Theo 141 Final Exam Covered Topics

DEFINE THE FOLLOWING TERMS (not the restricted dictionary definitions)

1. Social justice

2. Integral evangelization

3. Laudato Si, the encyclical

4. “endo”

5. Context

6. social sin as structures

7. social sin as complicity

8. Social sin as situation

9. Human dignity

10. Ateneo as a university

DISCUSSION

What is your moral judgment and systematized theological reflections on Lumad evacuation, Extrajudicial Killing (EJK), and Open pit mining operations in Mindanao?

The Social Character of Sin/Three Types of Social Sin

As social beings, we regulate our lives in society by various structures and institutions. Structures and institutions become sinful when they perpetrate injustice and inhibiting integral human development. When personal sin creeps into the very systems, structures and institutions of society, it brings about what we call social sin.

[Social structure refers to the network of social relationship, and its study, according to Ginsberg, "is concerned with the principal form of social organization that is types of groups, associations and institutions and the complex of these which constitute societies."]

Stop Lumad killings, respect ancestral lands – Mindanao bishops

Several leaders of Catholic and Protestant churches in the Philippines have come out in support of the Lumad

‘Lumad’ in gold-rich Mindanao targeted

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:10 AM September 07, 2015

DAVAO CITY—Indigenous peoples in the provinces of Davao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Bukidnon share the same experiences of being harassed, killed and displaced by paramilitary groups and government soldiers, according to Kalumaran, a confederation of different tribes in Mindanao.

The Philippines: A Culture of Impunity

Corazon Miller

A largely corrupt political system, volatile criminal justice processes, the overpowering presence of the ruling class and an impoverished people. All these combined with a simple word – impunity - create the fabric of the ‘culture,’ which permeates the South-East-Asian nation of the Philippines with far reaching consequences. In a 90-page report presented by Filipino Church leaders in March 2007 at a United Nations office in Geneva, impunity from detection and prosecution was labeled as the catalyst for many of the human rights violations in the Philippines.

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Three Types of Social Sin

1. STRUCTURES which systematically oppress people, their human dignity, and violate human rights, stifle human freedom and impose gross inequality between rich and poor. This type of oppression is usually due to fear of those in authority; or fear brought about by war and demeaning policies.

[Social structure refers to the network of social relationship, and its study, according to Ginsberg, "is concerned with the principal form of social organization that is types of groups, associations and institutions and the complex of these which constitute societies."]

2. SITUATIONS which promote and facilitate greed and human selfishness. This type of oppression may rise from lack of education, whereby one is not able to recognize one's state of oppression (e.g., unjust deception and manipulation). This type of oppression may also arise from grinding poverty, when all one's energies are channeled into the struggle to survive (i.e., powerlessness).

3. The COMPLICITY of persons who do not take responsibility for evil being done or who silently allow oppression and injustice. This type of oppression may arise from sheer despondency in the face of injustice.

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Farmers oppose open-pit copper-gold mine in Davao Sur

By: Kristine L. Alave / @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:00 PM May 27, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — A battle between farmers and Sagittarius Mines, the operator of the copper-gold mine set to open in southern Mindanao in 2016, is looming over water resources in the lush, mineral-rich province of Davao del Sur.

Coca-Cola 'comparable to heroin' in how it stimulates the brain's reward and pleasure centers

The worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration.

Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/globalization.html

Integral Evangelization

Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged that "the process of secularization has produced a serious crisis of the sense of Christian faith and the role of the Church," and Vatican would "promote a renewed evangelization" in countries where the Church has long existed "but which are living a progressive secularization of society and a sort of 'eclipse of the sense of God'." The Pope announced in at vespers on 28 June 2010, eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

This is the way Fr. Jame H. Kroeger (he used to be my professor at the St. Francis Regional Major Seminary in the 1980s) concisely sums it, and I quoted this definition from his book, Becoming a Local Church, thus:

"This is EVANGELIZATION: the proclamation, above all, of SALVATION, from sin; the LIBERATION from everything oppressive to man; the DEVELOPMENT of man in all his dimensions, personal and communitarian; and ultimately, the RENEWAL OF SOCIETY in all its strata through the interplay of the GOSPEL TRUTHS and man's concrete TOTAL LIFE....This is our task, This is our Mission."

