Bourke, Vernon J.

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Notre Dame Law SchoolNDLScholarshipNatural Law Forum1-1-1967Heinrich Albert Rommen (1897-1967);InMemoriamVernon J. BourkeFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/nd_naturallaw_forumPart of the Law CommonsThis Introduction is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Law Forum by anauthorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact lawdr@nd.edu.Recommended CitationBourke, Vernon J., "Heinrich Albert Rommen (1897-1967);In Memoriam" (1967). Natural Law Forum. Paper 124.http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/nd_naturallaw_forum/1243n OemoriamHEINRICH ALBERT ROMMEN (1897-1967)Associate Editor of the NATURAL LAW FORUMWITH the death of Heinrich Albert Rommen on February 19, 1967, theNATURAL LAW FORUM has lost one of the original members of its editorialboard. He brought to this association the resources of Old World learning,a meticulous devotion to freedom in scholarly investigation, and the genialityof a character tempered by the trying experiences of his early life.Born in Cologne on February 21, 1897, Rommen studied political economyat the University of Muenster (Dr. Rer. Pol., 1924) and civil and canonlaw at the University of Bonn (Dr. jur. utr., 1929). For the next five yearshe headed the social department in the Central Office of the Volksvereinat Miinchen-Gladbach. This was an organization founded in 1890 to pro-mote Catholic participation in the social, political, and cultural life of Ger-many. During Rommen's period with the Volksverein, a well-educated staffof experts provided practical advice to clergy and lay people, offered lectureson social questions, published two journals, and ran a lively summer school ofsocial studies. Adolf Hitler terminated the work of the Volksverein in 1933.Between 1933 and 1938 Rommen worked in the legal department of a Berlinbusiness firm but found the political climate in Nazi Germany less and lesscompatible with his own ideals.Emigrating to the United States in 1938, Heinrich Rommen inaugurateda new and fruitful academic career. He taught at St. Joseph's College (Hart-ford, Connecticut) for eight years; while there he became a naturalizedcitizen (1944). From 1946 to 1953 he served as professor of political scienceat St. Thomas College (St. Paul, Minnesota), and there he was associatedwith kindred spirits such as Theodore Brauer and Franz Mueller, who sharedhis interest in Catholic social studies. In 1953 he joined the department ofgovernment at Georgetown University, where he remained as a distinguishedprofessor. Active in the American Political Science Association and the Cath-olic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, Rommen was also acharter member of the International Suarez Society. Boston College honoredhim with an LL.D. in 1950.At Muenster Rommen had done research on the practical philosophy ofFrancisco. Suarez, and his first book was Die Staatslehre des Franz Suarez(1927). It is still regarded as a standard work on Suarezian political phi-losophy. In 1936 he published Die ewige Wiederkehr des Naturrechts; trans-lated as The Natural Law (1948) this did much to establish Rommen'sAmerican reputation in the field of natural law. A more general work, writtenin English, The State in Catholic Thought (1945) was also influential.Numerous reviews and journal articles added to Rommen's stature as a scholar.The New Catholic Encyclopedia, for instance, has just printed his long articleon "The State" and a shorter notice on the term "Volksverein."Despite his training in traditional politico-legal philosophy (or perhapsbecause of it), Rommen seemed much ahead of his time on certain issues.Long before Pope John and Vatican II, he argued that the Christian shouldnot concentrate exclusively on the supernatural and otherworldly life. Directparticipation in the active work of one's community is stressed in many ofRommen's early writings. Yet he always insisted that there is, and should be,no "official" political philosophy in the Catholic Church. As he expressedthis in one long but forthright sentence:Unequivocally as the Catholic Church stresses her competence to help,to teach, and to admonish in the field of social and political life, yet shehas always, though on certain occasions only at the last moment, avoidedidentifying herself with an historically existing, therefore transitory, po-litical form or doctrine.'Predictably, Heinrich Rommen opposed racism in all its forms, and helived through one of its ugliest manifestations in Germany during the mid-30's. What particularly disturbed him in the philosophical area, however, wasirrationalism. He was never in sympathy with the existential tendencies inrecent German thought.As far as natural law thinking is concerned, Rommen's views were doubt-less more classical and scholastic than those of many of his colleagues on theeditorial board of the FORUm. He regarded law as the "rule of reason" andfelt that natural law tends to lose its meaning and validity when law is de-fined in terms of volition. His Suarezian studies never led him in the direc-tion of legal voluntarism. At the end of The Natural Law he stated his legalcreed as follows:The foundation of law is justice. "Truth grants or refuses the highestcrown to the products of positive legislation, and they draw from truththeir true moral force" (Franz Brentano). But truth is conformity withreality. And just as the real and the true are one, so too the true and thejust are ultimately one. Veritas facit legem. And in this profound senseof the unity of truth and justice the words, "And the truth shall makeyou free," are applicable to the community of men under law. Truefreedom consists in being bound by justice.2If these old-fashioned but high-minded sentences can still find acceptancein the post-Hitler era, then men like Heinrich Rommen have not lived in vain.VERNON J. BOURKE1. HEINRICH ROMMEN, THE STATE IN CATHOLIC THOUGHT 8 (1945).2. ROMMEN, THE NATURAL LAW 267 (1948 [copyright 1947]).

Heinrich Albert Rommen (1897-1967);In Memoriam

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Heinrich Albert Rommen (1897-1967);In Memoriam

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