1. Harmonizing Veritatis Splendor & Amoris Laetitia through Gaudete et Exsultate in light of the 5 Dubia & the Moral Tradition
In a
Presented by
Rev. James T. Bretzke, S.J., S.T.D.

2. Some Non-Controversial (hopefully) Starting Premises
Only God Can Know the Whole of Reality
For the rest of us this knowledge is necessarily incomplete and partial, and we tend to understand complex realities according to models and paradigms
Fundamental Values express assumptions about the world as a whole, human nature, institutions (such as the Church) and concomitant appropriate behavior.
Necessary Openness to Revision of All Paradigms—especially in light of new insights

3. Competing Major Paradigms
Classicist Paradigm
Historicist Paradigm
Reality is essentially the same throughout time and place
Norms clearly expressed in abstract terms & discovered deductively
Deontological do’s & don’ts often interpreted in a physicalist understanding
Persons, societies, cultures, and the world develop over time, and vary according to place
Norms are more general and open-ended & discerned inductively
Teleological stress on character and virtue development, often interpreted in a personalist understanding

4. Synod 2014 & Gay Family Members The Pirolas vs. Cardinal Burke
Friends of ours were planning their Christmas family gathering when their gay son said he wanted to bring his partner home too. They fully believed in the Church’s teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family. Their response could be summed up in three words, ‘He is our son’.
“If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are — reason teaches us that and also our faith — then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living [in] a disordered relationship with another person?”
The First Week of the Extraordinary Synod was given over to a variety of speeches from the Synod Participants. One of the most striking was from a married couple from Australia, the Pirolas, who spoke of friends who welcomed their gay son with his partner into their home, underlining he was after their son. This talk was greeted with applause in the Synod Aula, but very shortly afterwards Cardinal Burke gave a recorded TV interview in which he deplored this “acceptance” saying it would scandalize the younger members of the family and ultimately harm further the son himself who was engaged in a life-style repugnant to the natural law as well as Scripture and Church teaching. Burke: [accessed November 3, 2014]

5. Issues Angle Judgment Angle Application Angle Assumptions Features
Amoris Laetitia
Principles
Strategies
Gaudete et
Exsultate
Veritatis Splendor
Truth Claims
Goals
Judgment Angle
Application Angle

6. The Cardinals Dubia Strategy?
“What is peculiar about these inquiries is that they are worded in a way that requires a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, without theological argumentation.” (from the Cardinals’ own Commentary)
Allowing only for a “yes” or “no” answer would seem to force the Pope to repudiate either Veritatis splendor OR Amoris Laetitia pastoral discernment model.

7. Dubium #2
After the publication of the post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia (cf. n. 304), does one still need to regard as valid the teaching of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor n. 79, based on Sacred Scripture and on the Tradition of the Church, on the existence of absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts and that are binding without exceptions?

8. Dubium #4
After the affirmations of Amoris Laetitia (n. 302) on “circumstances which mitigate moral responsibility,” does one still need to regard as valid the teaching of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor n. 81, based on Sacred Scripture and on the Tradition of the Church, according to which “circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act ‘subjectively’ good or defensible as a choice”?

9. Dubium #5
After Amoris Laetitia (n. 303) does one still need to regard as valid the teaching of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor n. 56, based on Sacred Scripture and on the Tradition of the Church, that excludes a creative interpretation of the role of conscience and that emphasizes that conscience can never be authorized to legitimate exceptions to absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts by virtue of their object?

10. “Fonts of Morality” Action in se (“objective” aspect of the act)
Intention of the moral agent
Circumstances in which the agent’s intention was made and in which the action was performed
While in the tradition these aspects were treated “separately,” in reality they exist only together, and “simultaneously” 10

11. Veritatis splendor #80
These are the acts, which, in the Church's moral tradition, have been termed "intrinsically evil" (intrinsece malum): they are such always and per se, in other words, on account of their very object, and quite apart from the ulterior intentions of the one acting and the circumstances. Consequently, without in the least denying the influence on morality exercised by circumstances and especially by intentions, the Church teaches that "there exist acts which per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object."

12. The Key Point to Remember
Murder is always intrinsically evil, even if the person murdered might have been a serial pedophile. Amoris laetitia does not say that “additional” intentions and/or circumstances “transform” the object of a morally bad deed into one that is morally neutral or even good. Genuine adultery remains intrinsically evil, but just what constitutes genuine adultery may in fact vary according to particular intentions and circumstances.

13. Coram Deo: How does God see?
They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Familiaris consortio #84
it is [not] enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in “irregular” situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives. [With a] closed heart, …judging at times with superiority and superficiality difficult cases and wounded families” (AL #305).

14. Issues Angle Judgment Angle Application Angle Assumptions Features
Amoris Laetitia
Principles
Strategies
Gaudete et
Exsultate
Veritatis Splendor
Truth Claims
Goals
Judgment Angle
Application Angle

15. Harmony of Gaudete et Exsultate
104. We may think that we give glory to God only by our worship and prayer, or simply by following certain ethical norms. It is true that the primacy belongs to our relationship with God, but we cannot forget that the ultimate criterion on which our lives will be judged is what we have done for others.

16. Deus impossibilia non iubet
"God does not command of humans things which are impossible to do“
Thus, God’s grace was understood to always be present to enable people to do the morally correct thing.
Yet, we must keep in mind that if something is impossible then it cannot be commanded by God.
Remember John 10:10 on the Mission of Jesus: “I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”

17. When some of them tell the weak that all things can be accomplished with God’s grace, deep down they tend to give the idea that all things are possible by the human will, as if it were something pure, perfect, all-powerful, to which grace is then added. They fail to realize that “not everyone can do everything”, and that in this life human weaknesses are not healed completely and once for all by grace.[GE #49]

18. Mercy: Key Mark of the Divine
Mercy has two aspects. It involves giving, helping and serving others, but it also includes forgiveness and understanding. “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12). The Catechism reminds us that this law is to be applied “in every case”, especially when we are “confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult”. GE #80

19. Amid the thicket of precepts and prescriptions, Jesus clears a way to seeing two faces, that of the Father and that of our brother/sister. He does not give us two more formulas or two more commands. He gives us two faces, or better yet, one alone: the face of God reflected in so many other faces. For in every one of our brothers & sisters, especially the least, the most vulnerable, the defenceless and those in need, God’s very image is found. Indeed, with the scraps of this frail humanity, the Lord will shape his final work of art. GE #61

20. Pastoral Discernment Guidelines
Pope Francis: “When somebody has an answer for every question, it is a sign that they are not on the right road.” GE #41
Augustine In fide, unitas: in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas
"In faith, unity; in doubt, liberty; in all things, charity."
This is an important principle of Christian discernment: unity in faith is important, but in cases of doubt a plurality of opinions and practices should be allowed, and the over-riding principle must always be charity towards each other.