should interpret the texts of argued, “Certs is a candy mint.” After this passionate theA council through a hermeneutic of continuity or debate, a calm, omniscient voice cried out, “Stop, you’re one of discontinuity. The partisans of continuity insist both right!” The disputants would smile, caress their that Vatican II did not alter the teaching of the church. pack of Certs, and the rest of us would discover the In union with Catholic teaching promulgated by ear- mystery of how that same pack of white tablets could lier councils and popes, Vatican II simply expressed the actually be both a breath mint and a candy mint. Church’s perennial doctrine on faith and morals in In fact, Vatican II exhibits both continuities and language adapted to the sensibilities of contemporary, discontinuities with previous councils as well as obvi- educated people. The partisans of discontinuity argue ous differences. It copiously cites previous ecumenical that in both style and substance, Vatican II represented a councils, especially Vatican I and Trent, in its documents, serious departure from, perhaps a rupture with, previous including the most controversial passages on ecumen- Catholic teaching. ism, religious freedom, and collegiality. The texts of This hermeneutical split has opposed the Bologna the conciliar debates indicate that the council fathers school, typified by Giuseppe Albergio,1 to the Roman supporting the more controversial passages insisted that school, exemplified by Agostino Marchetto.2 While the these texts were in conformity with earlier conciliar former highlights discontinuity, claiming that the coun- declarations, papal encyclicals, and creeds. Just as there cil was a new Pentecost, the latter stresses continuity were continuities, there were discontinuities. As John with earlier Church history and criticizes conceiving O’Malley rightly notes, the literary genre of Vatican the council as a rupture with the past. Dueling Ameri- II was markedly different from that used by previous can publications advance each thesis. John O’Malley’s councils; the rhetoric of moral exhortation had largely collective work Vatican II: Did Anything Really Happen? replaced the earlier legal rhetoric of definition and defends the novelty of the council, while Matthew anathema.4 I would also note one of my favorite dif- Lamb and Matthew Levering’s anthology Vatican II: ferences. A pope, namely John XXIII, convoked the Renewal Within Tradition underlines the council’s neo- Second Vatican Council, whereas a woman, namely classicism.3 The dispute over continuity/discontinu- Empress Irene, convoked the Council of Nicea in 787. ity is not a scholar’s parlor game. It has clear practical This council is a personal favorite because Irene and consequences for the current life of the Church. To her allies condemned the iconoclasts and set the stage cite one obvious example, the protracted negotiations for some glorious medieval church art. between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X, I would like to suggest that if the continuity/ the schismatic disciples of Marcel Lefebvre, pivot in part discontinuity debate is less enlightening than it seems on whether a hermeneutics of continuity can permit because Vatican II is both, we might find other perspec- members of the Society to accept certain Vatican II tives through which we could interpret these complex theses which they have long rejected. documents. I believe that the conciliar texts themselves Each side in the dispute can marshal its own pre- provide at least three possible paths for an alternative conciliar, conciliar, and postconciliar sources to prove hermeneutics of the council. These hermeneutical ap- its particular interpretation of Vatican II’s documents. proaches include development of doctrine, the analogy But this debate on continuity/discontinuity increasingly of faith, and ressourcement/aggiornamento. While each reminds me of an old television commercial many of us of these approaches appears within the limits of one

14 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 particular conciliar document, I believe that each sug- of the state to recognize and defend the Church: rather, gests a method of interpretation which could help us to it constituted a development of the Church. It both comprehend the council as a whole in ways that avoid confirmed certain elements of the previous teaching the impasse of the continuity/discontinuity debate. and developed newer elements which were not pres- ent or present only implicitly in the earlier ecclesiastical Development of Doctrine documents. In this perspective, the declaration confirmed the Church’s position that the Catholic Church is the one n Dignitatis humanae, the Declaration on Religious Church founded by Christ and that all people had the Freedom (1965), the Second Vatican Council moral duty to enter this Church and persevere in it, declared its commitment to the development of once they knew this truth; that the act of faith must doctrine. In the preface to the declaration, the be free and rational—an ancient canonical position on Icouncil fathers declare: the nature of faith—and that an externally coerced act Truth can impose itself on the mind of man only in of faith is an oxymoron and an offense to God; that virtue of its own truth, which wins over the mind the Catholic Church had the right to administer pub- with both gentleness and power. So while the reli- lic institutions in conformity with her beliefs (such as gious freedom which men demand in fulfilling their schools, hospitals, and social welfare agencies), and that obligation to worship God has to do with freedom she had the right to take a stand on the public issues from coercion in civil society, it leaves intact the tra- of the day. In this sense, the “freedom of religion” con- ditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of indi- demned by the popes of the nineteenth century was the viduals and societies towards the true religion and the limited “religious freedom” conceded by liberal states one Church of Christ. Furthermore in dealing with issuing from the French Revolution. According to this the question of liberty the sacred Council intends to oppressive account of religious freedom, religion was a develop the teaching of recent popes on the inviolable purely private affair, often reduced to the single right of rights of the human person and on the constitutional worship, and the Church could not express itself in the order of society (DH, n. 1). public world of politics, education, and healthcare. In The council’s appeal to the development of doc- the developmentalist perspective, the Church had added trine—the first in conciliar history—was occasioned something new in its teaching on religious freedom. It by a very particular problem. The declaration’s teaching now insisted that the right to freedom in one’s personal that human beings enjoy immunity from civil coercion act of faith included the right to express one’s sincere in the exercise of religious freedom appeared to con- religious convictions through public teaching, media, tradict the condemnation of religious freedom found worship, and efforts at proselytism. While the docu- in several prominent papal documents, such as Pius IX’s ment did not forbid the state from recognizing Catholi- Syllabus of Errors. It appeared to contradict the long- cism—or indeed any other religion—as the official state standing teaching of the Catholic Church that ideally religion, it urged the state to protect the civil right to the state should recognize Catholicism as the state’s religious freedom among all its citizens, especially those official religion and repress expressions of heretical of religious minorities. Dignitatis humanae exemplifies ideas in the public forum, such as proselytizing activities the development of doctrine inasmuch as it simultane- and public acts of false worship. The Church had long ously reaffirms traditional positions on the rights of justified such a quasi-theocratic arrangement on the the Church, the truth of the Catholic religion, and the grounds that salvation was the highest good of the indi- freedom of the act of faith and advances new positions vidual soul (and hence eminently worthy of protection on the contingency of the confessional state and on the by the state with an overwhelmingly Catholic popula- contemporary value of the limited personal autonomy tion) and that such a close interaction with the Church which respect of human dignity requires. will strengthen the general moral order which the state Unless tempered, the developmentalist approach promoted among its citizens. would provide near-arbitrary justification for almost The council argued that the declaration’s defense of any change in doctrine, as long as something from past the civil right to the exercise of religious freedom did teaching was conserved. John Henry Newman’s Essay not represent a repudiation of the earlier church teach- on the Development of Christian Doctrine—which was ing on the danger of religious freedom and the duties undoubtedly one of the inspirations for the conciliar

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 15 Articles passage on development—provides a useful set of cri- all Scripture, taking into account the Tradition of the teria to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate changes entire Church and the analogy of faith, if we are to in religious doctrine.5 According to Newman, authentic derive their true meaning from the sacred texts. It is developments of doctrine possess the following char- the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, acteristics: (1) conservation of type (the changes do not towards a better understanding and explanation of alter the substance of the earlier doctrinal position, just the meaning of Sacred Scripture so that their research as the oak is not substantially different from the acorn); may help the Church to form a firmer judgment (DV, (2) theoretical continuity (practical applications of a n. 12). theory may change, but the underlying principles of How would the “analogy of faith” operate practi- the earlier teaching remain); (3) assimilative power (the cally in the interpretation of biblical passages? I believe teaching could acquire new nuances as its grows within I saw it demonstrated by my Old Testament teacher in the bounds of a particular historical era); (4) logical Paris, the Jesuit Paul Beauchamp. One day a Buddhist consistency (the development does not contradict pre- student asked Paul where he should begin in reading vious versions of the teaching); (5) temporal anticipa- the Bible. Paul told him that he could start anywhere. tion (although not explicit, the current development of Every passage in the Bible contained echoes, references, the doctrine could be seen retrospectively to be implicit and premonitions of other biblical texts. The Prologue or at least possible in earlier accounts of the teaching in to St. John’s Gospel could lead the reader to the open- question); (6) conservative relationship to its past (the ing account of creation in Genesis. Genesis’s account development clearly affirms earlier articulations of the of the fall would lead the reader to the discussion of teaching); (7) critical vigor (the development possesses Adam in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. As the atten- the capacity to contest theological errors concerning tive reader followed the memory and anticipations of the substance of the doctrine and the ability to correct the various biblical texts, the comprehensive truth of these errors). Martin Rohnheimer has recently dem- the Bible itself would gradually unveil itself. Granted, onstrated how the teaching of Dignitatis humanae on this is a somewhat Parisian twist on the analogy of religious freedom possesses these traits of authentic de- faith; truth is hidden in the footnotes, in the Roland velopment.6 I believe that such a Newmanian herme- Barthes manner. neutic of development can assist in the interpretation of As opposed to more traditional philological or many other conciliar texts, such as those on ecumenism historical approaches, which tend to focus on isolated and interreligious dialogue, which pose similar ques- books or passages, this analogical approach attempts to tions of doctrinal identity through pronounced histori- grasp Scripture as a whole, to read individual books cal change. and passages in the light of the whole, and to highlight rather than bracket the divine authorship which is the source and guarantor of the redemptive truth at the Analogy of Faith center of the biblical edifice. What would such an “analogy of faith” approach n Dei verbum (1965), the Second Vatican Council’s to interpreting the documents of the council yield? It dogmatic constitution on revelation, the council would emphasize the unity of the corpus of conciliar fathers consider the problem of Scriptural ex- texts and interpret particular passages in the light of the egesis. While approving with some cautions the entire ensemble of texts, not simply in light of other Ihistorical-critical approach to biblical interpretation, passages within the same document. Unsurprisingly, the text insists on the value of “the analogy of faith” for much of the scholarly interpretation of controverted a proper interpretation of the Bible as a whole. Philo- passages within conciliar documents has tended to logical, historical, and contextualist approaches might focus on the position of the passage within a specific illuminate the genesis and structure of particular bibli- document, on how the passage emerged through vari- cal books and passages. But the analogical approach ous drafts of the text on the floor of the council, and explores the interrelatedness of all biblical texts as the on how the text was understood (and often contested) unique inspired Word of God. during the debates on the floor of the council. While Since the Sacred Scripture must be read and inter- valuable, such methods tend to atomize the conciliar preted with its divine authorship in mind, no less documents—a result difficult to avoid in an era of spe- attention must be devoted to the content and unity of cialization. An analogical approach would relate the part

16 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 to the whole; particular passages would be interpreted comprises both a constant return to the sources [res- in light of the corpus of conciliar documents. sourcement] of religious life and to the primitive inspira- Such an analogical approach would encourage tion [or charism] of the institutes and their adaptation efforts to study broad themes which characterize the to the changed conditions of our time. This renewal, council across a variety of apparently dissimilar texts. under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and with the The concept of freedom in the aforementioned Digni- guidance of the Church, must follow certain principles tatis humanae could be compared with the treatments of (PC, n. 2). freedom in Lumen gentium, the dogmatic constitution This summons to simultaneous ressourcement and on the Church (1964), and Gaudium et spes, the pastoral aggiornamento entails a complex dynamic of recovery constitution on the church (1965). While elucidating and of adaptation. Each religious order is to recover its the differences in concept, such an analogous approach founding charism. This is not only the particular apos- would privilege the similarities in concept and high- tolic work in which it specializes, but also its distinctive light the ways in which all the disparate passages and founding vision, spirituality, mode of governance, and documents in which they are embedded have a unique intellectual heritage. The adaptation mandated presup- authorship n the Church and, more boldly, in the Holy poses an adequate knowledge of the contemporary Spirit. I also believe such an analogical hermeneutic world in which the religious lives. Unsurprisingly, sub- would foster some creative pairings in an attempt to sequent passages in the decree insist on changes in the grasp more deeply the elusive “mind of the council.” material culture of religious orders and in the forma- For example, Sacrosanctum concilium, the constitution tion of younger members. on the liturgy (1963), has been the object of intense The conciliar charge to exercise both ressourcement controversy because of the changes it precipitated in and aggiornamento is not a simple call to integrate both the way Catholics worship, especially in the way we past and present in the renewed life of a religious order. celebrate Mass. It is odd, however, that the controverted There is a volitional dimension to this appropriation passages are rarely tied to similar passages in Inter miri- of past and present. The dynamic of ressourcement is a fica, the conciliar declaration on social communications, targeted retrieval of the past. It seeks to recapture the which was promulgated on the same day, December animating charism and foundational texts, graces, and 4, 1963. Both documents have extensive passages on persons of the order’s early existence. Not all moments the nature of art, specifically sacred art. Both were or markers in the past receive equal treatment. The debated in the early days of the council: 1962-1963. dynamic of aggiornamento is similarly precise. Its primary Both breathe a similar, but not identical, vocabulary. An objective is to form members of the order in a distinc- “analogy of faith” approach to the conciliar documents tive knowledge of the contemporary world. themselves, and not only to the Biblical text aimed at “Lest the adaptation of religious life to the needs of by the “analogy” passage in Dei verbum, could yield an our time be merely external and lest those whose rule insight into the meaning of the council which more assigns them to the active ministry should prove un- partitioned, isolated-silo interpretations of particular equal to the task, they should be properly instructed— texts have often missed. each according to his intellectual caliber and personal bent—concerning the behavior patterns, the emotional attitudes, and the thought processes of modern soci- Ressourcement/aggiornamento ety” (PC, n. 18). Reflecting the democratic ethos of contemporary society, the method of renewal stresses erfectae caritatis, Vatican II’s decree on the re- consultation and dialogue. “In matters which concern newal of religious life (specifically of the the entire institute, superiors should find appropriate Church’s religious orders; 1965), employs a means of consulting their subjects and should listen to simultaneous call to ressourcement and aggior- them” (PC, n. 4). The decree directs all adaptations be Pnamento in its mandate for the reform of the vowed life. conducted with prudence, with a critical discernment Ressourcement here is a return to authentic sources of of the mores of the culture in which the religious order the identity of an order; aggiornamento is the updating is conducting its changes. of religious orders to adapt to the needs of the con- An imperative for the renewal of religious life, temporary world. the decree’s use of ressourcement and aggiornamento can The up-to-date [aggiornamento] of the religious life provide a hermeneutical framework for other conciliar

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 17 Articles texts. Sacrosanctum concilium’s mandate or liturgical Conclusion reform follows a similar dynamic. Why does this con- ciliar constitution attempt to retrieve the liturgy of the fifth-century basilica as a type of liturgical ideal? Why he dispute between partisans of a herme- does the Church no longer turn, as it did in the late neutic of continuity and a hermeneutic nineteenth century, to the medieval liturgy of Cluny as of discontinuity regarding Vatican II will its beau ideal? In its mandate for change and adaptation, probably intensify as the Church celebrates specificT milestones during the fiftieth anniversary of why does the council place such a high value on “the active participation of the faithful”? To what extent is the council. The passion of this apparently theoreti- this ideal of participation linked to the emphasis on cal dispute is tied to its grave practical consequences participation as a moral value in the social teaching of for the life of the church. But I would suggest that the Gaudium et spes? This is more than a simple affirmation conciliar texts themselves propose alternative paths for of continuity with the past and change to adapt to interpreting the corpus of Vatican II and for integrating the needs of the present and, presumably, of the near the council as both event and text into contemporary future. It is a selective retrieval and reinterpretation of ecclesial life. Viewing the council through the council’s certain ecclesial texts and events; it is a targeted inter- own lenses of development, analogy of faith, and res- pretation of certain events in contemporary culture sourcement/aggiornamento might yield a richer herme- and a critical effort to respond to these events through neutical focus for viewing the council than our current a particular set of changes. binary oppositions suggest. ✠ The hermeneutic of ressourcement/aggiornamento can also help in the interpretation of Vatican II as a whole. Endnotes The entire ensemble of conciliar texts and the larger 1 See Guissepe Albergio, Storia del Concilio Vatican II, 4 vols. (Bolo- “event” of the council itself involves a selective retrieval gna: Ed. Il Mulino, 1999). and revivification of certain markers in the Church’s 2 See Agostino Marchetti, Il Concilio Ecumenico Vatican II. Contrapunto past, especially its biblical and patristic past, and a tar- per la sua storia (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005). geted effort to adapt the Church’s mode of teaching 3 See Vatican II: Did Anything Happen? ed. John O’Malley (New York, NY: Continuum, 2007) and Vatican II: Renewal Within Tradition, ed. and of apostolate to certain characteristics of modern Matthew Lamb and Matthew Levering (Oxford: Oxford University republican culture. Press, 2008). 4 See John W. O’Malley, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2010). 5 See John Henry Newman, Essay on the Development of Christian Doc- trine, 6th ed. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989). Ian Kerr has long argued for the pivotal influence of Newman on the developmentalist perspectives of Vatican II. For a synthetic presenta- tion, see Ian Kerr, John Henry Newman: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). •

