Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Monday, July 28, 2008

A Christian establishment (?)

By Rob Vischer

In the current issue of America, I review Frank Lambert's Religion in American Politics: A Short History.  You need to be a subscriber to access the entire review, but here's an excerpt:

In the book’s introduction, Lambert explains that a primary argument of the book is “that religious coalitions seek by political means what the Constitution prohibits, namely, a national religious establishment, or, more specifically, a Christian establishment.”  He claims, in fact, that “[w]hatever the grievance, politically active religious groups are inspired by a particular vision of America as a Christian nation.”  These sweeping introductory assertions are belied by the history he so ably recounts.

For example, he explains that Christian groups pushed both sides of an intense debate over the decision to drop atomic bombs on civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Just after the bombs were dropped, 85 percent of Americans approved of the decision, but over the next two years that percentage dropped to a bare majority.  The debate, in Lambert’s recounting, “triggered a broader discussion of American morals and values.”  The question is, how exactly does a religious coalition formed to challenge (or affirm) the moral propriety of dropping the atomic bomb amount to the seeking of a “religious establishment?”  And on what basis can we conclude that participants in such a coalition are motivated by their belief that America is a “Christian nation?”

Of course there have been many Christians in American history who leap into the public square in order to reclaim our nation’s purportedly Christian heritage or to more closely align state power with Christian identity.  (Roy Moore, the Alabama judge who erected a Ten Commandments monument in the state courthouse, then defied a federal court order to remove it, comes immediately to mind.)  But to suggest that politically engaged Christians are, by definition, inspired by a vision of the “Christian nation” is silly.  Politically engaged Americans of all religious and ideological stripes are inspired by the worldviews that shape their moral convictions and commitments.  As a Christian, my criticism of the decision to drop the atomic bomb is inescapably shaped by the teachings of Christ.  But I do not offer my criticism in order to bring the nation under the authority of Christ’s teaching; I offer it because I want to contribute to the common good. 

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Humanae Vitae—the “untold story”

By Robert John Araujo, SJ

I begin by thanking Michael P. and Rick for their respective contributions to the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, which was celebrated this past Friday, the Feast of St. James the Apostle.

            While the Tablet essay brought to our attention by Michael and Rick is filled with interesting data, I hope my posting of today will respond to two items in the Tablet article’s commentary. The first is the measure of unfamiliarization the Tablet poll reports concerning the encyclical. Perhaps this posting may help some become more familiar with this important document’s substance. The second item concerns an interesting set of four points that the Tablet commentary provides. In rapid succession, the Tablet article notes that its investigation and poll reveal that “a large proportion of otherwise faithful Catholics are using a range of artificial contraception…” The phrase “otherwise faithful” is misleading because the Tablet piece then goes on to say that more than half cohabited with their prospective spouse before marriage; that there is a reluctance of “modern” Catholics to avail themselves of the sacrament of confession; and, that nearly seventy-five percent of Catholics believe that divorce is the solution to an unhappy marriage and that divorced Catholics should not be excluded from the Eucharist. It seems that the use of the phrase “otherwise faithful” needs to be reconsidered in light of these additional and problematic findings discovered and published by the Tablet. In short, the fidelity of many Catholics, according to the Tablet’s conclusion is shaky on several major grounds, not just one as the Tablet implies in its phrase “otherwise faithful.”

            I now return to the first item on which I shall focus: the lack of familiarization with the encyclical. I would like to address its contents in a brief synopsis. I begin by noting how often the Holy Father, Paul VI, mentions the word love (almost three dozen times, whereas the Tablet article mentions it only once) and his frequent use of this term in the context of the marital relationship between a husband and wife. Paul VI expressed at the outset of his encyclical his realization that the divided commission (of which a majority expressed some interest in altering the Church’s teachings on artificial contraception) presented certain views that “departed from the moral teaching on marriage proposed with constant firmness by the teaching authority of the Church.” [N.6] It would be useful to identify these moral teachings.

            Paul VI began his explication of them in his reminder that love, including conjugal love, has its “supreme origin” in God. Through spousal love, husband and wife become one heart and one soul, and this union enables them to strive for their human perfection. Paul’s words should not be unfamiliar to couples who have been married in a Catholic ceremony because they are reminded by the priest or deacon of their unity through the charge, “What God has joined, no one must divide.” This prescription is intensified by St. Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 19) that “a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become as one. Thus they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, let no man separate what God has joined.” Paul VI emphasized this by asserting that the love at the core of a marriage “is a very special form of personal friendship, in which husband and wife generously share everything, without undue reservations or selfish calculations.” [N.9] This point is deepened as the Pope further reflected that authentic marital love is the gift of one’s self to the other marriage partner: a gift that is mutually enriching.

