PRESIDENT'S PAGE Back to the Future

Gerard V. Bradley 0 Timothee, depositum custodi, devitans prcifanas vocum novitates et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae, quam quidam profltentes circafldem aberraverunt. Gratia vobiscum. 1 ad Timotheum 6 ere is the standing criticism of Ex CordeEcclesiae:itisa beeline for the fifties; backwards looking; pre-Vatican II. Indeed, "the fifties" functions as a four letter word for opponents of ECE. That is a telling symbol of a profound ingratitude towards Catholics among Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation": those faith-filled men and women Fellowship who came of age in the Depression'A.,~t WWII, returned home to blue collar salaries, on which theYA,IIIIifP a vast parochial school of Catholic system to educate their large fa Anyway, the criticism is e than that, it's the critics who are stuck in time. e sure, but the early seven- ties, the years just afte the colleges declared their Scholars independence fro iastical , and began to envy the Ivies. They can ne two pos: heir "progressive"vision, and backwards to the fifties. The fork ad has but two prongs: their path, and the path of retrograde, an II Catholics. It's either Quarterly bell bottoms or grey flannel suits: zzie and Harriet or the Love WINTER 2000 Boat. If thisis put on the table in ou, my advice is that you VOLUME 23, NUMBER 1 ask for new silverware. Even so, we do need to 100 Our children do face a world CONTENTS our parents could not have imagi children must claim a living from an economy where having tack, and being disciplined PRESIDENT'S PAGE: enough to get up on time each "fillnot secure a family wage, Backto the Future I as it did for our parents, and for ur generation. Our affluence OBITUARY 2 permits us to deliver that educatii children which neither our parents, nor we, needed. But let se a Catholic education for NEWS 2 the new millennium. ARTICLES:

ECE is entirelyforward looki ope is not interested in a Will Ex Corde Really Be Implemented Catholic education which batten e hatches to preserve the in the United States? 3 future of the Church and of ways of the past. He says in ECE Structures of Evil-Structures of Good 7 the world is being played out as , de the twentieth century. William Carroll and Personalist History 15 There is only one culture: that oj man. And thanks to her Freedom in America vs. universities, the Church explores eries of humanity and of the Love in the Heartland 18 world, clarifYing them in light of "Catholic" Universities: The mysteries of cyberspace The truths entrusted to the care of the Church are not ne ths will light up the Independent or Nonsectarian? 27 challenges of cybers id the challenges AROUND THE CHURCH 30 of centuries gone by: the invention of the printing press, of steam FEATUREDREVIEW 32 power; of gunpowder, of money; the discovery of the ovum, and of BOOK REVIEWS 33 the atom; the rise of the nation state, of the United Nations, of space BOOKS RECEIVED 38 travel. A true Catholic education will give our children what they need BOARD OF DIRECTORS 39 to be leaven in the society they will inhabit. A Catholic education will put the truth to their times, a task for all seasons, for all ages. ffi EX CATHEDRA 40 ISSN 1084-3035 .

L~~ OBITUARY

Reverend Robert]. began to write a series of Latin growth into an international institu- textbooks that are still in print and tion. He then returned to Saint Henle, S.]., Dies that over the subsequent years Louis University, where he taught have sold more than a million in both the philosophy department and the School of Law. He became everend Robert J. Henle, copies. He was ordained a Roman the first incumbent of the chair of S.J., former president of Catholic priest in 1940, and received his doctorate from the R Georgetown University "Justice in American Society," and former academic vice presi- University of Toronto, where he established by the McDonnell dent of Saint Louis University, studied philosophy under such Foundation. He was honored by died on Thursday, January 20, renowned scholars asJacques the Italian and German govern- Maritain and Etienne Gilson. 2000 at the Jesuit infirmary resi- ments and by universities both in dence in Saint Louis. Father Henle taught at Saint the United States and abroad. He was an eminent Catholic Louis University for many years, With more than 200 articles and where he was also at various times philosopher in the United States almost a dozen books to his credit, for many years, a veteran teacher, superior of the younger Jesuits in in his late eighties he published a a prolific author, and an experi- studies, dean of the School of Phi- translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' enced and successful administra- losophy and Letters, university De Veritate,or On Truth, a fitting climax to a life dedicated to the tor. Born in 1909 in Muscatine, research administrator, dean of the Iowa, he entered the Society of Graduate School, and academic search for and furthering of such Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, in vice president. Between 1969 and truth. A last collection of essays and 1976 Fr. Henle was the President 1927. As a Jesuit seminarian, he papers was published this past year taught at the Saint Louis Univer- of Georgetown University in by the Saint Louis University Press under the title of The American sity High School from 1935 to Washington, D. c., where he Thomistic Revival. ffi --1937, during which time he oversaw many of the facets of its McInerny Honored in Festschrift

r. Ralph M. McInerny, "McInerny and Ethics." The first O'Connell, professor emeritus of President Emeritus of session was moderated by John history at the University of Notre D the Fellowship of O'Callaghan of Creighton Uni- Dame, gave an unforgettable Catholic Scholars, was honored versity, and the participants were speech about his days with Ralph in a day long conference at the Alvin Plantiga of the University McInerny in the minor seminary. University of Notre Dame on of Notre Dame, Fr. David Burrell Dr. McInerny is Michael P. Saturday, December 4,1999. of the University of Notre Dame, Grace professor of medieval stud- The event coincided with the and Laura Garcia of Rutgers ies and director of the Jacques Notre Dame Press publication of University. The second session, Maritain Center at the University Recovering Nature: Essays in Natu- moderated by Thomas Hibbs of of Notre Dame. He has taught at ral Philosophy, Ethics and Meta- Boston College, featured Janet the university since 1955 and is physics in Honor of Ralph McInerny, Smith of the University of Dallas, former director of the Medieval edited by John O'Callaghan and David Solomon of the University Institute. He earned his doctorate Thomas Hibbs. of Notre Dame and John Haldane in philosophy at Laval University The conference was divided of the University of St. Andrews in Quebec. into two substantive panel in Glasgow. McInerny is currently the discussions on "McInerny and The day ended with a gala editor of the Fellowship of Catholic the Philosophy of Religion" and banquet, where Fr. Marvin Scholars Quarterly. . FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 ARTICLES

Will Ex CordeEcclesiaeReally Be Implemented in the United States?

by Kenneth D. Whitehead " Presidents of Catholic universities should be Catholics and must take the Oath of Fidelity (includ- t is heartening that the U.S. Catholic bishops, ing a Profession of Faith), as stipulated by Canon 833 at their national meeting in November 1999, of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. approved by such a large majority of 223 to " "To the extent possible the majority of the Board 31 an "Application" document for Pope John should be Catholics committed to the Church." I Paul II's 1990 apostolic exhortation on the " "The university should strive to recruit and ap- Catholic University Ex CordeEcclesiae("from the point Catholics as professors so that, to the extent heart of the Church"). This decision has been nearly possible, those committed to the witness of the faith a decade in the making, and has only come about will constitute a majority of the faculty." after numerous delays, and the overcoming of many " "Catholics who teach the theological disciplines obstacles, mostly thrown up by the leaders of Catho- in a Catholic university are required to have a manda- lic academia in the United States. tum granted by competent ecclesiasticalauthority" (the diocesan bishop), in accordance with Canon 812; Nevertheless, it is surely a giant stride that has "[they] have a corresponding duty to be faithful to the been taken with the enactment of this bishops' ECE Church's magisterium as the authoritative interpreter "Application" document, which requires, among of sacred Scripture and sacred Tradition." other things, that: " Catholic students have a right to receive from a university instruction in authentic Catholic doctrine and practice...Catholic teaching should have a place... in the various disciplines taught in the university..." Obviously, if and when all these requirements are implemented, a fundamental re-orientation will have been made away from the secularization that has in- creasingly characterized most Catholic higher educa- tion institutions over the last 30 years, and towards a re-Catholicization of our colleges and universities. But the question remains: will these (and other) provisions of the bishops' ECE Application docu- ment actually be implemented by all, or even many, of the 230-odd Catholic higher education institu- tions in the United States? What will happen to the institution that does not implement the document- or to the theologian who declines to seek the manda- tum? Does the bishops' vote signal the beginning of an end to the toleration of the heterodox teaching and aberrant practices on too many Catholic campuses that have obtained up to now? Even while voting in these new university norms and requirements, many key bishops went out of their way to indicate that perhaps not all that much really had been changed by the bishops' vote. Bishop John J. Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri, chairman of the bishops' committee that

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ..- - ARTICLES

produced the ECE Application document, empha- oldest Catholic university, actually "welcomed" the sized that the new rules were both "flexible" and new bishops' document, blandly noting how "criti- "benign"; and he specifically noted that the bishop's cal" and "helpful" it was, conclusions that could role would continue to be only "persuasive" as far as never have been predicted from Georgetown's typi- higher education was concerned. "He can't make cal practice. Fr. O'Donovan even mentioned that things happen because the institution is autono- the ECE Application document was supportive of mous," Bishop Leibrecht said. institutional autonomy and academic freedom Even Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua ofPhiladel- (as, of course, Ex Corde Ecclesiaehas been all along, phia, the prelate who headed the bishops' subcommit- although no one would ever have guessed this, tee of mostly trained bishop-canonists who actually given the typical rhetoric that has been elicited wrote the ECE Application document, was careful to from opponents of the papal document). say that the theologian's mandatum would not entail His fellow Jesuit President, Fr. Joseph O'Hare, of any "intensive, intrusive, prolonged investigations of New York's Fordham University, while also express- [a] theologian's writings"; there would be no "inquisi- ing his" disappointment," was nevertheless confident tion," according to the Philadelphia cardinal. that the bishops would apply the new norms in a Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles was "wise and sensitive way." He said he doubted that quoted as follows: "I would say to presidents of the new rule concerning board majorities would Catholic colleges and universities: 'You have nothing change the way his own-secularized-institution to fear from us, from the Church, £rom the imple- went about its business. "I believe we will continue mentation of Ex CordeEcclesiae.»))Auxiliary Bishop on the path of the last thirty years," he was quoted in Edward K. Braxton of St. Louis said that conservatives the New York Timesassaying. (But if we "continue on who expect the new document to be applied in a the path of the last thirty years," we will, precisely, not "heavy-handed way" (as if this were what conserva- adopt the new norms and requirements contained in tives do expect) would be "disappointed." the bishops' ECE Application document! This docu- The only bishop to speak out publicly against the ment manifestlyhad to be enacted becauseof the path document prior to the vote, Archbishop Rembert that has been followed by too many Catholic colleges Weakland of Milwaukee, declared that a favorable and universities over the last thirty years...) vote on it would" create a pastoral disaster for the Even if we discount them as simply putting the Church in the U.S.A."; and he warned that theolo- best face on a bad situation (for them), these appar- gians would become "the object of vigilante ently unruffled words of some of the very presidents, groups." All in all, though, he seemed to be talking the state of whose institutions motivated the Holy about a different document than the one the other Father and the bishops to get into the university bishops had before them. question to begin with, are scarcely characteristic of Once the vote had been taken, even the presi- what was being said about the ECE Application dents of some of those institutions that had once taken document before the bishops approved it. The fact is a lead in opposing the implementation of Ex Corde that the document has been subjected to virtually Ecclesiaewere quoted as also suggesting that, indeed, unremitting attack, and this from the time the draft not all that much really had been changed. Fr. James was introduced to the bishops at their meeting last L. Heft, S.M., chancellor of the University of Dayton year in November, 1998. and, currently, chairman of the Association of Catho- When we consider the vehemence and even lic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), while express- obstinacy with which some of these same people and ing disappointment with the outcome, nevertheless institutions opposed any implementation of Ex Corde averred that "I don't think it means any of [the presi- Ecclesiae,these comments after the fact seem mild dents] are about to walk away from the table." Yet and anti-climactic indeed. And when we consider the ACCU had taken the lead in opposing the imple- how reluctant the bishops also were during the same mentation of Ex CordeEcclesiaein this country £rom period to take any action except when pressed by the moment the question was first raised. Rome, we can only ask at this point: what was all The Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan, president of the sound and fury over Ex CordeEcclesiaeabout Washington's Georgetown University, the nation's then? Why was there even any controversy about it?

.. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000

I Does the apparent downplaying now on all sides of the bishops' ECE Application document does not the importance of what the bishops have done por- specifically provide for the disciplining of dissenting tend a neglect in practice of actually carrying out theologians. No more does it specifY what will be what the bishops have now decided? done in the case of institutions that fail to comply In seeking to answer these questions, it should be with its norms. Some would say that this constitutes noted that, as far as the theologian's mandatum is a defect in the bishops' document. concerned, a number of dissenting theologians im- Nevertheless, it is also the case that Ex Corde mediately stepped forward, as soon as the vote was Ecclesiaeitself has all along made the university re- announced, to declare that they would never and on sponsible for maintaining its own Catholic character, principle even try to seek a mandatum from the local including, presumably, guaranteeing the Catholic bishop. One of them-probably predictably-was authenticity of its theological faculty. The problem Notre Dame's Fr. Richard P. McBrien, who stated has been all along, precisely, that too many Catholic that the mandatum "compromises the academic in- colleges and universities have been failing to do this tegrity of the faculty and university." in any effective way-which is why the Pope and Another one was ex-priest Daniel Maguire, who the bishops were obliged to get into the university long since seems to have abandoned any position question in the first place. properly describable as "Catholic"; he declared that If an institution fails to do what the Church re- his "mandate" comes from his" competence" and his quires, the only ultimate recourse in the hands of the "conscience," and that in no way would he ever bishop would seem to be to declare that the institu- request one from any bishop. He chided the Associa- tion is no longer Catholic. But this too is something tion of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) the American bishops up to now have shown them- and the Catholic Theological Society of America selves quite unwilling to do, even in the face of the (CTSA) for what he styled their "pusillanimous" strong and mounting evidence that so many of our response to what he called the bishops' "draconian Catholic colleges and universities no longer are intrusion into the academy." "When the camel Catholic in important ways. announced it was about to put its nose under the What, then, is the value of this new ECE Appli- tent," Maguire said, "The CTSA and the ACCU cation document of the bishops? If the whole thing began to negotiate with the cameL." (he certainly simply goes back to whether or not the institutions seems to assume that something has been changed are willing to be Catholic at the same time as they by the bishops' vote!). describe themselves as such, then there would seem This reaction from such established dissenters as to be no great improvement over what the situation Maguire and McBrien surely does underline the already was before. And if the whole thing similarly serious question of what is to be done about theolo- depends upon the will of the bishops to insist that gians (or institutions) that refuse to abide by the new institutions calling themselves Catholic must be norms. According to Missouri Bishop John J. Catholic in a real sense, then how does simply Leibrecht, the bishops plan to develop procedures issuing yet another document really affect anything? for the requesting and granting of the mandatum, but The answer is that the vote of the bishops points what about theologians who simply will not apply to a renewed will on their part to do something about for one? In his press conference following the bish- a university situation that everyone has known for a ops' vote, Bishop Leibrecht said that this problem long time was unsatisfactory. The new document, would be a problem for the university, not the with its specific norms, now serves to refocus the bishop. "The bishop is not involved in the internal attention of all concerned with the Catholic university affairs of the institution," he said. "If a particular situation upon the fact that our higher education insti- theologian does not have a mandatum, it is up to the tutions have been allowed to drift away from their university to decide what to do." Catholic moorings over the past thirty years. This fact But what if the institution decides to do-noth- has not always been easily or explicitly admitted, but it ing? (which is pretty much the case at present for is admitted now by the very fact that the bishops have theologians who express views at variance with the officially prescribed a remedy for it. Their action rep- teachings of the Church). And it is only too true that resents their recognition of the needto correct a situa-

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 III ARTICLES tion that has tended to be obscured, precisely because On the other hand, the bishops' action has already the de-Catholicization of our Catholic colleges and brought about some interesting rethinking of the universities has so typically been downplayed or whole question on the part of some, and it may well denied, at least in practice. bring about more such rethinking as it becomes clear Moreover, now that the bishops have enacted that there will be consequences for opposing what the their own norms for Catholic universities, it is no bishops have prescribed. longer going to be quite so easy for institutions to go Of course, dissent from some important Catholic on calling themselves Catholic, meanwhile allowing teachings, as well as the outright denial of them in and even mandating things inimical to the faith and practice, surely remains rife on many Catholic cam- to the teachings of the Church on their campuses. puses, and this dissent still has to be confronted a step The many departures from authentic Catholic faith at a time. Nor has the large majority vote of the and practice observable over the past generation have body of bishops in favor of implementing Ex Corde mostly come about in the absenceof specific norms Ecclesiaenecessarily eliminated the marked reluctance and requirements for what constitutes a truly Catho- of most individual bishops to deal with the admit- lic university. These specific norms and requirements . tedly difficult and until now intractable university are what the ECE Application document now does question in their dioceses; but at least the vote signals concretely provide and spell out for us. Until now, some episcopal solidarity in favor of grasping the schools have been able to go on saying they were nettle which was not necessarily there before. still Catholic while increasingly conforming to the It is significant, by the way, that the ECE Appli- norms of a decadent secular culture in whatever way cation document represents one of the very few times they chose. Also, with the enactment of these norms the U.S. bishops have ever explicitly required in one by the American bishops themselves, it can no of their own documents that theologians must be longer be alleged that they are impositions from "faithful to the Church's magisterium"; up to now, Rome alien to American higher education practice. this requirement has mostly been encountered only in In this situation, the chances of actually moving Roman documents-just as sanctions against dissent- some of these institutions back towards Catholicity ers such as a Charles Curran or a Matthew Fox-or a are now much greater. Robert Nugent or Jeannine Gramick, for that mat- For one thing, university officers, trustees, fac- ter-have almost always come from the Congregation ulty, donors, and such no longer have the excuse for the Doctrine of the Faith, not the bishops. that they do not know what is required for an institu- In spite of the manifest and continuing difficul- tion to be authentically Catholic: it has now been ties inherent in implementing Ex CordeEcclesiae, unmistakably spelled out for them. For another then, the fact remains that the chances of an effective thing, those among them that do want to restore an implementation of it-and perhaps on more cam- authentically Catholic character to their institu- puses than we once thought possible-appears much tions-and there may be more of these than we have more likely than it did just a short few months ago. imagined-now find themselves on the side of the This apostolic constitution can be implemented in "law," and can no longer so readily be dismissed as this country, and the chances that it will be imple- "outdated"-or even as "agitators" or "extremists." mented have now been immeasurably increased by Yet another important factor in the new situation the bishops' favorable vote. is that disobedience to or disregard of the new norms and requirements is now disobedience to or disregard Kenneth D. Whitehead is aformer u.S. Assistant Secre- of what the American bishops have themselves laid tary if Education for Postsecondary Education and the down, not something distant Rome is trying to im- author, among other books, of Catholic Colleges and pose. Nevertheless, implementation of Ex Corde Federal Funding (Ignatius, 1988). Ecclesiaein the manner the American bishops have now called for will no doubt be neither automatic nor easy. No doubt many of those who have opposed the papal prescriptions for the Catholic university will be equally opposed to the new episcopal prescriptions.

- PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 Structures of Evil-Structures of Good On the Centralityof PersonalSin

by Fr.James V. Schall,SJ. following Machiavelli and Hobbes, would like us to think that there is a "science" of government, mod- I. eled on the physical sciences, that would somehow bypass the free choices oflived lives so that some lassical political philosophy recog certain "knowledge" of state-craft could always be nizes a relationship between the in discovered and relied upon. Classic theories of politi- ner life and character of individuals cal prudence, contrariwise, argued that rule included as citizens and the form of polity precisely the practical reason and the free choices of they choose to put into existence to the citizens in their personal lives. The state itself has manifest and habitualize this inner life. Habits, good no substantial being outside the relationships of citi- or bad, are established by repeated acts, good or bad. zens to one another. Political and ethical human If the inner life is virtuous, the forms of rule will be things, moreover, were true only "for the most constructed to foster this virtue. If inner life is de- part." We should not expect more certitude of a grading or selfish, by virtue of a person's choosing as subject matter than the subject can yield. In this case, his exclusive good either wealth, pleasure, or power the subject matter of politics is the variable free as ends, the forms of rule will be deliberately de- choices of human persons interrelating with one signed to enhance the disordered ends chosen deep another. Political things can always be "otherwise" in the personal souls of the citizens. The historic because of their rootedness in human freedom, in- distinctions between monarchy, aristocracy, and cluding freedom to sin. polity, the good forms of rule, on the one hand, and Philosophers like Edmund Burke have recog- tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy, the bad forms in nized that political structures or forms that are com- all their varieties, on the other, were rooted in this monly considered to be seriously defective can actu- diversity within citizen souls about what they de- ally, in practice, work in a tolerable manner if the fined as happiness and good and what actions they people under them are themselves becoming wise selected to achieve this purpose. and virtuous, either because of reason, experience, or Individuals were free to reject the highest things revelation. There is no need always to change laws if as the ultimate purpose of their lives. It is largely the something better in theory appears, as St. Thomas practical intellectual virtue of prudence that guides also has reminded us (I-II, q. 97, art. 2). Mathemati- each citizen in deciding which forms foster virtue cal consistency is not necessarily a virtue in politics. and which enable vice when the ends of soul are 1\ Likewise, forms of elections, say proportional repre- II chosen. There can be a wide variety of practical sentation, that seem so equitable and logical, may in arrangements to achieve either virtuous or vicious ~ fact wreak havoc on a society. Often, in proportion rule, as Aristotle already i:1.dicated in his Politics, but as a thing is arithmetically perfect, it is politically not so wide that external forms of rule were totally unstable. What we often today call political "struc- unrelated to the inner condition of soul that they are tures" are nothing but the habitual forms of custom designed to encourage. and law developed through human actions by a na- To describe this relationship of inner and outer tion to guide its ways ofliving and doing. Political man to the state, the American columnist George structures do not determine, though they may influ- Will has coined the happy, very Platonic-sounding ence, human behavior for better or worse. phrase, "soul-craft is state-craft," and vice versa, It is largely Rousseau who has conditioned us to "state-craft is soul-craft." Modernity at times, think that what is wrong with our inner, spiritual life

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ~ ARTICLES comes, not from within ourselves as we have been between doing wrong and dying, we should choose taught since Genesis and Plato, but from our institu- the latter. We do not know that dying is evil, but we tions, our "structures." In this Rousseauian view, do know that doing wrong is. The Holy Father, in a contrary to Burke, if we want to save ourselves we number of instances, has noted the similarity of the have to change radically our institutions or structures. death of Socrates and the death of Christ, especially This latter view puts the primary responsibility for our on this point. "Christ was not simply a wise man as souls in the hands of political or economic "struc- was Socrates." John Paul II wrote in Crossing the tures," as they are called. Thus, we are put in the Threshold cifHope (p. 43). "[Socrates'] free acceptance hands of those anxious to refonn and refashion men of death in the name of truth nevertheless has a simi- through reforming and refashioning their institutions. larity with the sacrifice of the Cross." Most of the Weare left morally free, by such a theory, to do about disorder and controversy about our public life con- as we please or as we must, depending on what em- cerns its relation to our private or internal life. phasis we want to place on the consequences of the On the one hand, we are told confidently that theory. In either case, we are not responsible for our there exists no relation between the inner life of a inner condition; our structures are. politician and his public deeds or leadership; he can be Christianity, thanks to Scripture and to its Greek a good politician without being a good man. Leaders and Roman heritage through Augustine and Aquinas, themselves repeat this dubious thesis, especially when has not been Rousseauian. With Aristotle, Christian- their inner lives are known to be sordid. Contrariwise, ity has always begun its political thinking with per- we are told that it makes no sense to forbid by laws sonal ethics. It has argued that we could lose our souls certain sins, even the most publicly destructive ones of in the best of structural societies under whatever which St. Thomas spoke, because laws are said to fonns. Likewise, we could save them in the worst of have no relation to morals. This odd theory exists in a tyrannies or in the most dissolute of democracies. This world in which we are told more and more, for in- latter truth is witnessed by a Maximillian Kolbe or by stance, by ever more severe laws and penalties that we a Solzhenitsyn in his account of life in the Gulag. On cannot smoke. We become simultaneously rigid the whole, Christianity has been instinctively, when Puritans in one area and morallaxists in another. not explicitly, Aristotelian. That is, we need a certain amount of wealth to practice virtue. Christianity does II. not treat human beings as if they were angels or totally incapable of ruling and habituating themselves. It has an Cardinal Schotte gave the Commence also been instinctively Chestertonian, that is, it sus- ment Address in 1999 at Thomas Aquinas pected that the worst moral environment in which we College in California (Thomas Aquinas College can find ourselves is not poverty- the poor are Newsletter, Summer 1999). Schotte noted the "blessed"- but great wealth that provides us with tendency to judge the Church by applying to many kinds of temptations in all areas, as Aristotle too it "sociological measurements, namely, statis-: already saw. We should not be under the illusion that tics, opinion polls, majority acceptance, an ap- the poor cannot sin or lose their own souls. The plause meter." Schotte remarked that many people drama of salvation takes place in every walk oflife, today look on the Church primarily "for her apos- every economic condition, every generation, every tolic activity on behalf of the needy and oppressed, land, and every heart. as a kind of philanthropic United Nations." The The philosopher Eric Voegelin remarked that we result is a down-playing of the vertical or transcen- do not have to participate in the disorders of our time. dent centrality of the Church. That is, he argued that we are not determined by our Schotte, in a reflective analysis, proceeds to draw political or economic fonns. This truth recalls out the consequences of this position quite bluntly: Socrates' persistent refrains in The Apology and The Though the Church has an organizational system, Crito that "it is never right to do wrong; that it is bet- she is not an instrument of some horizontal humanitar- ter to suffer evil than to do it." When given a choice ian religion, but first and foremost a community of

- FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 sinners, saved in the blood of Christ, and therefore, a she will be able to regulate her ascent and descent people dedicated to the worship and praise of God, according to the obstacles along the way. They en- and because of Him, dedicated to the service of others! visage the Church as if the Son of God never walked In over-emphasizing service of others, some limit the the earth. They see the Church as exclusively di- definition of Christian living solely to the obligation of vine." But if the Church is exclusively divine, then loving one's neighbor. If the Church were nothing the Incarnation never happened, nor is the Mass more than a philanthropic United Nations, it would with the priesthood possible or feasible. Anyone can i~ follow that her hierarchical structure would be hope- lesslyout-dated in a democratic society, where all its function as head of a community turned in on itself citizens decide the system of government and continu- Again we see in this kind of reasoning the ously adapt the workings of government to the ever- "reductionism" that the Holy Father so often refers changing circumstances and realities of the times (p. 6). to when social scientists think they can analyze faith Schotte clearly stresses the danger of making by rational methodologies. Schotte's way of putting Christianity into obedience only to the Second the problem is remarkably clear: Commandment while neglecting the First. Liturgy is an indispensable part of the Christian life, The Belgian Cardinal makes two very significant requiring a proper formation. In this way, there will be observations that serve to illustrate how religion in eliminated an excessively horizontal or sociological general and Christianity in particular can become view which consists in wrongly looking at the Mass as simply an act of the assembly gathered, or viewing the little less than a function of politics. First, he points out that church architecture often has become priest as simply a "presider" over the assembly, or seeing the altar as simply a table for a meal. Instead, by merely functional. "The architectural area is no adding the vertical or divine dimension, the Liturgy, longer exclusively 'worship space,' the point of particularly the Mass, is rightly seen as Christ's act of meeting between God and His people. On the con- worship to His Father, which goes beyond the group trary, it loses its spiritual significance, the building gathered. In this way, the words and gestures of the becomes purely functional, totally identified with the Mass are understood not to be the possession of the various human necessities of society, or totally fo- individual priest nor of the assembled worshipers, but a cused on the assembly itself" This is very well said. part of the patrimony of the Church, which needs to It points to the great danger that confronts the be faithfully respected and passed on intact to succeed- Church today, the claim to be able to eliminate the ing generations. (p. 7). hierarchy and its great purpose with regard to the It will be noted that almost every major practical deposit of faith to be passed on down the ages. It and theoretical problem in the Church is touched on proposes the replacement of both God and hierarchy in these remarks of Cardinal Schotte at Thomas by the community as, in practice, the new object of Aquinas College. worship. "We risk forgetting the ultimate aim of all human existence, and in doing so we reduce Chris- III. tian hope to an all-inclusive but worldly utopia." wish now to remark on how these consider iii The second aspect of this unfortunate elevation of the Second Commandment, one similar to secu- ations of political philosophy and the need to larization of architecture, is downgrading of the In- keep the centrality of the revelational tradi- tion emphasized by Cardinal Schotte relate carnation and its transcendent implication for eternal I life. The utopians want a perfect world and cannot to the question of personal sin and so-called stand the incarnational aspect of the Church itself political "structures." In a single issue of Jan Schotte explains: "People continue to have an L'Osservatore Romano, English (1 September 1999), idea of the Church which expects her to be beyond we find 1) a letter of the Holy Father to Participants all human weakness and tension, passing through in a Study Week on Marriage and Family, followed history as a hot air balloon floats over the prairies and by 2) an essay by Professor William May entitled "Partial-birth Abortion and Catholics," and finally 3) mountains., People dream that, like the balloon, a Wednesday audience devoted precisely to the

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 III ARTICLES

relation between personal sin and society. Since sights" so that we are not bothered by what we these three subjects are so intimately intertwined and "ought" to do. We should be content with some lead most directly to the heart of the central disor- social engineering about what we do "do," which is ders in our society touched on earlier, I want to often very base and indeed, by all criteria, becoming make some comment on them. more so. We should not call "sin" what everyone Behind each of these essays hovers the condition does. Indeed, we should prevent by law calling of the modem republic, of the culture to which it "sins" certain practices that have now become com- belongs. The modem republic bears, by its own mon among us. choice, politicians and voters who have been inti- Themes of decline and fall are normally addressed mately involved in establishing the "structures of to powers that have achieved some status in the evil" that have become justified in our laws and cus- world. John Adams, the second American president, toms. Politically, we are no longer horrified by deeds seems to have held that once a society is on a road of we allow or promote with our laws. Recently, a moral decline, it is most doubtful if it can regain its friend of mine was at a prayer vigil before an abor- moral center. Rarely are great powers defeated by tion hospital run by a Christian organization. In the outside forces until they have themselves become so hospital they regularly aborted at five months chil- disordered of soul that the task of defeating them be- dren thought to be deformed in some sense. They comes relatively simple. One can say, in a certain simply induced the baby and let it die. When asked sense, that the primary sign of decline takes place I' about this procedure, my friend was told that "this is when a people stops begetting itself, stops reproducing what Christ would have done to show compassion." its own kind and must turn to other peoples to supply One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry. None of the labor and military forces that are needed in any this means that absolutely everyone dealing with society. This is the factual situation in almost all West- these horrid practices is a conscious sinner, but it ern countries. If one walks our streets today, it is strik- does not deny either that much personal sin is in- ing how the languages of those who do the heavy volved. It does mean that those who are still anxious manual and light service work is almost never En- to practice virtue and define evil as evil have not glish- or, I presume, French or German or Italian. managed to exercise their moral and political choices This may not be all bad as it gives other people's chil- in such a way as to change the evident disorders of dren a chance to become wealthier and to change soul that are now part of our public order. their lives. But it is a sign that we must now import Our ability to examine our own souls is, at best, labor; we do not beget in any numbers adequate to a curious and difficult one. Aristotle doubts very keep ourselves in viable condition. much, once we habituate ourselves to personal moral faults, to what we Christians call sins, that we will Iv. ever be able to see or acknowledge what is in fact good. Aristotle was not a determinist, nor was he a he first of these materials that I want Christian. He was, however, quite aware of the to reflect on deals directly with the depths of "wickedness," as he called it, to which our question of whether some better way habits lead us and to the difficulty we have in chang- of begetting human beings than a ing the direction of our lives. In the doctrine of family of one husband and one wife conceivingT their own children from love and inter- Original Sin, Christianity is conscious of a deeper disorder of soul than Aristotle perhaps ever realized. course in a lifetime commitment is to be promoted Likewise, with its teaching on grace and sacrifice, by science or politics. If we need children but fami- Christianity both provides a hope that originates lies do not produce them, perhaps we ought to turn outside of ourselves and a sobering caution to our the job over to science. This thought has been con- Enlightenment-based optimism that we can and ceived before in the realms of philosophy. The mat- should do it all by ourselves. This latter Pelagian-like ter was delicately broached most famously in The position has, in effect, proposed that we "lower our Republic of Plato, whether as a warning or seriously

.. FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 .. still remains to be decided. In any case, Plato's founded on the indissoluble marriage of a man and a guardians were not to know their parents or their woman, as the natural and basic cell of society, is criti- brothers and sisters or their children. Everyone was cally challenged. Fatherhood and motherhood are to be called father, mother, brother, sister. Begetting conceived only as a private project, which can even be was to be decided by the state as a reward for its own accomplished with the application of biomedical tech- nology, without the exercise of conjugal sexuality (p. 4). genetic and political purposes. Plato likens human breeding to the breeding of horses, thoroughbreds. This passage again reveals, as I have often noted II , His purpose is, evidently, a noble one, to produce with regard to the papacy's position on marriage, the best human beings and the best polity. In this that it is not science, but the Church, that defends image, at least, he seems to indicate that virtue is a sex as it is given to us in its essential beauty. Science 'J matter of breeding, not of habit and choice. proposes in effect to "divide freedom and nature," II Christianity has not wholly rejected Plato. Monas- leaving us with sterile, meaningless sexual acts in tic orders are in one sense "Platonic." That is, the return for its control over the human child. Indi- lofty philosophic and moral ends that Plato wanted to vidual men and women no longer have any "pur- achieve by his marriage proposals were to be achieved pose" with regard to the next generation. in another fashion. The vows of the Christian monas- The Holy Father, thus, has clearly sensed what is teries and convents were designed to have common at issue here. In examining what it is science is pro- property and a common life. They exactly paralleled posing to do to our very coming to be, he sees that Plato's purposes. New members were to "join" not by the key issue is the protection of a man and a begetting but from the valid marriages already present woman in their very ability to beget, care for, and in the society. The Christian guardians were to be £ree educate their children. They are alone in charge. But of too much reliance on material obligations so that, if we beget children by other means, as we evidently like the philosopher-kings, they could devote their can, we break that intimate bond that identifies us as lives to the highest things as revealed to us in Christ's the child of this father and this mother, from these "Come, follow me." families, that grounds us through the personal rela- In his Letter to the Study Week on Marriage and tions of parents to the human reality through which Family, the Holy Father is clearly aware of how far we are called to eternal life. "To eliminate the cor- efforts to separate begetting and family have pro- poreal mediation of the conjugal act as the place gressed. Scientific "means" have enabled children to where new human life can originate," the Pope con- be conceived outside of the womb. Women can tinues, "means at the same time to degrade procre- become temporary "nests" for fertilized ova to be ation from co-operation with God the Creator to implanted artificially. Many fertilized ova are dis- the technically controlled 're-production' of an ex- carded to assure one or two viable ones. The ulti- emplar of the species and thus lose the unique per- mate ambition would be to fertilize, gestate, and sonal dignity of the child." The dimensions of this raise a human being totally outside the womb and issue could hardly be stated more succinctly. apart from the care of given particular parents. The Holy Father writes to this effect: v. The secular mentality regarding the truth about the his brings me to Pr~:,[essorWilliam person, marriage and the family has in a certain sense become even more radical. It is not only a question of May's essay on "Partial-birth Abortion debasing the individual moral norms of sexual and and Catholics." May is primarily family ethics. The image of man/woman proper to concerned with Catholic legislators natural reason and, in particular, to Christianity, is who are in a position to limit abortion orT eliminate it but who do not vote for the means that opposed with an alternative anthropology. This latter rejects the fact, inscribed in corporeality, that the might do so. They give various grounds for their sexual difference is an identifYing characteristic of the action £rom not seeing anything wrong with abortion person; consequently, the concept of the family to not wanting to "impose" one's religion on some-

