O\u27Donnell, Thomas J.

English

epublications@Marquette

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 51 | Number 1 Article 5February 1984Commentary on Abortion ArticleThomas J. O'DonnellFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationO'Donnell, Thomas J. (1984) "Commentary on Abortion Article," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 51 : No. 1 , Article 5.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol51/iss1/5by evil and sin since the beginning. Wars, natural disasters, illr ~ ss , death and starvation - all ·these are forms of evil. Yet there is mea ing in them for all of us if we but look to our Lord and Scripture fm the answers. God will lift us up from this moral abyss into which our country has fallen and give us the courage to continue in this ea: ;hly struggle. . · Today's readings are particularly applicable to this land in v 1icb abortion is epidemic. Isaiah says: · First he degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Napthali, but in 1e end he has glorified the seaward road, the land west of Jordan, the dis t ct of the Gentiles. Anguish has taken wing, dispelled in darkness; for ther is no gloom where but now there was distress . The people who walke! 'in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gl( ,m a light has _ shown. You have brought them abundant joy and g ~ at rejoicing .... The gospel for today reiterates this when it describes JesuE with-. Commentary on Abortion Article Rev. Thomas J. O'Donnell, S.J. drawing into Galilee after John had been arrested. He left N· areth ,.,L. .; ll . . . · · b th th t ·• ol .~. ne 1 o owzng artzcle zs re-and went down to hve In Capernaum · Y e sea near e ern, ry printed with . . Zebulun and Napthali to fulfill what had been said through Isa h the Medical M P1erNmzsszon from the ' - . - ora ewsletter, Vol. prophet: 20, No. 9, November, 1983. Land of Zebulun, land of Napthali along the sea beyond the J o lan, heathen Galilee: a people living in darkness has seen a great light. On jose who inhabit a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim His theme: " ~l 2forrn your lives! The kingdom of heaven is at hand." He taught m the synagogues, proclaimed the good news of the kingdom and ct ed the people of every disease and illness. And so it is with our country today. Jesus is with us no in th~ . _ church and this beloved land of ours. We pray that He will ren: ve thll :'Abortion: A Question of Catholic Honesty" is the title of an disease of abortion from our midst. We pray that He will for~l - ~  thosf artiCle recently appearing in The Christian Century (Sept. 14-21, physicians who perform abortions. And we pray that ~he sic :1ess 0: 1~83,. pp. 803-807) by one Daniel J. Maguire, formerly a Catholic mind and heart which brought about this holocaust Will be ( ·red b) pnest In-good-standing who is listed in the byline as professor of moral His loving, healing touch; much as that touch cured the h ne, .thf theology at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and blind, the lepers of long ago. This abortion mentality is trul . a sick presen~ly the visiting John A. O'Brien professor of moral theol~gy at ness of mind and heart, and only our Lord can cure such an iL 1ess. f.) the ~mversity of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. we wait for this change of heart in our nation and i ts pe le, VII b It Is not intrinsic merit of the article itself that calls for comment should not .become impatient, for today's psal~ reminds us, : ,~ait foJ lou~ rather ~he. fact. that M~guire. i~entifies himself .as a Catholic thea: the Lord w1th courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lore' ., gi~~ and ls likewiSe thus Identified by two promment Catholic uni-Finally, let us remember how . He taught us to pray , at thJ versities, whic~ might mistakenly convey the impression to some scourge of abortion shall be lifted from our land. readers that his analysis of the Catholic teaching on abortion is in Our Father, Who art in heaven , hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdo m come; ~me way to be trusted as acceptable in the context of Catholic doc-Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven . Give us this day our da il ' bread; Ina! ~eaching and/or moral practice. The fact is that the article is an and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass aga inst us. ;:or-rid~en diatribe against the teaching of the Catholic Church on 10 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. e questiOn of abortion. th IT~M: Maguire writes that: "It is a theological fact of life that _John P. Mullooly, MJ ere Is no one normative Catholic position on abortion." FACT: The terl February, 1984 Linacre Quar 11 -solemn declaration of the Second Vatican Council that "abortion md infanticide are unspeakable crimes" ( Gaudium et Spes, no. 5J l is clearly one and the only normative Catholic position on abortion. ITEM: Commending the American bishops on their unwillingne s to make absolute statements in their recent pastoral letter entitled ' The . Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response" (May 3, 1! ~ 3 ), even though the bishops made quite a few absolute statements 1 it, Maguire writes that, on the issue of abortion: "the bishops move com the theological mainstream to the radical religious right." FACT The teaching of the bishops in union with the Roman Pontiff is, and r ~ces· sarily is, the theological mainstream of Catholic teaching. The arne Second Vatican Council also declared: "Bishops, teaching in carr nun· ion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnes ~s to Divine and Catholic truth" (Lumen Gentium, no. 25). ITEM: Maguire writes that: "It is safe to say that only amino ty ol Catholic theologians would argue that all abortions are immon ., bul asserts that the majority of theologians are afraid to let their vi N S be publicly known. From this undocumented assertion (which do( have a grain of truth in it, as is clear enough from the publicatio ; of ~ handful of dissident theologians), Maguire asserts that this leged wide dissent engenders a solidly probable opinion against the t· ,chin! of the Church and in favor of the moral defensibility of at rtion. FACT: Even if this unsubstantiated generality were true (as ~gard1 the extent of the dissent), such dissent against a long establis! ·d and solemnly proclaimed teaching by the bishops of the world ; 1d the Roman pontiffs does not engender the solid probability req ed fol the application of the principles of probabilism in the co ·; extol authentic Catholic theology. An official Vatican communic< ion to the American bishops has made this quite clear in response t < <~ertaiD questions about contraceptive sterilization. In March, 197 5 , 1 .e Con gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed Catholic ~achinf on contraceptive sterilization and added: "The Congregation vhile il confirms this traditional doctrine of the Church, is not una Wei.· ' of tht dissent against this teaching from many theologians. · The C · .ngrega tion, however, denies that doctrinal significance can be attr~ uted tr this fact as such, so as to constitute a 'theological source ' v t-dch thl faithful might invoke and thereby abandon the authentic Maqisteriu.~ and follow the opinions of private theologians which dissen 1. ~rom ~t (Prot. 2027/69, March 13, 1975). Obviously this would br likeWiSI true of the dissent against the Church's teaching on abortion . While these items make up the main points of MaguirP's articll much of the rest of it is merely tiresome and irrelevant. He traces tb rationale of the Church's teaching to the fact of an all-male episcop~c with a hatred of women. That is just tiresome! He sees a great signu cance in the fact that the Code of Canon ·Law inflicts t he nenaltY < excommunication on a person (either male or female, by th~ way)fO aborting what he calls a "fertilized egg," but not for killing a "baby" after birth. (And incidentally, if a pre born baby _is just a "fertilized egg," then aren't .we all?) The supposed significance that Maguire pro-fesses to see in this fact is irrelevant because it manifests an unbelievable lack of sophistication regarding the philosophy and pur-pose of ecclesial penalties . . There is nothing, of course, all that new in Maguire's erroneous mterpretation· of probabilism. The renowned English Jesuit moral theologian, Henry Davis, was· running into somewhat the same pro b-lem 35 years ago when he wrote, regarding the history of probabilism: "It was even misapplied by too ardent devotees, whose chief fault was ~hat they unwarrantably extended the meaning of the term 'probable' m supposing that any opinion held by any author might be looked upon as probable, a phenomenon that is not very uncommon in young students today" (Henry Davis, S.J., Moral and Pastoral Theology, vol. 1 [London: Sheed and Ward, 1949], p. 92). It is ~el~tively new, however, that Catholic authors writing in direct contradiCtion to Catholic teaching (as Maguire has done on more than one. occasion [cf. Medical-Moral Newsletter, Jari., 1981]) should r~ceiVe the approval implied by professional rank in a Catholic univer-Sity, nor are Marquette and Notre Dame alone in this. What is new, however, and to be reckoned with, is the revised Code of. Canon Law, published by Pope John Paul II on Jan. 26, 1983 and gomg Into effect later this month (Nov. 27, 1983) and prescribing that: "!n Catholic universities it is the duty of the competent statutory auth.o~Ity. to e?su~e. that there be ~ppointed teachers who are not only ~u~f1ed In scientific and pedagogical expertise, but are also outstand-mg ~n their integrity of doctrine and uprightness of life. If these requ~re~ents are found to be lacking, it is also that authority's duty to se~ to It that these teachers are removed from office, in accordance With the procedure determined in the statutes h "The Episcopal . Conference and the dio~esan Bishops concerned t~ve t~e ?uty and the ri~ht of s~eing to it that, in these universities, 81e principles of Catholic doctnne are faithfully observed" (Canon 0, nos. 1 and 2). . We do not, of · course, question Dr. Maguire's "uprightness of life" ~ any w~y. ~s for. t~e qu~lities of "scientific expertise" and being foutstandmg In their Integnty of doctrine," the article in The Chris-zan Century speaks for itself. 12 February' 1984 Linacre Quarter 13 

Commentary on Abortion Article

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3240&amp;context=lnq

Commentary on Abortion Article

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette