Insight Scoop: Benedict XVI on Blessed Duns Scotus, "Doctor subtilis"

Mike Augros on the common good. I think he is mistaken to accept the definition of the common good given in contemporary Catholic Social Teaching, instead of using one provided by Aristotle or St. Thomas. His intention might be good (fidelity to the Magisterium), but if it is the case that St. Thomas (and Aristotle) understand the common good to be something else, that is what we should be recovering, in opposition to liberalism and other errors.

Update on M. Augros

So Dr. Mike Augros is now at TAC. I found this website. It's been a while since I've looked at the Society for Aristotelian Studies website. (His father is still at St. Anselm. Saint Anselm Philosophy has a blog! Dr. R. Augros's posts.)

Holy See on Educational Mobility

Holy See on Educational Mobility

"A True Humanism ... Can and Should Allow the Presence of Foreign Students"

ROME, JULY 3, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a greeting sent from the president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers to the members of the Service of European Churches for International Students. The group will meet this week in Namur, Belgium.

* * *

As you gather together once again for your annual meeting, I am delighted to send you my greetings and good wishes for your deliberations.

Today Educational mobility within the world's universities is ever on the increase having grown almost three fold since 1975. The development of funding and scholarships for third world countries, together with the emergences of China and other Asian countries is set to change the patterns of movement of international students and professors hitherto not experienced. In particular the development of a ‘European Higher Education Area' through the Bologna Agreement and an extension of existing exchange schemes and programmes will have effects beyond the borders of Europe itself. These are both interesting and exciting times for the development of tertiary education. Moreover, recent projections put the global number of international students set to rise from 3 million in 2010 to 7.2 million in 2025.

The topic you have chosen for your meeting, "Language of faith and language of Sciences, a challenge for international students in a market driven economy" is an important one that goes to the heart of the Church's pastoral mission within universities. Your particular concentration with the specific pastoral care offered towards foreign students in Europe can help to open up this significant topic between the relationship of faith and reason and a particular vision in the formation of young adults. Indeed, the Second Vatican Council reminds us that the future of humanity "is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for life and optimism".[1]

Pope John Paul II, in his important Encyclical "Fides et Ratio"[2] explains that truth is known through a combination of both faith and reason. The absence of either one will diminish man's ability to know himself, the world and God.[3] Human reason, he wrote, seeks the truth, but the ultimate truth about the meaning of life cannot be found by reason alone.[4] The search for knowledge - the search for the meaning of life - is essentially a search for God. This search, at its best, is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and responds to his calling. The honest searcher learns from others, as for example a philosopher learns from a scientist, taking into account his own point of view. Indeed, the same learning should mark the relations between philosopher and theologian.

Part of the mission of those who have both academic and pastoral responsibility in the student world should be to foster collaboration between not only different disciplines but also cultures. It is in this way that a true ‘humanism' can grow. Pope Benedict XVI knows only too well of this need when he said recently:

"I want to stress the importance of the education of young intellectuals and of scientific and cultural exchanges between universities in order to propose and enliven integral human development....In this context I have entrusted to you in spirit, dear young people, the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate in which we recall the urgent need to shape a new humanistic vision."[5]

In order for there to be ‘love in truth', the Pope asks for an "authentic human development" calling for a new humanism that as a "fruitful dialogue between faith and reason cannot but render the work of charity more effective within society."[6] In fact it is only in a dialogue between ‘the language of science and the language of faith' that we can properly arrive at the truth. Indeed the truth is embedded, waiting to be discovered, so that each human person may come to their fullest potential. For, as Pope John Paul II reminds us,

"The truth and everything that is true represents a great good to which we must turn with love and joy. Science too is a way to truth; for God's gift of reason, which according to its nature is destined not for error, but for the truth of knowledge, is developed in it."[7]

The danger that education can be reduced to a mere functionalism, rather than being in essence a search for the truth, is particularly present for many foreign students, principally if their return is linked to future economic and industrial productivity. A true humanism pervading academic pursuit can and should allow the presence of foreign students - along with students of host countries - to bring a richness and diversity that should be at the heart of the university fostering an education that touches the whole of a person. Moreover, in this search for and the living out of discovered truths and the dialogue between science and faith also has positive repercussions for the mission of the Church as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us:

"The dialogue between faith and reason, religion and science, does not only make it possible to show people of our time the reasonableness of faith in God as effectively and convincingly as possible, but also to demonstrate that the definitive fulfilment of every authentic human aspiration rests in Jesus Christ. In this regard, a serious evangelizing effort cannot ignore the questions that arise also from today's scientific and philosophical discoveries." [8]

I would like also to mention, having now passed this last year which has been dedicated to priests, the work of fostering vocations with university communities. The opening up of individuals, to one another and to God, is part of the process of the vocational search to find the purpose God has for a person in their life. The search for truth must also be one for the truth about ourselves and God's call. The encouragement for all to discover the will of God and, for those for whom it is discerned, a specific call for the priesthood, should never be absent. Moreover it should be a prominent and frequent cause for deliberation and reflection, including those who are foreign students.

