Edited by Miguel J. Romero and Mary Jo Iozzio
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VOLUME 6, SPECIAL ISSUE 2 SEPTEMBER 2017 ENGAGING DISABILITY Edited by Miguel J. Romero and Mary Jo Iozzio Journal of Moral Theology is published semiannually, with regular issues in January and June. Our mission is to publish scholarly articles in the field of Catholic moral theology, as well as theological treatments of related topics in philosophy, economics, political philosophy, and psychology. Articles published in the Journal of Moral Theology undergo at least two double blind peer reviews. Authors are asked to submit articles electronically to [email protected]. Submissions should be prepared for blind review. Microsoft Word format preferred. The editors assume that submissions are not being simultaneously considered for publication in another venue. Journal of Moral Theology is indexed in the ATLA Catholic Periodical and Literature Index® (CPLI®), a product of the American Theological Library Association. Email: [email protected], www: http://www.atla.com. ISSN 2166-2851 (print) ISSN 2166-2118 (online) Journal of Moral Theology is published by Mount St. Mary’s University, 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. Copyright© 2017 individual authors and Mount St. Mary’s University. All rights reserved. EDITOR EMERITUS AND UNIVERSITY LIAISON David M. McCarthy, Mount St. Mary’s University EDITOR Jason King, Saint Vincent College ASSOCIATE EDITOR William J. Collinge, Mount St. Mary’s University MANAGING EDITOR Kathy Criasia, Mount St. Mary’s University EDITORIAL BOARD Melanie Barrett, University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary Jana M. Bennett, University of Dayton Mara Brecht, St. Norbert College Jim Caccamo, St. Joseph’s University Meghan Clark, St. John’s University David Cloutier, The Catholic University of America Christopher Denny, St. John’s University John J. Fitzgerald, St. John’s University Mari Rapela Heidt, Waukesha, Wisconsin Kelly Johnson, University of Dayton Warren Kinghorn, Duke University Kent Lasnoski, Quincy University John Love, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Ramon Luzarraga, Benedictine University, Mesa M. Therese Lysaught, Loyola University Chicago William C. Mattison III, University of Notre Dame Christopher McMahon, Saint Vincent College Joel Shuman, Kings College Matthew Shadle, Marymount University Msgr. Stuart Swetland, Donnelly College Christopher P. Vogt, St. John’s University Brian Volck, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Paul Wadell, St. Norbert College Greg Zuschlag, Oblate School of Theology Giacomo Manzù, “Studio per Cristo in Croce,” L’Archivio della Fondazione Giacomo Manzù; © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome J OURNAL OF M ORAL T HEOLOGY V OLUME 6 , S PECIAL I SSUE 2 S EPTEMBER 2017 C ONTENTS Preface: Engaging Disability Mary Jo Iozzio and Miguel J. Romero ..................................... 1 God Bends Over Backwards to Accommodate Humankind …While the Civil Rights Acts and the Americans with Disabilities Act Require [Only] the Minimum Mary Jo Iozzio ...................................................................... 10 On “And Vulnerable”: Catholic Social Thought and the Social Challenges of Cognitive Disability Matthew Gaudet .................................................................... 32 From Universal Precautions to Universal Design: Disclosure of Concealable Disability in the Case of HIV Mary M. Doyle Roche ........................................................... 54 Disability, the Healing of Infirmity, and the Theological Virtue of Hope: A Thomistic Approach Paul Gondreau ...................................................................... 70 Seventeenth-Century Casuistry Regarding Persons with Disabilities: Antonino Diana’s Tract “On the Mute, Deaf, and Blind” Julia A. Fleming .................................................................. 112 Blessed Silence: Explorations in Christian Contemplation and Hearing Loss Jana Bennett ........................................................................ 138 Becoming Friends: Ethics in Friendship and in Doing Theology Lorraine Cuddeback ............................................................ 158 The Slow Journey Towards Beatitude: Disability in L’Arche, and Staying Human in High-Speed Society Jason Reimer Greig ............................................................. 180 The Goodness and Beauty of Our Fragile Flesh: Moral Theologians and Our Engagement With ‘Disability’ Miguel J. Romero ................................................................ 206 Contributors ................................................................................... 