It seems necessary to start from a revealed and theological perspective to achieve a totally realist, existential anthropology. If man was created as image of God, then, it is impossible to begin with the assumption that there is such a thing as natural man. Such an assumption would be tantamount to starting from an abstraction.
2.
RatzingerJ.In the Beginning …, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, O.S.V. Inc., 1990, p. 62.
3.
Veritatis Splendor, 1, 2.
4.
“Subjectivity and the Irreducible in the Human Person,” Person and Community, Selected Essays, Peter Lang, 1993, p. 211.
5.
The emphasis on the “I” as the point of damage by sin derives from its relational character and the intrinsic non-relationality which characterizes sin. “To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him (Catechism of the Catholic Church #386) … Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure,” etc. (CCC #387).
6.
“Thomistic Personalism” in Person and Community, Peter Lang 1993, pp. 170–171.
7.
I can think of no use of a condom qua condom which would be morally good or neutral since it always involves pre-marital and/or homosexual activities which are intrinsically immoral. The supposed “good” or “neutral” use of the condom as AIDS preventative has already been disqualified because of this previous moral disqualification besides its deceptiveness as a barrier to immunodeficiency viral particles. See “Condoms and Adolescent HIV: A Medical Evaluation,” by Alessandri, Friedman, Trivelli in Linacre Quarterly, August, 1994, pp. 62–74.
8.
The position of the RA as a provider and distributor of the condom is more like the obstetrician-gynecologist prescribing it or the pharmacist himself as dispensing it than the person at the check-out counter merely ringing it up. That is to say, there is far more causality involved, even on the level of making the condoms notorious and hence producing scandal. And since the use of the condom has no redeeming moral value as good or neutral, it is meaningless to affirm that the condom provider actually can have an intention different than the immoral perpetrator using it. For this reason, Thomas J. O'Donnell, S.J. asserts that “(i)mmediate material cooperation usually translates into formal cooperation because it is vacuous to say that a person in his right senses performs a criminal action without intending, in his will, to do so.” See Medicine and Christian Morality, Alba House, 1991, p. 31. In a word, mediate material cooperation becomes immediate which becomes formal. For this reason, O'Donnell clearly affirms: “There is no excuse for a Catholic physician to have anything at all to do with procedures which are directly contraceptive. Grave scandal is caused by a Catholic doctor who, in any way, temporizes in this matter. He cannot, without serious moral guilt, advise or recommend contraception to any patient, no matter what the patient's personal convictions may be. Neither may he instruct a patient in the use of contraception, nor refer the patient to any other physician or agency for this purpose, without seriously compromising his own moral integrity;” 1994, p. 36.
9.
RatzingerJ.“A Christian Orientation in a pluralistic Democracy,” in Church, Ecumenicism and Politics, Crossroad1988, pp. 217–218.
10.
RatzingerJ.“A Christian Orientation in a pluralistic Democracy,” in Church, Ecumenicism and Politics, Crossroad1988 p. 218.
11.
See the entire third chapter of the encyclical.
12.
Veritatis Splendor, #85, 4.
13.
Sources of Renewal, Harper and Row, 1979, p. 20.
14.
“‘Let us rejoice and give thanks,’ exclaims St. Augustine speaking to the baptized, ‘for we have become not only Christians, but Christ … Marvel and rejoice: We have become Christ!’ ” (Veritatis Splendor #21).
