Mirror of Justice

The Holy Father has returned safely home from his apostolic and diplomatic voyage to Lebanon. Deo gratias for his safe travel and ditto for the people of Lebanon. I think that this voyage, while not as widely reported by some elements of the press as other apostolic journeys, is significant on many fronts. But I think that it has particular relevance to those of us who are interested in developing and teaching Catholic legal theory and who are also interested in applying this theory to the intelligible world we encounter in our various labors.

Of the several speeches and homilies delivered during this trip, the pope’s September 15 address during the meeting with the members of government, other institutions, the diplomatic corps, religious leaders, and representatives of what was termed as “the world of culture,” has some particular challenges for us of the Mirror of Justice community. This address is here.

While many of the points Pope Benedict presented and developed merit commentary, several are of particular importance to those of us who are teachers. A remarkable point advanced by the pope—one not often heard in the halls of the academy these days—is that the goal of education is “to guide and support the development of freedom to make right decisions, which may run counter to widespread opinions, the fashions of the moment, or forms of political and religious ideology.” There are two elements of this statement upon which I focus some brief commentary.

The first is the component dealing with freedom; the second is that which deals with making right decisions or choices.

The academy of the present age often regards itself as the place where freedom is essential to the educational process. In this context, we don’t have to think too long about the cries made by some faculty and administrators for preserving academic freedom. Academic freedom is an important right, but it also bears with it responsibility. Moreover, as I have rhetorically asked earlier on these pages, does this right advanced by some of its most vocal proponents typically mean something like, “freedom for me, but not for thee!” In one sense, I am sure that the pope’s plea for freedom would be agreeable to most people who have something to do with education. But Benedict adds something to the form of academic freedom he proposes, namely: the freedom to make right decisions. His elaboration of freedom in education dealing with fads, fancies, and ideologies suggest that the Holy Father knows that there are freedom claims made that do not consider or avoid the need to take stock of not just choices willed by the individual but right choices.

And what might these be?

This is where another element of his address comes into play. Today many people dismiss the existence of evil. Oh, they will concede that people can be evil, but the notion that there is something called evil which is independent of the human person is not only alien to their way of thinking but nonsensical as well. There are even voices within the Church which dismiss the idea of evil in subtle fashion by questioning the conception of intrinsic evil. For them there are wrongs, but nothing itself is intrinsically evil. That is why Pope Benedict was clear by juxtaposing the presence of evil and the existence of the devil finds. It is this duality that ingratiates itself into the freedom of every person. Once the introduction of the duality takes place but the person sees no apparent threat to its entrance into his or her life, the doors are open for evil to complete its task. As Benedict suggests, this evil does not want to be the enemy of the human person; rather, it “seeks an ally in man.” And this is what leads any person anywhere to sin. He or she freely chooses this suspect ally as an option that becomes misguided, inauthentic freedom. This is why the pope presents an alternative way of exercising freedom: by knowing right from wrong, good from bad, evil from the moral, the human person has the potential to address evil not with more evil but with good, and he draws our attention to St. Paul’s letter to the Romans for our prayerful consideration (“do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” Romans 12:21).

One further consideration for teachers—and for anyone, for that matter—which emerges from Pope Benedict’s Lebanon exhortation is akin to the line often attributed to Edmund Burke: “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In parallel fashion, Benedict said this: “The failure of upright men and women to act must not permit evil to triumph. It is worse still to do nothing.”

So, as we plan more lessons, prepare more lectures, draft more articles, and post more weblog entries, might we consider as a non-negotiable element of our task to educate for the purpose of forming a human freedom that is directed to making right decisions for all, for the common good, for God’s people? With this notion in mind, the evil that surely exists in our world might have fewer allies and more adversaries.

RJA sj