Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics

Fr. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., assistant professor of biology and instructor of theology at Providence College, has written a introductory book on Catholic biomedical ethics.  The book, Biomedicine and Beatitude, is issued as a part of the Catholic Moral Thought series edited by Fr. Romaus Cessario, O.P.

The publisher, The Catholic University of America Press, describes the book as follows:

How are the patient, the physician, the nurse, and the scientist called to grow in holiness in their particular vocations? This introductory text, written from within the Catholic moral tradition, narrates a bioethics that emphasizes the pursuit of beatitude in the lives of those who are confronted by moral questions raised by biomedicine and the other life sciences.

The Catholic moral vision that informs this volume is rooted in the moral life described by the Lord Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount. As Pope John Paul II taught in his moral encyclical, Veritatis splendor, we imitate Christ by seeking, with God’s grace, to perfect ourselves through our actions and the virtues they engender. In this way, Catholic bioethics differs from other contemporary approaches to bioethics that focus on either the outcomes of human acts or the procedures that protect the autonomy of the human agent.

Besides ethical questions raised at the beginning and the end of life, Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., discusses the ethics of the clinical encounter, human procreation, organ donation and transplantation, and biomedical research. Finally, the text discusses the realities faced by citizens of faith living in a free and democratic society that is at the same time postmodern, secular, and liberal.

For more information, or to purchase the book, see the Friars’ Bookshop.

On Saturday, April 14th the Thomistic institute hosted a conference on “Creation and Modern Science”.  The three speakers both clarified the terms of and entered into some of the hottest topics of debate concerning physics, creation, evolution, human origins, original sin, human thought and neuroscience.

William Carroll delivered an enlightening paper that offered a Thomistic response to the contemporary debates concerning physics and creation.  Carroll argued that since the natural sciences are only concerned with change, it is the concern of metaphysics to indicate the necessity of a creator.  Cosmology can point to the need for an origin of motion, but one can only arrive at a radical foundation for existence (i.e. creation) through arguments that are properly metaphysical.  He proposed that it is a mistake to use arguments from the natural sciences to deny creation (as do Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss) but it is also a mistake to use arguments from the natural sciences to argue for creation (as do Robert Spitzer and William Craig).

Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. gave a lively presentation that attempted to show the harmony of magisterial teaching and recent developments in human genomics.   All human beings may have descended from a small population in Africa that survived after the eruption of a supervolcano in Indonesia.  Fr. Austriaco argued that it is not inconsistent with faith to suppose that God directly infused such a group with rational souls and grace but that this same population quickly fell into sin.

Edward Fesser offered an informative paper outlining several different arguments to show that human thought is not explainable simply in terms of material processes.  He opened with some arguments from neo-scholastic authors but focused on an argument from James Ross based on the determinacy of formal thinking.  Fesser was careful to note that thought has both material and immaterial aspects.  To acknowledge the material aspects of thought (e.g. the use of a mental image as formed by the brain) is not a desperate concession to modern science, but an unsurprising consequence of hylomorphism.

[Report by Br. Raymond Snyder, O.P.]

Watch the video below in which Fr. Robert Barron gives a reasoned discourse on the problems with The HHS Mandate. Fr. Barron takes Thomas Aquinas, the church’s greatest theologian, as his hero, his patron saint, the person who, more than any other, had directed him toward the priesthood, and the scholar whose work he have been studying and writing about most of his adult life. Barron writes:

“At a time when religious conversation far too often devolves into shouting matches and ad hominem attacks, Thomas (Aquinas) calls us back to reasoned discourse. At a time when religious passions have run amok and have resulted in terrible acts of violence, Thomas calls us back to hard thinking about God. At a time when adepts of different religions often gaze at one another suspiciously, the Thomas who happily dialogued with pagan philosophers, Jewish rabbis, Muslim sages, and Christian heretics, calls us back to an attitude of broad-minded respect. I think actually that the Church’s turning away from Aquinas in the years following Vatican II was a dreadful mistake. We lost something of massive importance when we set aside his balance, his deep intelligence, and his sanity. Happily, there is a rather impressive Thomas Aquinas revival going on throughout the church, as a number of gifted younger scholars (and some older ones too) are turning back with enthusiasm to his works. May their tribe increase.”

