Mirror of Justice

MIchael Gerson on "Obama's Catholic Strategy"

In a column in today's Washington Post, Michael Gerson reviews President Obama's visit to Notre Dame in 2009, where "[h]e extended a 'presumption of good faith' to his pro-life opponents. Then he promised Catholics that their pro-life convictions would be respected by his administration."

That was then.  This is now:

Now the conscience protections of Catholics are under assault, particularly by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). And Obama's Catholic strategy is in shambles.

* * *

"We are in a war," [Obama's HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius told a recent pro-choice meeting. Opponents of the administration, she said, are trying to "roll back the last 50 years in progress women have made in comprehensive health care in America." This is no longer the "presumption of good faith." It has all the hallmarks of a vendetta.

In 2008, President Obama's campaign was greatly assisted by high profile support from some Catholic leaders and academics, which allowed him to more plausibly portray himself as a new kind of politician and a moderate on social issues.  We were assured that President Obama was a different kind of politician and that he would respect and honor Catholic conscience and not aggressively promote pro-abortion policies.  Most Catholics were dubious even then.

As the 2012 campaign approaches, can any pro-life Catholic still claim that the cause of human life is not under assiduous attack by this administration?  And, on the fundamental question of religious liberty, can anyone seriously deny today that, as Archbishop Timothy Dolan observes, the Obama Administration is levying an "assault [on Catholic rights of conscience] which now appears to grow at an ever-accelerating pace in ways that most of us could never have imagined"?

Carter Snead and Lynn Wardle Engaging on Embryo Rights and Stem Cell Research at UST Law

The Murphy Institute at UST is presenting a year-long series we call "Hot Topics:  Cool Talk", exploring "both the Catholic positions and some challenging perspectives on major policy issues likely to be the focus of debate in the upcoming 2012 election. Each program will consist of two expert speakers respectfully engaging in one of these hot topics."  Our first program was Maggie Gallagher and Dale Carpenter talking about Same Sex Marriage.  (Minnesota Public Radio aired the program as part of their mid-day programming.  You can watch the video here.)

Our next program is tomorrow, Nov. 16, featuring Carter Snead & Lynn Wardle talking about Embryo Rights and Stem Cell Research (4:00 -5:00, more details and registration here.)

Upcoming speakers in the series include MOJ'ers Greg Sisk on Balancing the Budget, Tom Berg on Personal Rights & Religious Freedom, and Mark DeGirolami on Punishment Theory.  Other topics we'll take up include Immigration Policy, Health Care Reform, and Responsible Citizenship.  We'll be posting the talks on our website, so you can catch the programs even if you're not blessed to be living in God's Country, Minnesota.

John O'Callaghan at the Lumen Christi Institute

MOJ-friend, and my colleague, Prof. John O'Callaghan (Philosophy), is giving a lecture at the Lumen Christi Institute today, at 4:00 p.m., on "The Identity of Known and Knower in Aquinas."  If you're in or near Chicago, check it out!

Albert the Great

Today is the Feast of Albert the Great (c. 1206-1280), the German Dominican, Doctor of the Church, and teacher of Thomas Aquinas. Albert is most famous for his contributions to the natural sciences and his role in bringing Aristotle into medieval philosophy and theology. But Albert also made important contributions to the medieval development of natural law, as ably argued most recently by Jean Porter in her books Natural and Divine Law (1999) and Nature as Reason (2005), so all of us who work in Catholic legal education have reason to celebrate the feast of this remarkable figure from our tradition.

Christ the King and "Quas Primas"

In my experience, preachers in Catholic parishes don't know quite what to do with the Feast of Christ the King, which is coming up (Nov. 20).  Usually, the day's "message" or "theme" has been (again, in my experience) something to the effect that we should ask if we are "putting Jesus first in our lives" (and, certainly, we should). 

And yet . . . especially in light of the emerging (and much needed) focus in the Church on religious liberty and the realities of both aggressive secularism and persecution, it's worth (re-)reading Quas Primas, the encyclical of Pope Pius XI that instituted the feast day in 1925, and remembering that this institution's purpose sounded more in political theology than in personal piety and devotion.  This feast -- which we celebrate, again, this Sunday -- is a reminder that government is not all, that there are things which are not Caesar's, and that everything, in the end, is "under God."

Archbishop Dolan at the USCCB meeting: “Love for Jesus and His Church is the passion of our lives!”

