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, April 25, 2005

A Student Responds to Reflections on Steinfels, John Paul the Great, and the JPII Generation

By Michael Scaperlanda

I want to share this email that I received in response to my posting on Steinfels and Catholic youth:

Dear Professor Scaperlanda,
Greetings from Washington, D.C.!
Thank you for posting your comments about the JP2-Generation. Your response to Peter Steinfel's article was greatly needed.
My name is John Paul Shimek. Currently, I am enrolled in the M.A./Ph.D. program in Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Previously, I have written for Catholic newspapers and on-line resources about the JP2-Generation. Lastly, I plan to enter the seminary in the fall - I made the decision on the day of the funeral of John Paul II. My older brother, a J.D. program graduate from Notre Dame, is a seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
At any rate, all of that is by means of an introduction. Here are some thoughts that I have on the issue at hand.
My brother tells me that the journalists in Rome are scrambling for young seminarians who do not support the Church's teaching on difficult moral matters (like contraception, homosexual unions, and the ordination of women to the priesthood -- which really isn't a moral issue, but I digress). Moreover, my brother tells me that one cannot find a young seminarian in the city of Rome that does not endorse the Church's positions. If you have ever visited a Roman seminary (like the Pontifical North American College), then you know that we are talking about large numbers of young men.
Also, I think that one has to look in the places where the new evangelization is being taken up with vigor in order to read more carefully the signs of the times. Here in Washington, we have numerous study groups on Pope John Paul II's Love and Responsibility and his Theology of the Body. Also, the new ecclesial and lay movements are attracting a great deal of attention. I regularly attend an Opus Dei evening of recollection where nearly thirty to fifty young people gather monthly for spiritual growth and direction. Additionally, I have friends in groups such as Communione e Liberazione (which are just as orthodox) whose numbers rival our own. To add to the foregoing, my university quickly fills classes on the thought of Pope John Paul II every time they are offered. In fact, I am currently taking one class on his philosophical anthropology that is offered to the graduate communities of CUA and the JP2 Institute. We are a standing-room-only bunch! Lastly, my generation is continuously bringing forth study circles, outreach programs, and student-led mini-think tanks (like New York's "World Youth Alliance") where we study the writings of Pope John Paul II and celebrate his life.
I should like to make one more point. There has been much talk made so far about the new pope's relationship with young people. While waiting for him to come to the central loggia of St. Peter's basilica on Tuesday, one of the news network's cameras got a shot of a sign that read, in Italian, "we already know that we love you." I think that says it all. I couldn't help but notice the large crowds of young people that filled St. Peter's square on the day of his installation. It was truly impressive to see young people waving flags and banners with great enthusiasm. My brother was at the mass and, afterward, he told me that so many young people -- both at his seminary and elsewhere -- are excited about this new pontificate. Young seminarians have begun to read his books -- I know of one seminarian who bought up six of them already, even though he has to plow through exams and papers before he can get to them.
It does seem to me, however, that one ingredient is key in all of this excitement. Wherever the bishops of the Church have tried to implement the pope's pastoral project, then the youth have responded. That was the case in Denver, Colorado and it is now the case in places like Milwaukee, Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Well, I realize that this is a very long (perhaps, long-winded) e-mail. But, here's the rub: the JP2-Generation is here and we are not afraid of the future! We are so in love with our great John Paul II and we are ready to embrace his successor. Naturally, those in our ranks do not include all of the young people of the Church or of the world. But, we are a growing bunch. Our enthusiasm, hope, and many prayers will very shortly outpower the spinmastery of the E.J. Diones and the Peter Steinfels of the world, you just wait.
Thank you for giving voice to us in your post on MOJ. I appreciated your comments very much.
All the best,
JP

Sunday, April 24, 2005

JPII and the future of the Church: Reflections on Steinfels' Essay

By Michael Scaperlanda

Responding to Michael P's post, "Recommended Reading:  Peter Steinfels," Jason Adkins blogging at the Seventh Age writes:  "The religiosity of Catholic youth in America is actually exploding, but I would wager in the 18-35 demographic, not the teenage demographic."  He isn't surprised by the lack of religiosity among those under 18 because they largely live a pampered life ("soft America") allowing them (for a time) to evade the great questions of purpose and meaning.  Once these questions come to the fore, JPII and the Church provide answers in a beautiful and inspiring way.