Catholic Social Teaching provides glasses to look at the world. It gives us principles by which we can judge the failings and successes of a social situation or political plan. Concern for the poor, the respect of human dignity from conception until natural death, the just distribution or resources, the duty to be peacemakers, economic freedom, religious freedom – all of these and more characterize a just society. Most of all, the social magisterium allows us to unite our public life with center of our faith, the Paschal mystery.

The first part of the Paschal mystery is the suffering of Christ. Love for our sorrowful Lord spurs us to compassion. In light of Catholic teaching, we see the crucifixion lived out in so many places. There is the tremendous poverty of the developing world; the repression of so many beaten down and imprisoned by the Roman soldiery of political repression or the Pharisaical energy of religious extremism; and the untold millions lost to the horror of legalized abortion. Catholic Social Teaching calls us to look upon such sorrow and, like the Blessed Mother gazing at her crucified Son, be moved with a compassion that only faith in God can save from despair.

St. Katherine Drexel used to travel the country by train with her wealthy family when she was a child. She was moved by the sight of the suffering of two of America’s beleaguered minorities: African Americans and Native Americans. Inheriting the equivalent in today’s money of tens of millions of dollars, she would found a religious order dedicated to helping those peoples and giving away virtually every last penny of her fortune. St. Katharine’s experience of compassion as a child bore fruit in a way that gives a powerful lesson to the wealthy countries of the world: riches are meant to be shared.

The second part of the Paschal mystery, so to speak, is the Resurrection. As we suffer with the needy in the world, we also have the promise of Christ’s victory. Too much reading of the news and pondering the failings of political leaders can lead to discouragement. But justice and peace can spring up in the most unexpected ways. Martin Luther King, Jr,. quoted Amos 5:24 so memorably: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” True progress – what the popes like to call “integral development” – comes from God and can come in a life-giving flood. No doubt there was Divine power in the successes of the civil rights movement and we can hope for similar victories in other areas.

Indeed faithful Catholics played the leading role in one of the most astonishing victories for social justice in the twentieth century: the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989. The memorable symbol of this momentous reversal was the fall of the Berlin Wall, but the movement’s success was spurred by the Solidarity union in Poland and energized by the election to the papacy of Blessed John Paul II. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa led this movement against Communist repression under the banner of Our Lady of Czestochowa, culminating in the election of Catholic intellectual Tadeusz Mazowiecki as Prime Minister. Thereafter, in a series of events which should still cause wonder, one virtually bloodless revolution after another brought down Communist tyranny in central and eastern Europe. It is hardly a stretch to call this historic turn of events an instance of the Resurrection manifested in human events.

The Paschal mystery is lived out in the lives of individuals but also in the world at large. As Christians we are called to enter the mystery of suffering in the world, just as our Savior came from heaven to be with us. The glasses given to us by Catholic Social Teaching attune us ever more to the wrongs that exist. But, in light of the our Easter faith, our interaction with society should be marked by a hope that that justice and truth can ring forth anywhere. We strive for this so that the world we live in will ever more resemble the Kingdom to come.

On Saturday, March 31, St. Gertrude Parish in Madeira, Ohio sponsored an information forum on the medical aspects of contraception.

The forum was led by a panel of two doctors and nurse. The medical panel  included Sr.Mary Diana Dreger, OP, a Nashville Dominican and a physician, who is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Medical School and who practices at St. Thomas Hospital clinic in Nashville, Tennessee; Dr. Michael Parker, who is a Catholic OB-GYN from Columbus, OH who changed his practice in 2004 to an NFP-only practice; and Jenn Giroux, a nurse with wide knowledge of the implications of contraceptive use. The panel also discussed the benefits of using natural alternatives to contraception such as natural family planning.

The Church and the Individual Christian in Public Life

One characteristic of Pope Benedict’s magisterium is that some of his most attention-getting points, and occasional controversies, come from statements of lesser authority – discourses, homilies, interviews – than the great teaching documents by which popes usually make an imprint in the world. This is in part because he has a way of speaking in full fledged theological treatises even off the cuff, and in part because of his appealing candor. An interview on his recent airplane trip to Mexico provided the opportunity for two trenchant observations on Catholic social teaching.

