Secular Catholics object to Church teaching saying that the Church has failed to “keep up with the times,” especially on moral and political issues. This misconception is rooted in secular thinking and built upon a false paradigm. Secular Catholics look at the world through some non-Catholic cultural or political lens, causing them to want to change much of Church teaching.
We are often asked to defend—indeed, even by many Catholics—why the Church continues to teach a certain position on everything from birth control to same-sex marriage. The culture, they say, has clearly evolved on such issues. What reasons, however, are there to believe that this “evolution” of viewpoints is real progress? Many don’t even ask this question of themselves. Instead, they hold the implicit presumption that whatever is novel must be good. This assumption flies in the face of what most Christians, and, indeed, most people, have believed about life since time immemorial: that things need to be tested in order to prove their value and worth. And that includes ideas and attitudes toward morality.
Morality is not like the advancement of technology or science. They are completely separate kinds of knowledge. Science and technology are empirical; they deal with what is, and what we can do, based upon the physical laws of nature. Morality is rooted in philosophy, theology, and common moral sense. It treats the question of what we should do based on the deeper meaning of who we are as human beings, and our relation to the world around us.
Morality, then, makes judgments upon the advancements of science and technology. It does this in two areas: 1) how we arrived at these advances, and 2) how we make use of these advances. For example, babies are sometimes aborted in order to provide “material” for medical advances. Sound morality has something to say about that. Some technological developments or discoveries, in physics for example, are used for the slaughter of countless people. Morality has something to say about that too. How, then, are to determine truly right from wrong behavior?
Let’s establish some fundamentals on how the Catholic Church approaches the moral life.
- Contrary to moral relativism, which says “whatever I believe is right, is right for me,” the Catholic Church’s moral teaching is never arbitrary;
- Morality is ultimately grounded in God;
- Morality is proximately grounded in human nature.
To the first point, the Catholic Church bases her moral teachings on the solid ground of both God’s revelation and on human nature. Thus, to understand Catholic moral teaching is to understand the blueprint for human flourishing. God made us; so we should live according to His commands, and according to the very patterns that He has established in our nature. Morality, then, is not arbitrary, and therefore is not something that oppresses us. Morality is rational, and is therefore able to liberate us.
The second point is related. To make sense of good and evil, there must be some transcendent standard that we are assuming. As C.S. Lewis once remarked, you cannot make sense of a crooked line without first understanding the concept of a straight line. But, we find no instances of perfect goodness in the material world, only of deficiency.
God, then, provides a sound foundation for objective moral values and obligations. God is the fullness of being as such, with no limits, lacks, boundaries, privations, or defects. God just is that perfectly good standard by which all moral assessments are ultimately performed. No God = no morality. This is true whether the person acting morally believes in God, or not.
The third point is also related. While morality is ultimately determined by God, it can be discerned by reflecting upon human nature. This approach is known as traditional natural law. Here is a condensed account of it: we say something is good when it exemplifies (or gets close to exemplifying) an ideal instance of the kind of thing it is. For example, we say that a dog with only three legs is not “whole.” We may still love such dogs and care for them, but we can see that something which should be there (a fourth leg), is not there. A due good is missing, a “privation.” Such privation is the hallmark of badness.
Morality enters the discussion with rational animals, those with intellect and will. Intellect and will allow rational animals to choose freely, pursuing what is good or evil. What, then, determines what is truly good for us? The short answer is: human nature (although our nature is more complicated than other animals). Reflecting upon our nature can help us to discover what is good and what is bad for us, and therefore what is right or wrong for us to do.
For example, human nature includes the power of reason, the fulfilment of which is truth. It follows that it is good for humans to use reason to know truth and avoid error. But, part of coming to know the truth is coming to know the source of all truth, namely God. This means that part of our perfection as humans is inherently bound up in our coming to know God. To will against God, then, (in any way) is an immoral act, because it is pointing a person away from their proper end. Therefore, all blasphemy, idolatry, and atheism is immoral, for each of these things is contrary to human nature.
If reason has a proper end, then so do the other faculties of the human person. Eyesight, for example, is for seeing, and so it would be immoral for a person to gouge out his or her eyes intentionally. The digestive faculty is for nutrition, and so acts of bulimia are wrong. Lastly, the sexual faculty has the proper end of reproduction, and so behaviors that make use of the sexual faculty while at the same time harming the good of reproduction, are immoral. To frustrate willfully the natural end (or perfection) of any of these faculties is disordered and an inherently immoral act.
When we recognize abuses, as in these examples, it is our intuition of the natural law. In such moments, we don’t use semi-technical jargon, we just act on common sense: “that’s wrong!” or “that’s gross!” Scripture recognizes this intuition when it teaches that the natural law is written on our hearts. What the Church teaches on morality is grounded both on philosophical reflection of this kind, and on God’s revelation. The ethical project can begin with reason, but must let God’s revelation complete it.
Secular Catholics usually need to be educated on proper moral reasoning. Now that we’ve explored Natural Law Theory, let’s see how we might engage a “Secular Catholic” in a real-life conversation.