Then, to contextualize that in the Philippine Church setting, Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, O.M.I. presents the Church's "general plan for the Era of Evangelization" (http://www.kofc.org.ph/files/Year-of-Faith-Primer.pdf). It says, thus:

"We need to intensify our efforts to achieve the vision of renewal that PCP-II and the National Pastoral Consultation on Church Renewal (NPCCR, 2001) drew up. It is a vision of renewed integral evangelization towards a renewed Church. We may call it a vision of New Evangelization in the Philippines. It calls for a multifaceted renewal of faith, renewal of laity, clergy, religious, parishes, and renewal of mission. For this purpose, the NPCCR identified nine major pastoral priorities. These are: (1) Integral Faith Formation; (2) Renewal of the Laity; (3) Active Participation of the Poor; (4) The Family as the Focal Point of Evangelization; (5) The Parish as a Communion of Communities; (6) Renewal of the Clergy and Religious; (7) Youth as Evangelized and Evangelizers; (8) Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue; (9) Missio ad gentes."

What is being highlighted here is Church renewal as a vision of renewed integral evangeliztion. But it is also noteworthy that the Church authorities recognize as a priority the "active participation of the poor," especially in building social justice for the common good as an integral component of committed faith.

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By definition, secularization (thanks to Wiki!) refers to the historical process in which "religion loses social and cultural significance." Secularization tends to restrict religion in modern societies. Fact is in secularized societies like the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and France, where about half of the population is not religious or atheist, religion has lost its social influence. As a principle, secularism upholds the separation of Church and State, though most major religions abide by the rules of secular, democratic society. But in the Philippines the Catholic hierarchy still wields strong political influence within the governmental system.

Globalization and Justice

(Teacher's Note: In his essay, "Globalization and Justice: New Horizons for Moral Theology," theologian Enrico Chiavacci explored the nature and significance of globalization in the light of our present "global social text," and its effects on our life. This article is lifted from the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, 2008, pp. 239-252).

Globalization and Justice

New Horizons for Moral Theology

By Enrico Chiavacci

(Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church: The Plenary Papers from th3 First Cross-cultural Conference on Catholic Theological Ethics, edited by James Keenan, pp. 239-244)

“Globalization” is a new term with two different meanings: a new technological possibility and a de facto structural reality in the life of the human family as a whole.

A new possibility: from the 1970s onward, new technologies, silicon transmitters and electronics, have wholly eliminated space and time in the communications between human beings, whether individuals or groups, and this development is not yet finished – the widespread diffusion of the Internet is only a few years old. Besides this, the physical contact between people from remote regions is possible today at low cost and in a short time, but this began only in the 1970s with the introduction of “wide body” aircraft: in the 1950s, it took seven days to travel by ship from Europe to the United States, but today it takes seven hours in a tourist-class plane. We must add to this the massive emigration of people who flee misery and famine with every clandestine means to their destination. Finally, today’s ships have a capacity of 8,000 containers, so that the international transport of goods has very low costs per unit. This means that it costs more or less the same to purchase an item in the neighboring city or at the antipodes of the earth. The ideal of the “unity of the human family” -- and the “human family” is itself a new term in juridical documents – which was proposed by the documents of the United Nations and by the encyclical Pacem in terris is no longer purely utopian but a concrete reality.

A structural reality: today, globalization means de facto an almost complete domination and control by very small public and private groups with economic or political interests. The political interests in developed countries are controlled by powerful groups with economic interests. In the poor countries, the governments are dominated, controlled, or blackmailed by governments of the rich countries, while it is impossible for the frequent cases of corruption to be subjected to democratic controls, since the people are uneducated and have no independent means of communication, nor any possibility of joining forces with others and of organizing and mobilizing. On the technical level, the increasing concentration of immense amounts of capital is made necessary by the costs of research, development, and marketing of complex goods such as the media or transport systems. (For example, in the United States there were three producers of big civil aircraft, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, and Lockheed, but Boeing is the only one left, since it bought up McDonnell Douglas a few years ago and Lockheed now produces only military planes.) Such a concentration is doubtless necessary. The problems is due to the concentration in private hands (e.g., of corporations or multinationals) because of financial interests that are exclusively private and aim only at the maximization of profit, irrespective of the human or environmental costs. Is this necessary, or indeed inevitable?

