What comes to mind?
When we see the word “life” in the context of Roman Catholic ethics, what comes to mind? Generally, we think immediately of what has come to be known as the “pro-life” movement. We think of issues such as abortion and euthanasia and rightly so. These are hard issues in our day and in our society. In later discussions on this Website we will look at such issues in much more detail and it is important to do so because in our faith tradition any erosion of the sacredness of life, any disrespect for life, is an erosion of all life; a divide in our relationship with God who is Life.
Why Life?
Belief in the sacredness of life derives from an important moral principle of respect for the dignity of the human being prior to any achievement. It is about respecting a person simply because he or she “Is”! Is what? Made in the image of God - as we read in the book of Genesis (1: 26-27). From that belief the Christian tradition affirms the sacredness of human life. Each of us is, therefore, called to choose life, to live life to the fullest, and to protect life whenever and wherever it is threatened.
Little boxes!
But there seems to be a problem! It’s a problem of our time and society and sometimes of our Church in which we like to have things in neat “little boxes”. This is perhaps a function of our era of specialization which tends to lead us to fragmentation and separation of things, knowledge, belief, and of people. But life is not parceled up in neat “little boxes” to relieve us of our responsibilities for struggling with the uncertainties that are a part of real life and through which we are called to especially trust the God who loves us . All is connected. Science tells us this, our faith, understood in its fullness, tells us this and in its depths, so does the human heart.
God in the newspaper!
What has the newspaper got to do with all of this? Well, beware! It can open us up to so much when we take time to really think, to reflect and to become aware of God in all things, even the newspaper! In 1971, this is exactly what happened to a young (now well known) Catholic journalist, Margaret O’Brien Steinfels who was sitting at her kitchen table reading her newspaper.
Suddenly Margaret was struck by what she perceived to be an inconsistency in our understanding of respect for life. She was committed to her Church’s position on abortion but looking at her paper she saw a photograph of New York’s then Cardinal, Terence Cooke. In the photograph Cardinal Cooke was shown wearing a pilot’s helmet sitting in a jet bomber in Vietnam.
Margaret O’Brien Steinfels began to wonder whether within the Church at the time there wasn’t a glaring inconsistency (not a personal judgement on Cardinal Cooke). Suddenly, for Margaret, the insight that we needed “to better link pro-life concern for the unborn with a concern for the victims of war” was revealed and took shape (See: Marvin L. Krier Mich, “Catholic Social Teaching and Movements”, Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 199, p. 211). Margaret was not alone in her concern as rapidly within the Church others too began to question the issue of consistency in our pro-life ethic.
Companions on the Journey
Eileen Egan, a pacifist member of the Catholic Worker movement was also struggling publicly with concerns of inconsistency. Similarly, in 1971, Archbishop Humberto Medeiros of Boston gave a talk entitled, “A Call for a Consistent Ethic of Life and the Law.” In his presentation Archbishop Medeiros said: “If we support the right of every fetus to be born, consistency demands that we equally support every [man’s] continuing right to a truly human existence.” (Humberto Medeiros, “A Call to a Consistent Ethic of Life and the Law”, Pilot; July 10, 1971, p. 7) The Archbishop, true to his word and holistic approach, applied this consistent ethic of life to wider ethical problems relating to adequate housing, education, welfare, race discrimination and warfare. (Interestingly, many of these issues were also the concerns of the great Canadian priest, educator and social activist, Fr. Moses Coady [1882-1959] after whom the International Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University [http://www.Coady.stfx.ca] is named; an institute that continues to reach out in our world in a spirit of fostering life and justice). Suddenly the Church’s pro-life stance had grown dramatically, like a small seed blossoming into a tree with deep roots and new growth each year. Eileen Egan referred to this expanded idea of “pro-life” as the “Seamless Grament”.
