Other critiques, typically from the political right, have highlighted the additional problem of conflating non-negotiable moral doctrines (for example, that abortion is a grave, intrinsic evil) with life principles that invariably have negotiable pragmatic applications (for example, how best to direct public policy to facilitate our duty to help the poor, or what role the state should play in ensuring the adequate health care that human dignity demands).Īccording to these critiques it was no coincidence, or surprise, that Cardinal Bernardin’s introduction of the seamless garment concept in March of 1984 was followed in September of that same year by Mario Cuomo’s infamous Notre Dame speech that established the vocabulary of Catholic political dissent on abortion for a generation. It’s meant to underscore that a “consistent ethic of life” requires attention to a spectrum of issues, including not just obvious offenses against life such as abortion and euthanasia, but just war, capital punishment, human trafficking, the plight of the poor, workers’ rights, and so on.Ĭritics of the seamless garment idea have suggested that it accomplished the opposite of its aim that, rather than creating a deeper respect for human life by expanding the categories in which we consider it, it has diluted that respect by allowing Catholics-and Catholic politicians in particular-a specious way to consider themselves “pro-life” on balance even if they don’t oppose abortion or euthanasia.
It was the late Joseph Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago, who coined that expression (drawn from John 19:23) as a way of illustrating the coherence of Catholic teachings on the sanctity of human life. For in those remarks he set his sights on a beloved metaphor of American Catholicism: the “seamless garment.” His recent remarks at the annual meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life, however, may have controversy seeking him. He caused a mild stir in 2007 when he said that Muslims and Christians do not believe in the same God, but by and large he doesn’t seem to be the sort who seeks controversy.
Archbishop Gerhard Müller is prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office once held by his fellow Regensburger Josef Ratzinger (whom you might recognize as the pope emeritus, His Holiness Benedict XVI).
0 kommentar(er)
