This similarity is probably no coincidence. Cohen studied English literature at McGill and published several volumes of poetry before he began his musical career. Cf. WisseRuth R., “My Life Without Leonard Cohen,”Commentary, October 1996.
3.
Cardinal Ratzinger's keynote address at the Extraordinary Consistory has been reprinted in pamphlet form by the Catholic Truth Society (London) under the title “Human Life Under Threat” (ISBN 0 85183 837 5).
4.
Cardinal Ratzinger, p. 12.
5.
One recalls, for example, the statement of former presidents of the Catholic Theological Society in support of Fr. Charles Curran which adopted this argument.
6.
The notes in question in the encyclical are nos. 50, 73, and 82.
7.
The issue of the authority of the three solemn pronouncements was the subject of an exchange between Avery DullesS.J. and certain readers in First Things. That the teachings in question are meant to be seen as infallible teachings of the Ordinary Magisterium is made clear in the Vatican's official summary of Evangelium Vitae which states: “Here we are speaking of doctrinal affirmations of very high magisterial authority … [I]n the case of each of the three doctrinal formulations there is a significant reference in a note to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which in paragraph 25 declares that the bishops, ‘even though dispersed throughout the world, but preserving for all that among themselves and with Peter's successor the bond of communion,’ when ‘in their authoritative teaching concerning matters of faith and morals, they are in agreement that a particular teaching is to be held definitively,’ ‘proclaim infallibly the doctrine of Christ.”’
8.
Some time before the publication of the encyclical, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sponsored a symposium on this question which was chaired by Cardinal Ratzinger. Moral theologians from various countries, moralists from the Roman pontifical universities, and consultors of the CDF were among the participants.
9.
Hendrickx's paper entitled “Abortion as a Political and Legal Problem” was distributed in manuscript form to the Bishops but was not published. I follow her thought and language closely.