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18 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Blesssed James Alberione’s Intercessional Cure of Maria Librada Gonzalez-Rodriguez

by Greg F. Burke MD, FACP leading academic hospital in Guadalajara. Within two Associate—General Internal Medicine days of her discharge for PE she was readmitted with Geisinger Medical Center new onset atrial fibrillation, a common complication of Danville, Pennsylvania mitral valve disease and also of PE. She was subsequent- ly diagnosed with respiratory distress, most likely due to n 11/26/71, at 6:25 PM, a short-statured, the atrial fibrillation and its rapid ventricular response, elderly Italian priest passed away at the although a new PE may have occurred. On May 19th, age of 87 after suffering respiratory fail- she acutely declined with a cerebrovascular accident ure, most likely secondary toa pneumonia. consistent (CVA) in a left middle cerebral artery distri- OOnly two hours earlier his Holiness, Pope Paul VI, vis- bution with manifestations of hemiparesis and aphasia. ited his sickbed to bless him for his journey to eternal The next morning at 10 a.m. she deteriorated, again life. James Alberione had lived a remarkably productive with severe pulmonary compromise and bilateral shoul- life, founding ten separate religious and lay institutes der pain. She was cyanotic (hypoxemic) and appeared (Pauline Family). His primary religious institute, The moribund. She could not speak because of the stroke. Society of St. Paul, is found in over thrity countries This no doubt happened under the anxious watch of promoting and producing relevant Catholic media. In multiple clinicians. a rapid beatification process of little more than thrity My review of her medical record confirmed my years, Fr. James Alberione, founder of the worldwide suspicion that her anticoagulation with warfarin was Pauline Family, was counted among the blessed of the inadequate, putting her at risk for recurrent thrombo- Church. This brief review will examine the medical embolic phenomena. The simultaneous presentation of miracle utilized for the beatification of blessed James hemiplegic stroke and respiratory distress was clearly Alberione—called by John Paul II the “First Apostle of life-threatening. Whatever the etiology, the situation the New Evangelization.” was critical with limited technical interventions at hand. Maria Librada Gonzalez-Rodriguez was born in Intravenous heparin had been administered. Her vital the Mexican city of Guadalajara in September 1931. A signs were unstable. She stated later under oath that at highly intelligent woman, Maria Librada’s personality that moment she prayed with these words, “Lord, if it was marked by intellectual curiosity and a love for the is your will, I ask you through the intercession of Fr. arts and sciences. She studied chemistry, physics, and Alberione to grant me the grace to accept the cross of biology, and worked in the academic field as a profes- remaining an invalid for the rest of my life, or to grant sor. She also trained in philosophy and theology and me bodily health so that I can work for your glory.” The entered into the consecrated state as a secular member respiratory crisis had lasted for nearly thirty minutes of the Institute of the Annunciation of Mary—an insti- and, at the completion of her prayer, resolved spontane- tute of James Alberione’s Pauline Family. In childhood ously. She recounts the medical reversal in the following she suffered rheumatic fever resulting in valvular heart words: “At the end of this prayer, my breathing suddenly disease. In 1982 she underwent a mitral commissur- returned to normal. The pain was gone, and my tongue otomy. Her health was stable for the intervening years. no longer felt swollen.” The respiratory crisis and stroke In the early days of April 1989, she fell and suffered findings disappeared in an instant! a traumatic injury to her right foot and ankle which The medical record verified her immediate stabi- required casting. On April 29th, she was diagnosed with lization and in a few days she was discharged from the and hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism (PE) in the hospital.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 19 Articles

Her recovery, examined at any angle, was a remark- to be the case. Inadequately anticoagulated as she was, a able event. In August 1994, she was examined by the secondary pulmonary embolism would certainly lead to Diocese and Tribunal of Guadalajara, presided over by the “submassive” embolic event she manifested by her the auxiliary bishop. This included repeat medical ex- hypoxia, cyanosis, and bilateral shoulder pain. The very ams. The initial findings were forwarded to the Congre- unfortunate combination of a pulmonary embolism gation for the Causes of Saints, which issued a decree in with an acute stroke was life-threatening. Pulmonary November 1995 recognizing the validity of the diocese’s complications of stroke such as aspiration, neurogenic work and validation process. The comprehensive medi- pulmonary edema, or apnea seem less likely in this cal evaluation performed in 1994 revealed no evidence clinic scenario. Oxygen desaturation is a common find- of pulmonary or cerebral embolism. New imaging ing in acute hemiplegic stroke victims and is associ- studies were obtained to confirm that reality. The diag- ated with underlying cardiac and pulmonary disease. nostic process was repeated again in 1999 with the same In any case, her acute “crisis” in my experience rose to conclusion. However, the Board of Medical Consultants the level of a catastrophic medical condition. The rapid for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (Consulta recovery of neurologic status is also very striking. After Medica) required more information and documentation. suffering from stroke sequelae for over twelve hours, it My personal review of the 300-page “positio” of the would be unprecedented to have an immediate reversal case demonstrated a comprehensive work replete with of paresis within minutes. Other causes of a reversible personal testimony, professional credentials, hospital hemiparesis such as complex migraine, Todd’s paraly- notes, and clinical records including echocardiograms, sis, severe hypoglycemia, or a functional disorder seem nuclear imaging and electrocardiography. After another highly unlikely to explain her immediate recovery from five years of thorough review, the Consulta Medica de- this neurological event. clared that the cure was “unexplainable to science and It is difficult for a clinician to render a definitive conscience in the light of current medical knowledge.” opinion on the etiology of any syndrome without visit- One may interpret this statement to express the opin- ing the bedside. However, I was duly impressed by the ion that the consulters could not offer any natural ex- testimony of her physicians and the rapid and full re- planation for the event—in essence, the event was of covery Maria Librada Gonzalez experienced from this a “supernatural” character. Moreover, the miracle was critical illness. Much effort was also made to demon- positively viewed in a theological light by the Congre- strate the lack of any clinical or radiographic evidence gation for the Causes of Saints, and the beatification of of any residual disease following her “healing.” The James Alberione was celebrated in Rome by John Paul Consulta Medica voted positively in favor of this miracle II in April 2003. by a vote of six of its seven members. Their attestation As an internist, I was intellectually stimulated and to the supernatural course of her recovery served as the challenged by this case history. The skeptic in me al- miraculous basis for Alberione’s beatification in 2003. ways thinks it relevant to entertain alternative diagnoses Something highly unusual happened on May 20, 1989 and explanations for rapid recovery. However, the facts at the bedside of Maria Librada Gonzalez, and this was of the case are rather straightforward and conclusions witnessed by the medical professionals who attended unavoidable. Maria Librada Gonzalez Rodriguez suf- her care. fered rheumatic fever as a child and late in life required Through the gracious assistance of the Vicar Gen- mitral commissurotomy for mitral stenosis. She later eral of the Society of Saint Paul (Fr. Celso Godilano), experienced a pulmonary embolism (PE) after develop- I was able to learn that Maria Librada Gonzalez is still ing a provoked blood clot in a casted limb. It appeared alive, but perhaps in the interim has had a more sig- her anticoagulation status was not optimal—a common nificant permanent stroke. Those graced by miracles problem in clinical practice, especially early in the diag- are not guaranteed protection from age and eventual nostic work-up. Finally, the development of atrial fibril- death! She is elderly and in need of daily assistance. My lation would be no surprise in light of her underlying attempts to communicate directly with her have been valvular heart disease in combination with a PE. Atrial unsuccessful. However, her own written testimony of fibrillation served as the clinical risk factor for her cere- her rapid and sustained recovery is compelling. bral embolism (stroke). A paradoxical embolism to the I understand that several other cases of medical brain from the lung was possible; however, my review interest are being evaluated in the canonization pro- of her echocardiogram reports did not demonstrate this cess, one of which occurred here in the United States.

20 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Owen Danyo was born in 2006 near Philadelphia and the Causes of Saints. The review is thorough and relies suffered from significant brain injury confirmed by a firmly on concrete evidence provided by vetted and worrisome MRI showing “multiple areas of reduced credentialed practitioners. Nothing is assumed without diffusion in the anterior and posterior watershed re- documentation and several delays were allowed for gions.” Initially considered appropriate for hospice care, the sake of completeness. Catholic physicians can be he is now enjoying normal health and has achieved proud of the work of the dedicated members of the many neurological milestones. Video of his progress is Consulta Medica who volunteer for the difficult task of available on YouTube for all those interested. His grand- ascertaining medical realities in most challenging cases. mother, a Pauline cooperator, attributed his recovery They remain loyal to their professional conscience and and reversal of fortune to the intercession of Blessed will verify only what they consider an “unexplain- James Alberione. The postulator general for Alberione’s able” recovery not in theological terms, but accord- cause for canonization has visited the boy and his fam- ing to the criteria of accepted medical science. If any ily. Therefore we await a potential new “positio” to be explanation is possible within the realm of known presented before the thoughtful opinion of the Consulta natural science, the board will render a “no” vote for Medica. If a positive verdict is received, it will make for a “miracle” in order to maintain the integrity of their another engaging case review by this current author— deliberations. The Church has perennially taught that with all that modern medical technology can offer to faith and reason are compatible, and this case review intrigue the scientific community. confirms that teaching. ✠ In summary, the miraculous cure of Maria Librada Gonzalez, as certified by the Church, is an excellent ADDENDUM: Special thanks to the editorial assistance of example of the rigors applied by our colleagues on the J. Brian Benestad, Ph.D., Brother Aloysius Milella SSP, Miss medical consultation board of the Congregation for Monica G. Burke, and Juan C. Montoya Rebellon, MD. •

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FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 21 Articles Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by Jude P. Dougherty stripes providing no visible sign that it is supposed to be The Catholic University of America a sacred garb. Something is wrong here. Washington, DC What may be equally wrong is the use of the Mass as a backdrop for the parish musicians, no longer con- Earlier this year the French Conference of fined to a choir loft but performing in full view as if on CatholicBishops published a study of priestly formation a stage. Those strumming guitar players and that awful in their country. As reported by Paix Liturgique, con- soprano, accompanied by a cocktail lounge piano do servative seminaries do much better in attracting can- not add to or suggest the solemn character of the mo- didates than others. It is known that there has been an ment, nor do the ill clad Eucharistic ministers, who 85% drop in vocations since the close of Vatican II. At seem oblivious to what they are actually doing. We pray the end of the Council in 1966 there were 4,536 semi- for vocations and yet use altar girls who, once forbid- narians studying for the priesthood; in early 2012 there den, have become the norm. What boy wants to fight a were only 710 candidates. It is clear from the Bishops’ girl for the opportunity to carry the cross or empty the study that the outlook at the parish level remains un- cruets? A normal road to the priesthood was through favorable. It is also clear that the number attracted to youthful service at the altar. It is amazing that vocations the priesthood has much to do with the orientation of still come, at least in some dioceses, when the priest is the bishop or religious community. Enrollment figures ordered around by the women who seem to be run- for Parisian seminarians peaked under the late Jean- ning the parish. Marie Cardinal Lustiger and sharply declined there- At risk is a concept of the awesome power of the after. Enrollments are increasing in dioceses governed priesthood itself, the power, through the words of con- by bishops in accord with Benedict XVI’s pontificate. secration, to change bread and wine into the Body and The French study cannot avoid the conclusion that Blood of Christ Himself. The nature of the priesthood increased enrollments are directly related to diocesan itself is at issue. If through the symbols employed the liturgical reform that has taken place in the spirit of the real presence is implicitly denied, there is no need for Holy Father’s directives. The situation is not the same the priest himself whose power to consecrate derives in the United States, yet the liturgy at the parish level is from an unbroken Apostolic succession. No wonder often a cause of concern. that polls show that many nominal Catholics have lost “The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”! When did you belief in the real presence. From the pulpit, when have last hear those words? Never? It sometimes seems that you ever heard a sermon on any one of the Ten Com- collectively we have lost the sense that the Mass is a mandments, the Sacraments, or the virtues? It takes a sacrifice, an unbloody sacrifice to be sure, but a rec- genius, and few have the talent to make sense of the reation of Christ’s death on the cross.The symbols of disparate biblical readings, which lend themselves to what transpires in many a parish are all askew. The sac- storybook repetition, rather than to the preaching of rificial altar has been replaced by the communion table. doctrine. And then there are those petitions, often self- We have gotten used to that and take it for granted in contradictory, often the reflection of someone’s political most parishes. Need we remind ourselves that in the and social agenda, as if the petitions in the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures and in the rites of ancient Greece Mass were not enough. and Rome, it was a male who offered sacrifice on be- Yet the people still come to Mass, perhaps out of half of the people. What then are all of those women habit or because it is the Catholic thing to do, but most doing, offering the communicant the Eucharist with likely because they believe in the Real Presence and are see-through blouses and a decolletage that would have willing to endure liturgical practice that flies in the face in times past had them thrown out of a high school of common sense. It is not clear who said it first, but it dance? Often the priest himself, in lieu of a proper has been truly said, “The destruction of the old Mass chasuble, seems to be wearing something that looks was the greatest act of vandalism the human race has likes a bargain from a Wal-Mart sale, the multicolored known.” ✠

