Called to be holy: the transformative potential of Christian service programmes in Catholic schools

This is the second in a series of four papers which seeks to articulate theologically and practically the consequences of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. The series is based on the principle that the ‘marks’ of the Church – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic – are also marks of the Catholic school, since the Catholic school is within the Church and derives its ecclesial identity from the Church. Each paper analyses one of these ‘marks’, discerning what it means theologically and practically for the Catholic school. In this paper, the second of the marks of the Church and therefore of the Catholic school – holiness – is discussed in terms of what it means to be, and to continually become, holy. In reference to a current research project, Christian service programmes in Catholic schools are analysed in regard to what they already contribute to the formation in holiness of Catholic students, but also in terms of what more they may become. It is argued that for their potential for growth in holiness for teachers and students to be fully realised, Christian service programmes need to be more than just charitable works, and that they need to engage critically with inequity and injustice in keeping with the Church’s radical social teaching.     

A Divine Connection

This article outlines the development of a scholarship programme geared toward African American laypeople in the Archdiocese of Chicago as a partnership between the archdiocese and the Catholic Theological Union.     

Bioethics, theology, and social change

Recent years have witnessed a concern among theological bioethicists that secular debate has grown increasingly "thin," and that "thick" religious traditions and their spokespersons have been correspondingly excluded. This essay disputes that analysis. First, religious and theological voices compete for public attention and effectiveness with the equally "thick" cultural traditions of modern science and market capitalism. The distinctive contribution of religion should be to emphasize social justice in access to the benefits of health care, challenging the for-profit global marketing of research and biotechnology to wealthy consumers. Second, religion and theology have been and are still socially effective in sponsoring activism for practical change, both locally and globally. This claim will be supported with specific examples; with familiar concepts like subsidiarity and "middle axioms"; and with recent analyses of "participatory democracy" and of emerging, decentralized forms of global governance.     

Sin and suffering in a Catholic understanding of medical ethics.

Drawing chiefly on recent sources, in Part One I sketch an untraditional way of articulating what I claim to be central elements of traditional Catholic morality, treating it as based in virtues, focused on the recipients ("patients") of our attention and concern, and centered in certain person-to-person role-relationships. I show the limited and derivative places of "natural law," and therefore of sin, within that framework. I also sketch out some possible implications for medical ethics of this approach to moral theory, and briefly contrast these with the influential alternative offered by the "principlism" of Beauchamp and Childress. In Part Two, I turn to a Catholic understanding of the nature and meaning of human suffering, drawing especially on writings and addresses of the late Pope John Paul II. He reminds us that physical and mental suffering can provide an opportunity to share in Christ's salvific sacrifice, better to see the nature of our earthly vocation, and to reflect on the dependence that inheres in human existence. At various places, and especially in my conclusion, I suggest a few ways in which this can inform bioethical reflection on morally appropriate responses to those afflicted by physical or mental pain, disability, mental impairment, disease, illness, and poor health prospects. My general point is that mercy must be informed by appreciation of the person's dignity and status. Throughout, my approach is philosophical rather than theological.     

James Drane's More Humane Medicine: a new foundation for twenty-first century bioethics?

James Drane's More Humane Medicine: A Liberal Catholic Bioethics is an outstanding contribution to the study of bioethics in our day. Catholics and others who are interested in the issues discussed here will benefit from this masterful treatment. The author opens with a set of definitions, starting with what he means by a "more humane medicine." Drane contends that a more humane medicine has become necessary and desired, but not because the traditional medical ethic as "a self-declared and self-imposed ethic, outlining what noble service to others entails" is no longer valid. Rather he defines it as an advance on the traditional ethic; a "new foundation" based on a "lived set of obligations derived from a felt commitment to other persons ... an ethics based on the relationship between doctors and patients and essentially an ethics of virtue." Drane's work is a "liberal Catholic Bioethics" in which he challenges his own faith tradition, the Roman Catholic Church, on such topics as sexuality, birth control, abortion, cloning, stem cell research, aging and dying, and euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The present article is a critical essay that analyzes the author's statements and conclusions.     

Ethical Considerations for Psychologists Screening Applicants for the Priesthood in the Catholic Church: Implications of the Vatican Instruction on Homosexuality

The release of the Vatican instruction on homosexuality in the priesthood and Catholic seminaries poses several challenging ethical issues for the psychologists who conduct psychological screening evaluations for those men interested in religious life as Catholic priests. This brief article reviews some of the key ethical issues associated with these evaluations in light of the new Vatican instruction on homosexuality. The RRICC model based on the American Psychological Association's Code of Ethics (i.e., responsibility, respect, integrity, competence, and concern) is used to highlight some of the ethical challenges for psychologist evaluators.     

The Indonesian Catholic Church 50 years after Vatican II: seven models of church life

The significance and influence of the Second Vatican Council in respect of the reform of the Catholic Church are no longer in dispute. The issue now at stake is how the Vatican II documents are understood and implemented in each church community. This article is the result of research on the significance and implementation of the Council's thinking in the Indonesian Catholic Church (ICC) in the past 50 years. It begins with observations on ICC's history and social context, then highlights the main use of conciliar documents in the reforms it has undertaken. Seven models of church life, illustrative of the implementation of Vatican II, are described. Although these models cannot comprehensively reveal all the realities of the ICC, they are seen as portraying it as it is today, at the point from which its future course may be worked out.     

Toynbee's Frantic Quest for Survival

ABSTRACT

Data from life review interviews with elder Catholic women religious show that through prayer they are able to experience solitude and to feel connected with others. Their experience is not completely explained by either the disengagement theory nor by the newer theory of gerotranscendence. Because prayer connects them to others, they do not experience complete social withdrawal; rather, prayer functions as a modified social activity connecting them to their past, to God, to the community in which they live, as well as to the wider world. They also do not develop a new transcendent meta-perspective, but deepen into cherished life beliefs and practices, accepting and becoming more fully who they are as individuals and as older women.     

A brilliant jewel: sex,celibacy, and the Roman Catholic Church

As clerical sexual abuse scandals hit the news and the crisis of vocations worsens each year, debate about the merits of mandatory clerical celibacy continues to grow. The fact remains, however, that supposedly celibate priests have been sexually active in significant numbers throughout history and that their sexual activity has barely affected the power of the Church. In this article, I focus on the ‘everyday’ nature of sexual ‘incontinence’ among a group of Northeast Brazilian priests and analyse the relative systematicity with which vow-breaking is accommodated. Such systematicity, I suggest, reveals an ongoing stable-instability at the heart of the Church as an institution; a dynamic which, if better understood, can help to explain the most characteristic (but often overlooked) feature of institutions more generally: their impressive longevity.     

Comstock,Gary David,Gay Theology Without Apology

Abstract

This article explores the theology of procreation in marriage from traditional Catholic and traditional Evangelical viewpoints. Both groups believe that children are an integral aspect of Christian marriage, yet the barren couple is welcomed in the community despite Church insistence on children in marriage. Voluntary childfree unions and gay marriages, however, are both rejected by traditional Catholics and traditional Evangelicals. I contend that in this particular cultural climate of gay rights, one hurdle to accepting childfree straight marriages in traditional Christian branches is the perceived dissolution of conventional marriage. If traditionalists affirm that a married couple may choose to not procreate, then there is very little to distinguish straight childfree marriages from gay childfree marriages. Removing one pillar of conventional marriage – children – will bring Christian unions closer to theoretical support for gay marriage, a move that many traditionalists would be loath to make.