As you embark upon your symposium, be assured of our prayers and support. I am confident that your work will bear much fruit, and that aided by the prayers of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, the Lord will bless you abundantly in this encounter.

Antonio Maria Vegliò

President

Agostino Marchetto

Archbishop Secretary

From the Vatican, 1st July 2010

--- --- ---

[NOTES]

[1] Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 31: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html

[2] Cf. Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, September 1998: http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0216/_INDEX.HTM

[3] Ibid., no.16.

[4] Ibid., no.42.

[5] Pope Benedict XVI, Address on the occasion of the Marian Prayer Vigil "with Africa and for Africa", Saturday 10th October 2009: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/october/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20091010_rosario-africa_en.html

[6] ID., Encylical Letter "Caritas in Veritate", June 2009, No. 57: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

[7] John Paul II, Science and faith in the search for truth, Address to teachers and university students in Cologne Cathedral, November 15, 1980: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/sci-cp/sci80111.html

[8] Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the participants of the Plenary assembly of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, 10th February 2006: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/february/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060210_doctrine-faith_en.html

Salon: "What Darwin Got Wrong": Taking down the father of evolution (via Stephen Hand)

Macmillan

Reviews:
Jerry Fodor: Still getting it wrong about evolution
The Sunday Times
The Guardian
Boston Review

From the third day of Dominicans and the Challenge of Thomism:

Emmanuel Perrier (Toulouse): Les thomistes ont-ils encore des raisons de parler du droit et de la politique?[download]

Michael Sherwin (Fribourg): The Return to Virtue: challenges and opportunities [download]

Romanus Cessario (Boston):How to Present a Thomist Moral Theology Today [download]

Wojciech Giertych (Vatican City): Gratia etsi sit efficacior quam natura, tamen natura essentialior est homini, et ideo magis permanens” (Ia-IIae, q. 94, art. 6, ad 2). Nature and Grace within Moral Theology, Reactions: Nicanor Austriaco (Providence), Michał Mrozek (Warsaw).[download]

Dominicans and the Challenge of Thomism

official website

There are recordings for some of the delivered papers:

• Thursday, July 1, 2010

• Friday, July 2, 2010

• Saturday, July 3, 2010

(via Fr. Augustine Thompson)

A Dominican personalist?

From Fr. Michael Sweeney's first post for his blog, Re-visioning Society -- A modest proposal:

I would like, therefore, to make a modest proposal: that we insist upon civil conversation concerning what our public figures actually say, and refuse judgment based upon hearsay, or, what amounts to the same thing, partisan politics.

So, for example, anyone, no matter how staunchly Republican, ought to take issue with a remark of President George W. Bush in his Memorial Day speech (May 26, 2008): "In a world where freedom is constantly under attack and in a world where our security is challenged, the joys of liberty are often purchased by the sacrifices of those who serve a cause greater than themselves." There is no cause greater than the human person; no one can serve a cause greater than himself. What the President said is not true.

Final causes greater than the private good of the individual human person? Yes, there is God, for one, and then there is the common good of the political community. So on what side of the debate between De Koninck and the personalists is Fr. Sweeney? (According to his public FB profile, he likes Catholics for the Common Good.) Both God and the political common good are goods of the individual, that is true, but they are common goods, not private goods. What George Bush means may be worded poorly for Fr. Sweeney's tastes, but I think we know what the former President is getting at.

