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

In my Apologia for the Orthodoxy of Amoris Laetitia (“AL”), I noted AL has engendered a number of doubts as to its Catholic orthodoxy, including from lay Catholics on social media. One such lay Catholic with whom I have interacted on Twitter, Mark Lambert, has taken the opportunity to critically (but respectfully) engage with my … Continue reading De Omnibus Dubitandum Est – A Dialogue

Introduction The Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis Amoris Laetitia, and his letter to the Bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region confirming its implication for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, has engendered a number of doubts (or dubia) as to its Catholic orthodoxy. These objections have come from the all levels in the … Continue reading Amoris Laetitia – An Apologia for its Orthodoxy

This objection, as stated in the first Dubia of the four Cardinals, is that it is not: “[P]ossible to grant absolution in the sacrament of penance, and thus to admit to holy Communion a person who, while bound by a valid marital bond, lives together with a different person more uxorio without fulfilling the conditions … Continue reading 1.0 Mortal Sin

This objection, as stated in the second, fourth and fifth Dubia of the four Cardinals, is that it must be affirmed as valid that: Absolute moral norms exist that prohibit intrinsically evil acts and which are binding without exceptions (VS 79). Circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its … Continue reading 2.0 Intrinsic Evil