About that "depressing map showing income drop under Bush" (here): A MOJ-reader has called this critical comment to my attention. I also noticed this column by David Brooks in yesterday's Times: "The Populist Myths on Income Inequality" (here).
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Friday, September 8, 2006
The Income Drop Revisited
There are Catholics--And, Then, There Are Catholics ...
MOJ-readers may be interested in this piece by Julie Byrne, who is the Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman Professor of Catholic Studies at Hofstra University.
Sightings 9/7/06
The Pittsburgh Twelve and Catholic "Fringes"
-- Julie Byrne
-- Julie Byrne
In July, aboard a boat sailing Pittsburgh's Monongahela
River, three female bishops ordained twelve women to the priesthood and
diaconate. The bishops traveled from Germany as part of Roman Catholic
Womenpriests, a group that advocates lifting the Roman ban on women's
ordination. The candidates gathered from all parts of the U.S., saying
that being among the "Pittsburgh Twelve" -- their nickname echoing the similarly
ordained "Danube Seven" of 2002 -- meant fulfilling their true vocations to God
and church.
But the candidates had no illusions about what reaction would follow. After the ceremony, Roman Catholic officials said that the ordinations were not recognized, and, moreover, that in taking a public position against church teaching, the Pittsburgh Twelve had effectively excommunicated themselves.
The immediate context of the story was well addressed by the media. Since Vatican II, wrote Michelle Boorstein, "many people who have watched the debate about women's roles in the Catholic church say the Pittsburgh ceremony is part -- albeit on the fringe -- of an unsquelchable movement for women's equality in leadership" (Washington Post, July 30).
The wider historical scope of groups like Roman Catholic Womenpriests, however, remains unmentioned. Long before Vatican II, hundreds of small Catholic groups courted excommunication from Roman Catholicism in order to follow what they believed to be true Catholicism. Always they sought valid ordination of their own priests and bishops; always they said it was possible to be Catholic apart from Rome. If the Pittsburgh Twelve are the "fringe," this fringe has more of a history than we thought.
Traditionalist groups on the right -- such as the small breakaway church attended by Mel Gibson -- are only part of the story. The "independent Catholic movement" -- a tag used by American participants for their moderate-to-left groups -- dates to eighteenth-century disputes with Rome in the Dutch See of Utrecht. The Utrecht version of Catholicism, or "Old Catholicism," spread after Vatican I, arrived in the U.S. at the turn of the century, revived after Vatican II, and morphed into the independent Catholic movement of today.
Independent Catholicism in the U.S. currently includes at least 150 jurisdictions, most with somewhere between one and five churches. But they vary widely, ranging from the large, historic Liberal Catholic Church International, to the smaller, well-organized Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch, to formerly Roman Catholic congregations like Spiritus Christi (Rochester, N.Y.) and the Imani Temple (Washington, D.C.). Many, including all of the above, ordain women. Independent Catholics add at least 100,000 members to traditionalist Catholicism's approximately 100,000 in the U.S. Additionally, the Polish National Catholic Church, whose bishops were originally consecrated by Old Catholic bishops, serves another 30,000 Catholics not in communion with Rome.
This history puts groups like Roman Catholic Womenpriests in a tiny but enduring tradition of Catholicism outside Rome that is much broader than advocacy of women's ordination. Scholars and journalists have overlooked these groups, however, for reasons that are not particularly compelling.
First, the numbers are small, and second, the history is chaotic. True enough. But fascinating stories can rise above shrimpiness and jumble: the harbouring of hundreds of former Roman Catholics, including priests and nuns; the trajectory of the Church of St. John Coltrane, now part of the independent African Orthodox Church; the stint of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor as an independent Catholic priest; and the defection of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo just weeks before the Pittsburgh ordinations. Milingo, a Zambian in good episcopal standing, announced he would join the Imani Temple, which, after his own heart, makes alliance with Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church and permits clerical marriage. Milingo has said he will live in Washington with his wife, whom he married in a Moon-officiated wedding in 2001, and continue his healing and exorcism ministries.
The third reason follows from frequent reactions to the Milingo story: independent Catholicism is full of crazy people and crazy scenarios. But this reason does not hold water. What religious group is not full of craziness? Not to mention that one person's craziness is another person's Š faith. Enough said.