As reported by the Vatican Information Service, a Mexican journalist asked whether the Church does enough concerning the great social inequalities in Latin America. The Holy Father responded,

“The Church must of course ask if she does enough for social justice on that great continent. It is a question of conscience which we must always pose ourselves. … What must the Church do? What can she not do? What must she not do? The Church is not a political power, she is not a party but a moral entity, a moral power.” [Emphasis added.]

Here is a simply stated expression of the role of the Church in the social realm. She is a “moral power,” not a political one. The Church does not get involved in the nitty-gritty of civic life but offers moral principles to guide the participation of the laity. This view of the Church avoids the two extremes of theocracy, on the one hand, and of a merely aesthetic Church afraid to engage in the world, on the other. So often nowadays, when the Church is accused of interfering in politics, it is actually the opposite that is happening. The state is interfering in the realm of morality, taking upon itself the task of defining right and wrong – whether it’s about abortion, contraception mandates, or concocting new criteria for a just war.

Pope Benedict then went on to describe the basic duty of the Church to guide the laity in their public life:

In Latin America, as elsewhere, no small number of Catholics show a kind of schizophrenia between individual and public morals. … We must educate people to overcome this schizophrenia, educate them not only in … individual morality, but also in public morality. [Emphasis added.]    

“Schizophrenia” is a striking term to describe the problem of Catholics whose personal devotion is not matched by their public attachment to Church social teaching. It is caused by ignorance of the doctrine and the relative ease of jumping in with one political camp or another based on a portion of the Christian message. Rather we are called to accept the fullness of the teaching at the expense of being a bit of a political outsider. The “public morality” the Pope mentions is precisely the way a Christian brings the Gospel fully into the social realm. Reminiscent of the term “political holiness” – albeit used by liberation theologians – public morality on the part of Catholics is what is so crucially called for in the world today. It is the light of Christ shed on public discourse.

Pope Benedict, simply as a theologian, has digested the fullness of Catholic Social Teaching over the course of his life. His simple summations are worth remembering. The world needs the moral force that the Church represents. As Christ’s enemies sought to destroy him, so certain powers today will seek to silence the Church. But if pastors teach Catholic social thought and the laity witness to a true public morality, the Gospel in all its fullness will never fail to be proclaimed and lived.

Preaching Catholic Social Teaching in an Election Year

“Something to Offend Everyone”

Speaking about social issues during a presidential election year can be difficult, even counter-productive. Many in the pew have already aligned with a side and can view statements from the pulpit to be a subtle endorsement of a candidate. If it is not their candidate, they will close their ears or become angry. But Catholic Social Teaching is truly non-partisan. It has elements that seem liberal and elements that seem conservative, but it is not encompassed by either side. One strategy in preaching about social issues might be to take a poke at the failings of both sides–even if one’s main point is more one way than the other. It gives the clear impression that one is not partisan and it shakes people out of their merely political categories to open them up to the fullness of Catholic truth. Here is my own attempt – the “Pastor’s Column” in the St. Denis parish bulletin shortly after the HHS contraception mandate came out. For what it’s worth!

Dear Parishioners,

Last week before the homily I strenuously condemned a new regulation from the Obama administration that mandates coverage of abortion, sterilization and abortifacients by employers, including many Catholic institutions. I also read a passage from a letter by Bishop Libasci protesting the rule. Some may wonder if the Bishop and I violated the separation of church and state in so directly addressing an act of the government. We did not, and let me explain why.

For the record, I have a strong distaste for religious rhetoric that implies too much confidence in political parties. For instance, there are certain “Catholic” voter guides that put an exclusive emphasis on issues like abortion and traditional marriage, as if there are no other aspects to Catholic Social Teaching. They all but direct the reader to vote Republican. On the other side, there are factions within the Church who put such an emphasis on social justice, as to ignore life issues. They give the impression that they the Church is “the Democratic party at prayer.” The Gospel is bigger than any political camp. It challenges everyone. We should never let a party or politician be our messiah or magisterium.