I'll throw in my two cents on the possible disconnect between JPII's youth appeal and the religiosity of young American Catholics.  My perception is that John Paul II inspired a core group of young Catholics who are now in love with Christ and His Church.  This core group of Catholics will evangalize their peers, and if not their peers, their peers' children (if they have any).  This core group will provide the priests and religious of the next generation.  The vast majority of this core will not enter into religious life, but they will have larger than average families.  In other words, it is way too earlier to taste-test the fruits of JPII's appeal to the youth.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Blog Fog bragging rights: philosophers win round one

By Michael Scaperlanda

Using words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and antidisestablishmentarianism, the philosophers at the Ethics and Culture blog have claimed "bragging rights," suggesting that their command of the written word and its use in elite circles (the world of blogging) far exceeds that of the lowly lawyers here at MOJ.  Here is John O'Callaghan's victory email:

Dear Michael,

In response to your question about how the Ethics and Culture blog fogs, on Gunning Fog we come out at 12.94 beating out your 12.22.  On Flesch-Kinkaid we come out at 9.22 to your 8.54.  On the Readability scale we land solidly at 62.74 to your fairly unreadable 57.11, recalling that one is to aim for a score between 60 and 70.  I suspect, however, that none of the scales take account of our use of Latin, as they simply seem to count syllables.  Shouldn’t our use of Latin on the one hand decrease our readability, and yet increase even further the gap between us and MOJ for level of education necessary to read and understand the page?  ;-)

Yours, John

As the spring semester winds down, its time for a little jocularity!

Friday, April 22, 2005

Shakespeare, Nietzxche, and the Fog Index

By Michael Scaperlanda

Our friend, Notre Dame philosophy professor, John O'Callaghan, writes:

"I am having too much fun avoiding work by playing with that readability page that you linked to.  The contributors to the MOJ ought to pride themselves on the fact that Act 3, scene 1 of Hamlet, which contains the “To be or not to be” soliloquy comes out on the Gunning-Fog grade index at a fifth grade level, while on the Flesch-Kinkaid grade index it comes out at a second grade level.  And on the Flesch reading ease scale, it comes out rather highly, scoring well above 70 at nearly 90; but if good writers are supposed to aim on that scale for a score between 60 and 70, I suppose we would have to grade old Shakespeare as a pretty simplistic writer.  Thus the second graders can probably understand it, though they will find it perhaps a little too boring for their tastes.  The first part of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, “On the Prejudices of the Philosophers,” on the other hand, puts all of you to shame as on the Gunning-Fog it comes out as about senior year in college, while on the Flesch-Kinkaid it comes out as senior year in high school.  And on the readability scale it comes out at about 50, which tracks pretty well with my experience of trying to teach it.  Seniors can understand it, though they find it pretty dense.  More proof that good education should start kids on Shakespeare sometime before the age of 10, and wait until college to give them Nietzsche."

I wonder how his blog rates on these indices?

The Church, Condoms, and Aids: a Continuing Conversation

By Michael Scaperlanda

I am in need of some help from my fellow bloggers and readers on thinking through the issue raised by Michael P. on the Church, Condoms, and Aids.

I would break down the question in two ways - first, is the condom use taking place within marriage or outside of marriage, and second, is the question one of morality or prudential judgment.

Situation 1.  If one spouse is infected with HIV/AIDS, couldn't a condom be used for the purpose of protecting against the transmission of the disease (HIV/AIDS) as long as the married couple is not using the condom for the purpose of treating the possibility of the creation of new life as a disease?

Situation 2. When the sexual act occurs outside of marriage (especially where there is no intimacy such as in a case where a women exchanges the use of her body for money), the unitive aspect of the coupling is absent.  In these situations, the degradation of self - the giving of a body as an object for the pleasure of another - has already taken place.  Does it add anything to the degradation to use a condom for protection against a) the disease of HIV/AIDS or b) the procreative aspects of sexual union, since the unitive and procreative are inherently conjoined? (As an aside, I should make clear that I am not making a subjective moral judgment about desperate women in desperate situations but stating an objective fact about the degradation of self, a fact that I am sure many of these women understand all too well). 