22 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Paul Ryan’s Austrian Tutors

by Jude P. Dougherty tion to causing inflation, makes depression inevitable The Catholic University of America by causing malinvestments, that is, by inducing busi- Washington, DC nessmen to overinvest in higher inventories of capital goods Inflationary bank credit when loaned to business .A. von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises were not masquerades as pseudo-savings and makes businessmen household names, that is, until Mitt Romney believe that there are more savings available to invest named Congressman Paul Ryan as his presi- in capital goods production than consumers actually dential running mate. Since then one finds demand. Hence an inflationary boom requires a reces- Freference to the Austrian economists on a daily basis as sion, which becomes a painful but necessary process by journalists and commentators attempt to unravel the which the market liquidates unsound investments and political philosophy of candidate Ryan. Most com- productive structures that best satisfy consumer prefer- mentators identify Ryan with the Austrian school of ences and demands. A sustained period of low interest economics and its later offshoot at Chicago. Ryan, by rates and excessive credit results in a volatile and unsta- the fiscal policies he has endorsed, is clearly in the mold ble balance between savings and investment. A normal of F. A. von Hayek (1899-1992) and Ludwig von Mises interest rate, Hayek claims, is one that strikes a balance (1881-1973). By coincidence, the University of Chicago between people’s eagerness to consume now and their Press has in the past few months published volumes willingness to save for the future. seven and eight of its nineteen-volume The Collected Hayek is known principally for a short work he Works of F. A. von Hayek.1 Volume seven, Monetary Theory published nearly seventy years ago, The Road to Serfdom, and the Trade Cycle, is particularly relevant to the current a book perhaps more relevant today than when it was debate on national fiscal policy. Although Hayek himself written.3 The Road to Serfdom may be read as a histori- purposely refrained from combining purely theoretical cal review of the social and economic policies that considerations with discussions of current events, one prevailed during the first decades of the twentieth cen- cannot help but relate the two, given the policies of the tury, but Hayek’s primary purpose in writing the book Federal Reserve System under Alan Greenspan and Ben was to warn the victorious powers against the danger Bernanke. Von Hayek’s Monetary Theory and the Trade of adopting policies and measures that led to the rise Cycle may date to 1932, but given its relevance, it could of National Socialism in Europe. Writing in England have been written as an assessment of the Federal Re- near the close of the Second World War, he found it, serve System’s policies of the past decade. in his words, “necessary to state the unpalatable truth The connection between Mises and Hayek is that that it is Germany whose fate we are now in danger of of professor and student. Before Hayek was forced to repeating. The danger is not immediate, it is true, and flee Vienna, both were parties to an ongoing debate conditions in England and the United States are still so on economic and political issues that included Joseph remote from those that we have witnessed in Germany Schumpeter, Michael Polanyi, Otto Neurath, and Karl as to make it difficult to believe that we are moving in Popper, participants all who later rose to international the same direction.”4 Still, he complains, the socialist prominence. policies endorsed by our “progressive” intellectuals are The newly released edition of Monetary Theory the same as those of the 1920s and 1930s that created makes it clear that von Hayek viewed business cycles as National Socialism. the inevitable consequence of excessive growth in bank One may say that The Road to Serfdom is concerned credit. Hayek believed that “[t]he history of government principally with protecting liberty from the seemingly management of money has, except for a short period of unstoppable trend in Western democracies to subject time, been one of fraud and deception.”2 With von Mis- their national economies to central planning, which es, Hayek was a strong advocate of the gold standard. evidence shows, von Hayek claims, eventually leads He saw that society does not benefit from an artificial to tyranny. Even a strong tradition of political liberty, increase in the money supply and the easy availability Hayek warns, is no safeguard. The democratic statesman, of bank credit. The credit expansion by banks, in addi- who from the loftiest of motives sets out to plan

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 23 Articles economic life, will soon be confronted with the al- ing our reason eliminate any remaining undesired fea- ternative of assuming a dictatorial power or abandon- tures by still more intelligent reflection, and still more ing his project. In short order, he will have to choose appropriate design and ‘rational coordination’ of our between discarding ordinary morals and failure. Hayek undertakings. This leads one to be favorably disposed to is convinced that the unscrupulous and uninhibited, central economic planning and control that lie at the lacking principles to constrain their activity, are likely heart of socialism.”8 Ignored by the “progressive” intel- to assume positions of dictatorial authority. The general lectual is the fact that there are other and more im- demand for quick and determined government will portant elements that are at the root of our civilization soon lead to a new morality and suppression of demo- and sustain it. To these there seems to be willful blind- cratic procedures. ness. “How could,” Hayek rhetorically asks, “traditions Throughout his long life, Hayek was to return time which people do not like and understand, whose ef- and again to themes first articulated in an earlier work, fects they usually do not appreciate and can neither see The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism,5 and The Road nor foresee, and which they are still ardently combat- to Serfdom. In his last book, Law, Legislation and Liberty,6 ing, continue to have been passed on from generation published when Hayek was eighty-nine years old, he to generation?” We owe to religion, Hayek concludes, professed to be an agnostic with respect to the exis- that such beneficial traditions have been preserved and tence and nature of God, but he had no doubt about transmitted. Those traditions may be no more than the classical and Christian origins of Western culture, “symbolic truths,” but it has been and remains the role and he saw that with the eclipse of Christianity, Europe of religion in society to preserve our moral compass. was losing a force for the good. To what extent Paul Ryan has read Hayek or Mises In The Fatal Conceit, the connection between awaits his telling. What is certain is that in his political property and liberty is examined in the light of history. speeches he has adopted the fiscal policy of the Vien- The Greco-Roman world, Hayek finds, was essen- nese. And perhaps more importantly, like Hayek, he un- tially and precisely one of private ownership, whether derstands the classical and Christian sources of Western of a few acres or of the enormous domains of Ro- culture that support the law, liberty, and the necessity, if man senators and emperors, a world of private trade not sacredness, of private property that Hayek defends and manufacture. The Greeks seem to have been the in his last book. ✠ first to see the connection between private property and individual freedom. From antiquity to the present, “no advanced civilization has yet developed without Endnotes a government which saw its chief aim in the protec- 1 The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, vol. 7, Business Cycles, Part I; vol. 8, Business Cycles, Part II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012). tion of private property.”7 “Where there is no property, 2 Collected Works, vol. 7, Part I, p. 60. there is no justice,” is a proposition as certain as any 3 F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, demonstration in Euclid, Hayek maintains. Why then 1944). do intelligent people tend to be socialist? “Of course 4 The Road to Serfdom, p. 4. intelligent people,” he responds, “will tend to overvalue 5 F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (Chicago, University intelligence, and to suppose that we must owe all the of Chicago Press, 1989). 6 F. A. Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of advantages and opportunities that our civilization offers Chicago Press, 1973). to deliberate design rather than to following traditional 7 The Fatal Conceit, p. 32. rules, and likewise to suppose that we can, by exercis- 8 The Fatal Conceit, p. 54. • catholicscholars.org

24 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Book Reviews

Mark D. Popowski. The Rise and Fall Brent Bozell, Frederick Wilhelmsen, Rus- to be militantly crusading. Both Bozell of Triumph: The History of a Radical sell Kirk, Thomas Molnar, Francis Wilson, and Wilhelmsen were bold, unapologetic Roman Catholic Magazine, 1966-1976. and John Wisner. Of these, the two most Catholics, who were not a bit shy about Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. important figures were Bozell and Wil- proclaiming to the world that the religion 255 pp. helmsen. Popowski identifies Bozell as the they belonged to represented the one, true heart of the magazine, and Wilhelmsen as faith, and it was that conviction that fueled Reviewed by D. Q. McInerny, Our Lady of its guiding intellectual. Among the writers their desire that everyone should adhere Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska who contributed to the magazine over the to that faith. It was part of the special years, and who were associated with it in character they gave to the magazine that he decade which represented the one capacity or another, were Hamish Fra- in expressing their views in it they put to short but sparkling life span of ser, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Josef Pieper, maximum use their appreciable rhetorical TTriumph magazine was couched Gary Potter, and Germain Grisez. talents, which doubtless was not without within a larger time period that proved to While he was a student at Yale College, its good effects. But at times their lan- be, by reason of the number of profound L. Brent Bozell became friends with fellow guage could be brash to the point where it cultural transformations then taking place, student and debate team member, William bordered on the abrasive. They were men one of the most tumultuous in American F. Buckley, and it was in good part due to who were motivated by an intense sense of history. Triumph has left us a record of that the influence of the latter that Bozell was urgency, for they saw the world in which period, and, more valuably, its responses to converted to Catholicism. Buckley seemed they lived to be on the brink of disaster, the issues that defined it, responses which also to have been influential in turning and they had set for their movement the were often as penetrating and perspica- Bozell toward conservatism. After graduat- task of doing what it could to prevent that cious as they were passionately expressed, ing from Yale, Bozell went on to take a disaster. They were completely commit- and in any event always inimitably its own. degree from Yale Law School, subsequently ted to the idea of a confessional state, and, In The Rise and Fall of Triumph: The His- entertaining ambitions to become active consonant with this, they had no less a tory of a Radical Roman Catholic Magazine, in politics, ambitions which he realized goal for the United States of America than 1966-1976, Mark D. Popowski has given to the extent of running three times for that it should be converted to Roman us a comprehensive, richly detailed, en- public office in the state of Maryland. But Catholicism. Because of the central posi- gagingly written account of an altogether his vocation lay elsewhere. Bozell married tion occupied by this country, given its remarkable journal: its nature, the elevated William Buckley’s sister, Patricia, a Vassar power and prestige, its conversion to mission it established for itself, and the graduate, and for a time he was on the Catholicism would be of immeasurable peculiar manner in which it endeavored to staff of his brother-in-law’s National Re- help in realizing the larger project of fulfill that mission. view. The year 1954 saw the publication of restoring all things in Christ. As the years The noteworthy success of this book is McCarthy and His Critics, a book which he passed, however, and the editors became in good part to be attributed to the ef- coauthored with Buckley; later he was to increasingly more disillusioned by the fective way the author chose to organize be the ghost writer for Barry Goldwater’s moral quality of the country—it ceased to it. The book’s seven chapters are divided blockbuster, The Conscience of a Conserva- be in their eyes the last best hope for the into a number of sections, each of which tive, which was published in 1960. establishment of a Christian civilization— is devoted to one or another of the major Frederick Wilhelmsen, a professional the prospect of its proximate conversion issues with which the magazine concerned philosopher, was born in Detroit, and was ceased to be for them a viable possibility. itself over the course of its history. So, for a student at the University of Detroit from Triumph came into being at a time example, we have sections dedicated to 1941 to 1943; he interrupted his college when the Cold War was raging, and its such topics as the Second Vatican Council, career to join the Army, and served as a editors, passionate anti-Communists that Pope Paul VI’s New Order of the Mass, medic during World War II. After the war they were, had no hesitancy in choosing secular liberalism, conservatism, econom- he took his undergraduate degree at the sides. Despite their growing ambivalence ics, education, the cold war, the Vietnam University of San Francisco, then went on over the United States, and, more gener- War, contraception, and abortion. The to earn a master’s degree at Notre Dame. ally, over contemporary Western culture, peculiar strength of the book, and what After a teaching stint at the University of Communism, in comparison, was an makes it especially informative, is to be Santa Clara, he gathered up his family and unmitigated evil, and it had to be de- explained by Popowski’s decision to, as it moved to Spain, where they resided for a feated at all cost, even if the cost might were, let Triumph speak for itself, by quot- decade. (Bozell and his family also lived in turn out to be apocalyptic in proportions. ing copiously from the journal’s editorials Spain for a time, and that experience had, There was a time in the early years of the and articles, as well as from letters submit- as it did for Wilhelmsen, a significant shap- magazine when the rhetoric of the editors ted by readers. ing effect on the way he came to look at waxed very warm indeed over the subject As a conservative journal, Triumph was politics, the Church, and the world in gen- of nuclear war. At one point, discussing a product of its times, in the sense that its eral.) While in Spain Wilhelmsen earned the possibility that it could actually hap- genesis can be seen as a particular expres- his doctorate at the University of Madrid, pen, Wilhelmsen wrote that it was better sion of the resurgence of conservative and taught for a time at the University of “for the whole cosmos to go up in flames, thinking that the country experienced Navarro. After his association with Tr i- unto the very last star and the most re- right after the Second World War, although umph, Wilhelmsen became a member of mote moon, burnt out—and the whole of it has quickly to be said that the maga- the faculty at the University of Dallas. existence scorched and reduced to a cinder zine’s brand of conservatism was not at all Triumph, Popowski contends, was not blown away into the awful wastes of the consonant with, and in fact was antipa- merely a magazine, it was a movement— void than that dishonor should unfold thetic toward, the prevailing conservative whose umbrella organization was the So- the banner of Hell within our walls” (18). mindset. The core group of individuals ciety for the Christian Commonwealth— Though pyrotechnic rhetoric of that sort behind the founding of Triumph were L. and it was a movement that showed itself was fairly typical of both Wilhelmsen and

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 25 Book Reviews

Bozell, it should be taken, if not with a rights movement, they nonetheless felt for the Church in America, which they grain of salt, at least in the spirit in which that the movement, because overly influ- believed had slipped anchor and was adrift it was indulged in. For men who firmly enced by the disoriented way of thinking on a wild and unfriendly sea, principally believed that the world was in extremis, about social issues that prevailed in the because of the studied inattention, or strong words were needed to shock read- larger culture, was founded upon a seri- worse, of the American hierarchy. They had ers out of their complacency, and make ous misplacement of emphasis: it was not little sympathy for the NCCB, which in them aware of the stark reality of their civil rights that should be accentuated, their opinion seemed to be intent more on situation. And it should be noted that the but rather natural rights, the rights that keeping up with the secular Joneses, thanks editors eventually came to alter their views come from God and not from the state. to the liberal bureaucrats who set the agen- on the subject of nuclear war, deciding The modern state, and the United States da for the organization, than on putting all that it could not be squared with just war was by no means to be considered an its energies into spreading and defending theory. exception in this respect, had become the the faith. American bishops, seemingly As mentioned above, the editors of instrument for the fostering and spread of more concerned with being liked than Triumph were not at all sympathetic with a sinister, essentially atheistic secularism, as with being leaders, had effectively aban- the kind of conservatism which was cur- evidenced by the American government’s doned their episcopal responsibilities, and rent during the lifetime of the magazine, giving official sanction and active support the Church in this country was suffering especially as espoused by National Review. to contraception, and then eventually, and sorely on account of their neglect. Though they were very much concerned predictably, fully embracing the abomina- The change of mind that Triumph with politics, and economic matters were tion of abortion, through the infamous displayed regarding the matter of nuclear not beyond the bounds of their interests, Roe v. Wade decision of 1974. That the warfare, previously alluded to, did not they were at bottom dedicated moralists, country could condone something like represent an especially unusual episode in whose principal concerns had to do with abortion was, for the editors, “convincing the magazine’s history. While taking strong religious truths, and how those truths evidence that our society is not only evil, stands on a wide range of issues, the edi- were to be given best practical application but mad” (207). tors were not so narrow-mindedly rigid within the social order. Insofar as they Though the editors of Triumph regard- in their opinions that they were incapable can be categorized as conservatives, they ed themselves as foursquare, uncompro- of altering them, or abandoning them were very much conservatives of their mising Catholics, this did not mean that altogether, if they felt that circumstances own stripe, as evidenced, for example, by they could not be critical of the Church warranted it. Their attitude toward the the fact that, though they were adamantly or, more precisely, of the attitudes and Vietnam War underwent a kind of evolu- antisocialist, they were just as adamantly actions of certain churchmen whom they tion. At first they were fully supportive of anticapitalist. As far as mainline conserva- found to be at times dangerously compro- the conflict, seeing it as a worthy attempt tives were concerned, the drummer they mising and altogether too ready, for what- to stay the advance of Communism, but marched to kept a heretical beat. ever reasons, to accommodate themselves over time they came to deplore the man- The Triumph people considered them- to a world that, ironically, had nothing but ner in which it was being conducted, and selves to be Catholics before they were contempt for them and the Church they in the end they saw the defeat as a fitting Americans, and they were in deep dis- represented. The editors could go back and indictment of the country for the general agreement with what they regarded as the forth in their attitudes on any number of direction in which it was heading. basic premises upon which the country matters relating to the Church, a fact per- Triumph’s final issue was dated Janu- was founded. They did not look upon haps best explained by the discombobulat- ary 1976. At that time the magazine had the Constitution as a quasi-sacred docu- ing times through which they were living. 5,000 subscribers, a precipitous drop from ment, according to which every serious Both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II a subscription list of some 28,000 in 1968, social question had to be settled, and, with more than once had called explicit public three years after its founding. Referring to respect to specific tenets of the American attention to the turmoil existing within the magazine as a doomsday publication, creed, they regarded the notion that the the Church, and the consternation it Popowski suggests that this substantial loss people were the source of political author- caused among the faithful. The consterna- of readers may have had something to do ity as radically wrongheaded; God, not tion in question was something to which with the general tone of the magazine. the people, was the source of all author- the editors of Triumph bore lively witness Perhaps it was not so much its radical- ity, political or otherwise. This attitude, in the pages of their publication. Though ism as it was the sharp-tongued manner among others, put them at odds with the they had unmitigated praise for Paul VI by which it was promoted that tended to crew at National Review. When Triumph for his publication of Humanae Vitae, they alienate readers. The continuing empha- was launched, Buckley’s magazine gave it wondered out loud if he was always as sis the magazine gave to an apocalyptic a hearty public welcome, but the relations steady and stabilizing as he should be in interpretation of its times could have had a between the two publications gradually the manner in which he was governing wearing effect on even the most dedicated cooled, and they became engaged in an the Church. They were clearly displeased of them. One may readily agree that the ongoing feud because of their different and dispirited by the liturgical mayhem end of the world will one day inevitably ideological positions. that followed in the wake of the changes come, but would nonetheless prefer not to Particularly troubling for the Tr i- that had been mandated by the Vatican, be constantly reminded of the fact. umph people was what they saw as the and they eventually took the fairly settled There were of course the financial dominance in the country of a libertarian position that it had been a mistake to have problems that had to be dealt with, a attitude which fostered an unrestrained abandoned a beautiful and ancient liturgy constant for any periodical that wants to faith in individual freedom. Though totally and to have adopted in its stead the pallid keep its head above water, and Triumph’s sympathetic with the benefits brought to product of an ad hoc committee. financial problems were surely exacerbated American blacks as a result of the civil Their harshest criticism was reserved as the number of its subscribers dimin-

26 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 ished rather than increased over the years. precise about the matter, we can say that English currently in print, which is found In its final days the editors were constantly the perennial tradition is identified by the in the introduction. Apropos of that list, he putting out calls for private donations, to fact that its centerpiece, the core around makes the apt observation that The Cam- keep the journal alive, and those calls were which it has advanced and flourished over bridge Dictionary of Philosophy and The Ox- responded to. But evidently the donors the years, is the thought of St. Thomas ford Companion to Philosophy “might more eventually came to realize that they were Aquinas. As to why we call the tradition accurately be characterized as one-volume backing a sinking ship. “perennial,” Professor Carlson appositely encyclopedias” (5). Whatever benefits can The story of Triumph is a most interest- quotes Jacques Maritain, who describes be offered by the array of philosophi- ing and instructive one, and it has been it as embodying a philosophy that “is cal dictionaries now available, and they very well told by Mark Popowski. In this eternally young and always inventive, and are doubtless many and varied, Professor review I have had to be selective, and thus involves a fundamental need, inherent in its Carlson became convinced, in search- have been able to tell only part of the sto- very being, to grow and renew itself” (1). ing through them, that they are notably ry; one must go to the book to get the full But to get the most precise idea of lacking in entries which pertain to, and story, in all its dramatic variations. Though the tradition which all the entries in the are especially important for, the perennial short, the journalistic life of Triumph was dictionary are intended to elucidate—and tradition; for example, you are not likely not lived in vain. The men behind the which, I might add, in fact serve appre- to find in them entries for terms such as: journal were radicals, to be sure, but it was ciably to further—we could not do better “act, being, conscience, end, exis- their uncompromising commitment to than to consult the entry in the dictionary tence, good, intellect, moral precept, truth that had made them such, and if they for “perennial philosophy.” There we read: natural, perfection, subsistence, tran- responded in extreme ways to the events “(Latin philosphia perennis) or perennial scendental, voluntary and wisdom” (5). taking place in the world in which they tradition: As understood within Catholic These other works, then, are only “mar- lived, it was because they believed that in thought, and as understood in this diction- ginally helpful to the reader whose aim is that world the truth was under siege. The ary, a name for the philosophic tradition, to master the type of philosophy for which issues of Triumph now stand as a perma- incorporating insights of Plato and espe- Aquinas serves as a source and model” (5). nent record of a particularly trying period cially of Aristotle, that came to fruition (al- It is precisely in that respect that Words of in the history of our country and of the though not final completion) in the work Wisdom is more comprehensive than these Church, and how a set of brilliant and of St. Thomas Aquinas” (202). The entry other works. dedicated men responded to it. continues interestingly and informatively Professor Carlson is very probably cor- for some length, but the above will suffice rect in noting that Fr. Bernard Wuellner’s • for our purposes here. Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy, which In the introduction to Words of Wisdom was published in 1956, represents the last John W. Carlson. Words of Wisdom: A Professor Carlson advises the reader that attempt to publish a dictionary of terms Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial “this dictionary seeks—through the expo- relating to the perennial tradition. This Tradition. Notre Dame, IN: University of sition, discussion, and noting of relations little gem of a book, which many of us Notre Dame Press, 2012. 350 pp. among terms—to contribute to the ongo- have found very useful over the years, is ing renewal of the perennial philosophy” now long out of print, so the appearance Reviewed by D. Q. McInerny, Our Lady of (2). Anyone who takes upon himself the of Words of Wisdom is most timely. It arrives Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska. ambitious and challenging task of com- on the scene to meet a very important piling a reputable and reliable dictionary need. hat we are happily experiencing naturally has an intended audience in Professor Carlson discusses the reason- in these early years of the twenty- mind, and it is unsurprising that Professor ing behind the selection of the items for Tfirst century a real revivification Carlson should mention, among those for the entries, and provides as well the ra- of Thomistic thought and philosophy, whom the book was especially intended, tionale for the design and contents of the within the Church and even beyond the students of philosophy and theology, fel- entries themselves. He explains that “the bounds of the Church, is now an indisput- low philosophers (whatever be their philo- great majority of the entries are ones that able matter of fact, the latest verification sophical views), and a more general set of have specific meanings for philosophers thereof being the recent publication of readers, people with some background in who continue the intellectual tradition Professor John W. Carlson’s Words of Wis- philosophy who want to learn more about of St. Thomas Aquinas” (9). But attention dom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Peren- the tradition to which the book is dedicat- is also given to “other major figures and nial Tradition. ed. But he also indicates a “deeper pur- movements in Western philosophy,” as What is the perennial tradition? It pose” for the book, directed toward any well as to “the fundamental achievements was what Pope Leo XIII had in mind, I reader, which is “to serve as a resource for of modern and contemporary thought” believe, when, in his encyclical Aeterni those who wish to master—and perhaps (9). Also, care was taken to give consid- patris, he referred to “every word of participate in—a comprehensive tradition eration to various contemporary chal- wisdom, every useful thing by whomsoever (or traditions) of thought” (3). In this he is lenges to some of the ideas and positions discovered or planned,” which he saw as extending an open invitation to his readers assumed by the perennial tradition, and incorporated within “the golden wisdom to enter into the very spirit of the book. finally, to incorporate key terms relating of St. Thomas,” and therein creatively We are provided with ample and telling to specifically Catholic matters, such as developed. Professor Carlson cites more evidence of the fact that Professor Carlson “transubstantiation,” and “Real Presence.” recent allusion to it, which was made by has an expert’s knowledge of the genre The dictionary, its author points out, is not Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Fides et which his book represents, by the list he intended to serve as a substitute for the ratio, when he referred to the “enduringly provide us (it strikes me as being well-nigh texts of St. Thomas, but as an adjunct to valid philosophical tradition.” To be more exhaustive) of philosophical dictionaries in them. It is not too farfetched to claim that

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 27 Book Reviews in this one can hear echoes of the advice that it does so, and with emphasis, display- literary point of view, but if I had to de- given by Leo XIII in Aeterni patris: Ite ad ing uncommon skill and steady control cide between the raw historical facts of the Thomam, “Go to Thomas!” throughout. This is a work of very impres- lives of these two saints, as unearthed by The body of the book is taken up by sive scholarship. It is a reference work of accomplished biographers, and a fictional- the entries themselves, 1,173 in all. There the first order, one which admirably meets ized development of those facts, I would follows an extensive bibliography which is the purposes for which it was designed. without hesitation choose the former. divided into three parts. The first part lists Every institution of higher learning in the With the experience of those two works of St. Thomas available in English; English-speaking world that takes philoso- novels in mind, it was with more than a the second provides an array of works, by phy seriously should find a place for it in modicum of caution that I approached a wide range of authors, relating to the its library. We can be assured that for years José Luis Olaizola’s Fire of Love. I was not perennial tradition; the third part gives us to come it will do good service for the expecting very much, frankly. For that “works of other individuals or movements perennial tradition. reason, my surprise in reading it was all of thought that either may be contrasted the more pleasant. This is a first-rate novel, with this tradition or show promise of • not only for its literary quality, which is contributing to its ongoing development” very high, but also for the peculiar skill (13). The richness and sweep of this bib- José Luis Olaizola. Fire of Love: A Histori- and sensitivity Olaizola displays in telling liography is such that it could stand as a cal Novel about Saint John of the Cross. us the story of a man, and the story of a valuable research tool in itself. Translated by Stephen Caro. San Francisco: saint, both being one and the same. He In perusing the entries of the diction- Ignatius Press, 2011. 217 pp. struck a perfect balance and maintained it ary I found that I could not, just offhand, throughout the novel: he did not exagger- think of any significant omissions. In this Reviewed by D. Q. McInerny, Our Lady of ate the man at the expense of the saint; he respect, the book has a satisfying com- Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska did not exaggerate the saint at the expense pleteness to it. Every entry is noteworthy of the man. for its clarity, its accuracy, and its pointed riting the biography of a saint, It seems that a peculiar danger—if that succinctness—just the kind of qualities especially of a saint like St. John is not too strong a word for it—in writ- that the entries of any good dictionary Wof the Cross, surely has to rank ing a novel based on the life of a saint is should have. And, just as the book as a among the most challenging of literary that one can get so carried away on the whole has a satisfying completeness to tasks. In the case of St. John of the Cross wings of fancy that the end result turns it, so too does each entry. The system of that challenge has been met admirably well out to be a never-never land version of cross-referencing employed in the text was by two Discalced Carmelite friars who reality; the work lacks requisite aesthetic especially helpful, and it had the peculiarly were both first-rate scholars and writers, force because it can convincingly convey beneficial effect of bringing home to the the Frenchman Fr. Bruno and the Spaniard neither the truth of history nor the truth reader that all of the concepts the diction- Fr. Crisógono. Fr. Bruno’s biography was of fiction. Olaizola makes a wide detour ary deals with relate, either positively or published in 1929, that of Fr. Crisógono in around this problem in his novel. One negatively, to a single, philosophical whole, 1955. So complete and distinguished are of the reasons for its marked success, in a coherent body of thought. The above- these two works that they can be consid- my opinion, is his allowing the historian mentioned succinctness of the entries was ered, together, to have provided us with in him to have the upper hand over the especially admirable for the fact that it what deserves to be called a definitive novelist. He writes mainly as a novelist, to stands in marked contrast to the kind of account of the saint’s life. be sure, but as a novelist whose imagina- sound bite brevity with which we are so When it comes to writing a novel- tion is under the continuous guidance of often bombarded today, and which does ized version of a saint’s life, that presents a lively consciousness of the definitive say more to conjure up confusion than to a challenge of an altogether different sort, of history. What we are presented with, as convey knowledge. Here we have solid and to take it on would require a writer a result, is a life of St. John of the Cross substance masterfully articulated—crisp- who, besides being healthily audacious, is which is at once faithful to history and yet ness and content conjoined. possessed of an unusual amount of literary has a character which is peculiarly its own. I began this review by alluding to the talent and, most importantly, has the kind Olaizola does not so much bring us back Thomistic renewal we are now bearing of artistic acumen which would allow him to the sixteenth century as he brings the witness to, a phenomenon of which, as it to strike a happy balance between excess sixteenth century up to us. He shows us happens, Professor Carlson is very much and defect. I would imagine that the liter- the pertinence of the “then” to the “now.” aware, and the details of which he is very ary genre of novelized lives of the saints, One of the special strengths of the knowledgeable, as attested to by an ample if there is one, is not particularly large. At book is the way Olaizola incorporates footnote he attaches to the introduction any rate, my reading experience includes into the narrative any number of histori- of this book. But Professor Carlson is only two such novels, Time Cannot Dim cal documents, letters, depositions, and, not simply a spectator and chronicler of (1955) by Malachy G. Carroll, based on with special effectiveness, the narrative what is transpiring; he must be counted as the life of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Brother dictated by Francisco, the brother of the a major player in the adventure, as evi- Zero (1959) by Covelle Newcombe, based saint, which is particularly interesting and denced by Words of Wisdom, to be sure, but on the life of St. John of God. I came to informative. Besides enriching the narra- also, and significantly, by his earlier work, both of these novels already familiar with tive, these inclusions strengthen its overall Understanding Our Being. In referring to standard biographies of St. Thomas and St. structure. Words of Wisdom, he describes it as “a work John of God, and perhaps that had some- The life of St. John of the Cross, that seeks to contribute to the renewal thing to do with my less than enthusiastic though relatively short, was chock full of of the tradition shaped by St. Thomas response to them. Both novels were well activity and significant events. There might Aquinas” (6). There is no question but written, if one regards them from a purely be the temptation to write a novelized

28 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 version of that life which could rival the with respect to its charges: to ground them generale or house of studies there, San size of Don Quixote, but how successful in the fundamentals of the Christian reli- Andrés. John took courses both at San such a novel would be is an open question. gion and to establish them in a trade. John Andrés and at the university proper. At At any rate, that Olaizola did not succumb excelled when it came to the first, but it that time the University of Salamanca was to such a temptation is a credit to his was a different matter regarding the sec- the premier university in Spain. More per- artistry. Fire of Love is a moderately sized ond. He began apprenticeships in a num- tinently, it remained a vibrant center for novel, but it has a satisfying completeness ber of trades, but he did not show himself Scholasticism in general and Thomism in to it, and that is to be accounted for by to be particularly adept in any of them, particular, when both had pretty much lost the judicious choices Olaizola made with very likely because his heart was not really their edge in most of the other European respect to the particulars of the saint’s life. in the enterprise. There were already clear universities. John was ordained a priest at He displays an uncanny sense of what is indications that his vocation in life did not Salamanca in 1567, and it was not long best to focus on and develop in the narra- lie along these worldly lines. It was while after that when he was to meet a woman tive, and what is best to leave out, in order he was at the orphanage that his piety and who would change the whole course of to present a portrait of the saint which is prayerful demeanor, which had displayed his life, St. Teresa of Avila. Madre Teresa as vivid and memorable as he can possibly itself at a very young age, became increas- had already initiated the reform of the make it. ingly evident. When John was around Carmelite nuns with the foundation of St. St. John of the Cross was born in 1542 twelve he was taken into the employ of a Joseph’s convent in Avila, but that was only in Fontiveros, a town in northwestern local hospital, and for the next eight years the first step. She had it in mind to reform Spain with a population of around 3,000. or so he worked there conscientiously, the friars as well, but she had not found He was the son of Gonzalo de Yepes and caring for the sick and also soliciting alms the right men for the task. That problem Catalina Álvarez, both people of uncom- for the institution. When he was seven- was solved once she met John of St. Mat- mon virtue. Gonzalo was of noble lineage, teen, still working at the hospital, he began thias, and then, later, Fray Antonio de He- whereas Catalina very much was not, and his studies at the Jesuit secondary school redia, an older Carmelite who at that time when he turned down the opportunity established in Medina not too many was the prior of the monastery in Medina. to marry the daughter of a wealthy kins- years earlier. John proved himself to be John had been seeking a life more com- man to bind himself for life to a poor girl an assiduous student, and one gifted with patible with his contemplative bent, and who made her living as a weaver, he was remarkable intellectual acuity. When he was thinking of joining the Carthusians. summarily cut off by the de Yepes family, had completed his studies with the Jesuits St. Teresa succeeded in convincing him and that pretty much guaranteed the life he had, among other accomplishments, that living in a community following the of poverty he and his bride were subse- gained a mastery of the Latin language. He primitive rule of Carmel, the rule that the quently to lead. Gonzalo himself took up was then twenty-one years old. reformed friars were to abide by, would weaving, and at that trade he and his wife By this time, the young man’s excep- not be appreciably unlike the life led by a eked out a meager living. They had two tional virtue was common knowledge in Carthusian. Together with a lay-brother, other children besides John, Francisco and Medina. The director of the hospital at Fray Pedro de Cristo, the two priests Luis, the latter of whom died as a boy, very which he worked had formed the inten- founded, near the village of Duerelo, the likely by disease brought on by malnutri- tion that John should be ordained a priest first community of Discalced Carmelite tion. Francisco, who was some twelve years and assume the chaplaincy there, a posi- friars. John took a new name; he was now John’s senior, eventually followed in the tion which would have brought with it a to be known as Juan de la Cruz, John of footsteps of his parents by taking up the comfortable benefice. What is more, just the Cross. weaver’s trade. He married a good woman about every religious order in the city At first the reform movement among and together they brought eight children had an admiring eye on this young man, the friars was looked upon benignly, even into the world. The two brothers, Francis- regarding him as a prize candidate for their approvingly, by the Carmelite order, and co and John, remained very close through- ranks. There could be little doubt that Juan for a time it seemed that the reform would out their lives, and it was John’s consistent de Yepes had a religious vocation, but how take root and continue to grow within the opinion that it was Francisco who was the was it to be realized? He surprised many confines of the order, and, perhaps, trans- saint in the family. If the financial straits when he decided to join the Carmelites, form it as a whole. But for a number of in which the de Yepeses found themselves an order which, at that time, especially in reasons, tensions began to build up be- were not already bad enough, they became Spain, was not in the healthiest of condi- tween the reformed and unreformed friars, appreciably worse when Gonzalo died at tions. When John was clothed in the Car- tensions which, particularly on the part the age of thirty-five. The larger situation melite habit he took the name of John of of the latter, turned into outright animos- in which Catalina now found herself was St. Matthias. After completing his novitiate ity. John of the Cross, being the principal not bettered by the fact that Castile was and making his profession, he was given figure in the reform movement, was a ravaged by famine because of a prolonged permission by his provincial to follow the specific target of that animosity. While drought. In order to better her circum- primitive rule of the order, which was no- acting as the chaplain of the Carmelite stances, she moved her family first to the tably more strict than the rule followed by convent of the Incarnation in Avila, he was town of Arévalo, and then to the bustling the order at large. John did not become a kidnapped by the Calced Carmelites and city of Medina del Campo, where they religious to lead an easy life. According to spirited off to their monastery in Toledo, settled permanently. the inspired logic by which he was led, a where he was imprisoned for the better John was around nine years old when life a prayer—intense, continuous prayer— part of a year and subjected to shockingly they moved to Medina del Campo. In went hand in hand with an ascetic life. inhumane treatment. The experience order to alleviate hardships at home, John After pronouncing his vows, he was proved to be his “dark night of the soul,” was placed in the Catechism School, an sent by his order to the University of but God knows how to bring light out of orphanage which had a two-fold purpose Salamanca. The Carmelites had a studium darkness, and the experience, besides its

