martedì 21 ottobre 2008

To George Weigel  I asked  what he learned from Pope John Paul II about culture, because I believe it applies to any culture.  We in the USA do not give much thought to what our culture has become, but we are not immune to not developing a common " faith, literature and language".  Most Americans today probably do not even agree on what Thomas Jefferson meant when writing the Declaration of Independence that we came together as one nation to defend life( all lives, not just a select class), liberty( for all) and pursuit of happiness ( for all, not just Wall Street bankers and their political friends). This reflections are important in the current Election Debate.

 

What  was Pope John Paul II  thinking when he would ask the question: how goes the culture?

John Paul II was a Pole and  Poles have a distinctive view of the dynamics of history. Because Poland the nation survived the vivisection and destruction of Poland the state in 1795 through its culture, indeed survived with such vigor that a new Polish state could be born in 1918.   John Paul II grew up with the idea that culture is, over the long haul, the most dynamic force in history.

And at the heart of culture is "cult": what men and women cherish, honor, and worship; what they're willing to stake their lives and their children's lives on. The Pope was also aware of the great failure of Weimar Germany : a democratic political edifice built on a wholly inadequate culture base - so he understood the importance of a vibrant public moral culture in a democracy. Democracy needs a public moral culture capable of forming the kind of citizens who can make democracy and the free economy work so that the net result of free politics and free economics is genuine human flourishing.

How might John Paul II assess the culture of the practice of medicine in the USA at this moment in time ? 

You can get a window into his concerns by reading the 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae [The Gospel of Life], in which he discusses at length, and with passion, how desperately wrongheaded moral judgments (e.g., on abortion and euthanasia) can corrupt the professions as well as the rule of law.

How would  Pope John Paul II  view  the argument going on between groups like American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (which has proposed to limit the exercise of conscience by doctors or physicians in training  who wish to not participate in anything related to abortion practices) and the position of the Catholic Medical Association  to defend the natural right of any health professional to exercise their conscience and not participate in any action, like abortion, which compromises the life of a human being ( even  the current secretary of the Dept. of HHS  has  proposed a new rule to enforce existing law to protect rights of conscience in the workplace for medical doctors when refusing to participate in abortion practices)?

He would certainly be on the side of the good guys here: a law that compels doctors to do what is objective moral evil is false law, and must be resisted.

In your biography of John Paul II  you write:  Theology of the Body is a " theological time bomb waiting to go off".  Is there any signs that the fuse is still lit, at least within the Catholic Church?

It's already gone off among a large number of dedicated Catholic young people, who see in the theology of the body an alternative to the sex-as-potentially-deadly-contact-sport miasma of the culture. It's certainly had an effect on marriage preparation programs, and it's the subject of a lot of work by renewal movements and groups. I'm also struck by the amount of scholarly interest in the theology of the body, measured by doctoral dissertations, etc.

Do you see any evidence that this fuse, lit by John Paul II is igniting a  sociological timebomb anytime soon?  By that I mean an appreciation that the sexes compliment each other? That the opposite sexes reflect  God’s gift of himself?

You can't turn around a decadent culture that's been forming for two hundred years in a generation. But at least we've now got the tools to begin the job.

Given that the Supreme court of the state of Connecticut  by a 4-3 vote has now decreed that marriage will be made legal for same -sex  couples, despite the state legislature action to the contrary,  in your opinion are we seeing this latter day form of Gnosticism that you describe , predominantly in the  nations that called themselves “developed" ?

Yes, the notion that "marriage," the primordial sacrament, can mean anything we want it to mean is about as pure a form of Gnosticism as you can find.

How do you square that this trend to deny the exercise of conscientious objection   in health care   appears predominantly (if not always)  to involve the realm of sex and its consequences, like procured abortion ?

Abortion is not a matter of sexual morality, but of public justice: the fifth commandment, not the sixth. If, on the other hand,  you're talking about prescribing contraceptives, etc., it's no accident that the New Gnostics want to use state power to coerce the Catholic conscience, because the Catholic Church is the last major, nationwide institutional barrier to their victory and the victory of the dictatorship of relativism.

There were about 20 medical students and a few pre-medical students in attendance at the CMA meeting.  They met privately with  more seasoned physicians of the Catholic Medical Association for questions and answers.  The theme of the questions again seemed to focus on how to maintain their personal integrity when as  students  they  are expected to learn.   Many seemed to convey the message that medical ethics is being taught to them as simply leaving behind who you are and give the patient what they want or what the culture or the law dictates. What might Pope  John Paul II say to these  bright and eager  students?

That they can't compromise their own integrity, and that they can surely find ways to do that.   

John Paul II had not a few occasions when he was the subject of medical evaluation and attention.  What was his view of the right place or time for involvement of the patient in medical decisions that would either have a potential for helping or even aggravating a health problem?

In “Witness to hope”, you'll find numerous occasion when the late Pope asserted his rights as a patient-person with his doctors.

(Robert F.Conkling)

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