If my analysis is correct, then condom use would be morally permissible in Situation 1 because it is not meant to inhibit the pro-creative possibilities of the union but only the anti-creative nature of the disease.  And, in Situation 2, the use of a condom is no less morally impermissible than sex act itself because engaging in sex outside the marital union destroys the procreative as well as the unitive purposes of sex.

Addressing situation 2, it seems to me that the Church is right to teach abstinence - that the sexual union ought to take place within marriage.  Since this is the Truth revealed in our Tradition, what else can it teach?  But, given the real world reality of non-marital sex with grave consequences, could the Church, consistent with its theology, support (or at least not condemn) condom use in these situations.  Here, given my analysis above, the answer is yes. 

If my analysis is correct so far (and I stand ready to be corrected), then the question becomes a prudential question.  And, here it becomes less about sex and more about how do you help someone engaged in destructive behavior.  The question is akin to how to deal with drug addicts and the dangers (including the danger of transmitting HIV/AIDS) of using unclean needles.  Is it prudent to supply (or promote -or at least condone- the supplying) of clean needles to drug addicts?  Isn't that the real issue here?

I look forward to hearing from others.

Michael S.

Fog This

By Michael Scaperlanda

Each MOJ author can test for themselves whether they are using too many or too few (see Rob's post for MOJ's overall score) big words by going to this website and entering the URL for their personal MOJ category.  This could be a good distraction when grading time comes around in a couple of weeks (although I must fess up - I have already checked my Fog Index score).

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Light in a New Dark Age: Weigel on Benedict XVI

By Michael Scaperlanda

George Weigel in today's Wall Street Journal:

"St. Benedict was born in 480, in a small Umbrian village. In 529, as a monastic town was being built for Benedict and his monks on the brow of Monte Cassino, Plato's Academy closed in Athens. The timing nicely illustrated a conviction of the late John Paul II: "In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences." As a great embodiment of classical culture shut its doors, the "academy of Christianity," as the new pope once called it, was being established.

And a good thing, too. The Roman empire was in rapid decline, beset by wars, economic dislocation, and social disorder. The civilizational achievement represented by Plato's Academy could have been lost; classical culture might have gone the way of the Mayans. That it didn't had a lot to do with Benedict. His monks not only preserved crucial elements of the civilization of Athens and Rome during the Dark Ages; they transformed that civilization by infusing a biblical understanding of the human -- person, community, origins and destiny -- into the classical culture they preserved for future generations in their scriptoria and libraries.

The result of that fusion of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome was what we know as "Europe," or, more broadly, "the West." It was a colossal, indeed world-historical achievement. And the achievement was entirely consistent with what Pope Benedict XVI remembered in a recent interview as "a Benedictine motto: Succisa virescit -- pruned, it grows again." Thanks to St. Benedict and Western monasticism, the demise of classical civilization was the occasion for a new beginning -- and, eventually, a nobler civilizational accomplishment.

***

He once called himself a "donkey," a "draft animal" who had been called to a work not of his choosing. Yet when Joseph Ratzinger stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter's to begin a work he never sought, I couldn't help think of the conclusion of Alasdair MacIntyre's penetrating study of the moral confusions of the West, "After Virtue." In a time when willfulness and relativism had led to a frigid and joyless cultural climate, MacIntyre wrote, the world was not waiting for Godot, "but for another -- doubtless very different -- St. Benedict." The world now has a new Benedict. We can be sure that he will challenge us all to the noble human adventure that has no better name than sanctity."

For the full essay, click here.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Michael Novak on Benedict XVI

By Michael Scaperlanda

For the full version of Michael Novak's article "Culture in Crisis," which appeared this morning (pre-election of Ratzinger) in National Review online, click here.

"What Ratzinger defends is not dogmatism against relativism. What he defends is not absolutism against relativism. These are false alternatives.

What Ratzinger attacks as relativism is the regulative principle that all thought is and must remain subjective. What he defends against such relativism is the contrary regulative principle, namely, that each human subject must continue to inquire incessantly, and to bow to the evidence of fact and reason.

