How culture affects morality

THE EDITOR: Thank you Joan Moore for your response to my letter of June 4. My sincere apologies on Galileo — Galileo was found guilty of heresy in 1633 and condemned to lifelong imprisonment. It was only on October 31, 1992 some 350 years after his death that John Paul II on behalf of the Catholic Church admitted that errors had been made by the theological advisors in the case against Galileo. The Pope, however, did not admit that the Church was wrong to convict Galileo on a charge of heresy because of his belief that the earth rotates around the sun! So yes, how the Church has dealt, and continues to deal, with those who oppose her is relevant. This is something that we must be aware of and take into consideration as we listen and make attempts to heed the Church’s teaching.

Secondly, nowhere in my letter do I imply that there are only ten sins, what is said most explicitly is that the inference that homosexuality is against the Sixth Commandment is purely Catholic theology. A statement no doubt supported by Ms Moore for she makes great insistence in quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church in support of her statement. And that is exactly my point — this new Catechism of the Church makes every attempt to dot every “I” and cross every “t” of the law. We have a great letter of the law and very little spirit! Are we not required to reason, think, make our own decisions? Didn’t Jesus chastise a similar group for doing this in his time? Can the Catholic Church define morality for the whole world — even, the non-Christian world? I am not sure that this realistically be so.

In some parts of the world, polygamy is the norm. Such a cultural practice would bring with it its own morality. Does the church then, proclaim the morality surrounding such a practice is wrong, because the Church teaches monogamy? In some Catholic countries, fire walking, and actual crucifixions are part of devotional practices of the faithful. The Church hierarchy in these countries has frowned upon these practices, have spoken repeatedly against them. Yet the faithful persist because it is a cultural expression of their faith, and while the Church may say that theologically such practices are “inaccurate” expressions, she has not stated that these cultural manifestations of faith and devotion are immoral. Morality does have a cultural basis; our concept of morality, our practice of morality has a basis in what is deemed by our culture — including the religious aspects of our culture — as good and acceptable. And the practice of what is good differs culturally.

Ms Moore states that “Morality is truth and truth does not change” — yes, it is seemingly still heretical in 1992 to say the earth revolves the sun, and that each and every male sperm is an immature male baby simply in need of incubation! “What God has forbidden in ages past is still forbidden,” and if I remember from my biblical reading there are 616 mitzvahs, expounded on and yet there is no attempt by the Church to have her followers obey these laws. Why? I think many of them are cultural! It is important to note that no Pope has spoken ex-cathedra on faith and morals since the mid-nineteenth century. For it is only when a  Pope speaks ex-cathedra that the faithful are bound — under pain of sin — to obey. Since the reams of documents and encyclicals issued since the mid-nineteenth century were not issued ex-cathedra — the faithful are not compelled to obey. These documents, encyclicals, etc then have been given as guidelines to the faithful. Ms Moore will correct me if I am wrong here, but I believe no Pope has ever spoken ex-cathedra on “morals.”

As Ms Moore has rightly said, the Commandments were given to us by God. But the Catechism was given to us by the Church, please let us not mix the two. God is bigger than the Church, and if the Church is to be of relevance in the 21st Century she must grow. And all growth is change — whether it was to “silence” the Judaisers in the 1st century or in the 20th century, to go from the Penny Catechism to the New Catechism, to go from saying that the issue of the death penalty is a matter for governments to decide or to the declaration that just falls short of stating that no country should have need of it.

Even from Popes that remained locked in the Vatican, to a Pope who is a world wide traveler, and even to a Pope that excommunicates a Third-World theologian and has to bow to the vox populae and “re-communicate” him a few months after!! Ms Moore, I laud your love of the New Catechism of the Catholic Church, and of Church herself. May God in turn grant you eyes to see . . . a more wholistic view!

MARY SALANDY
Port-of-Spain