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . II I! ARTICLES one else. Strictly speaking, abortion is not immediately for human life' and to do what lies in their power to a "religious" issue. It is primarily an issue of reason, of protect the inviolability of innocent human life knowledge about what human life is and what begins publically in a way contrary to their Catholic faith. it. As Professor May writes, "the point when human They objectively sin, in other words. The origin life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact- of the "structure of sin" is the inner life of individual a fact on which there is clear agreement even among persons, individual politicians. Soul-craft is state-craft. leading abortion advocates" (p. 6). Since partial-birth abortion is a particularly brutal VI. manner of killing the emerging baby, it has seemed to many that everyone would agree it was wrong n his Audience of August 25, 1999, John and easily eliminated. This has not proved to be the Paul II repeated a teaching that appeared in case. The legal desire for allowing abortion of what- his Address to the Puebla Conference at the ever form is so strong that some want to call it sim- very beginning of his Pontificate, namely, ply a "right," to be protected by the state. When I that the term "social sin" can never be used asked why this "right" is not likewise a "duty" to as if it did not relate to and involve personal sin. what is begotten, answers range from efforts to de- Collective guilt, guilt without personal choice, is the fine "person" as not beginning till after birth to scourge of this closing century. Some individual claiming that the child has no right to exist if it is not person always puts in place the acts that influence "wanted." The various justifications for abortion are others in their wrong-doing. "Looking at the world familiar. We might call abortion, with some justice, a today," the Holy Father said in August, "structure of evil." It enables what is sinful to be we have to admit that there is a marked decline in the easily, efficiently, and quietly done, though in fact all consciousness of sin. Because of widespread religious abortions leave their moral and spiritual conse- indifference or the rejection of all that right reason and quences on souls of the women, the medical profes~ revelation tell us about God, many men and women lack a sense of God's Covenant and for his command- sion, and the lawmakers of a country. Abortion evidently takes place, to go back to the ments. All too often the human sense of responsibility is blurred by a claim of absolute freedom, which it Holy Father's earlier remarks, when those who beget considers threatened and compromised by God, the refuse to acknowledge what it is they do together. supreme legislator (p. 7). They do not want what they are in their acts. The whole Western legal tradition had originally sought Notice how the Philosopher-Pope is constantly to protect the family and the child. The family had aware of the underlying intellectual issues. responsibility for its own condition. Western law Behind the abortion issue, behind the utopias, sought to be a "structure of good," that is, to foster behind the effort to produce perfect human beings in family care policies, not family death policies, as at a laboratory lies the claim to "absolute human free- present. Professor May's analysis is particularly im- dom." And this "freedom" necessarily involves a portant because it is the first that I have seen directly rejection of a law of nature, of anything outside the take up the moral responsibility of Catholic legisla- inner will that would oblige it to pay attention to tors when these same legislators vote to keep abor- something else besides its~lf Ultimately, we are deal- tion, particularly partial-birth abortion, legal. This is ing with the claim in Genesis, which is the structure a point where political forms and personal con- of every sin, to be ourselves the cause of the distinc- science touch. As Professor May puts it: tion between "good and evil." With a theory of absolute autonomy, we do not find the good already The issue is clear. Catholic political leaders and there, in being. We cause it, subject to nothing else legislators who, like the u.s. [Catholic] senators who refused to override President Clinton's veto of a bill but our autonomy. All the killing of innocent life, all designed to protect unborn children ttom a the legislation to allow it, all the "structures of evil" particularly heinous and barbaric form of abortion (the that support it are, basically, the claim to do as we Catholic votes made the difference) fail to 'stand up will, whether as individuals or societies, in spite of

.. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 any objective, natural laws. But whether under grace or under the influence Christianity is not opposed to personal freedom. of" autonomous will," we still must choose. This In fact, with Augustine, it might be said to have choice defines the status of our being before God, invented the idea. But freedom is precisely that, an defines whether, with Socrates, we know that "it is either/ or. "Personal freedom should be recognized never right to do wrong." "It is also true that per- and defended as a precious gift of God, resisting the sonal sin always has a social impact," John Paul II tendency to lose it in the structures of social condi- explains. tioning or to remove it from its inalienable reference While he offends God and harms himself, the sin- to the Creator." The Pope is quite aware that mod- ner also becomes responsible for the bad example and ern sociological methodology does in fact "lose" negative influences linked to his behaviour. Even freedom in structures as well as remove it from any when the sin is interior, it still causes a worsening of responsibility to anything other than itself, to au- the human condition and diminishes that contribution tonomy, whereby it creates its own definitions of which every person is called to make to the spiritual good and evil. This premise, in fact, that man, not progress of the human community. In addition to all God, causes the distinction in things, is the only one of this, the sins of individuals strengthen thoseforms of socialsinwhichareactuallythefruit if anaccumulationof that makes comprehensible the voting of legislators or the actions of doctors and women themselves and manypersonalsins. Obviously the real responsibility lies with the individuals, given that the social structure as their supporters when they claim that the human such is not subject to moral acts. (Emphasis added) child is not an object oflove and protection that How sound is this theology that refuses to see in determines all our subsequent moral actions. Only arbitrary, autonomous will that has no connection to polities or structures the subject of moral acts! Only human persons are the subject of moral acts. reality can end up justifYing such actions as partial- Sometimes the force of habit and law, the latter birth abortion. The action necessarily leads to a phi- of which, as Aquinas said, is usually but a way to losophy, to an ideology, that permits the human induce habits through repetition of acts prescribed by actor to deny the reality, to deny what is. As Eric legislation, can make it seem that we must sin inevi- Voegelin said in the Introduction of his Israeland tably. But the accumulation of personal sins is what Revelation, "Ideology is existence in rebellion against God and man." This is indeed what our existence is we mean by habits of social pattern. The center of when it kills our own, when it chooses what the focus is always there on personal sins, even in the case of politicians. Yet, the Christian analysis does Holy Father calls the" culture of death." In this reflection on "structures of sin" and not despair at its realistic sense of sin with repeated personal sins that so harm others because "the proc- "structures of good," the Holy Father's final words lamation of Christ's victory gives us certainty that seem most to the point. He sees in political forms or eventually the strongest structures of evil can be structures habits of deviant action. Actions, flowing overcome and replaced by the 'structures of good. ", from structures of good, on the one hand, are them- Thus we think of politicians who sin by not selves rooted in the inner soul. They produce habits standing up to the truth, to the good, even if they that enforce the acts of the will to the good by for- know by their own acts they lose power. We think mulating themselves on natural law and the goodness of those who justifY the killing of the most innocent of being as such. The classic Catholic position, fol- of our kind, repeatedly, by a metaphysical theory of lowing Aquinas, acknowledges that being is good- autonomous freedom or simply a refusal to accept omne ens est bonum- while seeing with steady eyes the responsibility of our acts. But we need not de- that the Fall is a reality that still influences our wills spair. It is true that scientists, philosophers, and poli- to do terrible things to our kind, to our most inno- ticians are planning to replace the family, politically cent kind. The teachings on grace, moreover, re- mind us that while we should never underestimate and scientifically. It may be possible to do this, to our tendencies to evil, so likewise we should not produce a race or huge numbers of scientifically produced human beings. The Holy Father simply deny our tendencies to the good. tells us, "Don't do it, don't break the connection of

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ARTICLES

love, body, life, and destiny wherein what comes to in utopia. It will happen in the kingdom of God for be among us is there by processes given to us by what which all our personal choices of what is good are causes us to be in the first place." made and against which all our choices of ourselves The Fall makes us realize that it is possible, on a stand. As Cardinal Schotte implied, to defend the large scale, to reject the simplest of truths as it is pos- Second Commandment, it is necessary, ultimately, to sible to kill millions of conceived human lives and defend the First. This is the central purpose of Rev- older ones too, seemingly without a qualm. In the elation and its inspired institutions in the world. end, to be a Christian means that the "structures of good," good itself, will defeat the structures of evil. Fr. James V. Schall,SJ. serveson the boardif directorsif This will not happen finally in this world, certainly not the Fellowshipof CatholicScholars.

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Speake .Cardinal Thomas j. . Professor' Robert Spaemann TheGreatJubilee, ra gOd .Professo - Secularism,therootof the cultureofdeath. The role of the bishop in promoting .Rev. Dr. Anthony Fisher, O.P. .Monsignor Livio Melina the c;ulture,oflife, Problel1ls of (;'9nsciencein the coQ'lentional

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III FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000

L- Warren Carroll and Personalist History

by Mo Fung the primary concern of this divine Person is with us as human and eternal persons. But some of it is public s an undergraduate ;lt Christendom an~ historical. Where men of courage and missionary College, I remember being grateful spirit recognize Christ as their Lord and proclaim Him, Christendom appears as a social, cultural and political !\ for a particular feature of Dr. Warren Carroll's history exams. On those presence in the world. It grows with that courage and profession, and above all by the silent impetus of exams, there were short answer essays prayer and example. It fades with timidity, indiffer- Awhich required us to identifY individuals or events, ence, apostasy, and the lack of holiness.1 explain their importance and place them in historical context by providing a date when the individual lived In this passage, there are two items worthy of or when the event took place. As an alternative to this examination. First, Carroll places the writing of his- requirement, Dr. Carroll, my history professor and tory in a Christological context. Carroll presupposes thesis director, would allow us to provide a notable that Christ came into history and continues to act in contemporary-another person not directly involved, history. Things get "personal," as Carroll puts it, but in some way relevant to the individual or event in when he connects Christ as a Person to man as "hu- question-as a way of testing our overall grasp of the man and eternal persons." Another way of charac- historical "picture." I was grateful for this option, terizing this connection between Christ as Person because it always seemed easier to provide a relevant and man as person would be to say that history is person than to remember a specific date. intrinsically bound up in the relation between Christ Looking back after time and further studies, I have and man. Carroll implies relation with Christ's "con- come to realize that this option fit perfectly into Dr. cern" for man and man's acknowledgment of Carroll's approach to history. Indeed, one might say Christ's Lordship. With the notion of "relation" that his acceptance of a historical contemporary as a now present, a more traditional understanding of means of testing a student's grasp of how an individual relation as constitutive of person emerges. or event fit into history revealed his great respect for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger echos this sentiment, the centrality of the person in history. saying that Warren Carroll has an impressive and still grow- As a consequence, dynamic definition of the hu- ing body of work to his name, which includes several man person flows from Christ, the new Adam. Christ books and a projected six-volumed work entitled A is the directional arrow, as it were, that indicates what History if Christendom. The purpose of this essay is to being human tends toward, although, as long as history present how Warren Carroll describes his own ap- is still on the way, this goal is never fully reached. At proach and purpose to historical scholarship in the the same time it is clear that such a definition of being introduction to the first volume in his ongoing multi- human manifests the historicity of the human person. If person is the relativity toward the eternal, then this volumed work, The Founding if Christendom, and to relativity implies "being on the way" in the manner of point out various correlations with some of the more human history.2 notable personalist philosophers and theologians of our time. Many of the presuppositions concerning the For Ratzinger too, the human person receives definition and direction from his relation to Christ. person of John Paul II and others illuminate Warren Carroll's app~oach to history. Consequently, it is this relation that also gives defini- Carroll begins the introduction by answering the tion to human history, which Ratzinger character- question, "What is Christendom?" izes as the "being on the way" to the One to whom we are in relation- Christ. Christendom is the reign of Christ-that is to say, Second, Carroll's inclusion of the "silent impetus for the Christian, the reign of God recognized by of prayer and example" as an influencing factor in men. Much of that reign is invisible, since His king- history is very telling of a special nuance in his per- dom is not of this world. Much of it is personal, since sonalist approach to history. Carroll gives primacy to

FCS Quarterly' Winter 2000 . ARTICLES prayer, virtue and example among the human ac- vailing philosophy of history today which is domi- tions. This acknowledgment of human action that is nated by the Hegelian dialectic. Carroll further rein- not external or visible is surely unique among con- forces his response to contemporary historiography temporary historians. Carroll would contend that the by stating the following: action which takes place within the interior of the Christians do not see men as primarily shaped or person and the daily life of virtue has a great signifi- dominated by extrinsic and nameless forces, structures, cance in history. . and trends. They see the drama of human life as pri- Karol Wojtyla, in The Acting Person,makes a dis- marily composed of personal thought and action, tinction between transitive and intransitive acts which above all by the working of the will. (emphasis in helps to explain this point. "When we speak of 'per- original)6 forming an action' we see the person as the subject Carroll's concept of man as person standing at and the agent while the action itself appears as the the center of history now deserves more attention. consequence of the efficacy of the agent. This conse- In the passage just quoted, Carroll introduces the quence is external with regard to the person, but it is notion of man being "metaphysically independent" also internal to, or immanent in, the person ... it is of temporal institutional influence. Undoubtedly, both transitive and intransitive with respect to the Carroll is basing this independence on the dignity of person."3 One can readily see that the interior dispo- the person which is derived from his eternal origin sition which is cultivated by "prayer and example" and destiny to which he already referred. Karol which Carroll considers so important in history corre- Wojtyla refers to this same concept as self-determi- sponds to the intransitive acts of the person which nation. "The self, then, is not just self-consciousness, Karol Wojtyla carefully defines and emphasizes. but it is also the self-possession and self-governance James Hanink provides a helpful assertion which proper to a concrete human suppositum."7 further draws the two points together. He says, "But Here Carroll's basic presupposition is aided by what of that which we create intransitively? The one of the Pope John Paul II's most foundational truth we live, the goodness we achieve, the beauty principles which is set forth in Laborem Exercens. we reverence- these goods are never used up. The With man's biblical mandate to subdue the earth, more they are realized, the more abundant they God gives the gift of work to man. Hence we have are."4 Hanink makes the assertion that seems to the famous axiom of Laborem Exercens: "work is for echo Carroll in the acknowledgment of the produc- man, man is not for work."8 Here the Pope is em- tion of interior goods. phasizing that it is man who gives dignity to work Midway through the introduction, Carroll ad- and not work that gives dignity to man. More im- dresses the common view that history is determined portantly to our discussion, the Holy Father is also by forces, dialectics or trends whether they be eco- teaching that man has been given the gift of work nomic, political or evolutionary. Carroll writes: and therefore it is man who produces. Work does Regarding social, political, and non-ecclesiastical not produce man. Therefore man is responsible for institutional history, the writer would emphasize that the economic and political orders. The economic as a Christian his interest is in persons.Persons in their and political trends may affect man, but it is man earthly lives are indubitably very much affected by the who lies at their very origin and hence is it man who social and institutional structures and by economic can change the direction of these trends. In this way conditions. But the person is ultimately, metaphysi- Carroll justifies writing history from the perspective cally independent of them. He is not their creature, but of the person rather than nameless forces. God's creature. (emphasisin original)5 Towards the end of his Introduction, Carroll Here Carroll makes an important point, particu- explains his writing style. Carroll's special talent, larly in regards to the prevailing trends in contempo- which has become his signature, for producing rary historical scholilrShip. Carroll acknowledges the history books that are as entertaining as they are influential dimension of the cultural, economic and factual and informative is no coincidence given his political orders, but he insists on the primacy of the personalist outlook. person as the determining agent in all temporal af- The writer firmly holds the perhaps unfashionable fairs. This assertion stands in opposition to the pre- belief that any good history should be a good story.

. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 Man's past is full of events more dramatic than any Even though this consideration of Warren ever put on stage. The most dramatic of these events Carroll's approach to history with the help of other pertain directly to the supreme drama which is the personalist thinkers has been relatively brief, one can action of Christ in the world, in preparing for His readily see the personalist ideals in Carroll's approach coming, in coming, and in living in His Church. to history. Carroll roots the person in his relation to There is no law of nature or of scholarship which says Christ thus establishing the source and definition to that a scholarly and reliable history must be dull, and man's dignity and the transcendence of human action. no at all why it should be. (emphasisin original)9 Following from the primacy of man within temporal ~ Once again there are two items within the above reality, Carroll is steadfast in maintaining the person's passage worth exploring. First, Carroll connects the independence with respect to cultural, political and ~ notion of drama to the nature of history. This is a economic forces. Lastly, Carroll's insistence that his- direct consequence of Carroll's fundamental assump- tory be good story speaks of his natural assumption tion that man is an actor. "Through our activity we that the dignity of man and the transcendence ofhu- are the authors of many effects outside of ourselves; man acts is a drama in itself This drama, in turn, through it we shape our surrounding reality."l0 The speaks of the supreme drama which is the action of drama of human action is then derived from the Christ. Indeed there is a great deal of coherence be- "concrete human person who, in acting, takes up the tween Carroll, the personalist historian and Karol, the task of integration and transcendence and thereby most brilliant personalist of the century. becomes the human agent who engages with others At the close of the introduction, Carroll makes a in the community ofbeing."ll call for more interest in history saying that "there is a Second, implicit in this passage is Carroll's desire crying need for rising young historical scholars pos- for the drama of history to be a thematic presenta- sessing the gift of faith in Christ to answer the call tion. Human action, and consequently human his- for the reconstruction of Christian historiography. "13 tory, will naturally bring forth themes which imply In the same vein, this writer hopes that by drawing the "supreme drama which is the action of Christ in some correlation between personalist thought of world" whether they are in harmony or disaccord Pope John Paul II, and other philosophers and theo- with Christ. Hence we come to Carroll's ultimate logians, to the historian Warren Carroll, that more purpose for historical scholarship. It is the drama of interest in personalist history, as well as interdiscipli- Christ that inspires the saga of man, how it unfolds nary personalism, is further stimulated. ffi and its eventual outcome.

Regarding this point it is worth mentioning Mo Fung is a student at the Pontificio Instituto Giovanni Pope John Paul II's interest in drama both as an actor Paolo II in Rome. and a playwright. Poland suffered much during World War II. As a young man during this time, NOTES Karol Wojtyla was a member of a theatrical group 1. Warren H. Carroll, The Founding of Christendom, (Front Royal, and wrote several plays. It is understandable that the VA: Christendom College Press, 1985), 9. ~\ severity of the surrounding events, the war and Nazi 2. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, "Concerning the Notion of Person , occupation, also occupied the attention and imagina- in Theology," Communio 17 (Fall 1990), 452. tion of young Wojtyla. Kenneth Schmitz says that 3. Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person,trans. Andrzej Potocki l (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979), 149 (from Hanink article). "Wojtyla's interest leaned toward the record of that 4. James G. Hanink, "Karol Wojtyla: Personalism, intransitivity, history as it was given expression by poets and na- and Character," Communio 23 (summer 1996), 251. I tional heroes But his religious interest was caught 5. Carroll, 10. 6. Carroll, 10. also by an older history-biblical history. His first 7. Wojtyla,46. works for the theater gave dramatic expression to the 8. Pope John Paul II, Laborem exercens,6. blending of themes played out in those different 9. Carroll, 11. histories. "12 Wojtyla used the drama of history to 10. Karol Wojtyla, "The Person: Subject and Community," enhance the thematic presentation of his theater. For reprinted in Crisis (April 1994), 44. 11. Kenneth Schmitz, At theCenteroftheHumanDrama(Washing- Wojtyla, like Carroll, the thematic expression of the ton, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1993), 145. Person and event of Christ can be easily found and 12. Schmitz, 2. developed within the drama of human history. 13. Carroll, 11.

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . - , ARTICLES Freedom in America vs. Love in the Heartland

By Rev. Edward]. Richard tions that even our nation's founders, no matter how unorthodox they might have been themselves, would want to begin my talk this morning by tell have found very strange. ing you that I have it in my mind to bring In the presentation of the law in law school and about something of a renewal of yours. I am the cases we studied, all that was said is, "This is the hoping to get you to see something about law." "This is the way we do it." "This is the right I yourselves and the way you learned to think, way to do it." It was a culture oflaw that attempted especially about marriage, that you did not realize at every turn to be more and more consistent within before. Taking the cue from St. Paul, I want to chal- itself And if I wanted to be a lawyer, that is the way lenge you to not be conformed to the wisdom of this I would have to learn to think about the law. age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Before I tell you anymore about the law and the In order to help you I want to tell you a little changes that took place in legal and political philoso- something about myself I am not one of the "lifers" phy that resulted in the predominant culture of law, in my vocation as a priest. I entered the seminary I would like to get you to put yourself in a place only after I had studied law and practiced for a similar to where I was then but with a different couple of years. My vocation story may well be in- focus. For me, the focus was law as seen from the teresting but it will have to remain a little mysteri- standpoint of the lawyer. I know what I know ous. Nonetheless, the crucial point in the story, the because I learned it from the primary teachers, the real turning point for me, was probably something courts, the legislators, and the lawyers themselves. you can all understand. You see, I had fallen in love. Now, I would like for you to focus on marriage and When I discovered by my vocation to the priest- sexuality. My question to you is, how do you know hood, I had only then come to know the love of my most of what you know about marriage, spousal life, even though she was always with me. I was in love, and sex? DON'T ANSWER THAT! Some love with the Church, who is Christ's bride first, and of you are blushing. If I were to poll all of you I I as a priest have the privilege ofloving her, in the think I know what kind of answer I could formulate. person of Christ. More on that later. Just like there is a culture oflaw that perpetuates The reason I bring up my experience with the itself through molding the minds of its subjects, we law is this: When I studied, as with all other law stu- all live in a culture that passes along its own ideas dents, I learned how to be a lawyer according to the about family, marriage, and therefore about love and way we approach law here in the U.S. in the last half the meaning of human sexuality. of this century. The method and philosophy oflaw Unlike myself and the law, most of you probably we studied were part and parcel of the law as we came did not pick up many books about the meaning of to know it. Therefore, it was never even suggested to marriage, how its done, how you show love to your us that the law could ever be founded upon anything spouse, what is the model for this love, and so on. On different than what we were then learning from our the other hand, in learning both the things we know professors. To be more specific, none of the professors about law and about love and marriage, some assump- ever told us that law in this country had begun to tions got communicated just by being in a culture that change tremendously just before the beginning of the passes on its traditions to us in many ways. Television turn of the century. They did not give us any clue and movies (soap operas, educational programs, that the way we understood the law would be based prime-time comedy and dramas), popular music (love upon a way of thinking about man's nature and ac- songs, songs about love including extramarital love

. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 ARTICLES

affairs and adultery, loss oflove), and popular literature this was the true meaning of freedom. It was not (books and pop.ular magazines) feed us information until I entered deeply into my doctoral research that that not only tells us about love, but tells us about it as I was surprised to discover that the methodology and if it were the only way to understand it. I am not philosophy oflaw that I learned was an innovation saying that these types of media are teaching anything in the history oflaw. In fact, the way we approach that is not a reflection of our culture. But they are the law in this country now is fundamentally different means by which culture continues to hand on a cer- than that which the country began with. More im- tain view oflove and marriage which we, all too of- portantly, it is easy to see from the history why so ten, take for granted. We don't have to study them to many things which have become legal rights in the have them actually become part of our way of think- U.S. and elsewhere violate some human good that ing. We just accept it. the Church promotes. This also begins to respond to At this point, I am hoping that some of you are an important question: If the principles in our Decla- saying, "Well, of course, that what our culture does. ration of Independence and the Constitution helped This is where we live and that's the way it is. Mar- us begin to overcome the tragedy of slavery by rec- riage is marriage. Love is love." Well, that may be a ognizing the dignity of all human beings, why did phenomenon that we have to acknowledge as a part the Supreme Court go the wrong way on abortion? of our experience, but whether married love is really what we think it is does not depend upon, as our "Good Law" Or Good God!? current president might say, what the meaning of the word "is" is. art of the answer to the question about Maybe all I can hope for is to plant a seed in your the Supreme Court's stand on abortion mind. Are all of the cultural ideas affecting you and can be found in the history oflaw in this your marriage and your view of sexuality and child- country where it is seen that some major bearing really that wholesome? Maybe growing up in thinkers began to abandon our law's a good Catholic home, or going to Catholic schools, connectionP to the "laws of nature and nature's God" was not enough. Maybe the cultural biases that affect all of us have not been exposed to the light of the which was inherent in the Declaration of Indepen- dence.! It is a matter of some interest that at the truth because we do not want them to be. Maybe we time the American jurists were seeking solutions to are content not to think about the truth of marriage social problems by abandoning natural law, Rerum and sexuality and do not want to be made uncomfort- novarum, the great social encyclical of Leo XIII, in able by having to consider that there might be some 1891 was upholding the rights of workers based truth to the matter other than what culture has taught upon natural law principles. But it is clear from read- us. You know, we hear a lot of people objecting to ing the document that a fundamental issue is the the Church's teaching because they are following their own conscience. But for all of the talk in our question of the sense of God and human nature which supplies reason with certain criteria for honest society, even by many Catholics, about "my" con- judgment. Pope Leo made it clear that our creation science, the individual, and our own individual opin- as rational creatures established certain rights of own- ions, it is somewhat amazing that so many individuals ership which contributed to the exercise of freedom. have the same moral values as are portrayed in the This freedom, it was clear, was not unlimited but songs, magazines, and television shows I talked about. founded in creation and under the Providence of So much for the individual conscience. God. As Leo put it: Let me get back to my own story for a moment. I, like most people, was mesmerized by the concept Since [man]... has mastery over his own acts, he can of freedom taught by our judicial system. My govern himself by his own foresight and judgment, subject always to the eternal law, the guidance of God assumption was that this was what the founders believed and therefore to be American was to be free whose providence extends to all things. (Rerum novarum,1891) from every possible imposition. I also believed that

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 81

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Moreover, this justice of the eternal law extended him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reason- down to man by reason is the natural law to which ing, and their senselessminds were darkened. While all civil laws must conform and from which they claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an receive their authority. Leo clearly expressed the fact image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged that the state had a legitimate role in the protection animals or of snakes. Therefore, God handed them of certain rights. But there were limits established by over to their impurity through the lusts of their hearts human nature, known and understood through cre- for the mutual degradation of their bodies. (Rom ated reason whose source is God himself It is here 1:20-23, NAB) that the State must stop. Unjust laws are those that I suspect that many of you think like I did, that violate that limit and, as a result, attack or weaken the law's the law and that's it. It never changes and respect for human dignity. Pope Leo saw that the lawyers have always been doing the same thing. Af- first and most serious mistake was the distancing of ter all, even Jesus didn't like lawyers, right? Well, man from God. there's some truth in that, but there has been a major My talk today is nothing other than the develop- change in the way law affects our moral life. Early in ment of a very simple idea. The idea is this: The the history of our country our courts were heavily failure to acknowledge God and his relationship to influenced by European law, which itself had some us as persons will inevitably lead to corruption of pretty direct things to say about the influence of the human justice and human wisdom and the notion of truth about creation. Blackstone's Commentaries on human freedom. This is so much the case that when the Laws of England (1765-69) became the foremost we do ignore this connection to God, even our own lawbook in England and the United States and self-reflection will begin to suggest to us that we played a significant role in the development of the cannot know the answers to the really important U.S. legal system.2 In that commentary which our questions in life. Why am I here? How did I come lawyers and courts were studying, Blackstone wrote: to be? Who am I? Furthermore, we even come to doubt that we will ever manage anything better. The Those rights then which God and nature have estab- lished, and are therefore called natural rights such as very idea of our own reason is called into question. are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to Do we have the capacity to know anything? Think be more effectively invested in every man than they about it. If we didn't question our ability to know are; neither do they receive any additional strength the things that truly matter, how else could we be so when declared by the municipa11aws to be inviolable. unsure of the truth about our moral lives, about On the contrary, no human legislature has power to what is truly good and bad with respect to human abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself flourishing? When we look at the big moral ques- commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture. Neither tions facing our nation such as homosexual union, do divine or natural duties(such as, for instance, the abortion, divorce, euthanasia, cloning, and so on, we worship of God, the maintenance of children, and the see that there really is no overarching notion of what like) receive any stronger sanction from being also declared to be duties by the law of the land. 3 is the good for man. This is strongly held by some of today's notable and learned political and legal theo- So he was pretty clear about the truth which law rists. St. Paul, on the other hand, tells us in Romans should be based upon and, as had been agreed upon that because of the failure to acknowledge God, the for centuries, we mere mortals were endowed by supposed wisdom of the Greeks resulted in the worst our created nature with an ability to know that. The kind of corruption. It might be a good idea to recall Catholic Church has always believed and taught that. what he said: She still does. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible at- This idea was challenged later by Jeremy tributes of etema1 power and divinity have been able Bentham, perhaps the most influential reformer of the to be understood and perceived in what he has made. law of England. He gets the "credit" for demonstrat- As a result, they have no excuse; although they k,new ing the alleged falsity of the moral requirement to God they did not accord him glory as God or give which Blackstone attested for the law's validity.4

.. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 What we see in Bentham as the engine of refonn, in times is in fact a flight from God, it is at the same fact in lawmaking, is the principle of utility.s time a flight from the truth about the human person. ... The culture of our day seeks to build without ....Byutility is meant that property in any object, reference to the architect. (Ad limina address to New whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, plea- England Bishops, Oct. 24, 1998) sure, good or happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what again comes to the American Legal Theory and Legal Method same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, t' pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered. . . .6 n this brief section on Anglo-American legal history, I will bring to the fore certain factors A thing promotes the interest of the individual when which help identifY the elements the theory it contributes to pleasure or diminishes pain.7 Thus, of law which began to materialize about the not only is Bentham a legal theorist, he also creates a turn of this century.12 moral theory dependant upon the calculation of I Consistent with the" declaratory" theory of pains and pleasures by which legislators and inter- Blackstone, American legal theory from the middle of preters were bound.8 And it must be remembered the 1700's until the first decade of the twentieth cen- that "[t]he interest of the community. . . is the sum tury basically accepted the conventional position that interests of the several members who compose it." the role of judges is to discover and "declare," not (Ibid., [ch. I, sec. 4] 12). This, of course, in principle, create law. 13 Americans were highly impressed with a could vary from place to place and time to time. system oflegal rules arising from a hierarchy of values Therefore law had to be changeable depending upon and a political theory based on "natural law" prin- the time and place.9 As a result of these ideas and ciples.14 This situation prevailed basically unchal- others, the concept of the dignity of the human per- lenged until after the Civil War (although "by the son suffered a great blow in legal doctrine. 1820's the process of common-law decision-making The influence of this kind of theory oflaws can had acquired certain qualities oflegislation"). 15 be seen in modern legal theory where there is a pre- The discussion of social policy in judicial deci- sumption that laws, generally, must be updated. We sion-making increased as social tensions escalated in think far less of moral goodness any more and need post-Civil War society.16 By the turn of the twentieth to have legal rules for just about everything. One of century, the basic tenet of political and legal theory in the reasons for thinking oflaw in terms of positive American society began to be examined.17 Among rules is that rules can be changed, a convenient cor- those who worked to change the system was Oliver ollary to the goal of social change.lo But it seems W. Holmes, Jr.18 He, like the progressive reformers of that our rules, no matter how many we make, are his time, had great faith in the "potential for social never found to be sufficient to meet the many rising evolution" through use of the law. He proposed legal demands constantly confronting the lawmakers. 11 analysis should take note of "community values"19 But does anyone ever stop to ask what these changes embodied in experience.20 Examining this experience do to our concept of the person and freedom based one finds that "the customs, beliefs, or needs of a upon the truth about human dignity? primitive time establisha rule or a fonnula. "21 In a To illustrate the impact of utilitarian ideas upon now famous line Holmes stated, "The life of the law the way we think, consider all the recent experimen- has not been logic; it has been experience. "22 He tation with forms of reproduction such as cloning, presented the development of common law in an and the transfer of human genes to a cow's ovum. "evolutionary framework" characterized by "a new John Paul II calls this a spiritual crisis on the level of emphasis on experience, process, growth, context and civilization itself. He said, "If this crisis deepens, function. "23 His goal for law was that it realize its utilitarianism will increasingly reduce human beings potential to capitalize upon its capacity as an agent of to objects for manipulation." What does he relate it change. He emphasized the importance of under- to? He adds, "Because the spiritual crisis of our standing how the system works and accepted the idea

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ARTICLES fi-om Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that long- dramatic reorientation in American legal thought ... tenn trends worked for the development of man's During the middle decades of this century this body of higher abilities. So he sought to expand the legal ideas, which I call pragmatic instrumentalism, was our system's ability to expedite social change.24 most influential theory of law in jurisprudential circles, Much of Holmes's work (in The Common Law) in the faculties of major law schools, and in important realms of bench and bar. Many of its tenets continue sought to demonstrate that rules originated in the to be influential in the 1980s.35 tensions and conflicts of earlier times, and excluded the need to appeal to God or the Prince.25 Further- Fortunately, we do not have time for me to bore more, his study of history displayed a clear design for you with all the details of this theory. Let me end the present.26 this section, though, by pointing to a classic state- ment of this kind oflaw which was written in 1932 He said, "The first requirement of a sound body oflaw is that it should correspond with the actual . by the jurist Herman Oliphant, another Instrumen- feelings and demand of the community, whether talist. Oliphant stated: right or wrong. "27 Good legal education, he said, A century ago, Jeremy Bentham saw law not as an would have to reject the absoluteness of legal rules ultimate but merely as a means to an end and argued and understand them as the product of competing that it should be scientifically exploited as such. . . . Then came the pragmatism of James and the instru- social forces, desires and purposes, as they developed over time.28 mental logic of Dewey, with the result that we are beginning to catch up with Bentham. Liberals now The political Progressive Movement of the venture to talk oflaw as means to an end. . . . Many twentieth century emphasized the inevitability of are eager to stop talking and begin studying law as a social change, change that could be directed toward means to present ends.36 beneficial ends.29 But not only did change occur, the potential for change should be reaped and em- Truth, Freedom and The Court ployed. In this line, Progressive thinkers like Holmes hat I want to do now is show the did not believe that judges should (or actually did) merely limit themselves to applying the law. And the influence of this new theory of law on moral matters in the claim was made that judges were impeding the "natural evolution and progress" of the nation.3O United States. This will help you Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law School, took understand why our wonderful WChurch, which continues to speak out for the truth up the banner to refonn the judiciary into an institu- tion for social change. Whereas Holmes had main- and the human good seems to be what some con- tained that the law was a record of the history of sider "behind the times." Recall Oliphant's state- political interests, "Pound insisted that law embodied ment. There are two points of interest for us in this important social values"3! and that law should be an statement: (1) One is that it summarizes the whole instrument for social growth or, as he called it, social history of the change. But, (2) notice the date. engineering.32 About the same time, December, 1931, the encycli- Pound's ideas were held in common with the cal Casti connubii was published by Pius XI, uphold- pragmatic philosopher William James.33 In fact, the ing the dignity of marriage and stressing that it was philosophy of the Pragmatists proved to be a major instituted by the Creator. It was not the process of influence in the emerging theory which led to a social evolution but was created by God. more experience-based methodology. I would like to turn now, more specifically, to the law and the issue of fi-eedom, but freedom as is One legal historian has noticed the influence of pragmatism on American law and says that it has understood in the context of marriage and family produced a new theory oflaw.34 In his description life. The question I want to raise is, does the free- of the theory, he reported: dom defined by the Supreme Court in America make it easier or more difficult to grow in true love Between 1881 when Oliver Wendell Holmes pub- lished The CommonLaw and the 1930s, there was a within one's family with one's spouse?

. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 Picking up where we were about 1931, let's go structure and content of reason has any grasp of the back to the specific question about marriage and truth of its origin. sexuality. There is little doubt that the specific moti- Apparently under the spell of modern theories vation for Pius Xl's encyclical was that the Anglicans and succumbing to social pressure, the Anglican decided that a little bit of contraception in marriage Church's governing body, the Lambeth Conference, would be all right. But Pius XI saw a much more decided in 1930 to permit methods of controlling dangerous problem. The whole problem of the pon- births other than abstinence. It condemned, how- tificate of Pius XI centered around the proliferation ever, "the use of any methods of conception control of philosophies which repudiated God. These ideas from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere conve- saw the Church as an affront, a limitation upon hu- nience." Shortly afterward came the encyclical of , J man freedom. At the bottom of this alleged problem Pius XI. This was followed by a declaration which however was a notion of the state which made man came from the U.S. Federal Council of Churches. the absolute subject of the state. This was especially On March 21, 1931, the majority of a committee of true for democracy for which the individual had to the Council endorsed, "the careful and restrained use be submissive to the blind tyranny of public opinion, of contraceptives by married people." It acknowl- which, of course, is easily manipulated. edged, however, that "serious evils such as extra- One way of getting at what I am speaking about marital sex relations, may be increased by general is by looking at the social teaching of the Church. knowledge of contraceptives." Upholding human dignity in the workplace was a Despite the Catholic Church's response, the direct affront to the unbridled capitalism that claimed stage was set both morally and legally for a complete sovereignty in business. Unbridled capitalism had not rewriting of the doctrine of marriage and marital wanted workers to organize for rightful representa- sexuality. Obviously, there were great efforts by the tion in the workplace and market. But in spite of promoters of birth control to sway public attitude. claims of freedom which were said to allow for the But my story has to jump to the Supreme Court and pursuit of free enterprise, almost everyone today the year 1965. The case was Griswold v. Connecticut. would agree that there are some things that are be- The case came to the Court on appeal of the convic- low the dignity of the person-an unjust wage, for tion of two persons charged with dispensing contra- example. The Church stepped up to say that human ceptive materials to married couples. The Court dignity had certain claims to make in this arena. The struck down the state's law saying it was a violation demands of truth and justice require some kind of of the right of marital privacy. intervention which seeks to uphold human dignity. Justice Douglas who wrote the opinion of the This, of course, was not always recognized by the Court reasoned that the case was about the heedom alleged voices of freedom. of association between husband and wife. He ac- The difficulty lay in the view of man that was knowledged that it was not in the Constitution but put forth which sought to put distance between God said it was implied there. Justice Goldberg, in an im- and man. This distance was not only the denial of portant concurring opinion, also based his agreement 'II, God, it also could be a marked intellectual distanc- on the concept of freedom in the Constitution but \~ ing. Man was increasingly held to be incapable of asserted the right of personal, as well as, marital pri- knowing anything about God and his truth. Whereas vacy. St. Thomas had systematically presented an explana- Now, we cannot get into the legal argument tion of Christian intelligence, wherein it is seen that here about whether it is a good idea to legislate one man actually participates in God's eternal reason, type of morality or another. What I want to empha- increasingly, God was pushed to the side as the size to you is that the Court took a critical stand here source of man's intelligence. The false claim was in severing the meaning of freedom and married love made, and still is, of course, that man's intelligence is from the truth about what is really good for men and ungrounded in the transcendent knowledge of God. women who are married. It was not even consid- If at all, it is only by the slightest thread that the ered that contraception could have had such a nega-

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ARTICLES

tive effect upon marriage, upon couples, or upon startling, nonetheless. Why has the preservation of the individual spouses. The result was based upon a human life become such a menace that even the notion of freedom that was seen as a radical ability of courts have become its enemy? each individual's will not to be interfered with. The answer can be traced to a flawed, restricted What do I mean by negative effect? Well, there are view of the human person and the meaning of life. plenty of statistics but just to point to a few things. The Court's working definition oflife excludes Since the 1960's the divorce rate has risen to be- some human beings from the respect and protection tween 50 and 60 percent. In 1991 the National to be rendered by the state. Commission on Children, established by Congress, Without reference to the whole truth about the said that one in four children in the U.S. is raised by origin and goal of human existence, any concept of just one parent, usually a divorced or unmarried liberty will be a partial one, at best. As Paul VI's mother. Many grow up without the consistent pres- beautiful document on life, Humanae vitae, states, ence of a father in their lives. Add to that the tragedy "The problem of birth, like every other problem of abortion and the epidemic of sexually transmitted regarding human life, is to be considered, beyond diseases affecting young people. partial perspectives - whether of the biological or Getting back to the Court, it is not difficult to psychological, demographic or sociological orders - produce evidence of the results of the Court's ruling in the light of an integral vision of man and his voca- in Griswold. The case that came before the U.S. Su- tion, not only his natural and earthly, but also his preme Court concerning the Washington and New supernatural and eternal vocation." Our courts are York laws which prohibited physicians from assisting faltering on life and death issues because the bases for in suicide had this legal pedigree that opposed life in their decisions are arbitrary social policies such as its very origin. The fundamental issue addressed by those enshrined in the contraception and abortion the appeals court in the Washington case was defined cases. The deadly results of such policies demonstrate by the question, "Is there a liberty interest in deter- that only the truth about the human person can se- mining the time and manner of one's death?" The cure life and liberty for all. court said that its approach in defining that interest The Supreme Court's rulings on the issue of "is identical to the approach used by the Supreme physician-assisted suicide demonstrated a welcome Court in abortion cases." deference to the nation's legal heritage. The argu- The so-called liberty interest in abortion was first ment for assisted suicide asserted that there was a fashioned for the Court in Planned Parenthood's general tradition of self-sovereignty in the recent friend-of-the-court briefs in two major Supreme decisions of the Court. This general tradition, it was Court cases on contraception, Griswold v. Connecticut argued, should outstrip the perennial rejection of the (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972). By those deci- specific practice of self-inflicted death. The Court, sions, the Supreme Court disqualified the chosen however, refused to accept the notion that "broad, representatives of the people in Connecticut and individualistic principles" included the alleged right. Massachusetts, respectively, from restricting distribu- In doing so, the Court seemed to significantly re- tion of contraceptive materials. strict one exaggerated claim of Justice O'Connor's John Paul II has repeatedly pointed to the con- opinion in Planned Parenthood oj Southeastern Pennsyl- nections between abortion and contraception, and vania v. Casey (1992). abortion and euthanasia, both "voluntary" (a form of The Casey decision spoke of the right to "define suicide) and involuntary. Paul VI did it before him. one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the Many Catholics and others are convinced of what universe, and of the mystery of human life." This Church leaders have said concerning this link. The concept was emphasized by the proponents of legal- mentality that led to one of these would lead to the ized assisted suicide. But, said the Court in the as- others. But the sad fulfillment of what our pontiffs sisted suicide cases, while many of the rights pro- and many bishops have predicted, displayed in the tected by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution legal decisions of the highest courts in our land, is are founded in personal autonomy, this fact "does

III PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000

L not warrant the sweeping conclusion that any and all It is a gift of God to man and woman that, indeed, important, intimate, and personal decisions are so he has chosen this way to continue the work of cre- protected. " Indeed. ation until the end of time, a beautiful image of his Our optimism over this ruling rejecting a right own inner life of communion and love for his glory to self-inflicted death, though merited, is dampened and for all the world to see. by an apparent contradiction in the fundamental r ask you here today to keep this love alive in

I principles of law and political theory in the ruling. your hearts.-And I thank you. ffi ~ Initially, the Court cites the venerable legal tradition rejecting self-murder. It even goes so far as to cite Rev. Edward]. Richard, MS, D. Th.M.,].D. is associate colonial legislation calling it "unnatural." This calls academicdean and assistantprofessorof moral theology at 'oJ attention to the natural law theory in the work of Sir Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. William Blackstone, whose commentaries were a NOTES primary legal authority for American lawyers throughout the 19th century. Unfortunately, the I Part of this section and the following section on American Legal Theory is a restatement of material found in my article, "Law and Morality: Taking a effect of the retrieval of this part of our legal heritage Theoretical Break from the Norm," StudioMorali 35 (1997):427-443and is mitigated by the mention of another means of 36 (1998): 239-265; reprinted in National Lawyer's Association Review (Fall, 1999): 6-8, Part L deciding right and wrong. 'Stanley N. Katz, "Introduction to Book I," Commentaries on the Laws of The Court alludes to the possibility of deciding England, Vol. 1, a facsimile of the First Edition of 1765-1769, by William what should be done by democratic processes; a de- Blackstone (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), iii. termination of truth by the voters. So, contrary to 3He also said, "The case is the same as to crimes and misdmesnors (sic), that are forbidden by the superior laws, and therefore stiled (sic) mala in se, such Blackstone, the Court envisions the sanctioning of the as murder, theft, peIjury; which contract no additional turpitude £rom being people's choice permitting the unnatural or ungodly. declared unlawful by the inferior legislature. For that legislature in all these cases acts only, as was before observed, in subordination to the great law- This translates into an open door to offenses against giver, transcribing and publishing his precepts. So that, upon the whole, the human dignity and life by agreement of the majority. declaratory part of the municipal law has no force or operation at all, with regard to actions that are naturally and intrinsically right or wrong." Continued and sustained efforts will be needed to (Blackstone, Commentaries, Vol. 1,54.) promote the Gospel of Life in this environment. 4See Jeremy Bentham, A Comment on the Commentaries and A Fragment on At this point I would just like to ask everyone to Government, ed. by J. H. Bums and H. L. A. Hart (London: University of London Athlone Press, 1977), esp. 498-9; and TIle Collected Works ofJeremy become faithful, dedicated, zealous Catholics on this Bentham, ed. by J. H. Burns, An Introduction to the Principlesof Morals and issue. I have tried to show you a comparison if you Legislation, ed. by J. H. Bums and H. L. A. Hart (London: University of London AtWone Press, 1970), esp. 11-33. Of Bentham's success D. will between the ideas of freedom promoted by our Baumgardt wrote: culture of death and the true freedom of the sons Blackstone, as an adherent of the old doctrine of the law of nature, and daughters of God. A freedom founded on the assumed there exist "eternal immutable laws of good and evil" which "human reason" is able "to discover," and which form the so-called "law idea that we can know the true good of our human of nature" in contrast to the changing laws or moral codes of different nature. The Church has always had great expecta- communities and different times. . . . Bentham, however, shows in a short but instructive analysis how meaningless these pronouncements are tions for humanity. She has always held out to the and how little demonstrable is the moral validity of these laws. (David world the hope and belief that we could live out the Baumgardt, Bentham and the Ethics ofYoday [New York: Octagon Books, truth about love. Love is not what Planned Parent- 1966] 93). 5In Morals and Legislation ([ch. I, sec.2] 11-12) Bentham stated: IJ. hood decides it is. It is not what the President or the By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or Congress or the Court defines it to be. It is not even disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which necessarily what the majority decides it to be. Love it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, has to respect the fact that it is human beings who to promote or to oppose that happiness. . . . are called to this love. This love is based upon the "Bentham, Morals and Legislation, (ch. I, sec. 3) 12.

love that exists between the Divine Persons of the 7 It is in vain to talk of the interest of the community, without under- standing what is the interest of the individal. A thing is said to promote Blessed Trinity. It is this image that married love the interest, or to be for the interest, of an individual, when it tends to reflects. It is a generous love that holds out to the add to the sum total of his pleasures: or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of his pains. (Bentham, Morals and Legislation, world the promise of real happiness, based upon the [ch. I, see. 5] 12). idea that there is more joy in giving than receiving. Sum up all the values of all the pleasureson the one side, and those of all

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . ARTICLES

the pains on the other. The balance, if it be on the side of pleasure, will give "Holmes, The Common LAw, 1. the good tendency of the act upon the whole, with respect to the interests of 23Aichele, LegalRealism,14. that individual person; if on the side of pain, the bad tendency of it upon the whole. (Ibid., [ch. IV, see. 5] 40.) " Aichele, Legal Realism, 15.

8Morals and Legislation, (ch. I, sec. 7) 13 states: 25You may assume, with Hobbes and Bentham and Austin, that all law emanates from the sovereign, even when the first human beings to enunci- A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of action, ate it are the judges, or you may think that the law is the voice of the performed by a particular person or persons) may be said to be conform- Zeitgeist, or what you like. Even if every decision required the sanction of able to or dictated by the principle of utility, when in like manner the an emperor with despotic power and a whimsical turn of mind, we should tendency which it has to augment the happiness of the community is be interested none the less, still with a view to prediction, in discovering greater than any which it has to diminish it. some order, some rational explanation, and some principle of growth for the ')As D. Baumgardt pointed out, in later life Bentham recognized the diffi- rules which he laid down. In every system there are such explanations and culties of measuring pleasure and pain. (Baumgardt, Bentham, 456). principles to be found. (Holmes, Tile Path of LAw, 465).

