What Mirror of Justice Is Not

   

It’s good to hear the news (reported by Rick here) that MOJ continues to grow in popularity.  In doing so it’s also good to recall (as participants have done from time to time) what Mirror of Justice is all about.  In his inaugural post (which Rick reposted here) Mark Sargent explained that the purpose of MOJ was to ask whether engagement with

Catholic moral theology, Catholic social thought and the Catholic natural law tradition [can] offer insights that are both critical and constructive, and which can contribute to the dialogue within both the legal academy and the broader polity? In particular, we ask whether the profoundly counter-cultural elements in Catholicism offer a basis for rethinking the nature of law in our society.

He noted that MOJ would include “a broad spectrum of Catholic opinion, ranging from the ‘conservative’ to the ‘liberal’, to the extent that those terms make sense in the Catholic context.”  Even across this spectrum, however, the term “Catholic” must refer to something affirmative, essential, and undeniable, otherwise the term would not be a meaningful descriptive.  It would be equivalent to the appearance of a variable “X” in an equation where the person employing the equation is free to give “X” any value, any meaning he or she wishes.  “Fill in the blank.”

In seeking to clarify the identity of the MOJ project (or any project) it is often helpful to consider what it is not. 

What MOJ is not about is superficial references to Catholic identity.  What it is not about is a kind of tribal affiliation with the Church.  What MOJ is not about is avoiding answering difficult questions about law in which one’s political commitments are challenged in light of what the faith teaches and science makes clear.  What it is not about is a reference to one’s experience of being a Catholic mother to legitimate one’s support for the right to kill an unborn child as “sacred ground.”

What MOJ is not about is the kind of trivial, self-serving and shameful reference to Catholic identity offered by Nancy Pelosi yesterday.