            Paul VI continued by expressing the Church’s teachings that marital love supports responsible parenthood (and not the understanding given this vital phrase by Planned Parenthood) that expresses the unitive and procreative aspects of the sexual relationship of marriage. Marital love blossoms into another gift of self that leads to the gift of life and the posterity of the human race. That is why in the interrogation of the marriage ceremony they have been asked if they will “accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church.”

            The encyclical is a potent reminder that fidelity to what God asks of married couples cannot encompass the use of what is artificial and that would interfere with and frustrate God’s divine plan for man and woman who become one. In the aftermath of Griswold (1965) and Eisenstadt (1972) and Roe (1973) and the mentality they encouraged, Pope Paul’s encyclical offers much needed guidance to not only Catholic couples but “all people of good will” in addressing responsibly the expression of human sexuality and its fruition. [NN.13-16] Paul VI may have foreseen the expansion of Griswold by Eisenstadt when he warned that artificial birth control would tempt human weakness, especially of young people who are made all the more vulnerable by the culture of permissiveness, to violate God’s moral law and engage in “an evil thing.” [N.17] He prophetically acknowledged that the “responsible” use of artificial contraception leads to a circumstance in which the man and woman are no longer “one” but become the object of the other in self-seeking pleasure. The reverence and love due each begin to evaporate when one of the marriage partners becomes the instrument of enjoyment of the other. And with this, the love of which Paul VI spoke begins to disappear. The dignity due husband and wife, from one to the other, is forgotten.

            He concluded his encyclical by offering counsel tailored to men and women, married couples, doctors and healthcare professionals, priests, bishops, and moral theologians. But, regardless of one’s identity and position in this list, Paul VI expressed a common charge: a need to master one’s self. The physical instinct of the human person and free will is complemented by one’s reason and the ability to appreciate the role of ascetical practice. As he stated, this does not harm the love between the partners of the marriage but “confers on it a higher human value.” [N.21] He continue by stating,

Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary effect of enabling husband and wife to develop to their personalities and to be enriched with spiritual blessings. For it brings to family life abundant fruits of tranquility and peace. It helps in solving difficulties of other kinds. It fosters in husband and wife thoughtfulness and loving consideration for one another. It helps them to repel inordinate self-love, which is the opposite of charity. It arouses in them a consciousness of their responsibilities. And finally, it confers upon parents a deeper and more effective influence in the education of their children. As their children grow up, they develop a right sense of values and achieve a serene and harmonious use of their mental and physical powers. [N.21]

            Humanae Vitae is a relatively short text that merits careful study by all Catholics. It takes only a few moments to read. But its impact on one’s life can be enduring. I hope my few comments may serve as a catalyst to others to do what St. Augustine heard so long ago: “tolle legge”—take and read!

RJA sj

            

Humanae Vitae and the "Sensus Fidelium"

By Michael Perry

On the occasion of Rick's post, interested MOJ readers may want to read these two entries in the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (1995):  "sensus fidelium" (at pp. 1182-83); "reception of doctrine" (pp. 1081-82).  My hunch is that anyone familiar with the theological role of the sensus fidelium in the discernment and development of moral knowledge would be troubled, if not by the moral position decreed in Humanae Vitae, at least by the magisterium's decreeing, in HV, that that position is "the" position of the Roman Catholic Church.  It has always seemed to me that it is way over the top, even for one who accepts the position decreed in HV, to think that faithful Catholics cannot reasonably reject the position decreed in HV.  And if faithful Catholics can reasonably reject the position, was it right for Paul VI to issue HV?

Humanae vitae at 40

By Rick Garnett

As the piece in The Tablet, to which Michael linked the other day, suggests, it appears that most "practising Catholics" "ignore" the Church's longstanding teaching on contraception and think that it should be "revised."  (In my own experience, it is not always entirely clear that Catholics who "ignore" the teaching have ever been challenged, encouraged, and helped to embrace it, but let's put that aside for a minute.)

As Jody Bottum discusses, here, it also appears that Pope Paul VI's predictions, regarding the social and cultural effects of the widespread practice of contraception, and the views, premises, and attitudes that would accompany this practice, have proved prescient.  Todd Zywicki considers these predictions, at the libertarianish Volokh Conspiracy, here.