II

Moral theology, and social ethics in particular, must proclaim the supreme commandment of love (caritas). Thus, the virtue of justice too is --- and must be --- nothing else than the virtue of charity applied to any form of organized societal existence, such as the forms of social life in the various cultural spheres and epochs of the past and the present. This is the fundamental idea of the bonum commune, the “common good,” which is typical of the entire Catholic moral tradition.¹  In the West, where all the classical texts of Catholic moral theology have their origin, the dominant structure from the sixteenth century onward has been the sovereign national state, a structure that was exported by colonialism and imposed on a large part of the world. We may recall, for example, the absurdity of the borders imposed by the various colonial countries on Africa or the Middle East, borders sketched at a drawing board by the colonial powers without any correspondence to the social realities that existed on the ground. Throughout the twentieth century, the common good was (and still is) envisaged as the task of the governments of the individual sovereign states, and even the United Nations was born and structured as a sum of states and a pact between states.

Nevertheless, it is precisely in the two foundational texts of the United Nations, the 1945 Charter and the 1948 Universal Declaration, that we find the completely new idea of the “human family,” which is generated by the central idea that every human being ought to have the same essential rights everywhere on earth.²  The limited possibilities of communication prior to the advent of the new technologies, and the safeguarding of the traditions and rights of the individual states, have not allowed a broadening of this vision to include the human family in its unity – and this judgment applies to Catholic moral theology as well. Today, however, traditional moral theology must come to terms with two new realities.

First, academic discourse has left behind the old cultural anthropology with its central idea that Western culture was the only true culture (or at least, the most advanced culture) for the construction of the human family. In a similar way, the claims made on behalf of the theology that has been elaborated in the West must be relativized; see the splendid analysis by Benezet Bujo.³

Second, the new technological possibilities offer the potential for active involvement to make the world a spatium verae fraternitatis, (a space of true solidarity) to borrow the phrase of Gaudium et Spes.  The conciliar text speaks explicitly of the birth of a new multicultural humanism,⁴  something that was in fact announced by all the texts in the New Testament.

III

All this demands an approach to the subject of “justice” that is radically different from what we find in all texts of moral theology, including those of the magisterium, in the last four centuries – an approach that still prevails today. It is not a new approach: it is already present in the Gospel, in all the fathers of the church,⁵  and in St. Thomas. For example, the notion of private property (aliud quasi proprium possidere) in Thomas and the fathers is limited by the essential needs of the poor: if (Thomas writes: sit amen) the one who possesses does not give, the poor person who takes what is necessary is not a thief, because he is taking what is already his own.⁶  A dust in your cupboard are not yours; they belong to the poor.

The profound transformation of economic and financial life between the fourteenth and sixteenth century⁷ (our checkbook was born near Florence in the fifteenth century) and above all the doctrine of John Locke about the innate right to property⁸ generated the doctrine that everything that I have legitimately acquired is sacred and inviolable. It may sometimes be a duty of charity to give to the poor, but never a duty of justice.⁹  In the United States, “charity” means “benevolent goodwill or generosity,”¹⁰  and charity/love is generally considered as something separate from justice. This is reflected both in philosophy and in political praxis. Nor is this all. Today, personal wealth (even if the amount is modest) is regarded as a means of production of even more personal wealth, and so on, ad infinitum. For the New Testament, this is real idolatry.

Contemporary moral theology has the duty to overthrow this way of thinking.  Attention and care for every human person: these are the very essence of justice. It is a strict duty of justice incumbent on the national and international institutions, as well as on the individual members of this global community, to ensure that every human being has the basic conditions necessary for a life that is truly human: food, a place to live, health care, and schooling.

IV

Justice, however, is not only an economic theme.¹¹  We must give our neighbor not only money, but also attention, time, and more important forms of solidarity, especially the equality in dignity of every human being. This means respect for the different cultures, an equal respect and treatment of the rich and the poor, respect and support for all the disabled, etc. Xenophobia, racism, workhouses that recall Dicken’s Oliver Twist and are still exceedingly common today in the United States and in Italy –all these are symptoms of the individualism and egoism of individuals and of groups, as I have mentioned above.

The moral theologian faces deeper problems in connection with the theme of globalization and justice. Let me mention three that seem to me to be inescapable.