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 29 Book Reviews pronouncedly sanctifying effects, proved to John M. Headley. The Problem with Mul- respect for law, education, eloquent speech, be the matrix out of which was birthed his ticulturalism: The Uniqueness and Univer- and other qualities demanded by city life. greatest poetry. When John was carried off sality of Western Civilization. New Bruns- More than 1,500 years separate Strabo to Toledo he was undoubtedly already a wick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2012. xvi from Headley’s next exhibit, Giovanni saint; he emerged from his ordeal there as + 106 pp. Botero, S.J. (1544-1617), a Thomist, whose both a saint and a poet. Today, quite rightly, “Global Reports” resembles Strabo’s in Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, their reach and focus. During the period he is considered to be one of the greatest The Catholic University of America between the two authors Christianity had poets in the Spanish language. become almost synonymous with civiliza- Eventually, by papal mandate, the two isheartened by the current liter- tion. In Europe the monastery became the branches of the Carmelite order, calced ary and intellectual fashions that consolidated center of rationality, order, and discalced, were administratively Dprevail in the academic life of and discipline—the engine of concentrat- separated, and following that, the reform our campuses, fads that suggest that there ed enterprise and particularity in an other- movement grew by leaps and bounds. is nothing unique or exceptional about wise barbarous world. “Civility,” Christian Reflecting on how deeply involved John Western civilization except its oppressive- and European, was complemented by the of the Cross was in that movement, one is ness, John Headley has produced a remark- viability of princely courts that added a astonished at how he was able to combine able book to the contrary. Headley admits further dimension to the idea of cultivated a very active life with a thoroughly con- that the horrors of the past century have existence. Giovanni Botero carries us for- templative one. It’s reasonable to suppose, done little to advance appreciation for the ward to an age of discovery and European virtues of Western civilization. “Even so,” engagement with the earth’s many peoples. knowing what we do of his personal- he writes, “certain features of our civiliza- Modern scholarship, suggests Headley, ity, that few would have been capable of tion convey the West’s uniqueness: the may accord Giovanni Botero the honor of matching him in that respect. Over the influence of its science and technology, the being the first demographer as well as the remaining years of his life, John of the idea of a common humanity, the legiti- first oceanographer for works that includ- Cross was the rector of two Discalced macy of political dissent and diversity, the ed On the Greatness of Cities (1588) and Carmelite communities, one of which he process of secularity and the universality of The Reason of State (1589). Reporting to had founded. He served as prior in four human rights.” Christianity, he thinks, got Federico Cardinal Borroneo, then head of others. He successively served as Provincial it right when it allowed Christ’s mandate the Congregation de Propaganda, Botero Diffinitor, the Vicar Provincial of Andalu- to “render unto Caesar what is his due” found as a result of his travels in the Ori- sia, and Councilor General of the order. to develop into our modern understand- ent that peace and quiet usually flourish John of the Cross died at the Discalced ing of “secularity,” something he finds under a great monarch. With peace, there Carmelite monastery at Ubeda in 1591, at absent in Islam and Hinduism. The West comes the possibility of right teaching, understands the difference, in the words of uprightness, civility, order, good customs, the age of forty-nine. He was beatified in Bishop Otto of Freising, whom Headley and the arts devised to render man more 1675, canonized in 1726, and declared a quotes, between “the imperium and the pleasing, hospitable, kind, and cultivated. Doctor of the Church in 1926. sacerdotium.” Without them there is nothing. St. John of the Cross was a poet in a Headley’s opening chapter is devoted The term “civilization” did not come comprehensive sense. He was a consum- to the definition of “civilization.” Drawing into common use until the mid-point mate artist with respect to language, and upon a treatise by the Greek geographer, of the eighteenth century when it be- that in itself is no mean accomplishment. philosopher, and historian Strabo (63 came equated with moral refinement and But he was an artist with respect to his B.C.-24 A.D.), Headley finds that Strabo learning. John Stuart Mill opened up and entire life, making of that life a poem of in his Geography introduced the reader to a expanded the concept of civilization while the most compelling kind, a song sung global appreciation of the inhabited world applying the term in the plural to societ- by a man whose whole being was caught and may have been the first to use terms ies both ancient and modern. In an essay up and set afire by those two greatest of such as “cultivated” or “civil” to describe published in the London Review (1836), the more advanced societies. The evolu- Mill maintained that the test for civiliza- loves, the love of God and, flowing forth tion from a rustic state to a cultivated one, tion lay in the power of cooperation and naturally from that, the love of neighbor. Strabo held, depended to a considerable compromise. “For Mill,” Headley relates, More people need to come to know St. extent on physical environment such as “discipline and perfect cooperation be- John of the Cross, and shed the unfortu- that found in Europe and the Indus Val- come the salient attributes of civilization.” nately too common but erroneous no- ley. A favorable physical environment is This historical excursion apart, Head- tion that he is to be regarded as a model one that is not too demanding or too easy, ley’s primary target is the educational es- only for specialized souls. In fact, he is a one that obliges the human elements of tablishment that has allowed the pervasive model for all of us. Fire of Love helps us diligence and care to be exercised. “Thus, strictures of multiculturalism to marginal- better to see that. We are indebted to José the civilized conditions are possible only ize the study of Europe and Western civili- Luis Olaizola for given us a very fine given a certain degree of material support, zation, ignoring the former prominence of book, and to Stephen Caro as well, for neither so slight as to make existence im- the West. “In our haste since the 1960s to his excellent translation of it. possibly difficult, or so great as to smother learn about other civilizations and peoples human initiative.” Strabo was aware that beyond our own, we have lost our pal- non-Greek-speaking peoples, such as Car- ate for the West, gorging ourselves upon • thaginians, Egyptians, and Indians, at the otherness.” Drunk, if not drugged, with time of Alexander the Great, also possessed Derrida, Focault, and political correctness, traits associated with civilized life—i.e., the educational establishment has ceased to

30 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 serve the commonweal by undermining its theology led him to the study of Leibniz, concepts of the European Enlightenment, national heritage. Wolff, and Locke, among others. His trea- were prone to distinguish themselves from Unlike some of the globalist and cos- tise Phaedo: On the Immortality of the Soul the Jewish masses. A typical representative mopolitanists who deal in abstractions (1767) underwent eleven editions in his of the reformed Jew was Lazarus Bendavid often removed from both history and real- lifetime. His greatest contribution to the (1762-1832), a disciple of Immanuel Kant ity, Headley does not write in a vacuum: Jewish Enlightenment is thought to be his whose writing he helped to popularize. “We live at a moment when government, book The Paths to Peace. In it, he stressed Bendavid blamed the Jews themselves for confronted by an economic collapse the importance of making the Bible the their negative image and insularity. In a second only to the Great Depression, also chief object of study rather than the study Kantian manner, he sought to retain the has to connect with the recovery of an of the Talmud, which is usually consid- Jewish religion in its “inner essence” while entire legal and constitutional system as ered the authoritative text of the Jewish totally rejecting its rituals. Whereas Men- well as withdrawal from unwanted wars.” religious tradition. He translated the Bible delssohn believed that the unique essence His is an appeal to reform a dysfunctional into high German. of Judaism lay in the obligation to observe educational system in the interest of self- There followed a great secular revo- the practical commandments, Bendavid preservation. lution within the culture of the Jewish put forth the radical idea of totally annul- In a concluding chapter, “On the community. German had rarely been used ling the commandments as an essential Meaning of America,” Headley writes, by Jews in their daily lives. Hebrew hardly step to ensure the acceptance of Jews in “The United States has become the bearer lent itself to the translation of scientific the modern world. Bendavid, we are told, as well as the heir of Western civilization texts. Leaders of the secular movement was a prolific and dynamic intellectual, and its multiple meanings and responsibili- were greatly disturbed by the neglect of active in numerous enlightened German ties.” He is convinced that “America must the sciences. Meir Neumark assumed the societies, and he even presided over some resume its leadership as well as its respon- role of translating many scientific texts of them. sibilities and initiatives among the peoples for a Jewish audience who did not know Bendavid was not alone. Saul Ascher and societies of the Earth.” Latin. Others were concerned that the (1767-1822) proposed a religious reform neglect of grammar by rabbis and other as a prerequisite for the acceptance of Jews • commentators had led to a deplorable as full citizens of the state. Following Kant, misinterpretation of the Scriptures and to he also held that the law-based character Shmuel Feiner and Natalie Naimark- a shameful misreading of other literature. of Judaism was opposed to the “true au- Goldberg. Cultural Revolution in Berlin: The Guide for the Perplexed by the famous tonomy of the will” and irrelevant to the Jews in the Age of Enlightenment. Oxford: medieval philosopher and theologian Mo- new generation. His criticism of rabbinic Bodleian Library, 2011. ix + 94 pp. ses Maimonides was republished in 1742, culture apart, it must be acknowledged having been out of print for nearly 200 that Ascher was among the few Jewish Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, years. German intellectuals who dared engage in The Catholic University of America Raphael Levi’s pursuit of science a direct confrontation with contemporary brought the observant Jew into contact foes of the Jews, notably Johann Gottlieb he focus of this brief historical with non-Jewish knowledge and non- Fichte, one of the founders of the Hum- study is the absorption by Jewish Jewish intellectuals, providing a model boldt University of Berlin. Tintellectuals of the prevailing civil for others. Hartwig Wessely, for his part, Feiner and Naimark-Goldberg end and rational values of eighteenth-century outlined in 1782 the first systematic cur- their narrative abruptly with the close Europe. It is a study of emancipation and riculum for modern Jewish education. of the eighteenth century. We know that Jewish integration into the wider society Wessely employed a distinction between within the German-speaking lands of without loss of Jewish identity. The story two modes of knowledge, “the teaching nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, here presented is entirely based on one of man” or human knowledge and the assimilated Jews not only flourished but collection of texts held in the Leopold “teaching of God” or divine knowledge. became leaders in the sciences and in Muller Memorial Library of the Oxford The study of the Bible and the Talmud, the arts. Budapest, Vienna, Munich, and Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. As he maintained, should leave room for the Berlin became important centers for the such, the volume is richly illustrated by study of history, geography, and natural study of theoretical physics and physical photographs of the books and manuscripts science, for these disciplines are necessary chemistry, and Jews are associated with mentioned in the book that are held by for a study of the ancient texts. He consid- major discoveries in each. Budapest alone the library. ered important the study of the vernacular gave birth to Eugene Wigner, John von Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), the from an early age. Wessely, although clearly Neumann, Leo Szilard, Michael Polanyi, central figure in this narrative, is represen- a man of the eighteenth-century Enlight- and Edward Teller. Albert Einstein, born tative of a new Jewish elite, who having enment, a man comfortable in European in Ulm, studied in Munich, Lise Meitner adopted the basic values of the European culture, nevertheless did not lose his com- in Vienna. Moses Mendelssohn’s grandson, Enlightenment, challenged the cultural mitment to faith, to the study of the Bible Felix, earned world renown as a composer. supremacy of the rabbinical elite. Mendels- and the Talmud, and to the observance Without doubt the cultural revolution sohn, who became fluent in German and of the commandments, but on the other produced great scientists who for the most other European languages, is acclaimed hand he no longer belonged to the circle part remain aloof from Enlightenment for prodding his fellow Jews to leave the of Talmudic scholars. philosophy, often at variance with actual ghetto, learn the German language, and By the end of the eighteenth century practice in the sciences. embrace modernity, while at the same there had emerged a formidable group of time counseling them to retain their “free thinkers,” a Jewish elite, who, in the • religious tradition. His interest in natural light of their affinity for the values and

