ROMA, February 5, 2007 – Unborn life and the natural law: these are the themes of two new documents being prepared by the Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith.They were announced in the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, “Avvenire,” in an interview with the secretary of the congregation, archbishop Angelo Amato.
The first of the two new documents, the one on unborn life, will follow in the footsteps of the instruction “Donum Vitae,” published in 1987 by the then-prefect of the congregation, cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Amato says in this regard: “This Donum Vitae II is not intended to abolish the previous one, but to confront the various questions of bioethics and biotechnology that are posed today, and that were still unthinkable back then. Donum Vitae still retains all of its value, and in certain regards it is prophetic.
The problem is that, in spite of the fact that it has been around for twenty years, it is still scarcely known. Thus the question is not, for example, that of a revision of moral doctrine on the use of condoms - which doesn’t seem to me to be on the order of the day – as much as that of the new challenges that in some ways are much more serious and more threatening to the integrity of human identity, such as the attitude that considers the embryo as a biological product, and not as a human being.
As Donum Vitae asserts, ‘The human being must be respected – as a person – from the very first instant of his existence’ ('Viventi humano – uti persona – observantia debetur inde a primo eius vitae momento'). And this consideration due to the human embryo is ‘a non-negotiable anthropological principle‘." Amato further clarifies: "The study of such delicate topics is the competency of our congregation, which then submits its work to the pope. And therefore the opinions on these topics that come from other ecclesiastical institutions or personalities – as respectable as these may be – cannot have the authoritativeness that the mass media sometimes seem to want to attribute to them."
The opinions of ecclesiastical persons to which Amato refers include, in particular, those expressed by cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in the “Dialogue on life” he published in the weekly “L’espresso” in April of 2006, a discussion that dealt with the very same topics found in “Donum Vitae.” They also include the opinions formulated by the same cardinal on the matter of euthanasia last January 21, in the newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore,” one week before this interview with Amato in “Avvenire.” Both of cardinal Martini’s contributions diverge on a number of points from the Church’s official teaching.
* * *But the second new document, the one on natural law, will be the very first of its kind. On a number of occasions Benedict XVI has indicated as the foundation of shared existence among all men the moral principles inscribed upon the heart of every man, and “spoken in an unmistakable way by the quiet but clear voice of conscience.”
But even as prefect of the congregation of the doctrine of the faith, he never dedicated a specific document to this. Amato explains: “A Catholic, for example, cannot consent to legislation that introduces marriage between two persons of the same sex; this is contrary to biblical revelation and to the natural law itself. [...] The pope often cites natural law in his catecheses. Our congregation is preparing something on this topic, and to that end has already consulted all of the Catholic universities. Everyone’s responses are very encouraging, even those from the professors considered the most ‘difficult’. The natural law is very important, in part because it alone provides the foundation for productive interreligious dialogue.”
* * *Amato granted this interview on the occasion of the publication of a large volume that collects the 105 documents issued by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in the period from 1965 until the present. The request to publish all of these texts in a single volume – Amato explains in the interview and in the introduction to the volume – came from “many bishops, cardinals, and theologians” all over the world. Almost all of the texts are in the original Latin version, or in Italian. But to read the most important of them in the various languages, one may simply consult the section for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith on the Vatican’s website. The first 200 pages of the volume collect the documents released by the congregation when its prefects were the cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Franjo Seper.
The next 400 pages collect the much more extensive and numerous texts from when Ratzinger was prefect. In Amato’s view, it is possible to speak of a “Ratzinger style” in the congregation. “With him, there was an effort to extend and articulate the arguments in defense of contested truths of the faith, and also a desire to present reliable guidelines on the many challenges of contemporary culture.” Only a minor portion of the documents from the congregation concern the theologians who have clashed with the magisterium of the Church.
In forty years, some of the works of the following eleven theologians have been the object of sanctions: Hans Küng, Jacques Pohier, Edward Schillebeeckx, Leonardo Boff, Charles Curran, Tissa Balasuriya, Anthony de Mello, Reinhard Messner, Jacques Dupuis, Marciano Vidal, and Roger Haight. But the documents that are much more representative of the congregation’s work during the Ratzinger era are the two instructions on liberation theology from 1984 and 1986; the instruction “Donum Vitae” from 1987, on unborn life and procreation; the instruction “Donum Veritatis” from 1990, on the relationship between theologians and the magisterium; the letter “Communionis Notio” from 1992, on the relationship between the universal Church and local Churches; the declaration “Dominus Iesus” from 2000, on Christianity with respect to the other religions; the doctrinal note on Catholics in political life from 2002; the 2003 note on the legalization of same-sex unions; and the 2004 letter on woman.
Some of these documents – for example, those on liberation theology and “Dominus Iesus” – were, at the time of their publication, the object of harsh criticism even from members of the hierarchy. Others – like the 2002 note on Catholics in political life – were ignored or undervalued. But this last document is shown to be of stark relevance today. The “fundamental and indispensable” principles evoked there – and continually revisited by Benedict XVI in his preaching – are increasingly at the center of the ethical-political controversies that divide the various countries over abortion, euthanasia, embryos, the family, education...
In Italy, for example, precisely in these days there are under development a law on the “biological testament” and another concerning de facto couples, with the Church energetically committed against euthanasia and in defense of the family as founded upon monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. Amato observes in the interview with “Avvenire”: "Many Catholic politicians ask for clarifications on this type of argument. What they then want to do or are able to do in consequence is another matter.
Catholic politicians should nevertheless always recall that they should never give their consent to the introduction of laws that clash with moral principles, while in the case of laws of this type that may already be in effect, they can limit themselves to seeking to attenuate their effects.” The future document on the natural law is intended to explain that in defending these fundamental principles, the Church is not solely obeying divine revelation, but is defending every man as such.
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