Here (thanks to Rocco) is the text of Arbp. Timothy Dolan's speech this weekend at the meeting of the USCCB.  Wow. 

I was at the meeting for the first session of the new Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, which I'm honored to be serving as a consultant.  (Michael Gerson's column, here, touches on just a few of the reasons why the Administration's policies have made the work of this Committee particularly important.)

Penn State and Evil

It's hard to add anything meaningful to the commentary about the profound evil involving Penn State's former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the conduct of those who turned a blind eye to the problem of child sex abuse in their midst. Ross Douthat's Sunday column in the New York Times is one of the most incisive statements I've come across. One person who seems to have displayed courage throughout in launching the investigation when he was Attorney General and then (in his ex officio capacity as a member of the Penn State Board of Trustees) seeing that justice was done to those who failed in their duties is Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, as recounted in this story from last week. As it happens (and was announced many weeks ago), Governor Corbett will receive the annual Saint Thomas More Award from the Saint Thomas More Society of Philadelphia this coming Wednesday evening following the 60th annual Red Mass in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Conference

I want to second Rob's comments about this past weekend's conference at Notre Dame on secularism. The keynotes I attended by Alasdair MacIntyre, Christian Smith, and Lucy Beckett were extraordinary, and, of course, it was great to be on a panel and to present a paper alongside Rob and my friend and colleague Patrick Brennan. On top of all that, the chance to bask in the generous hospitality of Rick Garnett and his colleagues at Notre Dame is always one of the highlights of the gathering, and Carter Snead's appointment as the new director of the Center for Ethics and Culture portends even better things to come.

USCCB Committee on Doctrine and Sister Elizabeth Johnson CSJ

Here is a link to a news item from the USCCB in which the USCCB's Committee on Doctrine reaffirms its critique of "Quest for the Living God" by Sister Elizabeth Johnson CSJ. The Committee's initial statement was back in March 2011. Sister Johnson published a lengthy (38 page) response. The Bishops Commitee has reaffirmed that it "believes that it is its duty to state publicly that on several critical points the book is seriously inadequate as a presentation of the Catholic understanding of God."

This is another example of the Bishops moving away from a disciplinary approach to dealing with dissent. Sister Johnson is still on the faculty at Fordham. Daniel Maguire is still on the theology faculty at Marquette, even though the Committee on Doctrine issued a statement several years ago explaining that the views expressed by Professor Maguire were erroneous and incompatible with Church teaching.

There is a lot to be said in favor of this kindler gentler approach. It is worth recalling, though, that Charles Curran seemed to have been largely forgotten after he left Catholic U and that one wonders whether Richard McBrien would attract as much attention if he taught at Indiana University-South Bend instead of Notre Dame. 

Richard M.  

How Do Lawyers Serve Human Dignity?

At Notre Dame over the weekend, I presented a paper on the rise of secularism within the legal profession, which I see as the triumph of the technical over the transcendent.  It's evidenced in part by a move from the "moral law" approach of the 1908 Canons to today's "ethics" codes, which are primarily technical regulations.  There are some good reasons for this move, but it is by no means costless.  There are several market, regulatory, and cultural developments that have contributed to put tremendous pressure on lawyers' ability to see themselves as anything more than technically competent mouthpieces.  I'd be happy to email a draft to interested readers.

In a related paper, I take on the thin conception of human dignity that prevails within the legal profession.  This paper is now online and available for comment.  Titled How Do Lawyers Serve Human Dignity?, here's the abstract:

The conception of human dignity that prevails within the legal profession is roughly interchangeable with individual autonomy. That is, lawyers serve the cause of dignity by facilitating the client’s autonomy. In this regard, the legal profession’s dignity discourse lacks the nuance and depth that is found in the discourse occurring in other fields, bioethics in particular. As far as it goes, autonomy is a key component of individual dignity, but autonomy does not exhaust the nature or implications of dignity, particularly the narrow conception of autonomy employed widely within the legal profession. The narrowness results, in significant part, from lawyers’ failure to invest in the dialogue necessary to pursue a fully relational sense of client autonomy, rather than a simplistic autonomy of individual self-interest secured through the maximization of legal rights and privileges. In reality, there are multiple layers of human dignity, not all of which are centered on individual autonomy. Whether or not a more authentically relational conception of autonomy can be reclaimed, it is important to articulate how the human orientation toward relationship can help provide substantive content to, and draw professionally relevant implications from, the elusive concept of human dignity.