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 31 Book Reviews

Louis Groarke. Moral Reasoning: Rediscov- sions of “justice” from a contractarian creation of the Federal Trade Commission, ering the Ethical Tradition. Oxford: Oxford point of view, “duty” from a Kantian point a move that increased government control University Press, 2011. x + 466 pp. of view, and “pleasure” in the work of over the economy. Control expanded with Bentham and Mill. There is even a short Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, section on Nel Noddings’s A Feminist Eth- and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society leg- The Catholic University of America ics of Care. Groarke is scrupulously fair in islation, which in 1964 created the Eco- presenting views other than his own, and nomic Opportunity Act, the Civil Rights his book is based upon the thesis he shows that virtue ethics can draw upon Act, and the Equal Employment Oppor- that the history of Western moral many alternative views. tunity Commission. With this legislation Tphilosophy is an integral part of Moral Reasoning is written as an intro- the progressivists won out, repudiating the any attempt to write an ethics relevant to ductory textbook for general use. Enliv- traditional liberal theory of government contemporary moral issues. Moral Reason- ened by newspaper and other clippings that stressed the value of private property, ing is written primarily for classroom use, that illustrate contemporary moral issues— liberty, and limited government. We now but it is much more than a textbook. In its i.e., suicide bombing, euthanasia, childhood live with the excesses of the administrative encyclopedic scope and historical reach, obesity, moral liberalism, and the growing state and with its political and economic from Heraclitus to John Rawls, it is a gap between rich and poor, the student is inefficiencies. research document suitable for use beyond confronted not only with issues that beg to The central aim of the welfare state, an academic setting. be resolved but also with numerous ques- Epstein reminds his reader, is the redistri- Early chapters are devoted to Socrates tions for study and review and is given the bution of wealth to offset disadvantages and Plato, to Aristotle, and to Aquinas. opportunity to think things through from arising from birth, ill fortune, and social These are followed by chapters entitled, different points of view. In sum, Groarke position. Liberals manufacture positive “The Contractarians: Thomas Hobbes, has produced a down-to-earth text that rights on a daily basis, e.g., a right to jobs, John Locke, John-Jacques Rousseau, and is likely to be welcomed by many college health, education, and living wages, leaving Karl Marx,” “Kant: Duty and the Moral teachers of ethics. wealth distribution at the mercy of politi- Law,” “Utilitarianism and Liberalism: Jer- cal pressure. Individuals are divided into emy Bentham and John Stuart Mill,” and • classes. Some are eligible to receive ben- “Contemporary Moral Theory.” From efits, and others are required to give. The years of experience as a professor teaching Richard Epstein. Design for Liberty: Pri- question of who receives is separated from ethics, Groarke finds that most contempo- vate Property, Public Administration, and that of who pays. Within administrative rary textbooks are remarkably uninformed the Rule of Law. Cambridge: Harvard discretion we now have rules pertaining with respect to the history of the discipline. University Press, 2011. x+233 pp. to discrimination, disability, equality, rea- “Generations of students pass through the sonable accommodation, undue hardship, university system without any knowledge Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty, adverse environmental impact, and habitat of the moral tradition bequeathed to them The Catholic University of America preservation. “The expansion of the ad- by a host of major authors in the Western ministrative state, with its civil and criminal philosophical tradition.” In answering the his book is a frank discussion of the sanctions, is deeply in conflict with the question what is moral philosophy?, Groarke difficulty of maintaining a rule of traditional values associated with the rule responds, “Modern philosophers think of Tlaw within the modern administra- of law.” Epstein urges a return to the classi- ethics as the most rigorous way of evaluat- tive state. Epstein’s focus is the intersection cal liberal view of property and contract as ing human behavior [whereas] historical of three elements: private property, public found in John Locke. authors present ethics as the secret to hap- administration, and the rule of law. Few In a timely section on what he calls piness.” Groarke finds that contemporary would dispute the proposition that the rule “the faltering constitutional presumption philosophers often focus on the issues that of law is the bulwark against the tyranny against retroactive laws,” Epstein is mainly produce the sharpest disagreements while of power. Given the profound legislative concerned about the effect of retroactive ignoring issues and themes on which there changes that occurred in the United States law in the economic order, on what it is widespread consensus. “Underneath the in the early twentieth century, we have not does to property rights, contract law, and bewildering surface array of opinions,” only a vast expansion of government but tort law. In his judgment, given the cur- Groarke writes, “there are common prin- agencies that seem to be beyond the rule rent political climate, no private party can ciples, concepts, and procedures that can be of law. Initially created to deal with social rely on even an explicit state promise not applied to diverse human situations.” and monetary issues, the federal agen- to change its laws. Stable substantive and Although the book surveys a wide cies that were brought into being to deal procedural rules, he maintains, are both range of theories, both ancient and mod- with them were given, in effect, legislative, needed to counteract the risk that unfet- ern, Moral Reasoning, is primarily an ex- administrative, and judicial power. Early tered political discretion will undermine position and a defense of “virtue ethics” on, social and economic theorists, such as voluntary transactions. Abstractly con- written from an Aristotelian perspective. Bertrand de Jouvenel in Power: The Natu- sidered, the administrative state should Groarke insists that the aim of moral phi- ral History of Its Growth (1944), F. A. von be compatible with the rule of law, but losophy is not knowledge per se but action. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom (1944), and experience suggests otherwise. Often Its purpose is not so much to know what Milton Friedman in Capitalism and Freedom the only way the administrative state can virtue is but to inspire personal goodness. (1962), predicted what was likely to come, achieve its goals is to violate or to ignore “Morality,” he writes,” is the only reliable given the discretionary power granted to components of the rule of law. Protection source of self-fulfillment and enduring largely unaccountable commissions. Their against the imposition of retroactive li- happiness.” works are worth revisiting. ability is weak. Apart from the economic In the process of setting forth his own Epstein traces the expansion of admin- order which is the book’s primary focus, views, Groarke provides valuable discus- istrative government to Woodrow Wilson’s Epstein acknowledges that “[o]ne

32 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 conspicuous illustration [of retroactive G. Elijah Dann. God and the Public to confirm his claim that only individu- law] concerns the suppression of the Square. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Little- als can be Christian, not countries, Dann statute of limitations, which may now be field Publishers, Inc., 2010. concludes by arguing that, even if it could waived or suspended to allow for child be shown that the North American na- abuse tort actions to be brought against Reviewed by Robert Nicholas Bérard, Mount tions were established by Bible Christians, overseers or supervisors of molesters, Saint Vincent University and President of the it is not of any relevance today, in societies often in religious settings.” Epstein’s Canadian Chapter of the Fellowship of Catho- in which religious practice and belief is study is primarily descriptive. He offers lic Scholars diverse and declining. Why, he asks, should no remedy for administrative overreach contemporary North Americans be bound except to insist that laws should be clear- . Elijah Dann, who might best be by the beliefs of those who were in power ly written to circumscribe discretion, described as a disillusioned Evan- when their nations were established? although he recognizes that some admin- Ggelical, teaches philosophy and The author turns to examining four istrative discretion is always necessary. religious studies at Simon Fraser Univer- major social issues that often engage Attacks on private property seem sity in Vancouver, B.C. He is a contributor Christians in public debate: same-sex belatedly to have awakened the academic to the Huffington Post and coeditor of marriage, abortion, embryonic stem-cell sector to the damage that socialism has a series of confessional essays on Leaving research, and euthanasia. In his treatment wrought not only in the economic order Fundamentalism (2008). of same-sex marriage, Dann begins by but in the cultural order as well. Epstein Dann offers a liberal and skeptical critique celebrating the “struggle [by homosexuals] concludes his study with a pessimistic note. of the insistence by people of faith on to overcome a long, deep-seated preju- “Once upon a time I was confident that their legitimacy as participants in the pub- dice” directed toward obtaining “the same the forces of growth and property would lic square. Citing a journalist’s quotation legal and political rights as heterosexual[s].” maintain the upper hand. But watching of a protestor against same-sex marriage In his view, this has occasioned mistaken the failure of political actors, and the drift that his opposition was a “no-brainer,” he claims that “homosexual activists” have of our economic system, I am no longer seeks to marginalize those whose political been pursuing a “homosexual agenda” sure.” Richard Pipes in Property and Free- and social views are consistent with and that will be detrimental to established dom (1999) came to a similar conclusion. undergirded by their religious beliefs. In social values, particularly those associated After his survey of property rights in the arguing that a modern, diverse, and mul- with marriage. He is critical of argu- twentieth century, Pipes concludes: “The ticultural polity cannot accept arguments ments about the universal characteristics winds have not been favorable to rights of for social policy based solely on the reli- of marriage, pointing out that, histori- ownership and all that accompanies them. gious claims of some of its citizens, Dann cally, our understanding of marriage has . . . Even in democratic societies the con- squares off boldly against a straw man that changed over time. He cites the fact that cept of property has undergone substantial does not represent any serious advocate of we no longer punish adulterers by death revision, transforming it from absolute do- the Christian position in the public square. (at least in the West) as evidence of our minion into something akin to conditional His intention, he writes, “is to explain the changed conception of marriage, although possession. . . . As a result, the rights of obstacles that stand in the way of using this seems to say more about our changed individuals have been and continue to be religious values as prima facie dictates for views about punishment than about our violated.” Pipes, writing at the turn of the public policy and legislation.” outright approval of adultery. Similarly, he century, was confident that the productive The author challenges the claim of claims that ending prohibitions on inter- class would parry the thrust of entitlement some Christian activists that Canada and racial marriage or on artificial contracep- legislation because out of self-interest it the United States are “Christian nations.” tion were similar “major shakeups” in our voted in general elections, whereas the Following a superficial lecture on the need understanding of marriage, similar to the dependent class did not vote with its full for careful reasoning and the sloppy rea- widespread adoption of monogamous over numerical strength. Of course times have soning commonly found in propaganda, polygamous marriages. changed. Pipes wrote before the effects of Dann attacks the notion that the founders Dann does, however, respond directly ACORN and the power of the public sec- of these nations were “Bible-believing” to claims, made both by philosophers and tor unions were fully deployed, and before Christians—“the sort we typically see ethicists, as well as pro-family activists, that electoral fraud became commonplace. A today on cable television”—and borrows acceptance of same-sex marriage defies generation ago, the English jurist Lord from critics such as Richard Dawkins the historic and widely accepted defini- Patrick Devlin noted that if the morals of evidence that calls into question the spe- tion of marriage; that it would put society the people collapse, the rule of law itself cifically Christian (as opposed to broadly on a “slippery slope” that could lead to will crumble. The moral basis of the rule Deist) beliefs of the American Found- acceptance of polygamy, bestiality, and of law is something that seems to elude ers. He also claims that the existence of incest; that it would weaken the institution Epstein in his otherwise informative trea- aboriginal peoples, whom Europeans of marriage; and that it denies the funda- tise. The same may be true of the academic encountered in North America, invali- mental connection between marriage and world in general. The leftward leaning dates the argument that ours are Christian conception. academy may be awakened to the socialist nations. One needn’t debate the justice of In contesting the first claim, Dann makes threat only when its retirement benefits behavior of the European settlers toward the not unreasonable response that defini- and its liberty of speech are threatened. native peoples to recognize that the politi- tions of all sorts of words and concepts cal entities established in the United States have changed, but he likens a change in • and Canada were rooted in classical and the definition of marriage to the change in Judaeo-Christian thought, and that the such a slang term as “cool” or to changes majority of aboriginal people embraced in the legal definition of “persons.” In- some form of the Christian faith. After a terestingly, these definitional changes brief reference to St. Paul (Acts 17:24-25) were in line with widespread changes in

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 33 Book Reviews popular understanding of these terms. He In short, a society can define marriage he barely acknowledges that such break- ignores the stubborn refusal of a majority (or any other social institution) in almost throughs as have been realized in stem-cell of North Americans to regard same-sex any way that it wishes. Dann is correct that research have been restricted to the use of marriage as the same thing as traditional in some cultures historically and currently adult stem cells. marriage, and relies instead upon the polygamous marriage is part of that defi- Dann argues that we should not em- highly biased portrayal of homosexuals in nition. Changing that definition has taken ploy the term “killing oneself” when we television programs as evidence of popular place in some societies, but the change has discuss euthanasia as it tends to produce acceptance of same-sex marriage. not been easy, quick, or without negative “visceral, emotional” responses. Rather, he Dann’s response to the “slippery consequences. Opponents of same-sex suggests that we make clear distinctions slope” argument engages his opponents marriage question the prudence of chang- among various forms of “killing oneself” on ground where they have not stood. ing the definition of marriage, warn of its including five varieties of euthanasia. The He argues against the idea that we might potential negative effects, and insist that first he defines as “Withdrawal of Treat- object to a change in the definition of any such change in such a fundamental ment.” He understands that we have “a marriage with regard to including same- institution not be imposed arbitrarily. right to refuse medical treatment, and the sex marriages because of “what might Dann’s approach to abortion is in some right not to have treatment forced upon result in an undesirable secondary effect.” ways surprising, insofar as he is prepared us,” and that there is a responsibility on Rather, he claims, “[t]here is no link of to accept the scientific evidence of the the part of health-care providers to make necessity that makes the allowance of one humanity and even the personhood of the sure that such a decision is made in the form of marriage a first step to the allow- child from the moment of conception. He light of adequate information about the ance of the other forms.” This, however, argues, however, that we should afford the implications of choosing to continue or is a point that no serious critic is making; child a sliding scale of rights. He argues abandon treatment. Catholics, for example, the slippery slope is not about a “link of that we do this with other persons, limit- understand that they may refuse extraor- necessity” but rather about the unraveling ing the right of young people to drink, dinary measures aimed at prolonging of an organically evolved understanding drive, or vote until they have reached life. Indeed, it isn’t clear why a conscious, of a core social institution and opening it specific chronological age. It is, then, a informed choice by a competent person to the possibility of further inclusion of logical extension of this principle that we to accept the medical consequences of alternative formulations. We don’t know can similarly restrict the right to life to withdrawal of treatment is even defined as that acceptance of same-sex marriage will children who have reached a certain age a form of euthanasia. On the other hand, lead inevitably to polygamy, bestiality, and within the womb, who appear to be free Dann is less clear about the withdrawal incest; we can know, however, that any re- of serious disabilities, and who pose no of treatment by medical professionals (on definition of an institution as fundamental threat to the life or health of the mother. their own authority or that of families) as marriage through an arbitrary imposi- In any case, however, the rights of the when the patient has not consented or tion by a court or a temporary electoral woman “ultimately eclipse the rights of cannot consent to it, the situation that was majority makes further challenges more the zygote, and, even with more rights, brought dramatically to public attention by likely and more difficult to counter. The the fetus.” He is not clear, though, about at the Terri Schiavo case. Interestingly, he ar- Supreme Court of Canada (a consistently what point the rights of the child reach a gues that the use of a feeding tube is to be inconsistent arbiter of its constitution) has level of equality with those of the mother. understood as having a patient “artificially recently ruled against the practice of po- Dann also challenges a number of medicalized,” and suggests medical profes- lygamy, but its reasons for doing so provide claims for Scriptural authority in the sionals and caregivers should consider if no logical explanation of why marriage condemnation of abortion (as well as in providing medical resources to those should continue to be defined in terms masturbation). He believes that Scripture who have been deemed incurable would of number when it is no longer defined is essentially silent on these issues; it is not be denying those resources to “the patient in terms of gender. Rather, the decision clear how his arguments are relevant to the with real hope for recovery.” seems to be rooted in what the Court discussion of abortion in the public square, The most controversial forms of eu- feared might be “an undesirable secondary but, as a former fundamentalist Christian, thanasia, of course, are physician-assisted effect.” Interestingly, Canada continues to he must deem it important to correct Bib- suicide and voluntary assisted suicide, in enforce consanguinity provisions in same- lical literalists on the errors of their ways. which medical professionals are asked sex marriages for reasons which seem After reviewing the moral arguments either to provide lethal drugs to patients elusive. for and against embryonic stem-cell re- to allow them to end their own lives or di- Dann also dismisses the link between search, Dann contrasts the approaches of rectly to administer such drugs to patients marriage and procreation by pointing out Canada, the U.K., and the United States, who are unable to end their lives without that some married couples fail to conceive, preferring the Canadian position of for- active assistance. Dann understands that, while others choose not to do so, and adds bidding therapeutic cloning but allowing for most Christians, the prohibition against that an increasing number of children are the harvesting for research of embryos taking one’s own life is firm (although he conceived outside of marriage. This has created through in vitro fertilization but bizarrely characterizes the acts of martyrs always been the case, yet our society has never implanted in a mother’s uterus to as equivalent to suicide), but again he retained its belief that traditional marriage the British position of allowing thera- argues quite reasonably that this belief provides, on balance, the best mechanism peutic cloning and the Bush-era policy cannot by itself be compelling in a secular for the conception and rearing of children. of forbidding the use of newly created society. Unfortunately, he again dismisses Dann may wish to challenge that belief, embryos for research. Even then, however, objections that these active forms of eu- but it will take a great deal more research Dann raises questions about the morality thanasia weaken society’s respect for life, (and better research) to convince a sub- of killing and harvesting cells from em- could lead to pressure being applied to the stantial majority of the population that he bryos simply because some scientists are vulnerable to end their lives, or make more is correct. able and would like to do so. Interestingly, acceptable the euthanizing of those who