First, every human being is born and develops in a given societal framework with its cultural conditioning. No ne is born and develops in a vacuum. Accordingly, the attitude that one takes toward one’s neighbor is one – or indeed the – basic question for a moral life. I believe that fundamental problems of the “social” dimension do not form part of applied ethics but of fundamental ethics. The basic decision is how I include my neighbor in my project for a good life: I can consider my neighbor as a help or a hindrance to my project, or else I can consider my neighbor as an essential part (a goal) of my project. I do not believe that is is possible to arrive at this decision by a process of rational deduction:¹² it must be considered a primum ethicum. For the Christian theologian, what is involved here is the call of God, the supreme call to charity that is present in every conscience, both that of the believer and that of the atheist, even if the latter does not know the author of this call. This is the solemn affirmation of the council when it speaks of the task of moral theology: to declare the sublimity of the human vocation in Christ, namely, to bear fruit in charity of a principle that is absolute and valid for every human being and can help in the construction of an ethic for human family.

Second, it is also true that every human being is culturally conditioned by a series of data that he or she unconsciously receives from earliest infancy, and probably also by prenatal existence. These data are imprinted on the unconscious or subconscious memory (in the shadowy zones”). They include the various languages with all their nuances (a true translation is impossible: at most, we may get an excellent interpretation), as well as the various systems of social relationships (in family, politics, marriage, economics, and education). These “data” are, in fact, structures, and one could define a culture as a complex and coherent system of structures. This is why different cultures inevitably produce different models of cooperation with other persons and different concrete modes of behavior by means of which we express and live our love and our service of others. It is clear that in the very recent epoch of globalization, the continuous and massive contacts between various cultures are leading  to profound variations in every cultural systems; but the stable principle that must be maintained is respect for every culture.¹⁵

Third, we must bear in mind that each human being is an unrepeatable unicum.  Although each individual lives within his or her own cultural conditioning, each has a biography of his own, made up of encounters, things one has read, emotions, loves, and artistic experiences. In an epoch of globalization, this element is expanding. Dante and Shakespeare are well known and read in Japan, and in Iran, and they provide every reader (even if only unconsciously) with food for reflection. Similarly, Western music is combined with African or Asian music, and each one, whether performer or listener, “reads” this in the light of his or her own unique sensitivity and personal experience. This means that each human being must be welcomed and loved as e is, with his own culture and his own biography.

In consequence, the intersection between a possible ethical decision with foundations common to all persons and the diverse forms of living this decision in concrete everyday reality constitute a very serious problem for fundamental philosophical and theological moral discourse.¹⁶  Applied ethics must take up the practical applications to the various spheres of social life (bioethics, nonviolence, ecology, sexuality, etc.)

Conclusion

Contemporary globalization poses the dramatic problem of how we are to live together as one single human family, with the same reciprocal love and care for one another. This, in turn, implies a question: What conditions must be met, if we are to live together in charity and justice, beyond all cultural diversity, and what must be respected in all the diversity? Our race has lived for hundreds of thousands of years on earth, but this is a completely new problem. The phenomenon of rapid and cheap movements of persons en masse is not yet thirty years old, and it is still developing in ever more complex forms – as yet, we know little of the potential developments of nanotechnology and robots. This means that the moral theologian must be patent! But his patience will attentive and active, able to understand and to shed light on the difficult path that each human person takes toward God. May the Lord help us poor moral theologians!¹⁷

Filipino National Tradition (5 Principles)

The late Jesuit and Filipino theologian and historian Fr. Horacio de la Costa has identified 5 important collective traits of the Filipino that define our collective consciousness, attitudes, or spirituality, and a sense of unity towards some common ends.

FILIPINO NATIONAL TRADITION (5 Principles)
- Fr. Horacio de la Costa, S.J.

1. Pagsasarili - the will to secure the means to develop as responsible human being
2. Pakikisama - the willingness to share with another the burdens and rewards ofo living together
3. Pagkakaisa - building up of an articulated national community through forms of social organizations
4.  Pakikipagkapwa-tao - human solidarity; the dedication to development of one's nation; participation in total development of mankind
5. Pagkabayani - put the common good of nation above private interest (personal/group/class)

CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINES/ ENCYCLICALS (1891- 2015) & TWELVE "BUILDING BLOCKS"

THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCUMENTS/SOCIAL ENCYCLICALS
(1891- 2015)

In March 2010, the AdMU-based Jesuit moral theologian Fr. Psquale T. Giordano, S.J. lectured a group of theology professors on the subject the Church mission of "integral evangelization" focusing on the Catholic social teaching. In the book Evangelizing Presence:  The Challenge of Social Transformation he co-authored with Nancy Catan, The authors gave rundown on the Social Encyclicals and the Ten Building Blocks of Catholic Social Teaching from page 32 to 42..