So . . . what?  Should it matter -- and if so, how -- that most Catholics are not willing to act in accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church on this matter?  (Most of us fail to live in accord with teachings like "love thy neighbor", after all, but I don't think revision is in the offing.)  Should it matter -- and if so, how -- that the universal given-ness of contraception in our society has, arguably, had some negative social effects?

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Who are the Real Criminals Here?

By Michael Perry

New York Times, July 27, 2008

After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries, by JULIA PRESTON

POSTVILLE, Iowa — When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13.

Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.

One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. “I was very sad,” he said, “and I felt like I was a slave.”

At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest Kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.

But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.

Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Under-age workers said their bosses knew how young they were.

Because of the dangers of the work, it is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ anyone under 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant.

In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18, and would fire any under-age worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.

To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general’s office, officials for the three agencies said.

Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration lawyer in private practice in Des Moines, is representing many of the young workers. She said she had so far identified 27 workers under 18 who were employed in the packing areas of the plant, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, including some who were not arrested in the raid.

“Some of these boys don’t even shave,” Ms. Parras Konrad said. “They’re goofy. They’re teenagers.”

At a meeting here Saturday, three members of the House Hispanic Caucus — including its chairman, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois — heard seven immigrant minors describe working in the Agriprocessors plant.

Iowa labor officials said they rarely encounter child labor cases even though the state has many meatpacking plants.

“We don’t normally have many under-age folks working in our state,” said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a lawyer for the state labor department, who said she could not comment specifically on the Agriprocessors investigation.

Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.

Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence.

While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant. The immigrant saw “a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees.” Jewish managers oversee the slaughtering and processing of meat at Agriprocessors to ensure kosher standards.

In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. “The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it,” the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause “serious injuries.”

So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.

A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said the company could not comment on an active investigation.

[Read the rest, here.]

Keep your test tubes off Chopin's heart!

By Elizabeth Schiltz

The Polack in me finds this act of resistance to the imperative of modern science rather touching.  Sometimes, "because we can" or "because we're curious" isn't a good enough reason to do something.

WARSAW, Poland - Like a religious relic, the heart of composer Frederic Chopin rests in a Warsaw church, untouched since it was preserved in alcohol after his death in 1849 at age 39. And that's how the Polish government wants to keep it.

Scientists want to remove the heart for DNA tests to see if Chopin actually died from cystic fibrosis and not tuberculosis as his death certificate stated. But the government says that's not a good reason to disturb the remains of a revered native son.

The heart lies in a jar sealed inside a pillar at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church — and the only time it has been removed was for safekeeping during World War II.

Before it was returned in 1951, a doctor examined the heart and found it perfectly preserved in an alcohol that many think is cognac. Chopin died in France, where his body is buried, but he asked that his heart be sent to his homeland.

. . .

A spokeswoman for the Culture Ministry, Iwona Radziszewska, told The Associated Press on Thursday that ministry officials consulted experts and decided that "this was neither the time to give approval, nor was it justified by the potential knowledge to be gained."

One of the experts consulted . . . said the "dominant view" of Chopin experts "is that the proposed research is going to serve first and foremost to satisfy the curiosity of the project's authors," while offering no "new knowledge that would have a meaningful impact on the assessment of the figure and work of Chopin."

Friday, July 25, 2008

What Do Catholics Believe?

By Michael Perry

The Tablet

Feature Article, 26 July 2008

Sex and the modern Catholic
Tablet Special: Humanae Vitae 40 years on

Publication of Humanae Vitae 40 years ago was a seismic moment in the history of the Catholic Church. Today most practising Catholics ignore its teaching on birth control and more than half think it should be revised. This is the central finding of a major survey commissioned by The Tablet

By the time the contraceptive pill came on the market in 1962, Catholic couples had begun to wonder if it was the answer to their prayers: a reliable and convenient method of birth control they could use with the Church's blessing. The hopes of a great many Catholics were dashed with the publication of Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae on 29 July 1968 which forbad the use of all artificial forms of contraception including the Pill.

Exactly 40 years later, a major study conducted by The Tablet has found that its teaching is ignored by the great majority of Mass-going Catholics. This is one of the main findings contained in part two of our survey of 1,500 Catholics from parishes across England and Wales. Although almost half have never heard of Humanae Vitae, a large majority is aware of the Church's ban on artificial birth control and more than half believe it should be revised.