DSPTOnline
Catherine of Siena Institute

James Chastek, Regulation and its cognates as political problems

No word captures this tension between ideology and practice better than regulation and its various cognates (regular, regulated, etc). At present, the term leans towards belonging to the first extreme, that is, political “regulation” is seen as something imposed on a multitude who have no principle of order in themselves. Thus, the need for “regulation” is seen (by those of both ideologies) as an implicit belief that the thing one is regulating, of itself, tends to chaos. Interestingly, we don’t always use the cognates of “regulate” in this way: the regularity of the digestive tract is simply its health, that is, its acting correctly from an interior principle. A well-regulated digestive tract is not one that is ruled from the outside, but simply one that is healthy. Even when we take, say, Metamucil, the “regularity” we seek is something that primarily arises from within. Similarly, the regulations of a game aren’t extrinsic to the game, but more simply descriptions of the game as such. It’s not that a ball outside the foul line is really a hit, but we impose “regulations” to deny this- the regulation is simply an articulation of what in fact counts as a hit. We don’t have regulations in football or baseball because the sports are intrinsically disordered, but precisely because they have an order in themselves which is recognized in the regulation. Nevertheless, regulation always involves a certain qualified chaos on the side of the thing that is regulated: we take Metamucil so far as our bowels have some chaos to them; and regulations do limit behavior in one way or another, even if the game isn’t sheer chaos. Thus regulation and its cognates, understood as we use them in common speech, are particularly good at illuminating the central idea of political practice. It’s a pity that “regulation” is taken as belonging to ideology, since when we take a closer look at the word we see that it is ideally suited, even in its preset use, to describe political practice as opposed to ideology: for regularity seems to recognize a real interior principle of things even while it recognizes that this principle is not always entirely capable of producing regularity.

Ignatius Insight Scoop: Pope reflects on St. Joseph Cafasso, model for spiritual directors

Caelum et Terra: Genetically Modified Organisms: A Catholic’s Animadversions
A guest post by Peter A. Kwasniewski of Wyoming Catholic College

Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine by J. Brian Benestad is scheduled to be published next February by CUA Press. This comes from the description in the current catalog: "It makes the case that liberal-arts education is an essential part of the common good because it helps people understand their dignity and all that justice requires."

I disagree.
1. Since moral science (or moral theology) deals with what is general, it rarely goes into detail as to what is required by justice in a given society. What is required by justice in a given society is revealed through its (human) laws.

2. As for helping people understand their dignity -- this is what preaching is for.

Is this is an argument given by an academic who makes a living at a higher institution for learning?

A liberal education serves the common good, but not the political good. It serves the common good that is the good of all Creation, God. But it is not necessary for charity or salvation.

Zenit: On the Summa Theologiae
"In the School of the Saints, Let Us Be Enamored" of the Eucharist

Sexuality and Authority in the Catholic Church by Monica Migliorino Miller

Why an All-Male Priesthood Remains by Monica Migliorino Miller - October 4, 2007

She was substituting for Al Kresta this afternoon and talking about the liturgy. Some woman called and made a point about women preaching because they have something to share with the community. Dr. Miller mentioned 1 Timothy and said the reason why women shouldn't preach isn't because they aren't equal.

If some people are given authority and others are not, is there not some sort of inequality involved? If there is no inequality whatsoever, then how can this be just? One could argue that God is not bound by justice.

What if the threshold for being able to exercise authority is rather "low." (Which is not the same as exercising it well.)

Holy See to UN on Access to Health Care

Holy See to UN on Access to Health Care

"The Right to Health Is Universally Recognized as a Fundamental Right"

GENEVA, JUNE 21, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer at the U.N. offices in Geneva, delivered June 8 at the 14th regular session of the Human Rights Council.

* * *

Mr. President,

With regard to the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, my delegation wishes to raise additional concerns regarding the need for effective action in order to guarantee Universal Access to medicines and diagnostic tools for all persons. The Special Rapporteur focused on this issue during his Report to the Eleventh Session of this distinguished Council.[1] However, continued vigilance must be maintained in this regard.

As the members of this Council already are well aware, the right to health is universally recognized as a fundamental right. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) includes the right to health and medical care within the more general rubric of the right "to enjoy an adequate standard of living"[2]. Article 12.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), however, directly recognizes the right to enjoy the best physical and mental condition.[3]

The Committee on Economic and Cultural Rights, in its General Comment No. 14[4], moreover, identified the following minimum requirements for States to ensure: (1) the right of access to health care in a non-discriminatory way, (2) access to basic nutritional level, (3) access to housing, basic sanitation and a sufficient supply of drinking water, (4) the supply of essential drugs, (5) an equitable distribution of benefits and health services, and (6) adoption of national strategies to prevent and combat epidemics.

Mr. President, the Catholic Church provides a major contribution to health care in all parts of the world -- through local churches, religious institutions and private initiatives, which act on their own responsibility and in the respect of the law of each country -- including the promotion of 5,378 hospitals, 18,088 dispensaries and clinics, 521 leprosaria, and 15,448 homes for the aged, the chronically ill, or disabled people. With information coming from these on-the-ground realities in some of the most poor, isolated, and marginalized communities, my delegation is obliged to report that the rights detailed in the international instruments already mentioned are far from being realized.