The fact that we each see things differently does not imply that there is no truth. It implies, rather, that each of us may have a portion of the truth, and that in this or that matter some of us may hold more (or less) truth than others. Therefore, since each of us has only part of all the truth we seek, we must work hard together to discern in all things wherein lies the truth, and wherein the error.

Ratzinger wishes to defend the imperative of seeking the truth in all things, the imperative to follow the evidence. This imperative applies to daily life, to science, and to faith. The great Jewish and Christian name for God is connected to this imperative — one of the Creator’s names is Truth. Other related names are Light, and Way. Humans are made seekers after truth. …

But the fact of human “relativity” — that is, the fact that we each see things differently, or that the life-voyage of each of us is unique and inimitable — should not be transformed into an absolute moral principle. The fact of relativity does not logically lead to the principle of moral relativism.

No great, inspiring culture of the future can be built upon the moral principle of relativism. For at its bottom such a culture holds that nothing is better than anything else, and that all things are in themselves equally meaningless. Except for the fragments of faith (in progress, in compassion, in conscience, in hope) to which it still clings, illegitimately, such a culture teaches every one of its children that life is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

The culture of relativism invites its own destruction, both by its own internal incoherence and by its defenselessness against cultures of faith.

This is the bleak fate that Cardinal Ratzinger already sees looming before

Europe

. His fear is that this sickness of the soul will spread.

For Cardinal Ratzinger, moreover, it is not reason that offers a foundation for faith, but the opposite. Historically, it is Jewish and Christian faith in an intelligent and benevolent Creator that gave birth in the West to trust in reason, humanism, science, and progress, and carried the West far beyond the fatalistic limits of ancient

Greece

and

Rome

.

To the meaninglessness of relativism, Ratzinger counter poses respect for the distinctive, incommensurable image of God in every single human being, from the most helpless to the seemingly most powerful, together with a sense of our solidarity with one another in the bosom of our Creator. This fundamental vision of the immortal value both of the individual person and the whole human community in solidarity has been the motor-power, the spiritual dynamic overdrive, of an increasingly global (catholic) civilization.

That, at least, is the way he sees it. He is willing to argue out his case with all comers."

A Call To Justice, Homily by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

By Michael Scaperlanda

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was the principal celebrant and homilist at a mass celebrated March 18 for the participants of a conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace entitled "A Call to Justice" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Gaudium et Spes.  In the homily, he said:

"As Christians we must constantly be reminded that the call of justice is not something which can be reduced to the categories of this world. And this is the beauty of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, evident in the very structure of the Council's text; only when we Christians grasp our vocation, as having been created in the image of God and believing that "the form of this world is passing away...[and] that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth, in which justice dwells (GS n. 39)" can we address the urgent social problems of our time from a truly Christian perspective. "Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectation of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, prefiguring in some way the world that is to come" (GS n. 39).

And so, to be workers of this true justice, we must be workers who are being made just, by contact with Him who is justice itself: Jesus of Nazareth. The place of this encounter is the Church, nowhere more powerfully present than in her sacraments and liturgy. The celebration of the Holy Triduum, which we will enter into next week, is the triumph of God's justice over human judgments. In the mystery of Good Friday, God is judged by man and condemned by human justice. In the Easter Vigil, the light of God's justice banishes the darkness of sin and death; the stone at the tomb (made of the same material as the stones in the hands of those who, in today's Gospel, seek to kill Christ) is pushed away forever, and human life is given a future, which, in going beyond the categories of this world, reveals the true meaning and the true value of earthly realities.

And we who have been baptized, as children of a world which is still to come, in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, catch a glimpse of that world, and breathe the atmosphere of that world, where God's justice will dwell forever. And then, renewed and transformed by the Mysteries we celebrate, we can walk in this world justly, living - as the Preface for Lent says so beautifully - "in this passing world with our heart set on the world that will never end" (Preface for Lent II)."