34 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 are deemed incurable or undesirable. In a Stephen D. Schwarz with Kiki Latimer. lar to that of Plato’s Socrates, who never classroom debate we can, of course, argue Understanding Abortion: From Mixed started an argument from his own posi- that agreeing to voluntary assisted eutha- Feelings to Rational Thought. Lanham, tion, preferring instead to play the role nasia in the case of an incurable, suffering, MD: Lexington Books. 208 pp. of the (intellectual) mid-wife to other and physically helpless victim of ALS does peoples’ positions, seeing if their ideas—by not necessarily lead to family or social Reviewed by James Harold, Professor of Phi- philosophical analysis—can be born alive pressures on the poor and elderly to end losophy, Franciscan University of Steubenville or dead, that is, true or false. The similari- their lives for the greater good of those ties of Schwarz to Socrates are that both who would be left behind. The making of ome books require nothing from approaches not only aim at avoiding public policy, however, is not a classroom readers, insofar as they make no illegitimate manipulation, but also that the debate; it must consider but cannot be Sintellectual demands or because they arguments being investigated stand or fall limited to abstract arguments about moral do not somehow elicit from the reader exclusively by their own weight. principles. any requirement or need to take a position Schwarz’s motivation for this approach Dann, thankfully, recognizes that “so- and think for oneself. There are other texts seems clear: in a polarized (pro-life/pro- ciety itself wouldn’t be possible without which cite every conceivable position as choice) environment, there are tremen- cognitive stability” and understands that if they are all equally true, oblivious to the dous advantages for letting the arguments there are good reasons why societies (and fact that taken together all the positions speak for themselves and for forcing com- individuals) are reluctant to abandon his- cited are hopelessly contradictory and mitted readers to think through a position torically evolved institutions and long-held incoherent. for themselves. Here there is a confronta- personal beliefs. At the same time, he in- On the other side, there are texts that tion of positions instead of two debaters cludes a plea for open-mindedness, respect require much from the reader, both by constantly arguing past each other, never for evidence, “careful argumentation,” and making intellectual demands as well as confronting each other’s position and “reason-giving.” There is no contradiction, by challenging the reader to accept some objections. Granted that while Schwarz’s however, no matter how persistently Dann position by making a fair, serious, and own position is hidden, neither the argu- tries to find one, between Christian belief persuasive argument to its truth. There are, ments themselves nor the readers have any and open-mindedness. Christians, like St. however, very few books whose authors opportunity to hide. No answers—in the Anselm, embrace “belief seeking under- not only make a claim to truth, but also form of the author’s own positions—are standing,” consider and evaluate evidence do so by honestly presenting conflicting given and the readers have to decide for which may call their very beliefs into positions and without revealing their own. themselves, as both positions are asserted as question, and, over time, have re-evaluated Here—in contrast to many other mere strongly as possible. their understanding of various beliefs on compendiums of positions—there is no Although the position of Schwarz is the basis of evidence. We believe that our implication that both positions somehow hidden, that does not mean that his inter- faith gives us an enhanced insight into the cohere. Both positions make serious claims est in truth is correspondingly absent. In nature of human behavior, human aspira- to truth, even while granting they are ul- fact his approach is the polar opposite to tions, and human weakness, yet we rec- timately contradictory in nature. But these some genial relativism, where all posi- ognize that we take part in debate in the contradictions are accepted for the sake of tions are considered true (except typically public square under the same rules as all having the reader think through the is- those that actually make a claim to truth). other participants. sues at stake. This is the approach Stephen Presenting both sides is at the service of The book is not without useful points. Schwarz (with Kiki Latimer) takes in his truth—of helping the readers to think Dann provides summaries of and distinc- brilliant and accessible book, Understanding through the problems to arrive at the tions among various positions on con- Abortion: From Mixed Feelings to Rational truth of the matter—and Schwarz feels troversial social issues that are too often Thought, weaving together the strongest free to make his case for both positions as obscured or misinterpreted. He challenges arguments from both the pro-life and the strongly as possible. The result is anything easy assumptions made by those on both pro-choice positions as sympathetically but pabulum as the gloves are taken off for sides of those issues. Unfortunately, the as possible. His idea is this: let the reader both sides. This befits the existential seri- book’s tone is generally that of a too- decide. ousness of the situation, with lives—both clever-by-half university lecturer address- In contrast, the apologists for most mother and BIW—at stake. Schwarz trusts ing freshmen students. There is almost other books on abortion sing to their readers to decide. no recognition of the sophisticated and own respective choirs. This is obviously Naturally, such a strategy of presenta- cautious reasoning that Christian scholars far easier to do. Everyone knows that to tion works only if Schwarz is really honest have brought to public debate. It is as if address the other side seriously, one will in presenting the contrasting and ulti- Dann equates a Christian presence in the suddenly have to become far more careful. mately contradictory positions as strongly public square to an ill-educated believer One example of this is avoiding possible and fairly as possible. To withhold sup- spouting half-understood Bible verses as loaded and euphemistic terms, such as porting evidence, to construct straw-man compelling arguments, as if he has never “baby,” “murder,” “fetus,” and “termina- arguments for positions one does not like, been exposed to the critical scholarship of tion,” and instead look for other terms to introduce a note of irony or sarcasm a Robert George or Mary Ann Glendon acceptable to both sides, such as Schwarz’s for only one side will defeat this purpose (or even the thoughtful essays in any issue BIW (“being in womb”). This book not and undermine the project. And since the of First Things). As such, in a world with only sympathetically brings into the con- book has twenty chapters, it was interest- too many books and too little time, readers versation both sides; it especially addresses ing to see how he was able consistently to can feel safe in leaving God and the Public those who are “on the fence,” and who weave through the issues, respecting both Square on the shelf. want a serious and comprehensive presen- positions equally. Perhaps we can give tation of the issue, again from both sides. here just one example of the basic honesty • This approach seems somewhat simi- and even-handedness of his approach. He

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 35 Book Reviews states, “Since legalization, more women back to Judith Jarvis Thomson, who claims readers are given the tools by which they have died from abortion than before.” But that the mother has no duty to sustain can think through the problem of abor- then he adds, “Abortion is safer for the the BIW. One possible weakness with tion and come to their own conclusions, individual woman but because there has her analogy between the violinist and the taking truth seriously. been a huge increase in the number of BIW is that it is not just some stranger abortions, there have actually been more (that is, the violinist) that the woman is • deaths by abortion than before legaliza- supporting, it is her own. The fact that the tion.” (172). BIW is her own could create a particularly Jonathan Haidt. The Righteous Mind: Why Every approach has a downside. The strong obligation to care for it, a being Good People Are Divided by Politics and downside of this approach is the present- that has been entrusted to her, making an Religion ing of some positions and arguments as abortion far worse than refusing to sustain if they were serious points to be made a stranger. This objection is circumvented Reviewed by Val J. Peter instead of the red herrings that they really by Kamm, whose own analogy deals with are. For example, the reasons given for the whether the woman has an obligation to ears ago, as a young student in “Defense of Birth” as a “line” demarcating a being possessing her own genetic mate- Rome, I was taken by Pascal’s when human life begins are as follows: “1. rial but conceived outside her womb and Ycounterpoint to Aristotle’s “Rea- At birth the child becomes fully inde- without her consent. We are not suggest- son as King”: the heart has reasons that pendent of his mother. 2. He can be seen ing this argument has no answer; it is, reason doesn’t know. I also sat in class and touched. 3. He becomes a member of rather, one whose answer is surely not so intrigued with Bernard J. F. Lonergan’s society. 4. Age is marked from one’s day of obvious. insistence that there are “feelings” (moral birth” (112). The fourth “reason” hardly The downside of the structure of intuitions) responsive to ontic values. meets the laugh test. The first reason Schwarz’s book, however, is easily coun- This wisdom was brought to mind treats as an absolute the obvious relative terbalanced by the upside of having the when reading a fascinating new book (The meaning of the word “independent.” The arguments speak for themselves, forcing Righteous Mind) by Jonathan Haidt, pro- second reason is rendered false with the readers to think for themselves. There are fessor of psychology at the University of advent of fetoscopy. As to the third reason, as well the other advantages, such as the Virginia and self-described atheist pluralist. Schwarz himself states, “Surely anyone side-by-side comparison of positions that As a young researcher, especially in Brazil whom we can see, and perform surgery are interestingly juxtaposed by the author, and India, he studied the moral systems on, is a member of our society.” (113). where the differing emphasis and inter- of more primitive cultures than ours, and While such reasons are hardly serious, pretations are given by the differing points what he found shocked him. In almost there are other far more interesting and of view. For example, besides the obvious all cultures he studied, some feelings are serious pro-choice arguments made else- emphasis on the child with the pro-life moral intuitions of the heart and a major where in the text. For example, Schwarz position versus the mother with the pro- source of one’s moral compass, which is quotes T. M. Kamm (Creation and Abortion), choice, there is also the difference between then fleshed out by reason. who constructs an interesting analogy to a the “pro-life continuum view” versus the His research points to the fact that pregnancy from a rape. He states, “pro-choice achievement view” (186), as almost all cultures depend on six intuitive well as the “pro-life being view” versus the ideas/feelings for a grounding of moral Assume that someone deliberately in- pro-choice achievement view (189). There norms: care (when harm and suffering trudes on your [the woman’s] body and as is also the upside of viewing the abor- abound), fairness (getting your just due), a side effect acquires your genetic mate- tion question from a certain panoramic liberty (variously defined), and three other rial. The material happens to fall into a perspective, not only when the pro-life feeling items that hold us all together— test tube and develops into a fetus grow- and pro-choice arguments are contrasted, loyalty, authority, and sanctity. These six ing in a laboratory. He (this someone) but also where inside these perspectives, cultural, moral norms are found, his re- then calls you up and tells you that the the various subdivisions of the pro-life search shows, in almost all societies except fetus will die unless you put it into your and pro-choice positions are themselves for a small group of statistical outliers. body for nine months, all the while en- categorized. For example, it is helpful to What are these? These are Western, edu- during the burdens, changes, and risks of understand the pro-choice position by cated, industrialized, rich, and democratic pregnancy and labor. In this case you have noting the two general poles in which societies. He intentionally calls them no obligation to support this fetus that its arguments can be placed, namely, the weird. someone else created. You are not causally “quality of life” and the “not-a-person” These societies, he says (remember he responsible for creating this fetus or for poles. is a liberal himself), are populated with its needing your aid. In addition, I believe, Plato’s Socrates is one parallel with Western liberals (both political and reli- its genetic connection to you would not the approach of this book. Another is C. gious) who have learned to discount the make it impermissible for you to let the S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, where the last three feelings: loyalty, authority, and fetus die. Even a genetically related fetus reader is constantly invited to make the sanctity. These three, however, are strongly does not have an inherent right to your corresponding “corrections” and adjust- embraced by less liberal segments of these bodily support simply because it needs ments to the viewpoint presented by societies. it, nor do you have a duty to provide it. Screwtape. Similarly, in this book the The liberals believe so thoroughly (151-52) reader is not left alone in a comfortable in individualism, he says, that it blinds cocoon of an abstracted observer. On the them too often to loyalty, authority, and In this argument he is able to circum- contrary, to enter into it is to be thrown sanctity. They overemphasize care to the vent one pro-life objection to the famous into the middle of the mess of this contro- detriment of these community-building pro-abortion violinist argument going versy. But—similar to Lewis’s approach— feelings. Professor Haidt says: “[W]e have

36 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 found that social conservatives have the to the researchers. Penn, are outliers, different from the vast widest set of moral concerns, valuing all For example, students interviewed at majority of humanity. The culture they six foundations equally,” while “liberals in the University of Pennsylvania in Phila- live in has influenced them to disregard their zeal to help victims push for change delphia regarded their emotional responses emotional responses to community issues. that weakens groups, traditions, institutions as unworthy and awful and used reason It makes them blind in this regard, and and moral capital.” He is convinced that instead—the weird culture. It is OK to eat not just blind, but angry as well. Haidt our emotions are primary in sequence and your dog if no one is harmed, and you can calls this the moral myopia of the liberals. reasoning is secondary in most cultures in use a flag as a cleaning rag because no one Needless to say, his fellow liberals are very this regard. His evolutionary view is: we is harmed. Working class people who were unhappy with him, especially when he are 90 percent apes and 10 percent bees. interviewed at McDonald’s in west Phila- writes: liberals “in their zeal to help vic- What kind of research has Professor delphia, by contrast, actually relied on their tims, push for change that weakens groups, Haidt been doing to back up this claim? emotional responses. “These things are just traditions, institutions and moral capital.” He and his colleagues have developed a plain wrong. Don’t you know that?” Just maybe these are six God-given website called yourmorals.org, where read- Haidt asserts that the university stu- values hidden in our feelings, our hearts. ers are asked to respond to certain moral dents have been socialized to disregard R. R. Reno in First Things comments: dilemmas. When your dog dies, is it OK to emotional responses of loyalty, authority, “Liberalism is blind in one eye—yet it eat him? Is it OK to have sex with a dead and sanctity (community values). Instead insists on the superiority of its vision and chicken? Your sister? What about using of six values, they see only three values. its supreme right to rule. It cannot see half an old American flag to clean the floor? Haidt comments: liberals have only one the things a governing philosophy must By 2011, more than 100,000 people had eye, not two. He says: people in weird see, and claims that those who see both responded. Their responses were surprising cultures, such as students he interviewed at halves are thereby unqualified to govern.”

Books Received

If you would like to receive one of Preach the Word: Homilies on the Sundays The Wound and the Blessing: Econom- these books to review for the Quar- and Feasts of the Extraordinary Form ics, Relationships and Happiness. Luigino terly, please email Alice Osberger— of the Roman Rite. Kenneth Baker, S. J. Bruni. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press [email protected] Staten Island, NY: Alba House, St. Paul’s, (2012), paperback, 123 pp. (2010), paperback, 210 pp. The City of God Books 1-10. Saint Au- An Introduction to Foundational Logic. gustine. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive, D. Q. McInerny, Elmhurst Township, PA: (2012), paperback, 348 pp. John F. Kippley. LaVergne, TN (2011), , The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, (2012), 250pp. paper Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine hardcover, 420 pp. and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Abandonment to Divine Providence: With The Legacy of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S. J.: Patristic and medieval Periods, Volume Letters of Father de Caussade on the Prac- His Words and his Witness. Anne-Marie 1-Doctrine and Devotion. Brian K. Reyn- tice of Self-Abandonment. Father Jean- Kirmse, O. P. and Michael M. Canaris, Edi- olds. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press Pierre de Caussade, S. J. San Francisco: tors. New York: Fordham University Press, (2012), paperback, 415 pp. Ignatius Press, (2011), 453 pp., paper. (2011), hardcover, 133 pp. Xavier’s Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Reading the Cosmos: Nature, Science, From Big Bang to Big Mystery: Human Japanese Culture. Kevin M. Doak, editor. and Wisdom, edited by Giuseppe Butera. Origins in the Light of Creation and Evo- Canada: UBC Press (2012), paperback, (2011). Washington, D. Distributed by the lution. Brendan Purcell. Hyde Park, NY: 217 pp. Catholic University of America Press for New City Press (2012), paperback, 365pp. the American Maritain Association, paper- back, 259 pp. Muslims Ask, Christians Answer. Chris- tian W. Troll, S.J. Translated from the Ger- man by David Marshall. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press (2012), paperback, 146 pp.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 37 Notice

SPEAKERS FUND

he Board of Directors of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars has established a special fund to support the travel and lodging expenses of the speakers at our Tannual conventions. I am happy to report that we now have about $20,000 in this fund, but the expenses each year are considerable, and so we need to continue to build it up. We have received a number of generous contributions from board members themselves as well as from other donors. We are deeply grateful for these donations. If you would like to make a donation or suggest someone whom we could approach, please contact me at: [email protected].