On the Social Encyclicals, they stated that the discussions on Catholic social thought is not limited to economics and justice of life; rather, it embraces other issues involving the family, religious, social, political, technological, recreational and cultural aspects of life.

Following is a summary of Catholic social teachings which I quoted to preserve it real sense and meaning. This Summary can be located in this URL: http://www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk/principles/documents/

Rerum Novarum – “Of New Things” (1891)

Pope Leo XIII

Summary: Pope Leo XIII highlights the principles necessary to bring about a just society introducing the ‘just wage theory’, these principles include protecting the rights of workers, free association being defended by the state and private property defended but limited.

Backstory: Rerum Novarum was the first of the modern wave of social encyclicals. Leo was acutely aware of the poverty of many workers and of the growth in power of socialist movements.

Quadragesimo Anno – “On the Fortieth Year” (1931)

Pope Pius XI

Summary: Dictatorship is condemned as the dangers of fascism and communism are exposed – such as increasing child and female labour.

Backstory: This mid depression provoked new thinking as opposed to the previous preoccupation with World War I. The growth of systematic atheism had increased, the modernist crisis arose and there were huge developments in thought. Germany was economically devastated and Russia allowed many of its own people to die – justified as necessary for the good of the state.

Mater et Magistra – “Mother and Teacher” (1961)

Pope John XXIII

Summary: It states the need for a balance between excessive intervention of the state against the need for state intervention to curb injustices and assist socialisation. It also goes on to advocate worker participation and ownership and marks the beginning of a focus on international poverty rather than its previous concentration on industrialised countries.

Backstory: Communism was still viewed as being a major threat and since World War II there was an increasing concern for poorer nations and international inequalities.

Pacem in Terris – “Peace on Earth” (1963)

Pope John XXIII

Summary: First addressed to ‘all people of goodwill’ and underlines the rights and responsibilities of individuals. This document also condemns the arms race and racism and advocates resources to be shared in the common endeavour for development.

Backstory: The terrifying threat of nuclear war had become heightened with the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. In addition, the civil rights movement in the US had also exposed divisions of race.

Gaudium et Spes – “The Joys and Hopes” (1965)

A document of the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), promulgated by Pope Paul VI

Summary: This document underlined the need of the church to be completely immersed in human affairs and for the church to share the joys and hopes of people.

Backstory: Demonstrates the idea that the church needs to ‘interpret the signs of the times’. Although this was a document by the Second Vatican Council rather than an encyclical, it was none the less significant. The Vatican II was a pastoral council which firmly showed the significance of the church in the world rather than it being of spiritual concern only, and this was a ‘constitution’ of Vatican II – voted for by a majority of the bishops and was therefore hugely important for Catholic Social Teaching.

Dignitatis Humanae – “Human Dignity” (1965)

Another Second Vatican document rather than an encyclical

Summary: Essentially a declaration of religious freedom and the call for all Christians to respect religious freedom, a freedom which must also be permitted by states. The church must be allowed to work freely, but compulsion or force must play no part in a person’s response to God.

Backstory: This was one of the most contentious of all of the Vatican documents with much of the initiative coming from the US church favouring secularism. As a result this was opposed (and still is today) by many conservatives favouring the involvement of the church in the state as was seen in Spain and Italy, and as the church had acted up until the early 20th century.

Populorum Progressio – “The Progress of Peoples” (1967)

Pope Paul VI

Summary: Pope Paul VI most famously stated that ‘development is the new name for peace’ and he goes onto express dangers of conflict if inequalities grew. The whole area of human development is examined from an integral and holistic viewpoint rather than development just being based on economic factors.

Backstory: This was the concern for the signs of the times (in practical terms) as the Second Vatican had not fleshed out its ideas for development. Paul VI had also travelled widely and now international communications were bringing issues such as global poverty into closer proximity due to newer technologies such as television.

Octogesima Adveniens – “On the Eightieth Year” (1971)

Pope Paul VI.

