Church And State

Sir, - Recent letters from me which touched on the relationship between law and morality have provoked a hostile reaction from…

Sir, - Recent letters from me which touched on the relationship between law and morality have provoked a hostile reaction from other correspondents.

M. E. Synon (September 17th) falls into the common error of failing to distinguish between questionable pronouncements by individual churchmen in past centuries and the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals, based firmly on the Gospel and the tradition of the Church.

A much more eminent jurist than I, Professor Charles Rice of Notre Dame, sums up the argument I have endeavoured to put forward, in a work entitled Fifty Questions on the Natural Law. He writes:

"The natural law makes no sense apart from God because the only enduring basis for the dignity of the human person is the fact that he is an immortal creature made in the image and likeness of God. Only in this light can the person be said to have rights absolutely beyond the power of the State to abridge. Moreover, the natural law makes no practical sense without an acknowledged visible arbiter of its meaning.

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"Christ, who is God, is the author of the natural law and the only appropriate arbiter is his Vicar, the Pope. Without acceptance of the Magisterium, natural law becomes grist for endless debating mills, with its meaning determined by the shifting consensus. Inevitably, that consensus will be defined by those in power, in the media, finance, and the State." - Yours, etc.,

Kilternan, Co Dublin.