1	Fundamental Moral Principles Rev. Edward James Richard, MS, D. Th. M., J. D.
2	The Legal Subculture Seeking consistency within itself
3	Justice Reduced to a series of legally prescribed relationships Justice is about keeping the positive law
4	The Body, Love, Marriage Love is reduced to romantic love Television, movies Popular Music Popular Literature
5	Impact on Christian formation What is the degree of influence of cultural media on the values that most Americans hold?
6	Law and its Origin The Declaration of Independence The Law of Nature and Nature’s God Rerum novarum (1891) God’s wisdom supplies reason with certain criteria for honest judgment Civil laws receive their authority from eternal law. Rights of ownership for the exercise of freedom established in creation of creatures with reason The nature of the human being established limits upon the State
7	Law’s Origin Rerum novarum The guidance of God’s providence The failure to acknowledge God and his relationship to us as persons (the only persons in the universe with a body) will inevitably lead to corruption of justice, law, and freedom
8	Blackstone’s Commentaries 1765-1769 Foremost law book in England and US Played a significant role in development of US legal system
9	Blackstone Those rights then which God and nature have established, and are therefore call natural rights such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectively invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable.
10	Blackstone On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture. Neither do divine or natural duties (such as, for instance, the worship of God, the maintenance of children, and the like) receive any stronger sanction from being also declared to be duties of the law of the land.
11	Morality-Obligation or Attraction Is morality predominantly about doing good about the obligation of keeping the law? Doing “good” and keeping the law are two very different approaches to morality Doing that which is truly good cannot be addressed without a concept of human person
12	Jeremy Bentham Principle of utility Unwittingly, the concept of human dignity suffers a terrible blow The law can be changed now without reference to the truth about the human person, created body and soul in the image of God
13	Utilitarian Concept of Human Person “If this crisis (on the level of civilization) deepens, utilitarianism will increasingly reduce human beings to objects for manipulation” “Because the spiritual crisis of our times is fact a flight from God, it is at the same time a flight from the truth about the human person.”
14	William James The influence of the Pragmatists Between 1881 …and the 1930’s there was a dramatic reorientation in American legal thought…During the middle decades of this century (20^th) this body of ideas which I call pragmatic instrumentalism, was our most influential theory of law in jurisprudential circles…Robert Summers, Cornell
15	Freedom Under the “New” Law Has the freedom concept articulated by the US Supreme Ct increased human flourishing?
16	Pius XI The whole problem of this pontificate centered around philosophies which repudiated God The Church, it was argued, was an affront to human freedom (Cf. Quadragessimo Anno, social justice)
17	Pius XI The notion of the State that made the human being the absolute subject of the State But human dignity has certain claims to make in the area of free enterprise, ex. Just wage, right to organize This was not always recognized by the alleged voices of freedom
18	The Effects of Destabilizing the Law Social theories affecting family life are of greatest concern to the Popes Two-fold attack Workers rights, social stability-priority of persons over things reversed The meaning of the human body, human family, sexuality-devalued when human action looses it fundamental moral meaning based upon a concept of the person
19	The Basic Moral Question Who are we? Why is that the issue for morals? Catholic Morality is a morality of attraction Corresponding to the philosophical explanation for love of any kind as a basic willing for fulfillment The truth about that is not established by positivist legislation
20	The Moral Life Human Being-as is
21	Human Person CCC 1700 “The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God.”
22	Human Creation a spiritual and immortal soul, 1703, which is the form of the body reason by which the person is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator;
23	Human Creation 1704 and will by which the human person is capable of directing himself toward the true good of the person 1705 the spiritual powers of intellect and will give rise to freedom which allows one to choose the good unlike the animals, we are free to reject our end
24	Inclinations and Nature There are basic inclinations which are causes of our willing the things we want. know the truth seek the good self-preservation life in society procreation through the sexual faculty
25	Inclinations and Nature These things basically constitute human nature. These indicate human goods The things that these incline us towards are human goods and we are attracted to them by virtue of our nature. The goals are not unattainable (however, not without grace).
26	Morality of Attraction Catholic morality is a morality of attraction based upon our natural (ontological) love for the goods to which we are inclined; goods which attract us through the senses are always subject to regulation by our higher spiritual power of reason (the measure of human acts) in order that our acts may be truly human
27	Morality of Obligation Morality of Attraction can be distinguished from what can be called a morality of obligation which focuses predominantly on precepts and commands at the expense of a fair treatment of reason, grace, virtue, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
28	Happiness and the Goal of the Moral Life The Goal is Happiness Happiness is having the good we are attracted to. Happiness, as a passion, is the result of possessing a thing desired
29	Happiness and Morality The desire for happiness is of divine origin. God has placed it in our hearts in order to draw us to himself. 1718 This does not mean, as some would take it, sense pleasure, but the satisfaction of truly human loves which are in accord with our higher nature and consistent with our eternal vocation.