If you would like the full text, email me.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Scap's Reflections on John Paul the Great

By Michael Scaperlanda

As I walked to psychology class in the fall of my freshmen year in college, one of my classmates approached and asked if I had heard about the death of the Pope.  I wondered where this person had been during the past month or so as I patiently explained that it had been over a month since the new Pope, John Paul I, had been elected.  My classmate, of course, was correct…

In CCD my senior year of high school (just months before JPII’s election), we were exploring the topic of Jesus the political revolutionary, as we contrasted his approach to revolution with the approach taken by the Zealots.  My freshmen year of college, I took two courses for credit at our

Catholic

Newman

Center

.  The first course was on morality and one of our texts (the primary text, I believe), which I just pulled off my shelf, is titled “The Morals Game” and is a text devoted to “values clarification.”   The preface to this book put out by Paulist Press says that “abortion and euthanasia, quality of life v. quantity of life [notice no discussion of sanctity of life]” … “are the issues that make the headlines, because it is by these decisions that people stand or fall and games are won or lost … - there are no easy rulebook answers.”  The author says that his “book is not intended to push any particular game” but rather “to enter the spirit of various moral games as sympathetically and even enthusiastically as possible,” helping the student “clarify” his values as he “considers representative alternative positions.”  The other class dealt with human sexuality from a supposedly Christian perspective (and in fairness it might have done this) but the only thing I remember from the class is the explicit video of a naked woman as we learned the mechanics of female stimulation. 

With these sorts of experience providing the foundation for my Catholic intellectual life, John Paul II remained a distant figure in those early years of his pontificate.  (It would be more than two decades, for instance, before I became acquainted with his early Wednesday Catechesis, which we now know as “The Theology of the Body”).  Coming from a strong Democratic Catholic household, I had a more developed sense of social justice rooted in Catholic faith.  And, my parents and pastors also provided the seeds for a good prayer life.  These aspects of JPII’s ministry were, therefore, more readily accessible to me.  But, I didn’t yet have any sense of how they all tied together.  They were branches in search of fertile soil and thirsty for cool water.

During the 80’s, I was in a rush, finishing college in three years, law school, a clerkship, and the big firm life.  Married in ’81, with children arriving in ’82, ’84, ’86, & ’88, I didn’t have (or didn’t take) much time to immerse myself in the writings and teaching of our Pope, although I did make it to a papal mass in

San Antonio

in 1987.

Three events in the early 1990’s drew me closer and closer to the man history will know as John Paul the Great.  First, my wife’s deepening prayer life and my feeble attempts to follow.  In other words, I started taking the call to growth in holiness seriously.  Second, UC Berkeley law professor, Phillip Johnson, taught me the importance of uncovering the philosophical assumptions underpinning any school of thought or line of reasoning.  In other words, I started to see the need to pull all the strands of life together into a coherent whole.  And, third, we moved to

Oklahoma

where most of my friends were wonderful evangelical Protestants who often asked me questions like “why do you worship Mary?” (the quick answer is that we don’t)  In other words, I had to learn my Catholic faith.

All of this led me to John Paul II, and what a rich experience it has been.  From a professional level (regarding the development of Catholic Legal Theory), he has provided me with more than enough material to work with in a career, and more importantly, he is indirectly responsible (I believe) for the expanding community of Catholic legal scholars.  At this precarious point in the development of western civilization, he has provided us with the foundation for society’s renewal, rooted in the dignity of the human person and the person’s vocation as revealed in the mystery of Trinitarian Love (Self-Donation) as witnessed in the person and life of Jesus Christ.

While I am immensely thankful for the intellectual roots planted in my mind by Pope John Paul II, I am most grateful for his example of holiness, his deep and abiding love for God and neighbor, his committed prayer life, his undying sense of hope, his ability and willingness to dialogue with anyone, and his ability to teach absolute truth yet fully love those who had yet to respond to that truth.  One of my favorite John Paul II stories, as told in George Weigel’s biography, “Witness to Hope,” is of the time Bishop Wojtyla called in a priest from an outlying parish for the purposes of reprimanding the young priest.  After the chewing-out, the future JPII asked the priest to come pray with him before the Blessed Sacrament.  After a long, long time (an hour or so) in which the priest was looking at his watch and contemplating the train he had to catch, Wojtyla got up and asked the young priest to hear his (Wojtyla’s) confession.  To me, this one story says it all. 

I was blessed to see him one last time as he waved from his window during Mass on Palm Sunday, less than two weeks before he died.  My head knows it will come in time, but my heart crys “Santo Subito.”  Thank you John Paul for teaching me to "be not afraid." 

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