Download `Life in Christ` - note by Mgr Andrew Faley

Foundations of Catholic Moral Teaching
The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has produced a number of documents on
Catholic moral teaching: The Common Good (1997), The Call of Creation: God’s Invitation
and the Human Response (2002), Cherishing Life (2005) and are in the process of writing
another document on Catholic social teaching.
The documents are drafted by bishops working with theologians and by consulting a number
of chosen people including experts. The draft document is then brought to the Bishops’
Conference for discussion and eventual ratification. For a document to be published, each
bishop must personally agree with its purpose and content. Some documents are sent to Rome
for further consideration and approval before publication by the Bishops’ Conference.
Recent documents have begun with an overview of the contemporary situation and
recognition of the culture and values in which people are living in England and Wales. This
approach develops the challenge in Vatican II’s decree Gaudium et spes (1965) for a reading
of the signs of the times. The Bishops do not see their audience to be only Roman Catholic
but hope that they will encourage all Christians and people of other faiths and none to
understand Catholic teaching, values and principles and also appreciate more deeply how they
live their lives.
The method by which Church teaching is developed is summarised in Cherishing Life:
Church teaching on moral matters is founded not only on reason and
argument, but also on Scripture and the Christian tradition developed
through reflection on Christian practice, and through the teachings of saints,
popes and councils, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Moral theology
uses a method of reasoning enlightened by faith to develop moral
arguments. Faith is not incompatible with reason but complements it, and
reflection on the mysteries of the faith illuminates and deepens our
understanding of human life. (34)
The sources of Catholic teaching are experience, reasoning, Scripture and Tradition. By
tradition, Catholics mean not only the teaching of the Church but also its practices and the
lived faith of the community of disciples. However, the crucial question is the way in which
these four aspects are interrelated. Moral theology is also concerned with the way in which
the teaching of the Church and human experience dialogue with one another.
Contemporary moral theology uses a method of reasoning enlightened by faith. This method
recognises that there is no such thing as either pure reason or pure human nature. Reasoning
always takes place within a particular framework or horizon of understanding provided by a
narrative. This framework or horizon of understanding is provided by revelation which
informs the reasoning process and develops a Christian anthropology which is the basis for
further reflection. In this way, the reasoning of the traditional natural law approach and the
interpretation of revelation complement one another.
Catholic moral teaching has integrated the use of scripture into its methodology. Documents
issued by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, The interpretation of the Bible in the Church
(1993) and The Bible and Morality. Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct (2008) and by the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales The Gift of Scripture (2005) help us to
understand the method of the use of scripture in Catholic thinking. Moral theology encourages
further reflection and explores the values and principles which can be found in the Catholic
Church’s teaching on faith and morals expressed in credal statements, the Councils of the
Church and by the Magisterium of the Church, i.e. the teaching of the college of bishops in
unity with the pope.
In its teaching, the Catholic Church seeks to protect and promote the inviolable dignity of the
human person and give guidance about the true meaning of human life. As Cherishing Life
states:
The bishops, as successors to the apostles, have the role of confirming moral
teaching, clarifying the moral approach to new questions and identifying
misunderstandings that may cloud moral judgement (48).
It is the role of the bishops to listen to the voices of experience of the laity, examine the
writings of theologians and discern those matters which further human flourishing and teach
them with the authority vested in them.
Cherishing Life makes it clear that the bishops teach values and principles but they also
humbly recognise the complexity of their application in the modern situation. They recognise
that:
There are many particular decisions, in the s p h e re of public policy for
instance, in which the moral principles taught by the Church leave scope for
prudential or practical judgements. Even in these situations the Catholic
Christian must seek to ensure that his or her judgements are indeed
informed by correct moral principles (50).
John Sherrington
Andrew Faley
11 June 2009