So can the Church say anything about politics? Ponder this question and you will know the answer: does God have anything to do with politics? Of course He does. And so the Church must announce the Good News of Salvation not only as it pertains to individuals, but as it pertains to society. What the Church proposes in political matters are basic principles that should be the foundation of any democracy: the right to life, concern for the needy, the essential importance of the traditional family, justice and peace, etc. Catholic Social Teaching is not about politicking but rather offering moral truths that form the basis of Christian political participation. It is one thing to say you must vote for this or that candidate – that is interference; it is another to say that the state must protect unborn life – that is necessary for civilization.

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko preached religious freedom and democracy in Communist Poland in the early 1980′s. The government believed he violated the separation of Church and state and they killed him. Around the same time, the Servant of God Archbishop Oscar Romero declaimed the abuses and violence of a right-wing military regime, unfortunately backed by the United States. Of course that government thought he was meddling and he was killed while celebrating Mass. We can’t leave it to government to determine what we can speak about. If we do that, we are letting the Beast (cf. Revelation 13) roam freely. Injustice must be denounced. Truth is to be proclaimed from the mountaintops.

During this election year you will never hear a partisan message from the Church nor from the pulpit of St. Denis. But you will hear things that will make members of both sides uncomfortable. We can choose to listen to the voice of Christ, as spoken by His pastors, or we can choose to give ourselves totally to a political ideology – and you might not like where that takes you! Catholic Social Teaching is sometimes called the best kept secret in the Church. Consider joining our monthly meetings as we ponder this timeless wisdom. The next one is March 5th.

In Christ,

Fr. Francis, OP

In light of the recent controversy surrounding Catholic conscience and healthcare, reprinted below is an article by Br. Ignatius Perkins, O.P., a cooperator brother of the Province of St. Joseph.  Br. Ignatius currently serves as the Dean of the School of Nursing at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee.  Before that, he served as professor and chair of the School of Nursing and dean of the College of Health and Natural Sciences of Spalding University in Louisville, Ky.; executive vice president and staff ethicist of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston; and chair of the Department of Nursing at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. While at Spalding, Brother Ignatius established the Center for the Study of Human Dignity, Ethics and Caring in Nursing.  This article first appeared on the Catholic Exchange website on October 11, 2008.

Conscience and
Catholic Health Care Professionals

“When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1777)

Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P., PhD., RN, FAAN, FNYAM
October 11, 2008

Br. Ignatius Perkins, OP

We live in a culture where health services are driven by moral relativism, commodification of the human person, the technological imperative, profitability in health services, the creep of utilitarian and impersonal ethical paradigms, escalating costs of health care, and increasing numbers of persons who are uninsured or underinsured.  The exercise of a moral conscience both in those who are sick and clinicians who have promised to help and to heal the sick is seriously compromised in this culture.   One of the major effects of the current culture is the violation of human dignity, the diminution of the human person of the clinician, and the disregard for the formation of an informed conscience in providing answers to ethical issues in health care. Further compromising human dignity in health care today is the enactment of legislative mandates that limit or compromise the clinician’s freedom in making decisions and relegates this role to that of a treatment technician.  This growing dilemma, founded on moral relativism and unbridled autonomy, prohibits Catholic clinicians and others of good will from applying the principles of the natural law, the findings of the confluence of faith, science and reason, and the process of moral assessment, analysis and judgment that can inform health care decisions. Within this culture human dignity, freedom and the right and duty to form the moral conscience, both of the sick as well as all those who care for them is removed from the person of the clinician and assumed by the state.

What does the Church teach us about the relationship between an informed conscience, the moral teaching of the Church and participating in mandated procedures that are contrary to both the conscience of health care professionals and Church teaching?  While we cannot look to the Church to solve every ethical dilemma, we do know that the Church has a centuries-old teaching authority that can be brought to bear on the threat to the freedom and obligation to act only from an informed conscience of clinicians caring for the sick and vulnerable in our world.

In this video, Fr. Andrew Carl Wisdom, O.P. discusses his admiration for St. Thomas Aquinas which prompted him to write his book, Advent and Christmas Wisdom from St. Thomas Aquinas. Available from Liguori Publications.

Fr. Andrew is the promoter of vocations for the Central Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great. He also leads retreats and workshops for campus ministries, parishes, diocesan clergy and religious, and currently resides with the Dominican Friars at St. Pius V Priory in Chicago.