The fourth reason why Catholics outside Roman
jurisdiction go unnoticed is that most of us -- scholars, reporters, and general
public alike -- have gotten used to assuming that Catholic means Roman
Catholic. This is understandable, since Roman Catholicism dwarfs all other
kinds. But it is inaccurate, even for practicing Roman Catholics, whose
communion includes over twenty non-Roman Catholic churches, such as the
Maronite, Coptic Catholic, and Melkite Greek Catholic
churches.
Meanwhile, if we remember that "Catholic" is a name
hotly contested among Roman, traditionalist, and independent Catholics; critical
for other Catholic churches in communion with Rome; essential for
Anglo-Catholics and Continuing Anglicans; and even increasingly self-identifying
for a variety of Protestants, our accounts of Catholicism will start to reveal
the broad -- if not quite universal -- appeal that its many
manifestations have generated for centuries.
[Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the
University of Chicago Divinity School.]
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Thursday, September 7, 2006
Abortion and Slavery
In response to Michael S.'s question, I don't mean that the comparison is extreme in the sense that it is outside the mainstream of political discourse, since I take it that it is the view of a fairly large number of people. Nor do I mean it is extreme if one accepts the view of abortion as morally the same as murder or infanticide. I suppose I view it as extreme because it is intended to rule out as unreasonable any discussion of possibility that the legality of abortion might be tolerable on prudential grounds. I take it as a given that no one within the political mainstream would entertain the same with respect to slavery. In fact, I think most people would say that any system that recognized legal slavery would be unworthy of obedience and would justify active (even violent) resistance on a broad range of fronts. Accordingly, the comparison of abortion to slavery seems to me to be extreme in its implications and, consequently, to open those who espouse it to Rauch's criticism that they do not seem willing to follow their own principles to their logical conclusions, just as does the comparison of abortion to murder. I guess I take issue with (and would characterize as "extreme") modes of argument about abortion that trade, implicitly or explicitly, on the plausibility given to them by a comparison with murder when almost none of the people making these arguments actually behave as if abortion were really "murder" in any sense in which that word is normally used.
The character of a Catholic university
From Archbishop Wuerl's homily at the Mass of Holy Spirit that he celebrated to mark the beginning of the academic year at The Catholic University of America:
....
Just as we are nurtured and grow within the confines of our natural family, so do we develop and mature within the embrace of our spiritual family, the Church.
This university opens its doors and arms to everyone. No student who enters this campus is asked to leave his or her faith at the entrance. But as an institution, the university invites all to recognize that the values which guide this university, and life on its campus, are manifestations of the faith of a larger spiritual family — the Church.
This academic learning community, of which you are now a part, is an expression of that communion or community of faith and spiritual conviction.
We should not be surprised if life on this campus is different than what we would experience on some other university and college campuses. By definition, The Catholic University of America family is committed to the exploration of human intellectual advancement precisely out of a lived tradition rooted in the word of God — the wisdom of God. Thus as a university family, we are committed to values and the recognition of the place of virtue in our lives as we develop and face the challenge of personal individual choices and decisions.
By its very definition, the Church will always be countercultural. The beginnings of the kingdom of God breaking into this world will necessarily be in contrast with the wisdom and values of the world. What the living tradition, on which this university stands, brings to our modern world is the wisdom that helps us answer the questions not only what can I do and how can I do it, but what should I do and what ought I do.
At the same time, we are invited into one of the great, if not greatest, human adventures — the changing of the world into a better place that is truly reflective of what the Scriptures call the kingdom of God — a realm of justice, peace, truth, compassion and love.
The Church and her educational institutions have the task of transforming human culture and bringing to fulfillment all of the created goodness that seeks fullness in Christ. The transformation of the temporal order will always be the mission of the Church and its manifold institutional expressions.
Canon of CLT Examples
As a neophyte to the CLT project, I have more than a casual interest in responses to Rob's question about a "CLT Research Canon." (Indeed, if all goes well, I hope to spend a considerable part of my first sabbbatical next year working my way through such a canon.) I suspect, however, that I might not be the only MOJ reader who found Bob Araujo's list a bit intimidating, especially since it was presented as merely the "starter" list. I think the only way I could find the courage to persist with this endeavor in the face of a list like that, given the other responsibilities I have in life, is to view it as aspirational, rather than the starting point for the study of CLT.