10"The insistencethat all law is legislatedlaw," saysN. MacCormick, 26We must beware of the pitfall of antiquarianism, and must remember that "makes possible the view that all law is changeable, and that is an essential for our purposes our only interest in the past is for the light it throws upon postulate for those who wish to reform the law." Neil MacCormick, Legal the present. I look forward to the time when the part played by history in Reasoning and Legal Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 60. the explanation of dogma shall be very small, and instead of ingenious 11We "labor under tWo connected handicaps whenever we seek to regulate, researchwe shallspend our energy on a study of theendssougllfto beattained and the reasonsfor desiring them. (Holmes, TIlePathrf LAw,474 [emphasis unambiguously and in advance, some sphere of conduct by means of general mine]). See, also, Holmes, The COmm1111LAw, 1. standards." The tWo handicaps are the "relative ignorance of fact" and the "relative indeterminacy of aim." The world in which we live has an 27Holmes, TIle Common LAw, 41. unlimited number of features and combinations thereof which preclude the 28See Aichele, Legal Realism, 20. possibility of making rules whose application calls for no further choice. (Hart, Tile Concept rf LAw, 125). 2')The distinguishing thing about Progressives. . . might be be called "activism": they argued that social evils will not remedy themselves, and 12See, Gary J. Aichele, Legal Realism and Twentieth-Century Americanjurispru- that it is wrong to sit by passively and wait for time to take care of them. . . dence: A Changing Consensus (New York: Garland Publishing, 1990). . They believed that the people of the country should be stimulated to work 13Aichele, Legal Realism, 3. energetically to bring about social progress, that the positive powers of government must be used to achieve this end. Conservatives generally " Aichele, Legal Realism, 4. believed in time and nature to bring progress. Progressives believed in 15Aichele, Legal Realism, 7. energy and government action. (Richard Hofstadter, "The Meaning of the 16Added to this, American legal scholars were influenced by theories from Progressive Movement," Introduction to The ProgressiveMovement 1900- Europe that challenged the American law's higher sources and the doctrine 1915 (Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963] 4-5). of natural rights thought embodied in the Constitution. Austin's positivism 30Aichele, LegalRealism,30. became popular in America because it seemed at that time to reinforce the 31 Aichele, LegalRealism,30. conventional position that interpreters oflaw exercised only a declaratory function. (Aichele, Legal Realism, 8-10). 32Roscoe Pound, An IntroductiontothePhilosophyrf Law(New Haven: Yale 17Aichele states: University Press, 1922) 98-99 (emphasis mine). 33According to Aichele this belief A growing dissatisfaction with the deficiencies of the traditional declaratory theory of the judicial function prompted extensive reconsideration of both informed Pound's insistence, that a method of pragmatism replace a the foundations and actual operation of the American legal system. . . . method of deduction, and his exhortation that the law balance social Taking the form of a general reexamination of the social position and interests which maximize social utility rather than simply enforce rules political function of both bench and bar, leading scholars suggested an derived from predetermined postulates. (Aichele, Legal Realism, 32). entirely new way of viewing the judicial function." (Ibid., 11). 31Legal scholar Robert S. Summers has devoted a considerable effort to 18In fact, Holmes became one of the most predominant figures in all of understand and explain the phenomenon of this change in law. He calls the American legal history. According to Aichele, the writing of Holmes particularly American legal theory which ensued "Pragmatic Instrumental- ism." See, Summers, Instrumentalism;See also, Robert S. Summers, Essays became the starting point for almost all legal writing, providing the on theNature rf LAw and LegalReasoning(Berlin:Duncker and Humbolt); foundations upon which a significant superstructure would be built. . . . and Summersand Atiyah, Formand SubstanceinAnglo-AmericanLAw. The great bulk of tWentieth-century writing on the theory of judicial function can be viewed as an extended commentary on his legal philoso- 35Summers, Instrumentalism,19 (citation to publication data for TIleCommon phy. (Ibid., 13-14). LAw omitted). He adds elsewhere: , 19Aichele, Legal Realism, 14. American pragmatic instrumentalism is of distinctive significance, and not i 20If we want to know why a rule oflaw has taken its particular shape, just because it has been the most sustained and prominent movement in a ~ major Western society. It is our only indigenous general theory oflaw and more or less if we want to know why it exists at all, we go to tradi- and was our most influential legal theory during the middle decades of tion. . . . The rational study oflaw is still to a large extent the study of this century. I do not mean to suggest that instrumentalism ousted all history. History must be a part of the study, becausewithout it we other legal theories, that all its tenets were equally accepted, or even that cannot know the precise scope of rules which it is our business to know. each of those tenets commanded a majority in all branches of the legal It is a part of the rational study, because it is the first step toward an profession. But one can assert that its influence in America exceeded that enlightened skepticism, that is, toward a deliberate reconsideration of the of any other general body of thought about the law, dwarfing analytical worth of these rules. When you get the dragon out of his cave on to the positivism as well as Catholic and secular natural law philosophies. plain and in the daylight, you can count his teeth and claws, and see just (Historical jurisprudence never did gain much of a foothold in America.) what is his strength. But to get him out is only the first step. The next is either to kill him, or to tame him and make him a useful animal. (Instrumentalism, 35). (Holmes, Tile Path rf LAw, 469). "Herman Oliphant, "The New Legal Education," The Nation 131 (1930): 21Oliver W. Holmes, TIle Common LAw (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.; 495; quoted in Summers, !nstrumentalism, 60. 1923), 5.

. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 "Catholic" Universities: Inderendent or Nonsectarian?

by Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn University: Identity and Pluralism," Father Joseph A. I I O'Hare, S.J., President of Fordham and the host for -Jj I, These incredibly prophetic words if Msgr. Wrenn previ- the meeting, stated that the issuance of the proposed ously appearedin Fidelity magazine, March 1987. document on Catholic higher education would be II "short-sighted." He speculated that perhaps this rl ith the publication of the new document should not be defended in terms of its r Code of Canon Law in Novem- doctrinal orthodoxy but rather in terms of the need ber, 1983, the Holy Father sig- to support Catholic institutions of higher learning in . naled the final implementation of repressive societies. W the reforms proposed by the Father O'Hare further observed that, if the pro- Second Yatican Council. In order to explain what posed document were to put Catholic institutions was intended by the Canons of the Code of Canon under ecclesiastical authority, Fordham would have to Law dealing with Catholic institutions of higher declare, "Weare not a Catholic university in the sense education, the Congregation for Catholic Education of the document or the provisions of Canon Law." issued a draft document containing guidelines for There would be no problem, he said, if the local what exactly constitutes a Catholic university. bishop agreed that the university was Catholic in a In doing so, this congregation is carrying out the sense differing from the Congregation for Catholic thrust of the Council in moving the Church into Education's understanding. But if ecclesiastical author- what has been called the post-Constantinian era. ity (in this case, John Cardinal O'Connor) requested II (The term "Constantinian era" refers to the effects of that Fordham to cease calling itself Catholic, then the the establishment of Christianity as the religion of university would face morale, identity, and client the Roman Empire, a process begun by the Emperor (prospective student) problems. All of a sudden the Constantine.) The Fathers o{Yatican II recognized ball was being placed squarely in the court of the that we had moved into a new era, one in which Archdiocese of New York, with Cardinal O'Connor Christianity was no longer the dominant religion. being drafted as a potential candidate for playing the Just as Dartmouth is no longer recognized as a train- heavy! ing school for missionaries ministering to the Indians What Father O'Hare forgot to tell his audience is of New England, or Columbia as the King's College that Fordham itself has legallybeen calling itself other in New York, so the Congregation for Catholic than Catholic for almost 20 years. The story of how Education in the draft document points out that this happened has been set down in The Sectarian many institutions established as Catholic are no College and the Public Purse: Fordham, a Case Study, by longer such. For example, the former Good Counsel Walter Gellhorn and R. Kent Greenawalt (Dobbs College in White Plains now calls itself the College Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1970). In retro- ,~ of White Plains of Pace University. spect, it is fair to say that this work became the blue- The draft document of the Congregation for print for other Catholic colleges that would choose Catholic Education deals with the places where the to follow Fordham's lead. names have not been changed but the change has This work was commissioned by Fordham taken place. University and is the result of the study and recom- At the October 25th (1986) Annual Meeting of mendation of Professors Gellhorn and Greenawalt of the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cul- Columbia University's Law School as to what tural Affairs, the theme of which was "Catholic Uni- Fordham had to do in order to avail itself of Bundy versities: What Makes Them Catholic?," the presi- Funds for higher education, by which New York dent of Fordham University gave his reaction to the State in the sixties was attempting to save its private draft document. In his address, "The Catholic colleges and universities. At first it had been

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . I"'r .

ARTICLES

intended to distribute this funding without any press or implied mandate in any of the constituent question of the religious nature of the institution, documents of the University requires that the Presi- just as had been the case with the Federal G.!. Bill of dent (or, for that matter, any other officer or em- Rights. Unfortunately, it was determined that the ployee) be a Jesuit or a Roman Catholic" (p. 118). New York State Constitution prohibits any aid to They cite the fact that no longer would the president religious schools. Hence, Fordham said that it would of the university be the rector or superior of the have to demonstrate that it was in fact not a religious religious community of Jesuits, and thus the rector or school. (It might be added that not all New York Jesuit superior has no power over university matters. Catholic colleges and universities took this route. Similarly, the president has no more power over The three that did not- and which have survived religious personnel than over any other Fordham , without this aid- are St. John's University, Niagara personnel (p. 119). Neither the Society of Jesus nor University, and Molloy College.) any other external body within the Church was to Back in 1948, Fordham had certified that it was provide financial assistance to the university. The controlled by the "Society of Jesus (Roman Catho- individual Jesuits connected with Fordham founded lic)," thus remaining free to apply religious tests in a separate corporation, The Jesuits of Fordham, Inc. selecting its students. Writing in the introduction to Steps were taken to disentangle Fordham and its Gellhorn and Greenawalt's book, Father Timothy S. properties from "relationships that might have aIl1=.... Healy, S.J., now President of Georgetown Univer- biguous connotations" (p. 119). sity, declared: "In 1948 Fordham University formally Finally, on February 19,1970, the New York filed with the New York State Department ofEdu- State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Ewald B. cation a description of itself as a "religious institu- Nyquist, announced that Fordham, Manhattanville tion."... Twenty years later, after Marshall McLuhan, College, and St. John Fisher College were eligible two small wars and one Ecumenical Council, for aid, with Fordham receiving $1,000,000 that Fordham just as formally requested that its self-de- year. In the words of our authors, "after careful ex- scription as a religious institution be withdrawn and amination of relevant documents and the report of that its only denomination be that of 'independent an outside theologian [a distinguished Protestant university'" (p. vii.). professor of theology from Chicago] who studied the Professors Gellhorn and Greenawalt devote the university's offerings in theology and philosophy, the bulk of their study to Fordham "as it is and as it Department concluded that Fordham was no longer might be." Although Father Healy referred to a sectarianinstitution" (p. 124). Fordham's calling itself an "independent university" Gellhorn and Greenawalt are extremely fair in in 1968, the authors quote the more accurate self- citing some truly telling and prophetic excerpts from description when they cite a communication to the an article written in America magazine by Father New York State Department of Education dated Charles M. Whalen, S.J., entitled "Catholic Univer- July 19, 1968: "Fordham University now wishes to sities and the Gellhorn Report" (America, November withdraw this certificate and elects to be considered 16,1969, pp. 474-479). Father Whalen, of the as [sic] nondenominational institution for the pur- Fordham Law J:aculty, who had seen an earlier draft poses of Section 313 of the Education Law." On of the Gellhorn Report, stated: November 21,1968, the State Education Depart- Fordham, of course, is only one of many Catholic ment notified Fordham that its certificate filed under universities manifesting the symptoms of an identity Section 313 was withdrawn. crisis. Every American Catholic university has serious Gellhorn and Greenawalt speak next of changes financial and academic problems. The most important in the number of members of the board of trustees, question, therefore, is whether the Gellhorn Report and of how in December 1968 the new President, offers an acceptable solution. Father Michael Walsh, S.J., was elected to this office In myjudgment, it emphaticallydoesnot. I do not see by the board, rather than designated for this post by how any universitythat honestlyexecutedthe Gellhorn ecclesiastical authorities as had been the case up until recommendations could seriously call itself Catholic. then. Our authors also point out that "nothing in the Gellhorn and Greenawalt, understandably misled by by-laws of the board of trustees nor any other ex- the questions they were asked to answer, lost sight of

. FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 the real problem at Fordham: not how to change it should not and really cannot object now if the . into another Columbia, but how to develop it into a Roman Congregation for Education, like the small first-rate Catholic university.... boy in the story, is impolite enough to point out that Is Fordham, then, condemned to be second-best? the Emperor has no clothes! The answer depends on the standard of excellence you There is one further issue, having to do with the choose. If Harvard, Yale and Columbia are the mod- right of Fordham or of any other Catholic institution els, then I have no doubt that, in certain areas, unilaterally to withdraw itself from the obligation to Fordham for the present and the foreseeable future is abide by Church law. Canon law states: "All tempo- J and will be second-best. If, on the other hand, the standard of excellence is that found in the best tradi- ral goods which belong to the universal Church, to the Apostolic See or other public juridic persons tions of Catholic universities throughout the world, I ." within the Church are ecclesiastical goods and are i think that Fordham has an enormous opportunity, in many areas, to achieve and maintain the summit. regulated by the following canons as well as by their If only the goal be kept clear, the means can be own statutes" (Canon 1257). United Statesjurispru- found. Patience, sacrifice and perseverance will be dence has traditionally held that persons who freely necessary, as they are necessary to any great enterprise. belong to an organization are obliged by the rules of Let the goal, however, become confused, and no that organization. If, therefore, Church law lays amount of money or talent will make any Catholic down norms for the valid transfer of Church prop- university what it ought to be: an intellectual commu- erty, contravention of such norms would render the nity centered on the Truth that is Christ. transfer invalid even in civil law, if past precedents mean anything. Father Whalen's concerns anticipated by eighteen Not a few American Catholic institutions have years the hopes for Catholic education expressed in been changing the composition of their boards of the draft document of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. Gellhorn and Greenawalt in directors in such a way that the ecclesiastical owner loses civil control of its property. This maneuver their report described the recommendations they made toward Fordham's search for an final attain- constitutes, in effect, the invalid alienation of ment of independent, nondenominational, and non- Church property, because rightful ownership is sectarian status. transferred from the ecclesiastical owner to another without due authorization. All the technical ramifi- Father O'Hare speculated about the need to cations of alienation cannot be treated here, but one speak of the draft document as dealing with the needs of Catholic universities in societies with re- essential requisite is that the alienating party obtain permission from competent ecclesiastical superiors; pressive governments. He overlooks another possi- otherwise the transfer would be invalid, ecclesiasti- bility. The Greeks had a legend in which the sun and cally and eventually civilly (Canon 1292). the cold wind argued as to which was the stronger. The point is that ecclesiastical property is They decided to tes~ their strength on a solitary trav- eler. First the wind blew harder and harder in order owned by the whole Church, that is, by all the faith- ful together; individuals and institutions within the to blow the cloak off the traveler. Needless to say, Church are merely the administrators of that ~ the wind failed because the traveler pulled his cloak more tightly about him. When the sun in turn dem- property and may not dispose of it except according to Church law. Thus it would seem that, if Fordham onstrated its strength, it showered its rays upon the University or any other Catholic institution, on its traveler more and more warmly. Finally, overcome own authority, declared itself not to be Catholic, the with heat, the traveler could tolerate no more, and discardedhis cloak. faithful could bring such an institution before both ecclesiastical and civil tribunals in order to protect Behind the Iron Curtain there is a flourishing their rights as members of the Catholic Church, the Catholic university in Lublin which has survived 40 ultimate owner of the property at issue. ffi years of government repression and lack of support. Here in the United States many Catholic universi- Msgr. Michael Wrenn is pastor of St. John the Evangelist ties, after over 20 years of increasing government Parish in New York City, and a past recipientof the support following the Second World War, discarded Fellowship's Cardinal Wright Award. their Catholic identity almost 20 years ago. They

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 lED AROUND THE CHURCH

by James Hitchcock Priests of the Archdiocese of St. Worshipers should not gather around Louis pronounced as a success a the altar during the Consecration of he Holy See's Congregation Reconciliation Weekend in early the Mass, according to Archbishop for Divine Worship has de- November, during which 62 parishes John F. Donoghue of Atlanta. He T manded significant reorgani- were designated as centers for hear- called the practice a "liturgical error" zation of the International Committee ing confessions on a Friday evening which confuses the identities of for English in the Liturgy (rCEL), and all day Saturday. Participating priest and people. which has had major responsibility for priests reported that they had a *** the English-language liturgy since the steady stream of penitents during the Mass ad orientem(towards the East), Second Vatican Council. weekend. with priest and people facing in the In a letter to ICEL president *** same direction, has been forbidden Bishop Maurice Taylor of Galloway Bishops who spoke on the subject at by Bishop David Foley of Birming- (Scotland), Cardinal Jorge Medina the annual meeting of the American ham (Ala.), who has threatened to Estevez, Prefect of the Congregation, hierarchy were virtually unanimous suspend any priest who engages in charged that the ICEL staff has often in urging that the tabernacle occupy the practice. Bishop Foley claims that been unresponsive to the expressed a central and conspicuous place in the eastward position, which has concerns of the Holy See and that every church. Numerous bishops been advocated by, among others, some of its work is unacceptable as an took the floor to argue that placing Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the authentic vernacular rendering of the the tabernacle in obscure parts of Congregation for the Doctrine of the liturgy. He reminded ICEL that it has churches has contributed to a decline Faith, is forbidden by church law. no authority to compose new prayers of belief in and reverence for the Bishop Foley stated that his action and noted that the ICEL staff exercises Blessed Sacrament. was motivated by a concern for authority which rightly belongs to the *** "novelty and sacrilege." bishops of the English-speaking coun- The only worshiping commu- tries. The bishops delayed voting on a nity known to use the eastward The American representative to proposed new document pertaining to liturgical architecture and church position in the Birmingham diocese ICEL, Cardinal Francis George of design, Domus Dei (The Houseof was Our Lady of the Angels Monas- Chicago, defended Cardinal Medina tery, whose abbess is Mother An- Estevez's intervention and affirmed God), which would replace the exist- ing document called Environmentand gelica, head of the EWTN commu- that reforms in substance and proce- nications network. dures are needed. Art in Catholic Worship.The latter *. ** *** document has been used to instigate major changes in church buildings, The Holy See has ordered a com- Cardinal George has established a new including the removal of tabernacles munity of sisters in Sydney to cease liturgical institute in connection with trom the main altar. operating a "safe room" where St. Mary of the Lake, the seminary for * * * heroin addicts could obtain drugs the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Leading liturgists ridiculed the bish- under sanitary conditions. The prac- institute will train people in liturgy tice involved unacceptable coopera- and serve as a center for research and ops' concerns. David Philipart of Liturgy Training Publications called tion with evil, according to the publication. Its director will be Msgr. CDF. it "a cheap, easy solution" and Francis Mannion, rector of the Cathe- *** dral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake claimed that it ignores the ecumenism of the Second Vatican City. The establishment of the new The National CatholicReporterhas Council. Benedictine Father Aidan defended the consecration of schis- institute was criticized by Gabe Huck, head of Liturgy Training Publications, Kavanaugh of St. Meinrad's Abbey matic bishops by the Patriotic (Indiana), called the idea "rubbish" Church in China, in defiance of the an agency under Chicago archdiocesan auspices, as a move and predicted, "If you start gooping Holy See, on the grounds that the which threatens liturgical progress. up the churches again it will look practice whereby the Holy See ap- like a mob scene out of 'Carmen.'" *** points bishops is an undesirable mod- *** ern innovation. The paper cited a recent book by retired Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco in support of its position.

.. FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 *** * ** Cardinal Carlo Montini of Milan, Despite a ruling by the Congregation The official document Ex Corde leader of the liberal faction of bishops of the Doctrine of the Faith that Ecclesiae,governing Catholic colleges at the Synod for Europe last year, has Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent and universities, has no relevance in repeated his call for "shared gover- and Sister Jeannine Gramick, a the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, ac- nance" in the Church at all levels t School Sister of Notre Dame, must cording to Archbishop Daniel and raising the possibility of a Third desist from all pastoral activities Pilarczyk, a former president of the Vatican Council. I I among homosexuals, both continue American bishops. The archbishop *** I~ to speak publicly on the subject and told the media that he has been Pope John Paul has urged bishops to to criticize the Vatican decree. meeting with Catholic educators in exercise caution and restraint in Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of his archdiocese for a number of years " speaking to the media. Galveston-Houston, president of the and is unaware of any rejection of *** I American bishops, rejected a petition Catholic teaching. Officials of Dialogue for Austria, a in support of Nugent and Gramick Among theologians in the I signed by over 4000 people. Bishop Archdiocese of Cincinnati is Xavier dissident group which last year won international attention for its stands Fiorenza stated that the CDF's deci- University professor Paul Knitter, a ~f against official Church teachings, has II sion was based on an accurate view major figure in the move to complained that the Austrian bishops of Nugent and Gramick's activities. relativize Christianity in the face of * * * other world religions, who regards have ceased their willingness to dia- much of the New Testament as logue with the organization and that Father Peter Liuzzi, director of "gay the media also have lost interest. and lesbian ministries" for the arch- historically unreliable. *** * * * diocese of Los Angeles, has expressed public disappointment at the fact that Sister Wendy Becket, a well-known A police investigation in Santa Rosa the dioceses of California, including English ~elevision personality who (Ca.) concluded that retired Bishop Los Angeles, have given monetary comments on art, has not officially Patrick Ziemann mismanaged $16 million in diocesan funds but that no support to a campaign to define been a Catholic religious since 1970, marriage in law as exclusively a rela- when she left her Notre Dame order. criminal charges would be filed. *** tionship between a man and Sister Wendy wears a religious habit woman. and lives on the grounds of a Tobias Meeker, the official medical- *** Carmelite convent but has no ca- moral ethicist at St. John's Hospital Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn nonical standing as a religious, ac- in Springfield (Mo.), told the press that he considers himself a Buddhist has characterized as "chilling" a cording to a report in The Wanderer. as well as a Catholic and that he is growing rash of church vandalisms in *** unconcerned about issues which II his diocese. Similar acts have been Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, Buddhism considers "nonessential," 11 reported in other parts of the coun- president of the German bishops' such as the existence of God or try. conference, suggested in a radio .11 whether God created the universe. *** interview that Pope John Paul II will The Catholic concept of God as all- ,... The British House of Lords, whose resign if he is unable to carry out his I powerful makes God "a monster," continued existence is in doubt, duties. Subsequently Bishop Lehmann said he did not intend to according to Meeker, who asked, I rejected a proposal to amend British advocate that the Pope resign. Dissi- "How could you worship a god like law to allow Catholics to ascend the that?" ffi throne, a proposal opposed by Prime dent theologian Hans Kung praised III Minister Tony Blair but supported Bishop Lehmann for his remarks. by many Protestants. Catholicism is The German hierarchy have been in the only religion whose adherents tension with the Holy See over the are explicitly barred from the throne, German Church's practice of grant- a law dating from the time of the ing certificates to women seeking Glorious Revolution ofl688, when abortions, certifying that they have the Catholic James II was over- received counseling. thrown. ***

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . r FEATURED REVIEW

Dennis Smith, which is longer than four pages. It is hand on her shoulder. scarcely a novel, but reads like one. A "I just have you two guys," my A Songfor Mary. good read. The tale of a boy who Warner Books, 1999. mother says, wiping a tear off on learned how to fight before he ac- the shoulder of my undershirt, "I quired the King's English, dragged up 369 pages. $24.95. just have you guys to help me." literally by a mother who, having lost Her impact on her son- and un- Reviewed by Msgr. GeorgeA. Kelly her husband to a hospital, effectively taught her son the Irish culture and its doubtedly others- was dramatically Catholicity, and was elated when expressed at her funeral when on im- Songfor Mary is a good Dennis reached the noble estate of pulse Dennis rose at Communion book for Catholics who N.Y.c. Fireman. time to seek permission to say some- are looking for an author A But most of all, A Songfor Mary thing about his mother's life. In due who celebrates his family back- deals with Mrs. Smith and how she course, the priest allowed him to say ground and his faith without hiding this to the mourners: raised two literate sons- though vir- the hardships or demands of either. tually husbandless- while on the "The true epitaph is not the mes- Unlike some other authors, Dennis welfare rolls, and housecleaning sage epitomizing a person that is Smith likes being the son of an Irish fancy Sutton Place apartments for pin etched into a headstone, but the Catholic mother and of the Church. memory that resides in the swell- This is an account also of one money, even when she was sick and tired. Mother Smith didn't know ing of the heart. So I ask you to man's rise to literacy (nine books, remember Mary like this." Carl Rogers, nor did she read four best sellers), a man still comfort- Mother Smith couk! be loving when able with his Irish-American Catho- Sigmund Freud, but she could dia- logue with her sons about the cat- a boy as impish as Dennis got "a lic roots. He is a far cry from his echism, even about the Holy Ghost. whack with the pointer across the grandfather who described the old She believed that the world was back of my pants" from Sister country this way: "Dey was ten 0' us God's, and that her sons needed to fit Maureen. He received no sympathy ind a room and dare was a lot less into his demands. Her faith, etched from Mama, who simply said: "She meat dare den music." Warner into the marrow of her bones, begot was right. You have to learn to con- Books, the publisher, would enhance its own common sense. Since God trol yourself or you'll never get out Dennis Smith by claiming that he of trouble." writes in the tradition of Frank rewards the good and punishes the bad, she could do no less, and she The book has a few other bon McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Pete delegated the punishment part of the mots from several of the actors, Hamill (A Drinking Life), but Smith is human deal to no one, not even to which explain why it interested me: himself a far cry from authors like the nuns. She carried her crosses well "I am seven years old and I know them, who gain fame at the expense and insisted that her sons do the the difference between right and of their Irish Catholic identity. This same. She gave little credit to excuses wrong;" "Confession is great, be- author does not hide his early pov- or rebellions. Being on welfare was cause if you did wrong you can erty or the foibles of his co-religion- no fun, she said: "it was like eating just say it in confession and then ists, including those of his mother. sugar sweet to the taste, but bad for forget about it;" "My mother gets He exudes joy and humor, faith, one's health." She told her son on her high horse sometimes, and hope and charity in every chapter. she would tell off the Queen of .bluntly, "You should get ajob." In brief, A Songfor Mary tells England if she wanted to;" "I love The genius of this lady is encap- about a child's life in a four-story talking to God because I know he sulated in one chapter of a mere 87 cares about me just like my mother walk-up, in a family without a father words: during his growing years, in a neigh- does. But I worry that he has too borhood where weekly salaries aver- My mother is holding me in her many people talking to him at the same time, and doesn't have time aged $35.00 at Dennis' birth, in a par- arms. I am eleven years old and to get to me;" "I was given a sec- ish which unsurprisingly owed its my mother is holding me in her ond chance. I don't know where existence to a brewmaster (Peter arms like I was two. She is sitting that another chance came from, if Doelger), and kept together with the on a kitchen chair, and she is just it didn't come from God;" "If likes of his mother's "Sunday nickel staring at a hole in the kitchen there is anyone to thank for get- in the sacrifice box." Here is a mosaic door, and she is rocking. Billy is ting me through to where I am, it of fifty-four chapters, hardly one of standing next to her with his is my mother."

- FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 REVIEWS

Those Americanists who deprecate University of Chicago appointed The Winning Side: Questions on "the office of motherhood" (the lit- him to the Committee on Social Living the Culture of Life, by eral meaning of matri-mony) as a di- Thought, where he taught until his Charles E. Rice. Mishawaka, IN: vine vocation will have no idea what death thirteen years later. Simon's St. Brendan's Institute, 1999. xv + Mrs. Smith or her son are singing years in America were undoubtedly 373 pp. Index. about in A Songfor Mary. his most productive, resulting in some of his most notable works, harlie Rice already Msgr. GeorgeA. Kelly is President Nature and Functions of Authority loomed large in the pro- Emeritus of the Fellowship of Catholic (1940), Philosophy of Democratic Gov- life cause early in his career Scholars. C ernment (1951), and A General Theory and he has been getting larger all the of Authority (1962). All three remain time. There is no more eloquent and 'J in print. incisive spokesmen for the legal and Philosopher at Work: Essays by As a metaphysician Simon stands moral doctrine that undergirds what Yves R. Simon. A.a. Simon, ed. in the tradition of Aristotle and John Paul II has called the Culture of Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Aquinas. For him political philoso- Life. The doctrine is a positive and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999. phy is not a logical exercise liberating vision of the human person grounded in some imaginary set of viii + 217 pages. which gives rise to a conception of assumptions. Philosophy is the pur- law which promotes uses of freedom Reviewed by Dr. Jude P. Dougherty suit of both speculative and practical which enhance human dignity. The wisdom. morality is at once natural and super- ne must be grateful to Disagreement among philoso- natural; Rice is a professor oflaw, Anthony O. Simon for phers, he notes, is to be expected, not a theologian, and he uses Church but is not intolerable. We cannot O collecting and editing these doctrine as the support and illumina- expect in philosophy the same con- essays by his distinguished father. Any tor of natural morality. In a series of sensus that exists in the natural sci- one of them would be worth the books notable for clarity and preci- purchase of the book. In an essay ences. "The urge to perform the sion, Rice has helped his fellow unprecedented is not peculiar to the entitled "The Philoso-pher's Calling," Catholics understand and celebrate Simon declares, "Generally speaking, philosopher;" although too often it the moral teachings of their Church. the human mind is not at its best in militates against objectivity. The The Culture of Life has as its philosophy." That said, as if to refute teamwork that brings so much com- opponent the Culture of Death. his dictum, Simon goes on to show fort to the scientist is rarely possible Rice minces no words when he in philosophy. The work of the his readers what a mind respectful of a discusses the inroads that deadly tradition that dates to Plato and philosopher is done for the most part culture has made in the country he Aristotle can say about the human in solitude. But "a philosopher who honorably served as a United States has succeeded in communicating his condition. Successive chapters, among Marine. His analysis and criticism of others, are entitled "The Concept of inspiration ... and who has experi- court decisions and his mordant Work," "Nature and the Process of enced the joy of a friendship born of judgment that the American Repub- Mathematical Abstraction," "On such communication will always feel '; lic is no more do not lead to despon- Order in Analogical Sets," and "An that if he had to choose again, phi- dency. Only when one understands Essay on Sensation." losophy would be his calling." the opponent can one deliver the Yet there is more at stake than Simon (1903-1961) was born in decisive blow, as the author, a some- Cherbourg and educated at the personal satisfaction. The habits of time pugilist, might put it. Sorbonne and the Institut Catholic intellect and will make up the cure The book is divided into two of culture. Having identified with de Paris. He taught for many years in parts, the problem, and the solution. the philosophia perennis, Simon's in- Paris and Lille before coming to the The style is one Rice has used in sights themselves are timeless. United States. When Paris fell in previous books, but brings to perfec- 1940, he was a visiting professor at tion in this one. Like his mentor, the University of Notre Dame. He Jude P. Dougherty is professorand dean Saint Thomas Aquinas, he empha- remained in the States, teaching at emeritus of philosophy at The Catholic sizes that positions represent answers University of America. Notre Dame until 1948 when Rob- to an underlying question. So why ert M. Hutchins as Chancellor of the leave the question implicit? Each part

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . REVIEWS

of the book consists of chapters Catholics and American Culture: claims to being the 'last, best hope' of headed by a specific question, the Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and liberal democratic values in the 'Re- . practical import of which can be lost the Notre Dame Football Team deemer Nation.'" As Massa reveals, on no one. The following samples by Mark S. Massa however, what is gained in this shift is far removed from what was desired. will provide a foretaste. "What did New York: Crossroad Publishing Massa charts the progress the Supreme Court do in Roe v. Company, 1999. 269 pages. Wade?" "How did secularism be- (loosely used) of American Catholi- cism in the post-War period through come the official religion of the Reviewed by Timothy L. Smith nation?" "How did abortion become the lives of its heroes: Leonard Feeney, Thomas Merton, Joe a private choice beyond the law?" he focus of this book is the "Why is contraception the decisive McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, Dorothy period of transformation in Day, John F. Kennedy. These heroes issue?" "Can we be pro-life and American Catholicism from T in a very ironic way were actually support capital punishment?" the end of the Second World War Rice's position on that last ques- competing for the "American" des- and the opening of Vatican II. Taking ignation and contributed mightily to tion has changed in response to what up the theme of irony in American the mainstreaming of Catholicism. he takes to be the implications of religious history from Reinhold The election of Kennedy served only Evangelium Vitae and the revised Neibuhr's The Irony of American His- to prove the fact of the transforma- relevant paragraphs of the Catechism tory, Massa argues convincingly that tion: Catholics were now the insiders if the Catholic Church. This change the "heroes" of American Catholics of the" city on a hill," the guardians reveals a man always intent on hav- were in fact "Americanizers." Far of the culture "too easily loved." ing a mentality in accord with the from being threats to American free- Unfortunately, rather than returning teaching Church. The issues he dom or other American cultural val- to specifically Catholic values and to discusses are legal and moral, but ues as Paul Blanshard's best-selling the heart of Catholic teaching, prin- American Freedomand Catholic Power Rice emphasizes that the real an- ciples of egalitarianism, middle-class swers, the ones that count, are spiri- would have us believe, Catholics after ailluence and ultimately crabgrass tual. It is not simply a matter of the war to a large extent fell all over became overriding concerns. In its themselves in their rush to embrace winning an argument. Rather, it is lack of praise for such changes in one of saving souls. American culture. They moved £rom American Catholicism, this work Call this book Rice's Summa. It the margins to the mainstream of offers a sober alternative to Robert should be in the hands of every American culture, "even making Catholic who wants to know what the Church teaches, to understand why she teaches it, and how to defend it against the Culture of Death. 81. Thomas Aquinas The book's final question is, "Are we reallyon the win- andthe Natural ning side?" No one can doubt the answer provided, SaaedHearl Traditi iV/tI};,rSeminaryand j'eaturing: and lived, by the happy war- AvehIariaSchoolofLail) rior, Charles E. Rice. Benedict Ashley, O.P. Ro arepleased10sponsor Robert George Ralph' IbisIhra-daycorrftretle( RussellDittinger David all nalZimllalO Ralph McInerny William E. May Christop in DetroitMiehigi1rl.