254 Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 6, Special Issue 2 (2017): 1-9 Preface: Engaging Disability Mary Jo Iozzio and Miguel J. Romero HE COVER OF THIS ISSUE OF the Journal of Moral Theology presents a bronze panel depicting the death of Christ, from La Porta della Morte, which is found at the southernmost entryway into the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica. Produced by Tthe famed Italian artist Giacomo Manzú (1908-1991) and dedicated by Pope Paul VI in 1964, the ten panels of the bas-relief bronze door depict distinct episodes of human mortality and fragility. Manzú was concerned to illustrate the many ways that human beings encounter and experience mortality from the mundane to the glorious moments, exemplified in horrific violence (crucifixion, martyrdom, murder), in accident, and in the quiet peace of last breaths and rest for the weary. The door brings together distinct meditations on particular and particularizing instances of mortal fragility in human life. In so doing, Manzú presents a bronze-cast argument for both the unity and the hope of humanity: vulnerable beings, each implicated in the history of creations of beauty, of personal and social sin, and of the realities of evil, and yet each personally accommodated by and reconciled with God in Christ, and called to participate in the good news of God’s loving care and merciful regard for all creation. For Giacomo Manzú, artistic engagement with the particulars of mortality provides a vantage to illustrate aspects of the Gospel that are easy to overlook: the paradox of human vulnerability and the glory yet to be revealed. As paradox, La Porta della Morte is an apt metaphor for the editorial intuition animating the conception and development of this issue of the Journal of Moral Theology: Engaging Disability. Specifically, we are convinced that theo-ethical reflection on the complex realities and diverse experiences of disability provides a vantage to recognize aspects of contemporary life in Christ that are easy to overlook: the paradox of disability in a culture where errors of judgment and sinful practices concerning the normativity of the able body/able mind habituate into morally vicious forms of social and communal life. Oriented by the disciplinary perspectives and diverse methodologies of the Catholic moral tradition, we hope these articles will motivate, inspire, and provoke theologians working in Catholic theological ethics toward critical self-reflection on how their own interpretive and speculative work might engage disability regarding 2 Mary Jo Iozzio and Miguel J. Romero the human good, the common good, the practice of virtue, the call to happiness, discipleship, and service. Before launching into the issue, we offer a brief introduction to the state of the academic specialization called “Disability Studies.” An introductory bibliography follows this Preface. The specialized, scholarly study of disability is usually identified as beginning in the early 1990s, coincident with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990). Over the last thirty years, the discourse of Disability Studies has continued to develop and its critical contributions have been recognized in many academic societies including the American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature, Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, American Educational Research Association, American Sociological Association, and others. Of the first wave of scholars specializing in disability, many had personal experience with a family member or someone close who lived with a disability, and it was through their formal academic training in theology, scripture, or history that they acquired the skills of critical reflection which empowered them to reflect on and interrogate that experience. (This is true also for most of the authors in this Journal of Moral Theology issue, even though they represent a second wave.) Over these years, among the principal developments in the field is the increasing presence of scholars with disabilities teaching, publishing, and encouraging their students and colleagues to recognize the interpretive advantage and speculative insights generated by the distinct hermeneutic of the disability critique emerging in academic, religious, social, political, and legal institutions. As with other critical studies that aim to retrieve the histories of people who were not members of the dominant communities and cultures in which they lived and were thereby marginalized and otherwise oppressed (e.g., women, children, ethnic and racial minorities), people with disabilities have a material history in culture and tradition that requires intentional focus and disciplined sensitivity to obscure, indirect, and implied references in the resources at our disposal. For the Catholic theological tradition, these sources include Scripture, the magisterial tradition, Church Councils, liturgy and the sacraments, theological reflection, and Canon Law. Disability