While certainly not sufficient in itself, I think that for those of us just beginning the study of CLT Rob's idea of trying to come up with a list of examples of CLT would be particularly helpful. If we wanted to organize such a list around legal topics, it seems to me we'd have the perfect beginning of such a list in a trio of articles posted in the sidebar to this webpage:
Corporate Law
Stephen Bainbridge, "Catholic Social Thought and the Corporation"
Mark Sargent, "Competing Visions of the Corporation in Catholic Social Thought"
Susan Stabile, "A Catholic Vision of the Corporation"
Any other nominations for topics & articles?
Lisa
Professors Lawler and Salzman
I would like to thank Michael for his interesting post on the recent work of Professors Salzman and Lawler. In May of this year, Amy Welborn's blog had a posting on the same two authors' earlier and, I suspect, related essay that appeared previously in the Heythrop Journal. The Welborn posting and numerous comments she received are posted [Here] . RJA sj
Catholic Theologians, the Catholic Church, and Homosexual Sexual Intimacy
THEOLOGICAL STUDIES--widely regarded as one of the premier theological periodicals in the United States--is published on behalf of the Jesuits in North America. The editor, a Jesuit priest, is a member of the Department of Theology at Marquette University.
I want to call the attention of MOJ-readers to an article In the most recent issue--an article by two Catholic theologians: Todd A. Salzman, who is Chair of the Department of Theology at Creighton University, and Michael G. Lawler, Director of the Center for Marriage and Family Life at Creighton (and an emeritus professor in the theology department there). Salzman and Lawler are co-authors of the forthcoming volume, Committed Love: A Catholic Sexual Morality. The title and citation: "Catholic Sexual Ethics: Complementarity and the Truly Human," Theological Studies, 67 (2006), 625-52.
In their article, Salzman and Lawler explain why the Catholic Church's official position on the morality of homosexual sexual intimacy--the intimacy that Robby George dismissively calls "sodomy"--is deeply problematic.
In their conclusion, Salzman and Lawler write:
This disputatio is an inquiry into the nature of the truly human sexual act. We inquired, first, into the types of complementarity--heterogenital, reproductive, communion, affective, and parental--that the magisterium finds in a truly human sexual act and challenged the primacy granted to heterogenital complementarity as the sine qua non of such a truly human sexual act. We suggested that the scientific evidence for the genetic, physiological, psychological, and social loading that creates either hetersexual or homosexual orientation as a part of a person's sexual constitution requires the addition of orientation complementarity to the equation. This addition yielded our concklusion that an integrated orientation, personal, and biological complentarity is a more adequate sine qua non of truly human sexual acts. The truly human sexual act is doubly defined, therefore, as an act that is in accord with a person's sexual orientation and leads to the human flourishing of both partners. If accepted, that definition will lead to the abandonment of the absolute norm prohibiting homosexual acts for persons with a homosexual orientation. We repeat, the integration and expressionj of holistic complementarity, that is, the integration of orientation with personal and biological complementarity determines whether or not a sexual act is moral or immoral.
Interested readers may also want to consult this article by another Catholic theologian, Stephen J. Pope, of the Department of Theology at Boston College: "The Magisterium's Argument against 'Same-Sex' Marriages: An Ethical Analysis and Critique," Theological Studies, 65 (2004), 530-65.
But what about scripture? Those who wrote the Bible did not know that the earth revolves around the sun; they understandably presupposed with others of their time that the sun revolves around the earth. Nonetheless, we now know that their presupposition was mistaken. Similarly, those who wrote the Bible did not know what we are now learning about the determinants and character of homosexual orientation. Let me quote, as I did in an earlier post, Galileo:
The
reason produced for condemning the opinion that th earth moves and the
sun stands still is that in many places in the Bible one may read that
the sun moves and the earth stands still. Since the Bible cannot err,
it follows as a necessary consequence that anyone takes an erroneous
and heretical position who maintains that the sun is inherently
motionless and the earth movable.