One major impediment to the realization of these rights is the lack of access to affordable medicines and diagnostic tools that can be administered and utilized in low-income, low-technology settings. Among the disturbing trends and findings reported by the Special Rapporteur are the following: "Diseases of poverty" still account for 50 per cent of the burden of disease in developing countries, nearly ten times higher than in developed countries[5]; more than 100 million people fall into poverty annually because they have to pay for health care[6]; in developing countries, patients themselves pay for 50 to 90 per cent of essential medicines[7]; nearly 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines [8].

One group particularly deprived of access to medicines is that of children. Many essential medicines have not been developed in appropriate formulations or dosages specific to pediatric use. Thus families and health care workers often are forced to engage in a "guessing game" on how best to divide adult-size pills for use with children. This situation can result in the tragic loss of life or continued chronic illness among such needy children. For example, of the 2.1 million children estimated to be living with HIV infection[9], only 38% were received life-saving anti-retroviral medications at the end of 2008[10]. This treatment gap is partially due to the lack of "child friendly" medications to treat the HIV infection.

Thus the Committee on the Rights of the Child has declared: "The obligations of States parties under the Convention extend to ensuring that children have sustained and equal access to comprehensive treatment and care, including necessary HIV-related drugs … on a basis of non-discrimination."[11]

My delegation is well aware of the complexities inherent in the intellectual property aspects related to the issue of access to medicines. These considerations, including the flexibilities available to applying the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, are well documented in the 2009 Report of the Special Rapporteur. We further recognize that serious efforts already have been undertaken to implement the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, established in 2008 by the 61stWorld Health Assembly. However, the intense debates recently pursued at the 63rd World Health Assembly demonstrate that the international community has not yet succeeded in its aim to provide equitable access to medicines and indicate the need for further creative reflection and action in this regard.

Mr. President, my delegation urges this Council to renew its commitment as a key stakeholder in efforts to assert and safeguard the right to health by guaranteeing equitable access to essential medicines. We do so with a firm conviction that "treatment should be extended to every human being" and as an essential element of "the search for the greatest possible human development," and with a strong belief that "[t]his ethical perspective [is] based on the dignity of the human person and on the fundamental rights and duties connecte with it."[12]

Notes

[1] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to the Eleventh Session of the Human Rights Council, Eleventh Session,A/HRC/11/12, 31 March 2009

[2] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf

[3] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm

[4] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Twenty-second session, Geneva , 25 April-12 May 2000, E/C.12/2000/4, 11 August 2000, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(symbol)/E.C.12.2000.4.En

[5] World Health Organization, Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights, A Report of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health ( Geneva , 2006) p. 3.

[6] World Health Organization, World Health Report, Primary Health Care Now More than Ever ( Geneva , 2008).

[7] A/61/338, para. 75.

[8] World Health Organization, "WHO Medicines Strategy: Countries at the Core, 2004- 2007" , (2004).

[9] UNAIDS, 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update, Geneva , November 2009.

[10] Children and AIDS: Fourth Stocktaking Report, UNICEF, 2009, p. 10.

[11] Committee on the Rights of the Child, Thirty-Second Session, General Comment No. 3 (2003), HIV/AIDS and the rights of the child, CRC/GC/2003/3,

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/309e8c3807aa8cb7c1256d2d0038caaa/$FILE/G0340816.pdf

[12] Pope Benedict XVI, Address To The Plenary Assembly Of The Pontifical Council For Health Pastoral Care, 22 March 2007, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/march/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20070322_pc-salute_en.html

From Baker Academic:

Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues, by William C. Mattison III
Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, edited by Susan R. Holman
Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life: A Reader's Guide, by Matthew J. Bonzo and Michael R. Stevens
John Calvin and Roman Catholicism, edited by Randall C. Zachman

James Chastek, The quantitative view of motion vs. the problem of motion, Part 2, Part 3

Natura Pura by Steven Long is available for preview on Google.

From February of this year: Thoughts About Ralph McInerny: A Man of Wit, Wisdom and Achievement.

Fabius Maximus: “Most scientific papers are probably wrong” – New Scientist

The study was published in 2005 -- I doubt things have changed much in 5 years. The use of statistics to achieve probable reasoning, coupled with possible fallacies--they may affirm that it is impossible to achieve certitude, but then they arrogantly claim the next best-thing, without the awareness of what is required by logic.

Eirenikon: “The Filioque: History of a Doctinal Controversy”