In Search of the Good: A Catholic Understanding of Moral Living

Written and Produced by the National Office of Religious Education of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Publication Serive, Ottawa, 2004
ISBN: 0889974950, Hardcover, pp. 380, $34.95 CAN

          This book is described as one which will "guide you as you undertake your search for the good life," in your search for happiness. It refers to "solid points of reference" in the moral life and the "development of skills" in order to be able to navigate through life using these reference points. 

          The book begins by discussing an assortment of topics: the ethics of Aristotle, Kant, and Levinas, analytic philosophy, freedom, artificial intelligence, Sigmund Freud, social determinism, the importance of language, and narcissism. In this text the first reference to the teaching of the Catholic Church is to that on conscience that appears on page 52. Christian moral theology is then addressed. The natural moral law is covered in four pages, 155-158.

         In my view the approach to the subject of ethics and how to lead the good life could have been much more straightforward. It could have been stated up front that we were made by God, who is Love, the Way, the Truth and the Life, for happiness with Him in eternity. As a result of the Fall, we know sin and death, but by the Redemption, we have been saved, and offered the grace which can bring us to our eternal reward for having led a good life. Christian ethics is based on God's love for us. As Luke Gormally has put it [The Linacre Centre Friend's News Letter, Autumn 2005 Issue 19]: "To live well we need to become the kind of persons God wants us to be. God makes available to us all that is necessary to that end."

          Guidelines for the good life are to be found in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the moral teaching of the Magisterium, and natural law that is man's understanding of the divine law. These guidelines could have been more fully spelled out and should have been placed at the beginning of the text. I offer the following comments on the text.

          One reference to the Irish monks in the seventh to ninth centuries as having "fear of the supernatural and preoccupation with demons and fairies" is itself a fairy tale and unbecoming in such a book. See page 117.

          What do Karl Rahner and Robert Schreiter mean by a "global church?" What does "a church in dialogue mean?" Does the use of these terms imply theological relativism? Richard Gula speaks of the Church as a "community of moral deliberation, whenever and wherever moral issues emerge." What does this mean? The Church is described as "a community of moral deliberation in which the bishops enter into dialogue on moral issues so that everyone may arrive at moral maturity." Dialogue with whom and about what? Moral principles? Does this imply that moral principles are to be determined by a social consensus? Or does this simply mean that in order to solve some complex moral problems, the facts of the cases should be obtained by dialogue with the relevant scientific experts? See page 118.

          What does the author mean by saying that "it is not documents that carry out this teaching mission. It is people?" Does this deny the validity of church documents? See page 119.

          Regarding the teaching authority of the Church, it is stated that the decrees of an "ecumenical council require a higher level of assent than an encyclical." What does this say about Humanae vitae, Fides et ratio, and Evangelium vitae? See page 120.

          Richard Gula is quoted as saying: "Conscience is the radical experience of ourselves as moral agents. as long as we do not direct our own activity, we are not free, morally mature persons." How can this statement be reconciled with a Catholic's moral obligation to conform his or her conscience to the teaching of the Church? See page 120.

          We are told that the Church "needs to connect with the moral experience of baptized Christians." Could this, for example, not mislead people in regard to the teaching of the Church on contraception? See page 120.

          We are told that for Catholics, the term "marriage" describes a permanent and exclusive union between man and woman; that Catholics believe that a valid and sacramental marriage is permanent and for life; and that in the Church's view, Christian couples remain open to life." We are also told that "the Church sees natural family planning and not contraception as the morally acceptable choice" and that "the Church believes that natural methods express the indissoluble link between loving union and the procreative potential of intercourse in the context of married love" [both quotations p. 346, emphasis added]. Nowhere are we told that these are matters of Church teaching.

          Various philosophies, other than natural law philosophy, are presented early in the text. These would have been better mentioned at the end in an effort to explain to students how the western world has ended up under the domination of moral relativism. The work of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau are referred to and are relevant to modern concerns about the faults of Capitalism. For example, the philosophical origins of modern moral teaching are not adequately presented. The moral teaching of the Church in regard to marriage and bioethics is opposed by utilitarianism and also by pragmatism. The latter originated in the U.S.A. with the work of Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey and others. This has led to Belmont principlism and ultimately to an ethics in which principles are determined by a so-called consensus of society. This in turn, is the result of psychological manipulation of the masses by the power elites. Witness the performance of both the government and the law courts in Canada in regard to abortion and homosexual "marriage!"

          The book makes no mention of another powerful influence on society, the return of pantheism, which was promoted by Teilhard de Chardin. Pantheists deny the existence of a transcendent God and hold that the universe itself is the Supreme Being, or is god or god-like. Pantheism and a return to paganism have led to a materialistic approach to ecology and world population control by abortion and contraception at the United Nations.

          Neither is there any reference to the fact that compounding the damage done by pantheism is the rise of atheism that, as Cardinal Newman noted was not a dominant feature of society even in ancient Greece and Rome. This has flourished in the western world since the middle of the eighteenth century. Atheists hold two views about the nature of the universe: one, that it is fully deterministic and the other, that it is chaotic; an entity without meaning or purpose, which has evolved by chance. Both of these views leave no room for the notion of right and wrong, good and evil, guilt and innocence, or free will. To make matters even worse, since the renaissance western philosophers have been denying the existence of truth and goodness. Bacon, Hobbes and Descartes promoted this denial of these philosophical "transcendentals."
Atheistic philosophical ideas are widespread in the academic, political and professional world today, and will undoubtedly be encountered by those who graduate from Catholic high schools. It would have been better to describe the philosophical state of society at the end of the book and to have educated the students in the Faith at its beginning.

          A significant flaw in this work is its failure adequately to present the moral teaching of the Church to its intended readers, who are Grade Twelve students. In particular it is deficient in its instruction about chastity and sexual morality, areas which are so important in this hedonistic age. For example, on the subject of Church teaching about contraception only one paragraph is provided. 

          This is a serious deficiency. Apart from its grave moral evil and spiritual consequences, the contraceptive mentality and the almost universal use of contraceptives is well known to contribute mightily to the epidemic of sexually transmitted disease and to encourage behaviour that leads to societal selfishness and social injustice in regard to the family and the poor.

          A final note: I cannot and would not recommend this book for Grade Twelve students.

          Editor: Readers may also be interested in this June, 2000 article from our Humanae vitae section: http://catholicinsight.com/online/church/humanae/article_114.shtml.