Catholic Reflections for an Updated Donum Vitae Instruction: A New Catholic Challenge in a Post-Christian Europe

On February 22, 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of theFaith published the Donum Vitae Instruction. Twenty years later,on February 22, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI asked for an updateof this Instruction. According to the Donum Vitae Instructionof 1987, the principle of the holiness of life imposes respectfor human persons from the very beginning of human life. Inthese past 20 years, new medical techniques have raised freshethical issues that are to be addressed by the Roman CatholicChurch Magisterium. The Roman Catholic Church, in its updateof the Instruction planned for 2007, will have to explain howcivil law is to be regulated according to the fundamental normsof the moral law. The moral message of the new Donum Vitae (justas in the 1987 version) will be to affirm the substance of humanjustice: respect for human life, as expressed in the resolvenot to infringe on, or to protect such life. Even in a post-ChristianEurope, this theological message can be understood if it istrue that Europe is marked by the principle of the absoluteprotection of human life.     

Scientology and Catholicism Do Mix: A Note on Teaching New Religions in a Catholic Classroom

Abstract. This note from the classroom explores teaching new or alternative religions within the context of a Roman Catholic Liberal Arts College. The essay will specifically focus on a section of a course entitled “Modern Religious Movements” in which students were asked to consider different methodological approaches to the teaching and study of Scientology and the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary. This note from the classroom details how this rather unexpected comparison prompted students to reconsider the category cult and argues that encouraging self‐reflexivity in a largely Catholic classroom can become a crucial means for engaging a broader discussion of new religions, cult discourse, and the academic study of religion itself.     

Marriage and the Public Good

In this article I seek to address some misunderstandings inarguments about same sex-marriage. I do this by evaluating severalviews on homosexuality and marriage. My central aim is to showthat a rejection of same-sex marriage does not depend upon theview that homosexual acts are immoral or disordered. Rather,one must examine sexual acts in light of public goods that areat stake. I also argue that the Christian understanding of marriageand sexuality offers more than a set of prohibitions againstcertain sexual acts. Rather, it offers reasonable principlesby which to evaluate the relationship between sexual acts andthe public good.     

The Body of Christ has AIDS: The Catholic Church Responding Faithfully to HIV and AIDS in Papua New Guinea

Using the example of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea (PNG), I detail how, through praxis, it has brought to life a living theology of HIV and AIDS. In this way, the Catholic Church in PNG is responding faithfully to the epidemic. As a Christian country with a generalised HIV epidemic, where the body of an individual is reconstituted through the liturgical practices of baptism and Eucharist, theologically, in PNG the body of Christ has AIDS. In order to examine the ways in which the Catholic Church in PNG has responded faithfully to the Christian body with AIDS, I do so in relation to the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love.

The Mysterious Silence of Mother Earth in Laudato Si'

Laudato si' attempts simultaneously to disrupt prevailing global environmental discourse and to reorient central concepts in Catholic moral tradition by requalifying the meaning of dominion and by ecologically expanding human dignity. The image of Earth crying out to humans from within a kinship relation plays a central role in both arguments. However, the political consequences of those shifts remain vague because the “voice” of Earth remains silent in crucial loci of the encyclical's argument.     

‘Dear Hindu Friends’: official Diwali greetings as a medium for diplomatic dialogue

ABSTRACT

This article discusses greeting messages as a genre of interreligious communication. Greeting messages are defined as official communication issued by religious institutions and addressed to the members of another religious community on the occasion of specific feast days or anniversaries. Drawing on the insights of politolinguistic analysis, this article treats these messages primarily as a form of public diplomacy. The case study analyses the messages issued on the occasion of the Hindu festival Diwali/Deepavali by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and World Council of Churches between 2015 and 2017. Distributed through the social media and posted on the institutional websites, the Diwali messages seek to speak as a Christian voice to all Hindus. Beyond the official addressee, the messages also potentially face the scrutiny of the global public sphere, especially an internal Christian readership. This article analyses what language strategies are used to deal with these varied demands.     

Formative and Transformative

This review essay discusses the significance of Charles Curran's contribution to the field of Catholic theological ethics. I suggest that Curran's theological voice is a distinct and important one, that his preoccupations mirror major concerns in moral theology, and that his approach has been shaped through his long‐standing ecumenical and interdisciplinary commitments. I consider four recent monographs and analyze Curran's impact under the headings of (1) the nature of moral theology; (2) the ecclesial shape of moral theology; (3) the (historical) contexts of moral theology; and (4) the (social) character of moral theology. I note that Curran's primary concern has been to honor the richness of the Catholic moral tradition, and that the range and depth of his work is unrivalled in contemporary Catholic moral theology. I conclude by suggesting that Curran's contribution to the discipline of moral theology has been both formative and transformative.     

Renegotiating Aquinas

While Roman Catholic feminist ethicists typically endorse moral realism and crosscultural standards of justice, they also have been influenced by the postmodern interrogation of abstract reason and moral universalism. As theologians writing after the Second Vatican Council, they are increasingly sensitive to the communal and ecclesial dimensions of morality and of Christian ethics, and to the integral relation of Christian faith and ethics. This essay will consider two approaches to Catholic feminist ethics that differ in the relative weight they give to constructive work for social justice (realist gender justice ethics), or to the grounding of ethics in prayer and mysticism (postmodern gendered faith ethics). Using critical feminist reappropriations of the theology and ethics of Aquinas as examples, this essay will argue that the two approaches are overlapping and interdependent.     

New Digital Technologies: A Kairos for Catholic Education in Rwanda

ABSTRACT

While the Catholic Church in Rwanda endeavors to revitalize Catholic Education, the Government of Rwanda is trying to leverage the use of digital technologies to raise access, improve the quality, and strengthen the relevance of education and training to the labor market. The purpose of this article is therefore to explore and assess the value and potentially constructive educational benefits offered by digital technologies in Catholic schools. The Catholic Church is one of the key educational development partners of the Government of Rwanda. Approximately 41% of students attend Catholic schools in Rwanda. The article scrutinizes some ethical concerns associated with the emergence of digital technologies in schools. Then it critically analyzes the position of the Catholic Church vis-à-vis digital technologies and sheds some light on their ethical and responsible use in Catholic schools. Consequently, the article suggests some actions that may be undertaken by the Catholic Church in order to assist the youth to make an informed choice among a diverse range of options offered by digital technologies in a way that aligns with the Catholic social teaching and tradition.     

The Motherhood of the Church in Henri de Lubac and John Calvin

Both Henri de Lubac and John Calvin described the Church as ‘mother’. From the patristic tradition, the motherhood of the Church had two dimensions: (i) the Mother Church as an institution delimited by the episcopacy of which inclusion was a necessity for salvation; and (ii) the Church as the mother of believers through whose ‘motherly’ care of bringing to life, nourishing and teaching through the sacraments God makes provision for his children. Both de Lubac and Calvin stress the maternal functions of the Church, but differ over how the Church’s motherhood relates to its visible identity and why inclusion in the Church is necessary for salvation. This article argues that this connection represents a rich theme for ecumenical ecclesiology. Despite divergent ecclesiological grammars and themes, Catholic and Reformed traditions are drawing from a shared patristic inheritance which gives good ground for dialogue for respective ecclesial self-understandings.