A Council at Trent: Catholic Ethicists and the World Church
Roman Catholics know that our church is universal–catholic with a small “c”, embracing people of every race, region, color, and tongue. Most of the time, however, that knowledge is abstract, and even undermined by immediate evidence, rather like the knowledge that the earth is round. Many Catholics see the church in people who look and sound more or less like they do. Even if they are fortunate to live in a big city or a border town, they are presented with only slightly more evidence of the global scope of Catholicism.
On rare occasions, however, the catholicity of the church reveals itself not merely abstractly, but with vivid immediacy–rather like the roundness of the earth must have manifested itself to the first astronauts orbiting the globe. That’s the best analogy I can think of for my experience right now, at a conference on “Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church,” entitled “In the Currents of History: from Trent to the Future.” It is the brainchild of the indefatigable James Keenan, S.J. a professor of moral theology at Boston College.
Catholic moralists from over seventy countries are gathering in the city of Trent, the same city in which the Council held 450 years ago decisively shaped the outline of our discipline by creating the field of moral theology for seminary training of future confessors. Since the Second Vatican Council, that field has expanded tremendously in both participants and scope. It now includes not only priests, but also women religious and lay men and women. (More than a few babies and toddlers attended the conference with their moral theologian moms or dads.) And the concerns which animate the field are not merely the sins of individuals, but broad patterns of collective action and policies affecting the common good.
The topics of the more than sixty concurrent sessions (held in four languages) were not imposed from on high, but emerged inductively from the interests of the work of moralists around the globe. Scholars submitted paper topics which were then painstakingly arranged by the organizers in sessions designed to create fruitful conversation. In a session on “Doing Ethics in Wartime,” for example, Vimal Tirimanna from Sri Lanka looked at the role of the media in a context of violence and political upheaval, Elias Opongo from Kenya took on the topic of Conflict Dynamics and the Ethics of NGO Peacebuilding in Northern Uganda, and Anthony Egan from South Africa considered the boundaries between violent and nonviolent resistance in conflicts in his country.
As befits a conference held in the city that hosted the Council of Trent, the past of moral theology was not ignored, or denigrated, but was drawn upon creatively to address emerging problems. The session on casuistry, in which I participated, offers a good example. I went first, talking about how we ought not leave behind the casuistical tradition embodied in the confessors’ manual, but should reframe and reinvigorate it by uniting it with virtue ethics. My two co-panelists showed the usefulness of casuistical categories by addressing questions that the great manualists of the past could not have even conceived. Victoria Holderied-Milis of Belgium applied the casuistry of truth-telling and lying in internet chat rooms, in which many participants assume false identities or avatars. Dominador Bombongan from the Philippines argued that the casuistry was a moral method appropriate for teaching the Facebook generation, who were attracted first to the drama of concrete and particular situations. Once he got past his initial puzzlement about the internet, Alphonsus Ligouri would doubtless have been fascinated with their discussion.
In the Catholic moral tradition, particular cases can also be of universal importance and concern. I was surprised at how many moralists from around the globe, including India and Japan, had heard of the Phoenix abortion case and were interested in discussing how it would be handled in their own countries. Most interesting to me was the fact that the Italians I talked to were the most flummoxed by Bishop Olmsted’s handling of the situation. I got the distinct impression that many Italian bishops would not have dealt so ruthlessly and publicly with a nun confronted with such an anguishing case, even if they did not agree with her judgment that the procedure in question was a permissible indirect abortion, rather than an impermissible direct abortion.
The conference in Trent was the second global gathering of moral theologians; the first took place in Padua four years ago. At present, there are no plans for a third conference, due to the enormous time and expense involved in staging a meeting for over seven hundred people and subsidizing the travel expenses of those from developing countries.
But if any financially blessed Catholics happen to have a spare million dollars around, and a vocation to assist our church in global moral discernment, I have a good idea of how you might put your money to good use.
“It is the brainchild of the indefatigable James Keenan, S.J. a professor of moral theology at Boston College.”
http://www.faithfulvoice.com/keenan.htm
“The principle of moral action is not a fixed nature but reason discovering moral value reflecting on experience.”-James F.Keenan (http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12212&o=36636)
According to The First Council of Trent, the principle of moral action flows from The Word of Love Made Flesh.