Part two of the survey asks a broad range of questions surrounding sex, relationships and contraception and the Church's teaching. It has found that a large proportion of otherwise faithful Catholics are using a range of artificial contraceptives, especially condoms and the contraceptive pill. More than half the adults aged 18 to 45 lived with their partner before getting married and a majority would not consider discussing their family's size and contraception with their priest. The latter point may well be related to modern Catholics' reluctance to go to confession, as confirmed in part one of our survey.

Though the study reveals overwhelming support for marriage as a life-long commitment, nearly three-quarters of Catholics believe separation or divorce is better than an unhappy marriage and a similar number feel divorced people who remarry should not be excluded from Holy Communion. The findings of part two of our survey are set out below.

[Read the rest, here.]

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Wisdom from the New Jesuit Superior General

By Russell Powell

As many of our readers know, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, a Spanish priest who has served in East Asia for much of his adut life, was chosen as the new Superior General for the Society of Jesus.  At the end of the gathering of Jesuits in Rome for the 35th General Congregation, which has generated a number of important documents regarding Jesuit mission, Fr. Nicolas gave an inspiring homily aimed at Jesuits but with relevance for those of us committed to mission in our schools.

If we do not love, we really do not have anything to say. Here we discover, I think, the root and source of our identity and our mission. Here is our raison d’être. Why do we want to love the poor, to help the lonely, to console the sad, to heal the sick and to bring freedom to the oppressed? Simply because this is what God does. Nothing else. As the Holy Father told us, love for the poor does not have an ideological but a Christological basis. It is the very essence of Christ.

For the full text see here

"Will pro-choicers respect conscientious choice?"

By Rick Garnett

From ZENIT:

The chairman of the U.S. bishops pro-life committee says an issue is being discussed by members of Congress that should be a matter of agreement between "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers": respect of conscience. . . .

Cardinal Rigali said the issue "should be a matter of agreement among members [of Congress] who call themselves 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice': the freedom of health care providers to serve the public without violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions on the sanctity of human life." . . .

The cardinal's final point called into question the logical soundness of abortion-supporters' arguments.

He explained that "efforts to protect rights of conscience are being attacked by critics as a threat to women’s 'access' to abortion arid birth control. This is an interesting charge. For many years, pro-abortion groups have insisted that abortion and related services are 'basic' and mandatory aspects of health care."

"They have opposed conscience clauses, dismissively calling them 'refusal clauses,' claiming that they protect an irrational 'refusal' by a tiny minority of religious zealots to comply with this supposedly objective medical standard," the cardinal continued. "Now they have reversed their stand, claiming that conscientious objection to these procedures is so pervasive in the health care professions that policies protecting conscience rights will eliminate access to them."

"Obviously these two claims cancel each other out," Cardinal Rigali affirmed. . ..

Hentoff on Sarah Palin's pro-life witness

By Rick Garnett

Nat Hentoff, as MOJ readers probably know, is a very interesting commentator.  How many civil-libertarian, atheist, pro-life columnists are out there these days, after all?  Anyway, here is a piece he did on Sarah Palin, the governor of my original home state of Alaska.  A bit:

Last December, this mother of four children, Mrs. Palin, four months' pregnant, found she was going to have a child with Down syndrome — a condition characterized by moderate-to-severe mental retardation. A school friend of one of my sons had Down syndrome; I have also known functioning adults with the extra chromosomes of that syndrome.

However, as a longtime reporter on disability rights, I have discovered that many fetuses so diagnosed have been aborted by parents who have been advised by their doctors to end the pregnancies because of the future "imperfect quality of life" of such children.

Mrs. Palin's first reaction to the diagnosis was to research the facts about the condition, since, as she said, "I've never had problems with my other pregnancies." As a result, she and her husband, Todd, never had any doubt they would have the child.

"We've both been very vocal about being pro-life," she told the Associated Press. "We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential." In an age when DNA and other genetic-selection tests increasingly determine who is "fit" to join us human beings, we are witnessing the debate between sanctity of life vs. quality of life being more often decided in favor of death. This is a result welcomed by internationally-influential bioethicist Peter Singer. He is now a celebrated Princeton University professor, who, in July 1983, wrote in Pediatrics, the official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics: "If we compare a severely defective human infant with a nonhuman animal, a dog or pig, for example, we will often find the nonhuman to have superior capacities, both actual and potential, for rationality, self-consciousness, communication, and anything else that can plausibly be considered morally significant." And there are bioethicists who point to the continuing costs of rearing a "defective infant."

By inspirational contrast, Mrs. Palin, says of her new son, Trig: "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection. Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"

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