1. THE BACKGROUND[1] Dr Gerhard Höver, a Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy of Life since 25 July 2017[2], recently published an article called “Time is greater than space”: Moral-theological reflections on the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation[3]. This article, which has elicited some negative public commentary, argues in the words of its abstract that based on … Continue reading Time is Greater than Space – A Review of Gerhard Höver

The ability of Pope Francis to alter the sacramental discipline of the Church in relation to the divorced and remarried is sometimes defended on the basis that, in the details of its application, this discipline has been subject to alteration before Amoris Laetitia. A valid example which can be given in favour of this argument … Continue reading History of the Brother and Sister Solution

It has sometimes been said, rightly or wrongly I don’t know, that the Reformation could be understood in a sense as an argument between different aspects drawn from the thought of St Augustine of Hippo. Whatever the truth of that assertion, I think it may be possible to similarly think of the arguments regarding Holy … Continue reading Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1991 Tablet Correspondence

THE INTERNAL FORUM  Theodore Davey In 1973 the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Seper, issued a statement which was highly critical, to say the least, of ‘new opinions which either deny or attempt to call into doubt the teaching of the magisterium of the Church on the indissolubility … Continue reading The Internal Forum

LETTER TO THE TABLET Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Sir: Please permit me to correct two misrepresentations of my position which appeared in your publication. The first concerns the doctrine of papal primacy … The second misrepresentation concerns the problem of divorce and remarriage as presented by Theodore Davey in the issue of 27 July 1991. Fr … Continue reading Letter to The Tablet

Contemporary Moral Theology Volume 1 – Questions in Fundamental Moral Theology – By John C. Ford and Gerald Kelly Fr. John Cuthbert Ford, SJ (1902-1989) was one of the leading American Catholic moralists of the 20th century. Writing in the year of Father Ford’s death, Richard McCormick, S.J., could still vividly recall a time when … Continue reading John C. Ford, Contemporary Moral Theology & Amoris Laetitia

Contemporary Moral Theology Volume 1 – Questions in Fundamental Moral Theology – By John C. Ford and Gerald Kelly Chapter 2 – Doctrinal Value and Interpretation of Papal Teaching At the Annual Meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America in 1949, a paper read by Eugene M. Burke C.S.P,1 devoted considerable space to the … Continue reading Chapter 2 – Doctrinal Value and Interpretation of Papal Teaching

Contemporary Moral Theology Volume 1 – Questions in Fundamental Moral Theology – By John C. Ford and Gerald Kelly  Extracts on Reduced Culpability (all emphasis added and footnotes omitted) Chapter 8 – Situation Ethics: Some Further Observations – Page 127 For instance, as we shall explain later, some Catholic authors have gone entirely too far … Continue reading Chapters 8 to 11 – Extracts on Reduced Culpability