Summary: This is strictly an ‘apostolic letter’ rather than an encyclical. Further reference is made in this letter to ‘The Condition of Labour’, and Paul VI lists approximately fifteen key issues presenting problems. Paul VI expresses that a variety of responses should be offered as the Christian solution. He also states that Christians should be called to action to involve themselves in building a just world by analysing their own realities and devising responses in light of the Gospel.

Backstory: The South American bishops had met at Medellin three years earlier and their themes of structural injustice, the option for the poor, conscientisation and liberation permeate the thinking in this document.

Justitia in Mundo – “Justice in the World (1971)

Synod of Bishops.

Summary: The Synod of Bishops in 1971 acknowledged the need for structural change to address the problems of injustice in the world, structural sin that must be effectively transformed. Proclamation of the Gospel goes hand in hand with the struggle for justice: "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel." There is a need for "education for justice" to form a consciousness that will address the injustices in the world. The Church must first  become just before she can prophetically denounce the injustices in society. (Giordano, 35) 

Backstory: In societies enjoying a higher level of consumer spending, it must be asked whether our life style exemplifies that sparing-ness with regard to consumption which we preach to others as necessary in order that so many millions of hungry people throughout the world may be fed.

Laborem Exercens – “Through Work” (1981)

Pope John Paul II rights

Summary: Work is the central issue of this document; do women and men participate in God’s creativity and share in its productivity or are they merely cogs? This poses the idea that work should increase human dignity as the economy is made for labour and work is the subject of people. New concepts of solidarity and ‘indirect employer’ emerge strongly in this encyclical.

Backstory: Both capitalism and Marxism are criticised. John Paul had lived through the worst excesses of two regimes (Russian Communism and Nazism) which saw the worker as an expendable resource in the interests of the state. He was highly aware that the exploitation of workers continued, especially in poor areas of the world.

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis – “The Social Concern of the Church” (1987)

Pope John Paul II

Summary: John Paul who had now been Pope for over fifteen years writes this very thoughtful letter in which the terms ‘structures of sin’ and ‘option for the poor’ strongly emerge (from liberation theology). He goes onto condemn the gap between the rich and poor which can be partially linked to the arms trade.

Backstory: The increase in refugees is a major concern and a result of confrontation. This was written amongst the continuation of the Cold War with the Berlin Wall collapsing later in 1989. This time also saw the severe recession of the mid 1980’s and gaps between the rich and poor widening with ‘turbo capitalism’.

Centesimus Annus – “The One Hundredth Year” (1991)

Pope John Paul II

Summary: To affirm democracy the excesses of capitalism must be condemned, as well as the ‘idolatry of the market’ and the ‘insanity of the arms race’. Private property is deemed acceptable but for the first time the world’s goods (including intellectual property) are stated as having a ‘universal destination’.

Backstory: The Berlin Wall had just collapsed; arms expenditure globally hovered at around $1,000 billion (one trillion) and there was also the emergence of the super rich individual.

Evangelium Vitae – “The Gospel of Life” (1995)

Pope John Paul II

Summary: Powerful underscoring of the dignity and value of life; John Paul II condemns the ‘culture of death’ where individual freedom is placed before the rights of others to life -hence the condemnation of the death penalty, abortion and euthanasia. With very moving words to women who have undergone abortion; ‘do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope’. This presents positive images of the promotion of a ‘culture of life’ where human freedom finds its authentic meaning and a culture of the family is the ‘sanctuary of life’.

Backstory: John Paul II is clearly anxious about the development of individualism and its assertion of rights, especially in advanced societies.

Caritas in Veritate – “Charity in Truth” (2009)

Pope Benedict XVI

Summary: Benedict’s message is directed at a variety of concerns including global poverty, injustice and the arms race. This looks at individuals and organisations through the lens of charity and truth. The individual motivation for charity and the concern for authentic human development are frequent concerns. There are also strong environmental concerns and the concept of ‘intergenerational justice’ is made.

Backstory: This now marked forty years since Populorum Progressio – “The Progress of Peoples” (1967). The global economic and banking crisis of 2008 had a major disproportionate effect on the poor of the world, and the issue of the environment had moved up the agenda as better evidence of degradation was consolidated.

Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel (2013)

Pope Francis

Summary: While not a papal encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium gives particular attention to the ‘social dimension of Evangelisation’. The first section, setting the context for sharing the Joy of the Gospel talks of a huge amount of social problems, characterised by Pope Francis as the ‘crisis of communal commitment’ and touches on the markets, the economy of exclusion, inner city life, spiritual worldliness and consumerism, among other things.

Backstory: Francis wrote this document upon the invitation of the fathers of the Synod of Bishops, and published it in commemoration of the end of the Year of Faith.

Laudato Si' – On Care for Our Common Home (2015)

Pope Francis

Summary: Laudato Si’ is a passionate call to all people of the world to take “swift and unified global action”, particularly in relation to the destruction of the environment. Pope Francis writes that while humanity has made incredible progress in science and technology, this has not been matched with moral, ethical and spiritual growth. This imbalance is causing our relationships with creation and with God to break down and our hearts to become hardened to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. We become arrogant and neglect creation and everyone that is part of it; forgetting what God has entrusted to our care.

Backstory: Laudato Si’ is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. Since Lumen fidei was largely the work of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI, Laudato Si’ is generally viewed as the first that truly represents Francis’s outlook.

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TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

These principles, which emerge from those Social Encyclicals, are also called the "Building Blocks" of Catholic Social Teaching. Fr. Pat Giordano surmised that Catholic social principles were not well known, perhaps because "they are not 'packaged' for catechetical purposes." These basic principles can serve us useful grounding in making moral judgments on various social and moral issues of today. .

Fr. William J. Byron, S.J. has presented ten of these principles in his excellent article in America magazine. Please visit: http://americamagazine.org/issue/100/ten-building-blocks-catholic-social-teaching.

1. The Principle of Human Dignity and Equality
2. The Principle of Respect for Human Life
3. Promotion of Human Rights
4. The Principle of Common Good
5. Association and Participation (Social Nature of Human Beings)
6. The Principle of Subsidiarity
7. The Role of Political/Public Authorities
8. Dignity of Human Work Or Labor
9. The Universal Destination of Goods
10. Preferential Option for the Poor
11. Solidarity and Stewardship
12. The Promotion of Peace

I urge students to describe or define the meaning of each of these "building blocks" to facilitate classroom discussion.

The "Spiral": Three moments

Introduction

In absolute sense, the starting point of doing theology is God/Jesus Christ. In a less concrete sense, we start with human experience. Context -- i.e., experience, class, change, culture, social location, solidarity, and struggle -- plays a crucial role in praxis theology. The three steps of moral justification include 1) EXPERIENCE/committed action, 2) REFLECTION (Analysis and Rereading the Bible, tradition), and 3) COMMITTED ACTION FOR CHANGE. In each cycle we expect to experience transformation, either either in the form of Personal Conversion/Personal advances/or positive change in the "quality of life" in the community -- social, economic, cultural, political, religious. Hence, praxis-oriented (contextual) theology. The purpose/goal of moral life is both teleological and eschatological. On the one hand, it is "teleological" in terms of achieving (through hard struggle and commitment) "this-worldly" ends, namely human advances/development -- both personal and communitarian. This end can also be understood in terms of liberation from social evils that cause human suffering and oppression. On the other hand, this end is understood as the gift of salvation and the fullness of creation in Christ; in other words, our pursuit towards shaping our moral life in the way Jesus Christ did it (i.e., loving service with a sense of option for the poor) is distinctly "eschatological," which is total salvation or eternal life with God.

To illustrate the dynamism of this theory of the "Spiral," 

Step 1

We had chosen ABORTION as the subject matter or moral issue in question. This is starting point: Abortion as the Experience/Committed Action. Students will be asked to DESCRIBE and GIVE FACTUAL INFORMATION about abortion, including statistics or numbers. We don't make any moral judgment iat this stage. Not yet. TELL us the story about this issue: human struggle, drama, conflict, as an inherent elements of abortion to situate ourselves (we are engaged in the life of the people involved). That is CONTEXT. In this phase, the information and the way you tell or describe the story can powerful enough to elicit or evoke some feelings of empathy or compassion, recognition and understanding, and anticipate a vision or desire for something in the future that is "liberating" or "freeing" experience. The focus should be that what's of reality.