SacredHeart Major Seminary Detroit, Michigan

III PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 Bums' triumphant Being Catholic, off the cramped, narrow world of the other hand, the effect should not be Being American published in the same Catholic "ministate." His new intel- confused with the thing itself Sheen year. lectual model for American Catholi- was "relentlessly Catholic" and in In each chapter, the author cism, his call for serious reflection fact offered a solid view of reality proposes a particular interpretive tool and his new appropriation of ancient true to his neo-scholastic formation. for understanding the events under ideas announced to the country that What many in his audience took to consideration. For example, for his Catholics were the "real insiders to be ecumenical "chats" was in reality interpretation of the Boston heresy the life of the mind and the peaks of natural law Thomism dressed up in ., case, the author employs the bound- spiritual sophistication." The irony "homely metaphors" and stories. ary theories of a cultural anthropolo- here, according to the author, is that With these chapters on Merton gist, Mary Douglas. Douglas' theory American Catholicism's postwar and Sheen, it becomes evident that .,,- reveals the way this particular event "identity crisis" found its resolution the author's argument involves an provided the opportunity for the not in sacramental models of unusual assumption. He notes in these boundaries between "insiders" and Chrisitianity but in the "democratic and other chapters that the "event" "outsiders" to be redefined. Feeney's and perfectionist preserve of spiritu- under discussion is a product of the teaching on the dictum "outside the ality." More ironic still, Merton's times, or rather demanded by the Church, there is no salvation" (extra own work became popularized as times. There is a necessary character ecclesiamnulla salus)was, according to one more "therapeutic" spirituality about each one of these episodes in Massa, closer to official dogmatic next to Peale's and Liebmann's. light of the then currrent state of statements from the Reformation Failing to convert the multitudes to affairs in postwar American Catholic onward than was the interpretation the radical demands of Cistercian experience. Moreover, the actions of of Feeney's "liberal" Catholic oppo- monasticism, Merton gave reallegiti- the protagonists are absorbed into the nents. Yet when all was said and macy to a sophisticated spirituality larger context in a way often directly done in this case, the very defender for aspiring middle-class Catholics. contrary to the protagonists' inten- of that position was excommuni- Massa goes on to argue, how- tions. The principle of irony ulti- cated. Feeney's teaching simply no ever, that it was only with the work mately flattens out cultural develop- longer cohered with the changing of Fulton Sheen, specifically his ment in so far as such "heroes" are construct of Church identity. To be television show "Life is Worth Liv- not movers but themselves moved. sure, Feeney was officially de- ing," that American Catholics truly This ironic reading presumes that nounced by Rome for lack of disci- found a place at the center of cul- such "heroes" exerted no positive pline. Nevertheless, the boundary ture. The author locates Sheen's influence--their intentions were defining "those in communion with success in his shifting of the domi- thwarted and even reversed. I wonder Rome" was in the process greatly nant paradigm £rom Niebuhr's then to what extent the actors are still enlarged. With the expansion of such "Christ above Culture" to one of actors in this case and not mere "ex- categories as "implicit desire" and "Christ of Culture" in which Chris- pressions" of the wider culture? "invincible ignorance," the "insider" tianity acts as the guardian of human Massa's own tendency to speak of group came to include practically culture. This model does not de- Merton and Sheen in particular as every American, even those with no mand that one leave home and fam- culturally demanded figures suggests desire whatsoever to be in commun- ily but instead brings Christ into that they are not in fact causes in any "!'" ion with Rome. According to this human associations as the presence of profound sense. According to the reading then, the avowed "insider" grace. In offering what many took as author, for instance, Merton experi- was ironically condemned to the general religious pronouncements, enced instant popularity precisely "outside." Sheen improved the image and repu- because Catholic intellectual and In a similar way, Massa interprets tation of the Catholic Church in the ecclesialleaders "had sought to prove the impact of Thomas Merton on general culture. Of course, some how thorougWy American their reli- American Catholicism according to a objected that there was in these gious tradition was." Rather than developmental theory. Through this pronouncements something too making waves, it would seem that interpretive lens, the author views popular and too simplistic to provide such figures as Merton and Sheen, Merton as a cultural paradigm whose a solid foundation for lived Catholic according to this reading, were only personal, ideological solution to a faith. Indeed, his "peace of soul" riding them. common crisis provided a pattern for message all too easily fit into the Massa's portrait of postwar others. Merton's solution to his mold of "religion-as-pop-psychol- American Catholicism suggests that "identity crisis" involved sloughing ogy." According to Massa, on the every one of these persons and

PCS Quarterly' Winter 2000 . REVIEWS

events was "just what America edly interesting and, at times, com- the a growing popular movement of needed" at that time, even predict- pelling. The reader will certainly radical anti-structuralism. ably so. An interesting example con- gain a better sense of the stakes and Certainly with the election of cerns the author's interpretation of terms in contemporary debates on Kennedy and the national promi- Dorothy Day and her Catholic the Church's proper attitude to the nence of the University of Notre Worker movement according to wider culture. Massa is solid in his Dame in the 1960s, Catholicism had Victor Turner's theories concerning assessment of the ultimate effects of achieved the mainstream in American "rites of passage." The author mea- the mainstreaming of Catholicism in culture. Gone forever was the "ghetto sures the importance of Day accord- America at mid-century. The shift- mentality" that informed Gary Wills' ing to the way she contributes to ing views of identity, boundaries and "Memories of a Catholic Boyhood." such a passage for American Catholi- roles in American Catholicism pro- The modern transformation of cism. To be sure, Day and her fol- vide the framework for interpreting American Catholicism began long lowers did in fact oppose the emerg- the greatness and failure of Merton, before Vatican II and cannot be ing "surburban captivity" of the Sheen, Day and others. The physical blamed solely upon the Council, and Church, but she ,also rejected the structure or proximity of the Catho- Massa is right in extending the arena older "ministate" model of Catholi- lic community, the perception of of investigation. Yet the issue of cul- cism. Hers was a righteous noncon- Catholics by the wider culture and ture and the Church's relation to it as formity. And according to the au- Catholics' own self-perception were pursued in this book raises a deeper thor, her protest was one of the most stronger determining factors than the question: revered paths of" Americanization." actual teachings of the most popular If the "Christ" in the phrase "Christ Day mingled the American tradition preacher or writer. And as it bought and Culture" is defined by the Catho- of localism with the "mystical/ so- into wider culture phenomena, post- lic Church, and not by Protestant cial" tradition of Chesterton and St. war American Catholicism has in- sects as it was in Niebuhr's well- Therese of Lisieux to construct her deed allowed itself to be shaped from known book of that title, then should anti-structural gospel-a typically outside. we interpret the possible relations of American call to fidelity by "return- The implication of such a read- that "Christ" to the culture inrhe ing to the roots." Yet the result of ing, however, is that what have same way? Is the dichotomy so strict this "rite of passage" in which Day typically been seen as major causes in as Neibuhr makes it out to be? In the played a crucial role was neither the cultural development are actually later Middle Ages, for example, the reconstruction of a Catholic culture effects or at least no more than an Church dominated the culture and nor the emergence of a personalist indications of changes already even defined it. model of Catholic social works, but present. According to this reading Moreover, the culture in ques- ironically, a Catholicism that re- the inability of these major figures to tion here, the American one, is not flected the political and social divi- influence the larger group, or society without its roots in the ancient Chris- sions of American culture. Her as a whole, reveals a profound impo- tian tradition. Massa's most "Ameri- "radical" call to pursue the good of tence. As the author demonstrates, can" persona in his study is the righ- the poor and marginalized as a way the wider culture often appropriates teous non-conformist, Day. Yet it of returning the Church to its center the work and words of these figures would not be difficult at all to see the ironically led to the polarization of for alien and even contrary uses. For parallels between Day and various traditionalists and accomodationists example, Merton wanted to offer an biblical prophets, the ancient in that very Church. Day is then, alternative to dry intellectualism but monastics who fled the Romanized according to Massa's reading, the himself contributed to it. Sheen Christianity of the first centuries, and most American of these Catholic proposed a deeper view of the hu- even St. Francis, all of whom called "heroes." She is also most obviously man condition to counter the shal- the Church back to its center and a product of the times, and a virtual low pop psychology but was himself stood apart from the crowd physically cliche of American religious his- received as another of its prophets. and spiritually. Indeed, it does not tory-the righteous non-conform- Day sought to bring the right and appear that Catholic Christianity is ist-seeming even to disdain popu- left back together at the heart of the - inimical to all democratic or Ameri- larity and masses of followers, the Church's work but instead pushed can principles. St. Paul's teaching on very lack of which serves to prove those two poles farther apart, making the unity of the body of Christ, on her nonconformity. the rift virtually unbridgeable. Seek- the equality of all before the impartial Massa's ironic reading of postwar ing non-conformity, Day in fact judgment of God, on the need for American Catholicism is undoubt- embodied perfect conformity with masters to be just and fair to slaves and

.. PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 even to receive them as brothers in from the fulfillment of public service. plained as Niebuhr's model would Christ does not present us with a clear There is no question that American suggest. Further, beyond the issue of contradiction between egalitarian Catholicism today embraces more accretions to and developments in a principles and a hierachically ordered aspects of American culture than in religious tradition, the more impor- society or Church. the first half of the century. And yet tant question concerns what was lost. This is not to say that American the relation of the Church to the For the answer to that question, one culture is Catholic or even Christian wider culture involves at the same must turn to the post-Vatican II pe- in any real sense, however. What is time both an aloof stance in radical riod, not to the "Americanizers" but meant here is that the sacred/secular to the "Dissenters." ~ non-conformity and an intimate dichotomy is only one part of the involvement both criticizing and relation between Church and culture. blessing what it finds there, all the Timothy L. Smith is a post-doctoral

'.t As Massa pointed out in his discussion while suffusing the culture with grace. fellow in theology at The University of of Kennedy, it was seen by all as an The richness of the Catholic tradition Notre Dame. anomaly for any American to claim with its monks and bishops, ascetics the total separation of religious belief and intellectuals is not so easily ex-

PCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . BOOKS RECEIVED

ALBA HOUSE The Holy Mass.Adrienne von Speyr. OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS 2187Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, 98 pages. $9.95 paper. ISBN 0-89870- Scott Quadrangle, Athens, OH 45701 NY 10314 730-7 AfricanApocalypse:The Storyof Nontetha ManyReligions-One Covenant:Israel, Do Not Lose Hope: Healing the Wounded Nkwenke,a Twentieth-CenturySouth ChurchandtheWorld. Heart of WomenMo Have Had Abor- the Joseph Cardi- African Prophet.Robert Edgar and tions. William F.Maestri. xii + 82 nal Ratzinger. 113 pages. ISBN 0- Hilary Sapire. xxiii + 190 pages. 89870-753-6 pages. $5.95 paper. ISBN 0-8189- $20.00 paper. ISBN 0-89680-208- 6 0830-0 The Way if the Lamb: The Spirit of Child- PROSPECT PRESS InterdisciplinaryAtlas if theBible. hood and the End if the Age. John Giacamo Perego. 124 pages. $24.95 Saward. xii + 170 pages. ISBN 0- 609 Main St., Box 162, Sistersville, WV hardcover. ISBN 0- 8189-0875-0 87870-759-5 26175 Saintsin Verse.Frank Morriss. 76 The Lifeif PadrePio: BetweentheAltar ISI BOOKS and Confessional.Gennero Preziuso. pages. $9.95 paper. ISBN 1-892668- 3901 Centerville Road, P O. Box 4431, 14-9 Jordan Aumann, OP, trans. and ed. viii Wilmington, DE 19807-0431 + 241 pages. $16.95 paper. ISBN 0- ROUTLEDGE 8189-0831-9 PatriotSage:GeorgeWashingtonand the AmericanPoliticalTradition.Gary L. 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY Men YouHurt. Lou Torok. x + 83 Gregg II and Matthew Spalding, eds. 10001-2299 pages. $4.95 paper. ISBN 0-8189- 371 pages. $29.95 hardcover. ISBN 1- 0874-2 882926-38-2 The CatholicRiformation. Michael Mullett. xi + 258 pages. $22.99 paper. Women if Destiny: The Women if the Old PeifectSowing:Riflectionsif a Bookman. ISBN 0-415-18915- 2 Testament.Lucy Fuchs. viii + 136 Henry Regnery. 422 pages. $24.95 pages. $8.95 paper. ISBN 0-8189- hardcover. ISBN 1-882926-32-3 ST. BRENDAN'S INSTITUTE 0863-7 Plagues if the Mind: The New Epidemic of PO. Box 1943, Mishawaka, IN 46546 AQUINAS PUBLISHING LTD FalseKnowledge.Bruce Thornton. 290 The Winning Side: Questions on Living PO. Box 11260, Cincinnati, OH pages. $24.95 hardcover. ISBN 1- the Culture of Life. Charles E. Rice. xv 882926-34-x 45211-0260 + 373 pages. $26.95 paper. ISBN 0- 9674691-0-4 The Renovation Manipulation. Michael The Supeifluous Men: ConservativeCritics S. Rose. iv + 161 pages. $12.95 paper. if American Culture 1900-1945. Rob- SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS ISBN 0- 9676317-0-4 ert M. Crunden, ed. xxvi + 427 pages. $24.95 hardcover. ISBN 1-882926- Box 5482, Manchester, NH 03108 DOUBLEDAY 30-7 The Basic Book if Catholic Prayer: How to 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036 A Student'sGuidetoPhilosophy.Ralph Pray and My. Lawrence G. Lovasik. M. McInerny. 75 pages. $5.95 paper. 224 pages. $14.95 paper. ISBN 1- The Lamb'sSupper:TheMassasHeaven ISBN 1-882926- 39-0 928832-04-0 cl on Earth.xv + 174 pages.$19.95 hard- I! .. cover. ISBN 0- 385-49659-1 Mo Owns America?A New Declaration Creed or Chaos? My Christians Must I' of Independence. Herbert Agar and Allen ChooseEither Dogma or Disaster. Dor- WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISH- Tate, eds. 496 pages. $24.95 hardcover. othy L. Sayers. 176 pages. $10.95 ING CO. ISBN 1-882926-37-4 paper. ISBN 0-918477-31-X 255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, How to Love God and Keep His Com- MI 49503 THE JOHNS HOPKINS III UNIVERSITY PRESS mandments. Charles Joseph II Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming the Quadrupani. xiv + 178 pages. $14.95 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD paper. ISBN 1-928832-02-4 Traditionfor Christian Ethics. Jean Por- 21218-4319 ter. 339 pages. $28.00 paper. ISBN 0- Taming the RestlessHeart: How to Know 8028-4697-1 Irish Pilgrimage: Holy Wells and Popular God's Will and Dwell in the PeaceIt Catholic Devotion. Michael P Carroll. ~ Brings. GeraldVann. 80 pages. $5.95 IGNATIUS PRESS ix + 226 pages. $38.00 hardcover. paper. ISBN 1-928832-03-2 2515 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA ISBN 0-8018-6190-X 94118 Trojan Horse in the City if God: How GodlessnessCrept into the Sanctuary- The Evidential Power if Beauty: Science and How to Thrust It Out Again. and TheologyMeet. Thomas Dubay, Dietrich von Hildebrand. $16.95 paper. S.M. 365 pages. $14.95 paper. ISBN ISBN 0-918477-60-3 0-89870-752-8

- FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 BOARD OF DIRECTORS-1999-2000

OFFICERS DIRECTORS DR. WILLIAM MAY President DR. J. BRIAN BENESTAD John Paul II Institute PROF. GERARD V. BRADLEY Assumption College 487 Michigan Avenue, NE Notre Dame Law School 500 Salisbury St - P.O. Box 15005 Washington, DC 20017 Notre Dame, IN 46556 Worcester, MA 01615-0005 REv. JOHN ROCK, S.J. Vice-President 65 Stockton Street DR. MICHAELJ. HEALY REv. CORNELIUS BUCKLEY, S.J. Princeton, NJ 08540-6821 Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville P.O. Box 415 REv. PETER RYAN, S.J. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 I~ Stuebenville, OH 43952 ,< Loyola College - Theology DEAN BERNARD DOBRANSKI Executive Secretary 4501 N. Charles Street REv. THOMAS F. DAILEY, 6225 Webster Church Road Baltimore, MD 21210-2699 O.S.F.S. Dexter, MI 48130 REv. JAMES SCHALL, S.J. 1\llentown College PROF. LAURA GARCIA Georgetown Jesuit Community of St. Francis de Sales 3 Bowdoin Street Washington, DC 20057 2755 Station Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 DR. MARY SHIVANANDAN Center Valley, PA 18034-9568 DR. JOHN HAAS John Paul II Institute 0: (610) 282-1100 ext. 1464 6438 Woodbine Avenue 487 Michigan Avenue, NE PresidentEmeritus Philadelphia, PA 19151 Washington, DC 20017 REv. MSGR. GEORGE A. KELLY HELEN HULL HITCHCOCK REv. MSGR. WILLIAM B. SMITH 107-10 Shore Front Parkway 6159 Kingsbury Drive Rockaway Beach, NY 11694 St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie St. Louis, MO 63112 201 E. Seminary Avenue PresidentEmeritus and Editor of pcs DR. JAMES HITCHCOCK Yonkers, NY 10704-1896 Quarterly PROF. RALPH MCINERNY 6159 Kingsbury Drive REv. EARL A. WEIS, S.J. St. Louis, MO 63112 Loyola University Jacques Maritain Center DR. STEPHEN KRASON 6525 N. Sheridan Road 714 Hesburgh Library Notre Dame, IN 46556 1235 Maryland Avenue Chicago, IL 60626-5385 Steubenville, OH 43952-1620 DR. KENNETH WHITEHEAD REv. RONALD LAWLER, O.F.M. 809 Ridge Place CAP. Falls Church, VA 22046-3631 St. Francis Friary 2905 Castlegate Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15226

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September 22-24,2000 Atlanta, Georgia Program Chair: Monsignor William Smith Host: Archbishop John Donoghue

FCS Quarterly. Winter 2000 . _. j

Ex CATHEDRA

teristically engage can take a corrupt form. Itching Ears Paul warned the Colossians not to be led astray by philosophy, but of course it was not philosophy prop- top Itching Ears." This sign, seen in a erly pursued that he had in mind. In matters of faith, doctor's office, was not as one might have the tendency to make one's own lights the ultimate supposed a reference to St. Paul's remarks arbiter of truth produces the ailment Paul refers to. A to Timothy. But then Paul's metaphor is good thing gone bad is all the worse. Corruptio optimi based on the ailment my doctor offered to pessima.The Catholic scholar's heroes and models had cure. "For the time will come when men will not a salutary sense of both the range and the weakness of put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their human reason. And they saw the pursuit of truth in own desires, they will gather around them a great the context of the ultimate purpose of human life. number of teachers to say what their itching ears The natural desire to know can be corrupted by other want to hear" (2 Timothy 4:3). There is an urgency desires. Pride goeth before a fall. And there is a pride in itching that seeks relief in scratching, which often of lions who go about the world seeking whom they increases the difficulty. Scholars are often insuffi- might devour. When our ears itch, we should not ciently aware that the activity in which we charac- scratch, but see our doctor. RM

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