[Evangelist stands near a street corner with rosaries in hand. He smiles and says hello to passerby.]
Evangelist: Would you like a rosary?
Passerby: Oh sure, why not. You can never have too many of these [chuckles]!
E: You’re a Catholic?
P: I am, yeah, the thing is I think the Catholic Church is holding onto a lot of baggage; they’re just making more problems for themselves.
E: Can you give me an example?
P: Sure, take gay people: how can they ever feel welcome in the Church? [Shakes head] The Church really needs to get with the times as society has evolved.
E: Well, there are many who feel that way. What I find so attractive about the Catholic Church is the consistency of its moral teachings. Let me ask you, what do you think makes an action moral or immoral?
P: If someone consents to an activity, and if it’s not harming anyone, then I don’t see a problem.
E: Ok, what about if someone wanted to kill themselves? Would that be ok?
P: I personally would never kill myself, but, if that’s what a person really wants, then why should anybody stop them?
E: Yes, I understand that. After all, a person’s freedom to make decisions is tied into what makes us human. But how could we value a “personal” decision that leads to somebody’s death?
P: OK, but suicide is an extreme example.
E: True, but it is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon. In this example, I’ve tried to show that just because we can make a decision, just the ability to choose something doesn’t make it right or good. So there has to be another way to figure out how something is right or wrong.
P: Maybe, but what does any of this have to do with the Church’s obsession with peoples’ sex lives?
E: Well, if we are going to talk about what is right or wrong, it will come down to a couple of areas: namely the human person, and the way that the Church understands that.
P: Ok, go on.
E: It is the Church’s job to get people to heaven. No one, however, goes to heaven without loving God. Part of what it means to love God is to accept that we have been created in His image and likeness. In practical terms, truth means we are created in a certain way and we have to act accordingly. The Church provides the means to do this, primarily through receiving the sacraments, but also guiding people in the moral life, to live a good life.
P: Ok, I think I know where you are going with this, but how does what I do in private matter?
E: Well, morality is not simply a question of ‘what should I do?’ It is also about ‘how should I live?’ That question includes things like character, social interactions, how we treat ourselves, etc.
P: But how can what goes on in one’s bedroom, for instance, affect society at large?
E: It doesn’t necessarily, but we can’t say that morality doesn’t apply to something done in private either.
P: What do you mean?
E: Morality does not cease to exist at your bedroom door. It applies to actions that you do both in public as well as in private.
P: You can’t be serious?!
E: I am! After all: “it’s not what a man does publicly that reveals his character. Rather, it is what he does when he is alone.”
P: Yes, I’ve heard that saying before but I don’t think it applies in this context.
E: But it does apply here. If things like morality and character don’t apply to something done “in private,” then that saying makes no sense. Private actions reveal inner character, and the inner characters of people affect their public actions and eventually reverberate out into the larger society.
P: Ok, I see your point there, but what about the fact that many gay people don’t feel welcome at church?
E: Well, what do you mean unwelcome? Were they insulted by someone at the door or do they feel unwelcome because their lifestyle is not accepted by the Church?
P: I think it is most likely the second reason.
E: I agree. Some people don’t feel welcome knowing that their behavior is at odds with Church teaching.
P: Ok, but that’s my point. That teaching needs to change!
E: What if the teaching is for their own good? Let’s use another example. Think of bulimia. People shouldn’t eat and then make themselves throw up, right? And when you hear of that, we naturally think, “That seems wrong. People shouldn’t do that!” Why do we think that? Well, human actions have a proper end, and the proper end of eating is not the pleasure of the food, but the nutrition it gives us.
P: What does this have to do with sex, though?
E: Sex also has a proper end that’s part of nature: procreation. Within that act, there is a union formed between a man and a woman, which is essential to the proper rearing of children. Same-sex behavior can never result in procreation. It is therefore sinful. The Church, then, could never endorse it.
P: Isn’t that a little harsh? I mean, is it really any of our business to meddle in people’s sex lives?
E: I think that the question really comes down to whether we think sexual moral norms must exist. If they do, then we should care for other people’s moral and spiritual health.
P: But, again, what people decide to do is not necessarily any of my business.
E: Well, let me ask you, if you took away a drunken friend’s car keys and called them a cab, is that good or bad?
P: well, that’s good.
E: So, you’re telling me that denying a drunk person their ability to drive themselves home is good?
P: Well, yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t want them to get hurt!
E: That [pauses for a second] is exactly my point. We believe that when someone uses God’s great gift of sexuality in the wrong way, they hurt themselves and their relationship with God.
P: [Thinks for a moment] OK, I can’t say I’m entirely sold, but I see what you’re saying. [sighs] You’ve given me something to think about.
E: Thank you for the conversation! Before you go, can I give you this pamphlet/booklet? You might find it helpful and interesting.
P: Thanks, that’d be good. What do you have? [E hands P information]
In the end, the Church does not simply teach us what the moral life is, but, like a mother, feeds us so that we have the strength to live it. While we can understand moral behavior through Catholic teaching, we can only live morally by allowing God to perfect us through the prayer and Sacraments of the Church.