Step 2

In this REFLECTION stage, right understanding emerges in the process as we see more closely the why's and how's of the issue. So we start we ANALYSIS, the critical observation of the context in tis totality in the light of Jesus' praxis in the gospel stories, and of course, the teaching of the Catholic Church, and the faith-experience of the common people (the latter, as moral criteria, could be contentious). I introduced to class one model of analysis, the WEB-CHART. This model, of course, does not promise complete understanding because our purpose is only to determine the possible its causes and effects, especially on the person and community in general. But given this limitation, at least, we learn something very important about the IMPACT of abortion. We recall that in classical ethics the process of moral justification is satisfied by focusing on the act as the material object of study. On the theoretical level, we justify this act (i.e., abortion) by providing sufficient reasons, which must be backed up by norms/moral standards, such RULES, PRINCIPLES, AND THEORY. Actions are justified by virtue of the power of reason or intelligence. Everything is cerebral. The "critic" need not be engaged in the episode. Contextual moral theology is different because the "critic" is engaged in the conversation, struggle, and the finding of solutions in the spirit of loving service and justice.

So we ask questions like, "Are human fetus human beings?" "Are they persons?" "Do they have any moral status or claim?" Well, some ethicians tried to answer this question by identifying "indicators" or criteria of humanhood. What does is mean to be human? Indicators: self-awareness, minimal intelligence, a sense of futurity, a sense of the past, communication, capability to relate to others, and so n and so forth. Truth is these "experts" of morality did not agree to which, how many should constitute the criteria for "distinctively human." From the looks of it, the FETUS or unborn child could not pass these criteria. But we agree that not biological make up constitutes the indicator of what is distinctively human, but something psychological. 

Some theological insights are needed to break the impasse, so to speak. Back to the question: "Is the fetus a human being?" If the answer is no, then what is it -- a tumor? We propose it is human. This is in anticipation for the question, "Is it morally right to take human life of an unborn child?" (The adjective "human" is right since the fetus is made by human parents.) Christian Faith informs that we are made in God's image, so is the fetus. The fetus "salvation" rest of being the image of God; the biological and psychological basis of "being human" can hardly extricate the fetus from puzzle. By "image" we mean the reality of relationships in the human community. We were created to relate; we are relationship beings; that is our image after God's. God is Trinity. God is a community of divine persons. So relationship is the criteria of humanhood. While still inside the mother's womb, the fetus already exercises relationship with the mother in love. The community also recognizes the fetus's special presence and "membership" on the simple ground that it provides and creates institutions tasked to give care to unborn children, like medical care centers, education, and even laws that protect the life of the unborn. Indeed, the human fetus is human, and well continue to grow and develop because it is recognized in such a complex social relationships that ensures human well-being of all members. The child has rights that other members enjoy, on account of its being human.

Why is abortion sought as means to remove difficulties? Some answers: deformed fetus due to Zika virus, inadvertently taking a fetus deforming drug, financial difficulties, victim of rape, psychological trauma, mental disorder, intrusiveness of a child, suicidal mentality of mother, and so on and so forth. Well, these reason EXPLAIN why abortion is commonly sought. But the question remains: Are these reasons sufficient enough to JUSTIFY abortion?

After having presented a critical analysis: causal effect analysis, analysis of humanhood from the perspective of ethics and theology, still, perhaps, one is not yet ready to make a well-informed MORAL JUDGMENT.

Let's see how the Bible sees the situation. Phase 2 under Step 2 (Reflection): REREADING THE BIBLE. The Bible does not discuss the morality of abortion. But the words and activities (praxis) of Jesus Christ will give us some insights on how God/Jesus Christ treat this issue.

Open the Bible to Mark 10:13ff. Blessing of the Children: And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. WhenJesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these...Thenhe embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.:

It is very clear that children (and fetuses) occupy a special place in the heart of Jesus.

(to be continued)

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Theo 131 Discussion Questions

H     Study the following questions.    1) In what possible ways the Gospel help shape and form our moral life and the way we pursue our commitment to love and justice? 2) Differentiate the goals of moral life from the two perspectives or belief systems --  classical philosophy versus contextual-praxis Christian theology. 3) Explain the reasons (or basis) why some ethicians believe fetuses (or zygotes) are nonperson/nonhuman, while many Catholics share different views. 4) Explain the link between “integral evangelization” and the "kingdom of God" in terms of personal advances and raising the level of life among Filipinos. 

EXODUS ROUTE MAPs

EXODUS ROUTE MAP