CST and CLT

I would like to thank Rick for his informative posting, and I am sorry for the trouble that he had waiting on the tarmac for six hours. It seems that airplanes and busy runways can offer opportunities for mini-retreats. I’ll have to keep this in mind.

I was unaware of the fact that there was a three day conference and discussion on these important topics. Since I was not present, I hope I am not intruding into Rick’s invitation by responding to his request that he would like to hear the thoughts of those who were present. It may also be that my few thoughts were raised by some who did attend.

If there is an impression that “it all begins with Rerum Novarum” (CST and, therefore, CLT), I think that would be a flawed assumption. There is no question that Pope Leo XIII’s papacy and his great encyclical are important for any serious Catholic investigation, but there is a preceding foundation that needs to be taken into account.

The foundation begins with the need for solid catechesis. A lot of us involved with the Church and its educational efforts, particularly at the tertiary and post-tertiary level have come to realize the impoverishment of understanding the faith. The higher one goes in the formal educational system, the easier it becomes to assume that students and faculty have learned and taught the first principles of the faith. This assumption, as it turns out, is often wrong. Essential tools for remedying this would be texts like the Catechism of the Catholic Church (especially its outline and using its footnotes as invitations to further, deeper study), a good “sources” book such as Denzinger, and another excellent and readable text called “An Introduction to Christianity” written by a young German theologian back in 1968. Having a better and solid understanding of Christianity and Catholicism, we can better understand the tasks that CST and CLT have regarding the salvation of humanity. While the corporal works of mercy are important to the Church, that is not why God gave us this great gift, and that is not why God became revealed to us on the cross.

With the foundation in mind, the next step is to begin to examine the role of the Church in the temporal order, for that is where CST and CLT come into play. The issues that fascinate us today concerning bioethics, family life, the use of force (“just war theory”), humanitarian intervention, the role of Catholics in public/political life, the role of the laity, human rights, etc. did not begin in the twentieth century. The history of the Church and human history show us otherwise. I think that is why we need to be familiar with the existence and then the content of a rich deposit of literature that captures the work of the Church and its members since through the progress of time.

For example, there are works of Augustine and Aquinas; the texts mentioned in “sources” books; the bibliographic materials put together by Prof. Sylvester Hemleben and published by the University of Chicago Press in the 1940s; the Herculean bibliographic efforts of Sister Claudia Carlen, IHM beginning in the 1930s and extending into the 1970s; the commendable commentaries and translation activities of Mr. John Eppstein in the 1930s; and the activities of James Brown Scott and Oxford University Press (now available through Hein On-Line) of preserving the extraordinary work of the Schoolmen Francis Suárez and Francis de Vitoria who wrote about the use of force and discussed human rights in the sixteenth-early seventeenth centuries. Social justice is a phrase often heard in CST and CLT schools, but its origins are less well known. The work of the nineteenth century Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio is crucial to any endeavor of seriously studying “social justice.” Taparelli’s works have never been translated into English; however, Prof. Thomas Behr has given some important conferences and published some good articles on the thought of Taparelli. I am beginning to work on a project of translating Taparelli’s Saggio Teoretico di Diritto Naturale—anyone interested in helping?

With some command of these resources, the teacher, the student, and anyone else interested in CST and CLT can begin to chart the paths of numerous, potentially rewarding and enlightening investigations which bring us to the rich discussions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Even an introduction to these materials will give the serious and humble investigator an appreciation of how the Church and its members have tackled the meaning of “the rule of law” over time. But this can only be a beginning as I have learned through my experience of directing a seminar this past semester entitled “The Rule of Law and the Thought of John Paul II.” My students and I had barely made a scratch in the surface of the contributions to some of the issues of concern to CST/CLT study proffered by principally one pope of recent times.

Let me conclude these ruminations by thanking Rick for the questions he has posed. I think they will open many doors to fruitful study, discussion, and learning. Again, I hope that I have not intruded into a discussion properly belonging to those who attended the Fordham gathering.     RJA sj