PETER STEINFELS ON JOHN NOONAN

[I assume that neither John Noonan nor Peter Steinfels need any introduction to MOJ readers.]

The New York Times
May 22, 2005

'A Church That Can and Cannot Change': Dogma

By PETER STEINFELS

FOUR decades ago, Roman Catholics were hit over the head by revisions of church teaching and practice authorized by the world's bishops at the Second Vatican Council. If the language of the Mass, prohibition of meat on Friday and, most striking, the church's unrelenting contrast between its truths and the errors of every other religion could be altered, what couldn't be? Doctrine on contraception? Divorce and remarriage? Capital punishment? Same-sex relationships? Ordination of women?

If religions are alive, as Catholicism surely is, they change. But while some changes may reflect a justifiable, even necessary, adaptation to new knowledge or circumstances, others may be a trimming of religious truth. How do you tell the difference? It is a question brought into sharp focus again with the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI.

Historically, Catholicism solved the problem of change simply by denying it. Understandings of the Trinity, the priesthood, the papacy, the Mass and the sacraments that emerged over a long time were projected back into New Testament texts. Theologians joked that when a pope or other official circuitously introduced a modification of church teaching, he would begin, ''As the church has always taught. . . .''

Such denial, still widespread, means that examining change in official teaching -- or what became known in the 19th century as ''development of doctrine'' -- poses two challenges: first, to establish that alterations -- some more than minor -- have unquestionably occurred; and second, to show how they can be reconciled with the church's claim to preach the same essential message Jesus and his disciples did 2,000 years ago, presumably deriving criteria that can help distinguish legitimate evolution in the future from deviations or betrayals.

Among American Catholics, John T. Noonan Jr. is specially situated for this pursuit. He is a distinguished law professor; a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and the author of many books on jurisprudence, legal history and ethics, and church law. In the 1960's, when a papal commission re-examined Catholic teaching on contraception, a magisterial 1965 study by Noonan, tracing the history of the doctrine, was widely used to support change. In the 70's, in equally learned arguments, he criticized the Supreme Court's ruling for a right to abortion and campaigned for a constitutional amendment to protect the unborn. On the appeals court since 1986, he is known for granting stays of execution to death-row prisoners. So he is impossible to place in the polarized geography of liberals and conservatives -- Catholic and non-Catholic.
. . .

[John Courtney] Murray declared 40 years ago that development of doctrine ''is the underlying issue'' of Vatican II. It remains fundamental for Catholicism, Islam and other faiths too. What Noonan brings to it in this invaluable book is unblinking honesty about the record of the church to which he is deeply devoted. That is a standard for anyone wishing to pursue the conversation.

[To read the rest--and it's certainly worth reading (on slavery, etc.)--click here.]
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Michael P.