30	Happiness and Christ The specifically Christian dimension is the revelation of the Goal, the Beatitudes define human Happiness 1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. 1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence.
31	Happiness and Christ A challenge and a call to follow along the path of Jesus Christ who “in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation.” GS 22 Beatitudes indicate that the goal is beyond merely human power
32	Beatitudes 1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is ... found ... in God alone, the source of every good and of all love... .
33	Justification The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us ... and to communicate to us the “righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (1987) Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. ... With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted. 1991
34	Justification Justification establishes cooperation between God’s grace and human freedom. 1993 This makes us capable of acting righteously and meritoriously for our own eternal happiness. The merit of the human person before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate the human person with the work of his grace. 2008
35	Freedom Under the influence of philosophies which disregard the truth about human nature the notion of freedom has become distorted 1731 Freedom is the power rooted in reason and will to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. It attains its perfection when it is directed toward God
36	Freedom and Morality Human Being
37	Human Freedom Human Nature The image of God
38	Freedom for the Good Human Nature
39	Freedom: The ability to choose the Good Human freedom is the God-given ability to choose the means to our ultimate end The End (telos) presupposes a nature Morality is about the means toward fulfillment of our nature
40	Freedom under Voluntarism Freedom is the ability to choose between contraries It does not flow out of human nature
41	Freedom under Voluntarism
42	Law and Morality If we compare the current trend in law with the traditional relationship between law and morality, the result of the interest in legal theory in social engineering has been a diminishment of familial cohesion and a reformulation of the notion of freedom, once seen as an inalienable right, to a radical idea unrelated to the human person as such
43	Human Freedom Whereas freedom was once a product of a very dynamic notion of human nature, an attribute capable of growth and perfection, it has become a static notion radically separated from the truth about the human person.
44	Human Nature, Natural Law Eternal Law-Divine Reason that orders all things Natural law is the participation of the Eternal Law in the rational creature Not the “laws of nature”
45	Natural Law and Natural Inclinations The basic inclinations of human nature. know the truth seek the good self-preservation life in society procreation through the sexual faculty First precepts of NL are the inclinations expressed in the form of precept
46	Freedom and Natural Law Freedom and the Natural Law are not in opposition Both flow out of the notion of human nature Both related to the concept of creation in God’s image, body and soul Both freedom and natural inclinations point toward the human good
47	Freedom, Natural Law and Conscience Formation Image of God
48	Conscience and Voluntarism The distorted notion of freedom, one unrelated to human nature and the perfection of that nature, results in a notion of conscience which is also distorted. Under the influence of voluntaristic freedom, one can assert a creative of notion of conscience that is unrelated to the fulfillment of what it means to be a human
49	Predominance of the Holy Spirit The New Law of the Gospel is the perfection on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. 1965 The New Law is the Grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. 1966
50	Grace of the Holy Spirit Works a transformation in the believer The merit of the human person before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. 2008 grace establishes a “new creation,” a new personality through joinder to Jesus Christ
51	Opposition “Faith sows in the believer the seed of a true change in personality which St. Paul describes in terms of the opposition between “the old man” and “the new man” We must realize that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. . . .You must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin; you should instead offer yourselves to God” (Rom 6:6,13)
52	Conversion The task of conversion is understood in this context. The result of faith in Christ and union to him is a total transformation.
53	Conversion This provides the background for a discussion of virtues and vices. On the one hand is life according to the flesh. It is full of false hope, deceitful desires, and illusions. It leads to death. On the other is the life according to the Spirit. It is led by the Holy Spirit and is drawn to spiritual things. This gives life and peace (Rom 8:5-11).
54	Sin Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."
55	Morality of Human Acts The moral evaluation of human acts depends upon conformity to the good The object-which the will directs itself toward The intention-reason for acting All can be evaluated in light of human goods consistent with human nature
56	Virtue A habitual and firm disposition to do the good 1803
57	Moral Catechesis 1697 Catechesis has to reveal in all clarity the joy and the demands of the way of Christ. Catechesis for the "newness of life" in him should be: - a catechesis of the Holy Spirit, the interior Master of life according to Christ, a gentle guest and friend who inspires, guides, corrects, and strengthens this life; - a catechesis of grace, for it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life; - a catechesis of the beatitudes, for the way of Christ is summed up in the beatitudes, the only path that leads to the eternal beatitude for which the human heart longs; - a catechesis of sin and forgiveness, for unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself, which is a condition for acting justly; and without the offer of forgiveness he would not be able to bear this truth;
58	Moral Catechesis 1697 - a catechesis of the human virtues which causes one to grasp the beauty and attraction of right dispositions towards goodness; - a catechesis of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity, generously inspired by the example of the saints; - a catechesis of the twofold commandment of charity set forth in the Decalogue; - an ecclesial catechesis, for it is through the manifold exchanges of "spiritual goods" in the "communion of saints" that Christian life can grow, develop, and be communicated.