This evocative image was taken up by Feminist movements for Life (No, this isn’t an oxymoron!). Women like, Pat Golz who was ousted from the National Organization of Women (NOW) in the U.S. for her pro-life views and Catherine Callaghan who together went on to form the group, “Feminists for Life”, and Juli Loesch who was a founder member of the “Seamless Garment Network”. These women were convinced that “accepting abortion as the solution for all the problems of womankind was a lethal virus that would eventually destroy feminism.” They believed that abortion was an aberration for a movement dedicated to the dignity and equality of women. (See: Marvin Krier-Mich, “Catholic Social Teaching and Movements”, p. 212-213). These women, and the many who have followed them, are committed to exploring all avenues that enhance a consistent ethic of life. The 1978 statement of the Feminists for Life group expresses this ethic well:
“We, as pro-life feminists, offer a return to the roots of feminism …., a feminism that is a loving, nurturing response to any human suffering …. Be it the suffering of a woman, a man, or an unborn child. We reject violence which is the world’s way. We believe that our non-violence and our embracing of life where we find it must extend to the entire human family, and beyond the narrow confines of our biological families. We proclaim that we are homemakers – that the world is our home and we make it – loving, nurturing and pro-life.” (See: Cecilia Voss Kock, “Reflecting as FFL Celebrates Its Tenth Birthday,” in Gail Grenier Sweet, Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices, Toronto: Life Cycle Books, 1985, p. 23). A different voice indeed! A voice that found ever deeper and wider expression in the mission of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin.
Cardinal Bernadin’s contribution to the expression of a consistent ethic of life cannot be underestimated. After drafting the beautiful pastoral letter of the U.S. bishops, The Challenge of Peace, Cardinal Bernadin was appointed to chair the bishop’s Pro-Life Committee. In that role he was to provide tremendous moral leadership. He set out to articulate a position of linkage between all life issues. In his book written in 1988, Consistent Ethic of Life, Cardinal Bernadin stated:
“For the spectrum of life cuts across the issues of genetics, abortion, capital punishment, modern warfare and the care of the terminally-ill. These are all distinct problems, enormously complicated, and deserving individual treatment. No single answer and no simple responses will solve them. My purpose, however, is to highlight the way in which we face new technological challenges in each of these areas; this combination of challenges cries out for a consistent ethic of life.” (See: Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, Consistent Ethic of Life, Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1988, p. 10). Cardinal Bernadin went on to identify the various ways in which he saw life being threatened (See: Marvin Krier Mich, p. 219)
· Nuclear war threatens life on a previously unimaginable scale;
· Abortion takes life daily on an horrendous scale;
· Public executions are rapidly becoming weekly events (in the U.S.);
· And euthanasia is now openly discussed and even advocated (as it is currently in Canada – a topic to which we will return soon on this Website).
So, Catholic reflection does grow. So much of our Church teaching is organic as we, the people of God, continue to “read the signs of the times” as the Second Vatican Council encouraged. Before long, this notion of a consistent ethic of life was considered globally in the teachings of Pope John Paul 11. In his profoundly beautiful Encyclical, The Gospel of Life, issued on March 25, 1995, he referred to the many facets of this ethic.
He appealed to all people to move beyond what he saw as a contemporary “culture of death” which embraces threats to the environment, situations of violence, violence against children due to poverty, hunger and malnutrition, war and the arms trade, a rising international drug culture, capital punishment and attacks on life in its earliest stages and at its end. Pope John Paul called for a transformation toward life through a commitment to the rights of workers, and to those who are poor or vulnerable. He challenged unjust economic structures. He spoke out clearly against the death penalty. He re-emphasized the rights of the unborn child and our call to care for the dying, resisting euthanasia. Pope John Paul was also clear that in the current context, we need to limit the circumstances in which resort to war is considered morally acceptable (another topic to be discussed later on Fr. Leo’s Website).
We find each of these concerns now echoed in Pope Benedict’s new Encyclical, Charity in Truth, in which he speaks of human and global development. He calls on each of us to embrace life, environmental and human. He appeals for an “openness to God” which makes us “open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity.” (n. 78) This is to be pro-life and we are called!
Some Questions to Consider:
· How do you understand pro-life?
· What else might we include in a “consistent ethic of life”?
· What can you do to contribute to a spirit of life in your personal context?