With regard to this
argument, I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and
prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth--whenever
its true meaning is understood. But I believe that nobody will deny
that it is often very abstruse, and may say things which are quite
different from what its bare words signify. Hence if in expounding the
Bible one were always to confine oneself to the unadorned grammatical
meaning, one might fall into error. Not only contradictions and
propositions far from true might thus be made to appear in the Bible,
but even grave heresies and follies.
Schiavo and autonomy
My colleague, Carter Snead, has posted a new paper on SSRN that might be of interest. It's called "The (Surprising) Truth about Schiavo: A Defeat for the Cause of Autonomy." Here is the abstract:
A survey of the commentary following the conclusion of the Theresa Marie Schiavo matter leaves one with the impression that the case was a victory for the cause of autonomy and the right of self-determination in the end-of-life context. In this essay, I seek to challenge this thesis and demonstrate that, contrary to popular understanding, it is the defenders of autonomy and self-determination who should be most troubled by what transpired in the Schiavo case. In support of this claim, I will first set forth (in cursory fashion) the underlying aim of the defenders of autonomy in this context. Then, I will provide a brief sketch of how the law - both as enacted and interpreted - might ideally serve to promote and defend the goods of autonomy and self-determination. I will thus assess the process and outcome of the Schiavo case by carefully examining the positive law governing the case, as well as the specific evidence relied on by the Florida courts to assess Ms. Schiavo's actual wishes (the touchstone of autonomy). Moreover, I will contrast the manner in which the Florida courts evaluated this evidence with the seemingly consistent and uniform approach taken by courts from other jurisdictions. I will additionally explore the significance of the Florida courts' decision to focus the majority of their resources and time on inquiries not oriented towards Ms. Schiavo's actual wishes, but rather on matters relating to paternalistic considerations, such as her present and future quality of life. In light of the foregoing analysis, I conclude that the Schiavo matter cannot rightly be understood as a victory for self-governance at the end of life. To the contrary, it is instead a cautionary tale of what can happen when the legal preconditions for the exercise of autonomy are absent or ignored.
The paper appears, by the way, as part of a symposium in Constitutional Commentary, along with several other helpful essays.
Starting a bibliography
Rob has raised a number of interesting and good issues about a bibliography for CLT and an LL.M. in CLT. Here are some works that I would like to suggest as starters: Saint Augustine, The Confessions Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Law Ehler & Morall, Church and State through the Centuries: A Collection of Historical Documents with Commentaries Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, Fides et Ratio Leo XIII, Libertas, Immortale Dei, In Plurimus, Rerum Novarum (and many other encyclicals) Benedict XV, Pacem Dei Munus, Des le Debut (apostolic exhortation) Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, Mit Brennender Sorge, Non Abbiamo Bisongno Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, Pacem in Terris Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, Humanae Vitae, Octogesima Adveniens (apostolic letter) A Code of International Ethics John Eppstein, The Catholic Tradition of the Law of Nations (a critical anthology) James Brown Scott, The Spanish Origin of International Law Gerald Benkert, The Thomistic Conception of International Society Sylvester John Hemleben, Plans for World Peace through Six Centuries Francis Suarez, De Legibus ac de Deo Legislatore (James Brown Scott, editor, in Classics of International Law, Oxford U. Press) Johannes Messner, Social Ethics: Natural Law in the Modern World Harry Koenig, Principles for Peace: Selections from Papal Documents Leo XIII to Pius XII Calvez & Perrin, The Church and Social Justice: The Social Teachings of the Church from Leo XIII to Pius XII Heinrich Rommen, The State in Catholic Thought Heinrich Rommen, Natural Law John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights Christopher Dawson, many books and essays Fr. Yves de La Briere, many writings Luigi Taparelli d'Azeglio, Saggio Teoretico di Diritto Naturale Avery Dulles, A Testimonial to Grace Oswald von Nell-Breuning, Reorganization of Social Economy Robert P. George, Making Men Moral Russel Hittinger, The First Grace Michael Perry, Morality, Politics and Law
RJA sj
Abortion and Slavery
Eduardo, why is comparing "support for the continued legality of abortion with support for legal slavery" an "extreme position" as you suggest in your last post? It seems to me that the constitutionally sanctioned killing of innocent and helpless human beings is at least as extreme as the constitutionally sanctioned enslavement of human beings.
I look forward to your response. Thanks, Michael S.
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