William Saletan, in Slate, has this set of quotes:
“According to the teaching of Jesus, it is God who has joined man and woman together in the marital bond. Certainly this union takes place with the free consent of both parties, but this human consent concerns a plan that is divine. . . . To treat indissolubility not as a natural juridical norm but as a mere ideal empties of meaning the unequivocal declaration of Jesus Christ, who absolutely refused divorce because “from the beginning it was not so” . . . [P]rofessionals in the field of civil law should avoid being personally involved in anything that might imply a cooperation with divorce.” [Emphasis in original.]
— Address of John Paul II to the prelate auditors, officials and advocates of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, Jan. 28, 2002
“The parents of Terri Schiavo asked a judge to allow the severely brain-damaged woman to divorce her husband—even if she dies—in one of a flurry of 11 new motions filed by the couple. In the divorce motion filed Monday, Bob and Mary Schindler accused Michael Schiavo of adultery and not acting in his wife’s best interests.”
— Associated Press, March 1, 2005
“During the hearing in Tampa, the chief lawyer for Ms. Schiavo’s parents . . . David Gibbs, also said Ms. Schiavo’s religious beliefs as a Roman Catholic were being infringed because Pope John Paul II has deemed it unacceptable for Catholics to refuse food and water. ‘We are now in a position where a court has ordered her to disobey her church and even jeopardize her eternal soul,’ Mr. Gibbs said.”
— New York Times, March 22, 2005
Like many of these Slate quote-only items, this one gives no analysis or explanation. Still, my sense is that this is somehow trying to suggest that Ms. Schiavo’s lawyer or parents are acting inconsistently, or that good Catholics should oppose their actions. Read it yourself and see whether that’s your interpretation.
Yet if that’s the claim, isn’t there a pretty obvious response? I’m by no stretch of the imagination an expert on Catholicism, but I would think that Catholic teachings recognize that even really important principles (such as “no divorce”) may have to yield when they run up against a more important principle (such as “preserve human life”). This doesn’t mean that the first principle is wrong or insignificant, only that even important moral rules that are usually stated categorically might have some extraordinary exceptions.
My understanding, for instance, is that most Orthodox Jews believe that the commandment of not working on the Sabbath should be violated when such work is needed to save a life. Likewise, I’d guess that most Catholic scholars would conclude that if a divorce is really necessary to save a life, it would be proper. Divorces are almost never necessary to save a life, so the statements against divorce tend not to include such provisos; but it doesn’t follow that it’s somehow inconsistent or improper to recognize that such a proviso is implicit.
Please correct me if I’m mistaken as to the Catholic teachings, or if I’m misinterpreting the Slate column. Perhaps the author is simply making the point that I’m making, which is that even categorical rules sometimes have extraordinary exceptions (which are understandably not included when the rule is asserted, precisely because they are so extraordinary), and that sound religious reasoning must thus sometimes involve reconciling two contradictory rules. But if the author is trying to suggest an inconsistency, I think he’s mistaken.
(None of this speaks to what should be the right result in the Schiavo case, of course; I’m making only the limited point I outline above.)
UPDATE: The author posted this on Slate‘s discussion board, “The Fray”:
Subject: I changed the title of the item
from “Cafeteria Catholics” to “Religious Liberty.”
I posted the quotes without editorial comment precisely because this is a profound and wrenching case. I just wanted to put the three pieces out there so people could seriously discuss the relationships and differences among them.
I ruined the spirit of that editorial silence by tacking on a headline that implied a conclusion and was more clever than wise. I apologize.
I much appreciate the author’s apology, but it still seems to me that the mere juxtaposition of the quotes isn’t really that helpful. This is a profound and wrenching case, but not, I think, because for Catholics it might require a violation of the rule against a divorce. I’d think that to a Catholic that would be an easy decision, given the countervailing interest — preserving a life. In fact, as various people have pointed out, the very same Papal address from which the Slate piece quotes also says, two paragraphs below the Slate-quoted material:
Lawyers, as independent professionals, should always decline the use of their profession for an end that is contrary to justice, as is divorce. They can only cooperate in this kind of activity when, in the intention of the client, it is not directed to the break-up of the marriage, but to the securing of other legitimate effects that can only be obtained through such a judicial process in the established legal order . . . .
I would think that protecting a person’s life would be a classic example of “the securing of other legitimate effects.”
FURTHER UPDATE: Steve Bainbridge has some Catholic philosophy thoughts on the subject.
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