Rev. Joseph. W. Koterski, S.J. President of the Fellowship

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*Regular members of the Fellowship are those who (a) have an earned doctorate or the equivalent thereof, (b) regularly engage in scholarly work, as evidenced by scholarly publication or in some other suitable manner; and (c) intend to be actively involved in the organization, operation, or administration of the Fellowship and in the pursuit of its purposes and goals. Those who wish to belong to the Fellowship but do not meet these qualifications will normally be considered Associate members, until otherwise classified as Regular members by the Board of Directors. Only regular members shall have voting rights. ————————————————————————————— In order to submit an application for membership please go to catholicscholars.org •

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38 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Officers and Directors

President Gerard V. Bradley, Esq. Rev. John M. McDermott, S.J., Ph.D. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., Ph.D. University of Notre Dame Sacred Heart Major Seminary Fordham University School of Law 2701 Chicago Blvd. Department of Philosophy Notre Dame IN 46556 Detroit MI 48206-1799 Bronx. NY 10458 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Bernard Dobranski, Esq. Susan Orr, Ph.D. Vice-President Ave Maria School of Law Assistant Dean for William L. Saunders, Esq. Naples FL 34119 Program Development Senior Vice President and [email protected] Benedictine College Senior Counsel 1020 N. Second Street Americans United for Life Atchison KS 66002 655 15th St NW—Suite 410 [email protected] Washington DC 20005 ELECTED DIRECTORS [email protected] Joseph Varacalli, Ph.D. (2009-2012) Nassau Community College Executive Secretary Department of Sociology Msgr. Stuart Swetland, Ph.D. Max Bonilla, S.S.L., S.T.D. One Education Drive Vice Pres. for Catholic Identity Vice Pres. International Relations Garden City NY 11530 Mount St. Mary’s University Catholic University of Avila [email protected] 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road Avda. de la Inmaculada, 1-A Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727 05005 Ávila, Spain [email protected] [email protected] (2011-2014)

Editor of FCS Quarterly Kristin Burns, Ph.D. Alfred Freddoso, Ph.D. J. Brian Benestad, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School University of Notre Dame University of Scranton Christendom College Department of Philosophy Department of Theology 4407 Sano Street Notre Dame IN 46556 St. Thomas Hall #367 Alexandria, VA 22312 [email protected] Scranton, PA 18510 [email protected] [email protected] Anthony Giampietro, C.S.B., Ph.D. Anne Carson Daly, Ph.D. University of St. Thomas Editor of the FCS Proceedings Vice President of Department of Philosophy Elizabeth Shaw, Ph.D. Academic Affairs Houston TX 77006 [email protected] Belmont Abbey [email protected] 100 Belmont, Mt. Holly Rd Belmont, NC 28012 Stephen Miletic, Ph.D. Past Presidents [email protected] Franciscan University Department of Theology William May, Ph.D. Carter Snead, Esq. Steubenville, OH 43952-1763 Emeritus McGivney Professor University of Notre Dame [email protected] of Moral Theology Notre Dame Law School (740) 284-5284 Pontifical John Paul II Institute Notre Dame, IN 46556 for Marriage and Family [email protected] Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D. The Catholic Univ. of America University of South Carolina [email protected] (2010-2013) Department of Philosophy Columbia SC 29208 Earl A. Weis, S.J., Ph.D. Christian Brugger, Ph.D. [email protected] Colombiere Center St. John Vianney 9075 Big Lake Road Theological Seminary Clarkston MI 48346-1015 1300 South Steele Street Denver CO 80210 James Hitchcock, Ph.D. [email protected] St. Louis University [email protected] Department of History 3800 Lindell Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63108 [email protected]

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 39 An Invitation to Members of the Fellowship

eginning in 2013, we will observe 1. Sacrosanctum concilium, Constitution on 9. Gravissimum Educationis, Declaration the fiftieth anniversary of the the Sacred Liturgy, 1963. On Christian Education, 1965. Bpromulgation of the sixteen docu- ments produced by the Second Vatican 2. Inter Mirifica, Decree On the Means of 10. Nostra Aetate, Declaration On the Council. One of the contributions that Social Communication, 1963. Relation Of the Church to Non- our organization can make would be to Christian Religions, 1965. offer scholarly studies of various kinds on 3. Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitu- these documents. I would invite you to tion On the Church, 1964. 11. Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution consider preparing a submission for the On Divine Revelation, 1965. Quarterly. One might, for instance, want 4. Orientalium Ecclesiarum, Decree On the to write about the significance of one or Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite, 12. Apostolicam Actuositatem, Decree On another of these documents, especially in 1964. the Apostolate of the Laity, 1965. light of the reception they have received in the past half century. Or perhaps one 5. Unitatis Redintegratio, Decree on 13. Dignitatis Humanae, Declaration On might want to treat some important Ecumenism, 1964. Religious Freedom, 1965. problem or issue, such as the proper un- derstanding of the text or some issue of 6. Christus Dominus, Decree Concerning 14. Ad Gentes, Decree On the Mission proper translation or implementation. the Pastoral Office of Bishops Activity of the Church, 1965. Please consider undertaking the study of In the Church, 1965. these important matters and sharing the 15. Presbyterorum Ordinis, Decree On the fruits of your scholarship with the mem- 7. Perfectae Caritatis, Decree On Renewal Ministry and Life of Priests, 1965. bers of our association. Listed below are of Religious Life, 1965. the sixteen documents from the Council 16. Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution and their dates of appearance. 8. Optatam Totius, Decree On Priestly On the Church In the Modern World, Training, 1965. 1965. Fr. Joseph Koterski SJ President, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars

•

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40 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Ex Cathedra The Transformation of Theology in Margaret Farley’s Just Love

by J. Brian Benestad to Scripture for wisdom regarding sexual morality, she Professor of Theology urges them not to submit their will to the “biblical University of Scranton witness,” but rather to open their mind and heart to see if it “‘rings true’ to our deepest capacity for truth n March 30, 2012 the Congregation of and goodness.” She also says that the biblical rules for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued maintaining justice in sexual relationships “appear a critical notification on Sister Margaret culture-bound” (185). These two judgments imply that Farley’s Just Love: A Framework for Christian Scripture is not an authoritative guide after all. Far- OSexual Ethics (Continuum, 2006). It attracted the atten- ley’s perspective on the tradition of the Church is that tion not only of Christian moral theologians, but also of “cultural shifts and new perspectives on the past” can the secular media and of others interested in the ques- invalidate longstanding teachings. With other feminists, tion of Christian sexual ethics. The CDF noted that she looks for the “usable past” in the living tradition Farley endorses positions at odds with Catholic teach- of the Church (187). Her conclusion: “That there is ing, namely, the moral acceptability of masturbation, room for development of Christian beliefs and moral homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the dissolubility codes regarding sexuality is generally acknowledged of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. She also implicitly by theologians and ethicists today” (187). Otherwise rejects the authority of the Church’s Magisterium in stated, Farley’s experience tells her that the consensus matters of sexual morals and makes no mention of any of an unspecified number of contemporary theologians role that natural law should play in the realm of sexual regarding the necessity of making changes in Church ethics. The way Farley arrives at her unorthodox opin- teaching on sexual morality is an authoritative theolog- ions especially attracted my attention because of the ical source. She interprets the “theological consensus” radical implications it has for the discipline of theology. as a growing force to which the Church should show Farley thinks that people should not look to Scrip- deference. ture or Tradition for guidance on same-sex relationships Not finding authoritative and reliable guidance in because she finds nothing definitive on the issue in Scripture, Tradition, or the Magisterium, Farley turns these two sources. “Standing before the biblical wit- to the secular disciplines and to contemporary experi- ness as a whole,” Farley concludes, “there exists no solid ence. She recommends cross-cultural studies because ground for an absolute prohibition or a comprehensive they “foster tolerance of diversity in sexual behaviors” unquestionable blessing for same-sex relationships and (62). She expects these studies to become an irresistible actions today, not in the Hebrew Bible or the Christian force in society if enough ethicists get on board. Farley Scriptures” (276-77). She uses the same kind of lan- explains, “Insofar as knowledge of cross cultural differ- guage to describe the supposed inconclusiveness of the ences threatens all strong claims to universality for sex- guidance offered by Christian Tradition on this issue. ual norms, perhaps all that ethicists can do is to describe Yet Farley doesn’t mention what the Magisterium does attitudes and practices as they appear in diverse cultures, in fact say about same-sex relations. As for the indissol- acknowledge their validity within the content of each ubility of marriage, Farley says, “[B]iblical scholars have culture (or even subculture), critique them internally shown effectively the exegetical difficulties of using but judge them as a whole to be of equal ethical merit” New Testament texts to settle the question of an abso- (62). lute requirement of indissolubility in marriage” (308). What are we to make of such a methodology? In addition, neither the Roman Catholic tradition nor Urging ethicists to accept all sexual attitudes and prac- Church authority, she argues, has ever found a convinc- tices as equal is to abandon philosophical inquiry re- ing way to defend indissolubility (308-9). garding the best way to evaluate sexual mores. Bowing Although Farley does encourage people to look down before whatever becomes powerful in the culture

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 41 Ex Cathedra is a form of historicism. By historicism I understand (200). While this first explanation is vague, Farley at- what Pope John Paul II said in Fides et ratio, n. 87: “The tempts in chapter 6 to explain in some detail what fundamental claim of historicism . . . is that the truth of she means by just love. Affirming the concrete real- a philosophy is determined on the basis of its appropri- ity of persons means to accept that they are inspirited ateness to a certain period and certain historical pur- or embodied, relational, and autonomous. Because of pose. At least implicitly, therefore, the enduring validity the autonomy and relationality of persons they must of a truth is denied. What was true in one period, his- be treated as ends in themselves and never as mere toricists claim, may not be true in another.” means. Because they have the capacity to love, persons Farley is not always consistent in her recommenda- are worthy of respect. The qualities of autonomy and tion to respect cross-cultural differences. Happily, she relationality “provide the content for most of the basic judges polygamy or polygyny as harmful to women norms for right loving and the basic moral norms for in all times and places. Curiously, she deplores talk of sexual ethics” (214). The norms that she derives from one-flesh unity and complementarity in marriage, de- the two qualities are as follows: do no unjust harm, free spite the obvious ways in which such complementarity consent, mutuality, equality, commitment, fruitfulness, clearly promotes equality between the spouses even and social justice. These norms are not all self-explana- while respecting male-female differences. Cultures em- tory, and Farley’s explanations are not crystal clear. I will bracing these things would be judged deficient by Far- focus on a few of her explanations that help to under- ley, even though she recommended treating all attitudes stand her basic orientation. and practices to be of “equal ethical merit.” Farley argues that masturbation is not harmful on Farley, to be sure, is not without having a reason the basis of contemporary sources, such as the Kinsey of her own for limiting her tolerance of accepted ways studies on sexuality. So, she reasons, women would do of looking at sexual ethics. Her most important theo- no harm to their marriage partners if they masturbate. logical resource is contemporary experience. While “It is surely the case that many women . . . have found stressing that interpreting some experience “can yield great good in self-pleasuring – perhaps especially in the falsehood and illusion,” she still maintains that a person’s discovery of their own possibilities for pleasure – some- experience “may challenge other sources [including, thing many had not experienced with husbands and apparently, the Bible, Tradition and the Magisterium] lovers. In this way it could be said that masturbation ac- and the interpretation of other sources” because “moral tually serves relationships rather than hindering them” truth must make ‘sense.’ When a deeply held conviction (236). Acceptance of mutuality overcomes “traditional such as the equality of women and men, grounded in interpretations of heterosexual sex [that] are steeped our experience, appears to be contradicted by infor- in images of the male as active and the female passive” mation from other sources, it must be tested against (221). Rather, she says, “whether heterosexual or gay, . . . them. But if it continues to persuade us, continues to each partner [is] active, each one receptive” (221). hold ‘true’ so that to deny it would do violence to our By fruitfulness, she doesn’t primarily mean the pro- moral sensibilities, our affective capacity to respond to creation of children, but openness to others. “The new the good, and our very capacity for knowing, then it life within the relationship of those who share it may must function also as a measure against which the other move beyond itself in countless ways: nourishing other sources are tested” (196). relationships; providing goods, services and beauty for This principle of reasoning would, of course, ap- others; informing the fruitful work lives of the partners ply in the matter of masturbation, same-sex relations, in relation; helping to raise other people’s children; and divorce, and remarriage. If these practices ring true so on” (228). Social justice requires that civil society and hold true for one seeking the truth, then it doesn’t and the Christian community give a positive evalua- matter to her what Scripture, Tradition, and the Magis- tion of homosexual activities and relationships, even if terium say. women choose to become lesbians for political reasons Relying on secular disciplines, contemporary ex- (295). Opposition to gay sex and gay marriage, Farley perience and social movements, and some rather arbi- argues, does not come from reasoned judgment, but “its trarily selected Christian teachings, Farley proposes the power as a social force is the power of an unreasoned concept of “just love” as a framework within which to taboo, lodged in and reinforcing the kind of unreflec- do Christian sexual ethics. She says that just love “aims tive repulsion that must be addressed if we are to move to affirm truthfully the concrete reality of the beloved” forward socially and politically on these issues” (292).

42 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2012 Even though commitment is a norm, it doesn’t spouse is undesirable and impossible, it follows that mean that divorce and remarriage are morally wrong. lifelong marriage is asking too much of human being. Farley argues that accepting the indissolubility of mar- Farley is especially negative on gender complementarity riage with no possibility of divorce is too much to because she thinks that it promotes a division of roles ask of people today. Our ability to sustain marriage between men and women and because she believes commitments “seems so compromised” (304). So, she it “undergirds the final barrier against acceptance of proposes three grounds for the moral acceptability of same-sex relations” (279). She may be right about the divorces. “A commitment no longer binds when (1) it latter. becomes impossible to keep; (2) it no longer fulfills any Finally, Farley gives moral approval to every config- of the purposes it was meant to serve; (3) another ob- uration of the family that “works” and every configura- ligation comes into conflict with the first obligation, tion of gender: male, female, transgendered (“gender and the second is judged to override the first” (305). For identity is at odds with their biological sex), and inter- example, a marriage commitment may be become im- sexed (ambiguous gender at birth) persons. She is all possible to keep if “a new love arises, and it becomes for blurring the lines between genders so that women too late to ‘turn back’ (regardless of what one should will be less likely to be oppressed by men. Farley briefly have done about refusing this path in the first instance)” takes up the subject of pornography that, according (306). Farley’s position implicitly says that Christian to Church teaching, demeans the human person and teaching expects too much of spouses when it asks makes healthy sexual relations more difficult. While them to love each other as Christ loved the Church. mentioning the serious harm that people discern in She would be right if God did not give us the grace to pornography, she nevertheless concludes, “Not all use imitate Jesus Christ. of pornography is harmful to individuals, no doubt” Farley’s lowering of the standards for Christian (239). While believing that “hooking up” is probably marriage seems related to her criticism of Pope John not good for teenagers, she hesitates to make a definite Paul II’s theology of the body. She objects to talk of pronouncement on the practice until “longer term em- one-flesh union, two in one flesh, “the ultimate gift” of pirical studies of the consequences are done” and before spouses to one another, the “nuptial” or spousal mean- making a “careful consideration of the total situation in ing of the body, and the complementarity of man and which Western teenagers find themselves today” (234). woman in marriage. Farley explains that “any concept Farley’s book is not just a proposal for a new sexual of fusion between persons risks ignoring the realities ethic, but a striking departure from Catholic theology, of individual persons, and rests too often on symbols of which necessarily takes its bearings by Scripture, Tra- purity/defilement . . . that can no longer be sustained. dition, the Magisterium, and natural law. Farley relies Moreover, appeals to ontological union fail to acknowl- primarily on secular disciplines, the consensus of certain edge the limits of human freedom” (309). She doesn’t contemporary theologians, and contemporary experi- believe that it is possible for one person to give himself ence rather than the traditional sources of Catholic or herself totally to another, “except perhaps in forms theology. She and not a few other theologians are call- of slavery. . . . Moreover, if this language is to be taken ing for a revolution in the way theology is done. A close literally, it suggests a form of self-sacrifice that never has reading of Farley’s book reveals a theological framework been good, especially for women” (266). Farley is re- that transforms theology into antiphilosophical histori- ally saying, wittingly or unwittingly, that it is dangerous cism, leading inevitably to the moral positions that she and impossible for spouses to love each other as Christ espouses. In brief, Farley’s book is not Catholic theol- loved the Church. If the total gift of oneself to one’s ogy in any recognizable sense of the word. ✠

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