Wow Nancy. Reading these bloggers must fill you with endless rage. If you can put aside Deal Hudson’s hatred of Fr. Keenan, you may see that he’s done important work in ethics and in particular has written a book on how acts of mercy are at the heart of Catholic moral teaching–and all done with respect to the tradition that you so cherish. And there’s nothing contradictory about his claim about moral action and your claim from Trent–when reason discovers moral value reflecting on experience, it’s the experience of a world made new by the Incarnation, shattering many of our previous conceptions. The way you posted it, one might assume you are intending to slander.
Nancy, didn’t you bid us adieu?
With all due respect, Benjamin, if I were attempting to slander I would have said The Truth of Love is not The Truth of Love. Every act that is not oriented to the Will of God, is not an act of Love, to begin with.
Grant, I suppose you think it is time for me to go.
Cathy –
Did you find anything surprising at the conference?
Did you meet Rev. Richard Benson, CM?
Would like to hear more from Cathy, think Nancy’s post an embarassmet but part of toxic blogging today, and discouraged by, at least on line, the continuing loss of any center.
“In the Catholic moral tradition, particular cases can also be of universal importance and concern. I was surprised at how many moralists from around the globe, including India and Japan, had heard of the Phoenix abortion case and were interested in discussing how it would be handled in their own countries. Most interesting to me was the fact that the Italians I talked to were the most flummoxed by Bishop Olmsted’s handling of the situation.”
Prof. Kaveny, since you mention only this example of “particular cases,” were there other cases from other countries that got attention at the conference, especially among American participants?
I am asking out of (a) genuine curiosity and (b) equally genuine hope that theological discussions do not always circle around American Catholics. It is fine to do so on topics concerning Americans. But this one looks to be a global conference about global Catholicism. Thanks ahead.
I am sure there were, Historyman. But I’m talking about people who came up to me at coffeebreaks and said, “Hey, what’s the deal with the Phoenix case. You Americans!” Ann, what amazes me is the degree to which, despite all the differences, there is in fact a common langauage and a common tradition. So dialogue is productive–fruitful. Bill, I don’t think I did, alas. But there were over seven hundred people there, at lots and lots of hotels, and over sixty sessions.
Off to Salzburg tomorrow. The Sound of Music–my first image of Europe. And yes, Bob Imbelli, Mozart as well as SoM.
Am I jealous. Don’t know if you play chess but there is a wonderful outdoor set up near the cathedral – just wait in line for your turn. Attend a mass at the cathedral; ride the tram up to the castle – hopefully, you can attend an evening, free Mozart concert.
One of the most beautiful spots on earth – wonderful people. Enjoy
Cathleen: if you can, go to the 10 (10:30?) High Mass at the Cathedral. The music (most Mozart, of course) is spectacular! And you’ll get some giggles at how useless the bishop’s presence is during the mass. He basically sits there and looks bored/unhappy/whatever.
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=3153#comments
Actually, yeah, several cases, less about individuals like the Phoenix case than about common issues ethicists face world-wide. For me, this was one of the striking aspects of the conference–the similarity of the joys and frustrations we shared from around the world. There is deep love for and commitment to “the Catholic thing,” the tradition in which we are educated and nurtured. We share a profound sense of the urgency of the questions we raise, especially those concerning limiting AIDS, working for women’s rights world-wide, including our equality within the Church, pondering immigration and war and peace, but also questions of the goodness of human love (and the need for our Church to re-visit how we think about intimate relationships), and the essential unity of ethics and spiritual life. Sadly, there emerged a world-wide lament at the growing distance between the magisterium and the Church’s ethicists. The generally poor (and too often atrocious) magisterial response to the sexual abuse crisis was a sub-theme in many presentations. In short, we arrived as a group largely of strangers, and found that we share common concerns that, refracted through the lens of various cultural forms, call us forward, together now, in the service of our tradition. We were blessed to have the chance to talk together.