Abstract
In opposition to Josef Ratzinger’s claim that the portrayal of conscience in Gaudium et Spes is Pelagian, this chapter argues that the historical debate over the relationship between human freedom and grace is at the heart of the Council fathers’ rendering and others’ disagreement with them. The Council fathers sought to affirm the freedom of each individual’s conscience as a matter of human dignity while maintaining a concern to avoid moral relativism. After the Council the position on conscience of John Paul II, which aligned with the pre-conciliar notion even in 1988, did not find its way into magisterial documents. Instead, the understanding of conscience found in Gaudium et Spes and carried forward thereafter relies on a theological anthropology that is optimistic about the possibilities of human freedom and the gratuitousness of grace. Human dignity, then, necessitates the opportunity for persons to develop their conscience in freedom, though in a “dialectical unity” with duty and the authority of the magisterium.
It is, however, only in freedom that man [sic] can turn himself towards what is good. The people of our time prize freedom very highly and strive eagerly for it. In this they are right. Yet they often cherish it improperly, as if it gave them leave to do anything they like, even when it is evil. But that which is truly freedom is an exceptional sign of the image of God in man. For God willed that man should “be left in the hand of his own counsel” (Eccl. 15:10) so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him. Man’s dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward towards his goal by freely choosing what is good, and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end. Since human freedom has been weakened by sin it is only by the help of God’s grace that man can give his actions their full and proper relationship to God. Before the judgment seat of God an account of his own life will be rendered to each one according as he has done either good or evil. (Cf. 2 Cor 5:10) (GS 17)
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Notes
- 1.
From June 21 to June 24, 2001, a joint expert meeting of researchers from St. Joseph Theological Institute and Tilburg Faculty of Theology took place in Tilburg on the topic of Contextual Theology – Doing Theology in South Africa and the Netherlands. Cf. Juxtaposing Contexts. Doing contextual theology in South Africa and the Netherlands, ed. Nico Schreurs and Thomas Plastow (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2003).
- 2.
Cf. the historical study by Tessa Leesen, Tussen hamer en aambeeld. De Theologische Faculteit Tilburg op het snijvlak van wetenschap, kerk en samenleving [Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Tilburg Faculty of Theology on the Intersection between Science, Church and Society] (Nijmegen: Valkhof Pers, 2004); esp. at 64–123: Hoofdstuk II – “1967–1974.”
- 3.
Other sources express the same idea in somewhat different wordings. Cf. Albert Nolan O.P., “Foreword,” in Vatican II: Kee** the Dream Alive – Denis Hurley OMI (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2005), ix: “Hurley spoke of the Council as ‘the great revolution that was taking place in the Catholic Church.’” Or Günter Simmermacher, Hurley Remembers Vatican II, in The Southern Cross, April 2, 2005: “[Hurley observed that the presence of so many scholars who had been called to Rome to assist with the work of Vatican II had created] ‘the greatest project of adult education ever held in the world.’”
- 4.
Cf. the biography by Paddy Kearney, Guardian of the Light. Denis Hurley: Renewing the Church, Opposing Apartheid (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009).
- 5.
John Mahoney, The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 302.
- 6.
Cf. Catherine E. Clifford, Decoding Vatican II. Interpretation and Ongoing Reception (New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2014), esp. Part I.
- 7.
Cf. The History of Vatican II. Volume 1: Announcing and Preparing Vatican Council II – Toward a New Era in Catholicism, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph A. Komonchak (Leuven: Peeters / Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995).
- 8.
In a later remark, Philippe Delhaye noted that De ordine morali sought “to restore the repressive aspects of the teaching of Pius XII”. Cf. Dolores L. Christie, Adequately Considered. An American Perspective on Louis Janssens’ Personalist Morals. Louvain Theological & Pastoral Monographs, 4 (Leuven: Peeters Press, 1990), 101.
- 9.
Karl Golser, Gewissen und objektive Sittenordnung. Zum Begriff des Gewissens in der neueren katholischen Moraltheologie. Wiener Beiträge zur Theologie, 48 (Wien: Wiener Dom-Verlag, 1975), 16–25.
- 10.
For a recent analysis of this fallacy, cf. George Wilson, “It’s Nothing Personal. The History of Papal Infallibility,” in Commonweal February 4, 2016. [https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/its-nothing-personal].
- 11.
One source for this expression can be found in the article by Avery Dulles, “From Ratzinger to Benedict,” in First Things, February 2006 [http://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/02/from-ratzinger-to-benedict]. Dulles writes: “Ratzinger’s commentary on the first chapter of Gaudium et Spes contains still other provocative comments. … The treatment of free will in article 17 is in his judgment ‘downright Pelagian’”.
- 12.
Joseph Ratzinger, Kommentar zum ersten Kapitel des ersten Teils, in Das zweite vatikanische Konzil … Kommentare Teil III [Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche], ed. Herbert Vorgrimler (Freiburg / Basel / Wien: Herder, 1968), 332.
- 13.
For an analysis of how a truncated reading of Aquinas contributed to a shift from the primary place of intention towards the law in Cajetan and his followers—which in its term contributed to the conflict between freedom and authority, cf. Joseph A. Selling, Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), Chapter 4 “From Trent to Vatican II.”
- 14.
Cf. Julia A. Fleming, Defending Probabilism. The Moral Theology of Juan Caramuel. Moral Tradition Series (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006), who discusses “Liberty, Law, and the Mediating Principle of Possession”, 125–127.
- 15.
- 16.
Giovanni Paolo II, “Non si può parlare di diligente ricerca della Verità se non si tiene conto di ciò che il Magisterio insegna,” in L’Osservatore Romano, 13 Novembre 1988, 1; 4.
- 17.
Jean Paul II, « La doctrine de la vérité », in L’Osservatore Romano : édition hebdomadaire en langue française, 13 décembre 1988.
- 18.
- 19.
***, Sull’ autorità dottrinale della Istruzione “Donum Vitae”, in L’Osservatore Romano, 24 Dicembre 1988, 1–2, at 1.
- 20.
Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor – Encyclical Letter on Some Fundamental Questions Regarding the Moral Teaching of the Church, § 5.
- 21.
Cf. Jan Jans, “Moraaltheologisch crisismanagement. Achtergronden en implicaties van de encycliek Veritatis splendor,” Tijdschrift voor Theologie 34 (1994): 49–66.
- 22.
Cf. Jan Jans, “Freedom of Conscience and Research,” in Disciples and Discipline. European Debate on Human Rights in the Roman Catholic Church, ed. Caroline Vander Stichele et al. (Leuven: Peeters, 1993), 114–124.
- 23.
For an historical-systematic account of this long and winding road, cf. James F. Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century. From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences (London / New York: Continuum, 2010).
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Jans, J. (2023). “Downright Pelagian?”: Gaudium et Spes 17 and the Discussion on Who Is ‘in Possession’ of Conscience. In: De Mey, P., Gruber, J. (eds) Hard Sayings Left Behind by Vatican II. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45540-7_11
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