The Catholic members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the Office of International Justice and Peace of the USCCB have jointly produced a Catholic study guide on torture in PDF format called Torture is a moral issue. [Via Christopher at Catholics in the Public Square]

I do like the idea of a study guide format which has some strengths and might be a good format for some future documents. Though while I am glad they have addressed this important topic, I think they could have done it better.

It is a little too touchy-feely when presenting and asking questions such as asking you feel about something. For example: “Do you find it surprising or confusing that Pope John Paul II spoke about finding the face of Christ in every human face?” I don’t know about you but I find this neither surprising or confusing since it is part of the Gospel and has been constantly said throughout the history of the Church. “Whatever you do to the least of me, you do to me.” – is not exactly a secret.

I also found it odd that the United Nations and the Red Cross are referenced more than Church documents addressing torture. Much of the development of doctrine on torture is fairly recent and so you would think they would quote from Gaudium et Spes since it is one of the most important Magisterial statements on torture. They do quote from Gaudium et spes using a paragraph not as germane. The following is what they should have referenced:

Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.

At least they correctly referenced Veritatis Splendor where it lists “physical and mental torture” as being intrinsically evil.

I also can’t say I was much impressed by the people they chose to quote in the document. People such as same-sex marriage defender Father Bryan Massingale. Surely their are some orthodox moral theologians they can quote from on the subject?

There are positives though such as starting directly on the question of the dignity of the human person. Yet even though in the summary of this section they write “The end does not justify the means” they never actually addressed this important aspect which really is what all torture apologists effectively deny. The section on loving our enemies is fairly good and is certainly a part of the dialogue about torture. I am reminded of St. Paul writing in the Book of Romans.

No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Those who justify torture get it backwards and want to eliminate the middle man of doing good and go straight to pouring burning coals on their heads.

This document is like most that come out of the USCCB in that they really need to be edited down since they become so muddled. Clear teaching on why torture is always in every circumstance intrinsically evil gets diffused when the document concentrates more on 9/11 and the war on terror than focusing on torture. Clarity is needed to help those who do not yet understand why torture can never be used and this document does not provide it.

I don’t think any of my readers will be surprised at what a branch of Voice of the "Faithful" thinks of the CDF’s recent decree that those who attempt to confer or women who receive ordination are automatically excommunicated. In fact when it comes to VOTF and other dissident groups it reminds me of Groucho Marx song in Horse Feathers. Though their version is “Whatever the CDF says, I against it”

I don’t know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I’m against it.

The New Jersey branch of VOTF recently sent out a email saying they agree with a statement by CORPUS, National Association for an Inclusive Ministry. You can read the full statement over at The Deacon’s Bench.

The statement starts of with the usual nonsense and how shameful this "absolutist leadership" is. I really think invoking due process in the case of latae sententiae excommunication perfectly shows their mind set and lack of understanding. They then give a list of their reasons for women’s ordination.

1. The Papal Commission on the ordination of women found no biblical justification for the exclusion of women from Holy Orders.

I read that bullet and "Drudge Report
" red sirens started flashing in my head. I had never head of the "The Papal Commission on the ordination of women" and figured there was something wrong with what they were saying. It turns out is that they are referring to is the Pontifical Biblical Commission report in 1976 on the question. What the report actually says is "It does not seem that the New Testament by itself alone will permit us to settle in a clear way and once and for all the problem of the possible accession of women to the presbyterate,". This is a far cry from what is asserted here and is quite disingenuous. They also said "In fact there is no proof that these ministries were entrusted to women at the time of the New Testament." The Catholic Faith is not a Sola Scriptura faith in the first place and so while New Testament studies don’t settle the question, the Magisterium did.

This bullet point that CORPUS used originally came from the Catholic Theological Society of America a year after the report came out from the Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices of what was then the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops responded to CTSA’s assertion and responded on the weakness of CTSA’s report and analysis. CTSA’s task force on this issue was headed by Sister Sarah Butler who readers of my blog will know later changed her mind an wrote an excellent book defending the Magisterium on this issue.

So what we have here is an assertion that is in fact a lie and has just been passed down without any check of its veracity.

3. History informs us that ordained women ministered to their faith communities in the early Church and throughout the first millennium.

Another lie that has no historical justification. Often they refer to the inscription of the image at the Church of St Praxedei that reads Theodora Episcopa. She was the widowed mother of Paschal the Bishop of Rome at the time. Titles such as this for a mother of a Bishop were not unusual and a similar practice is used today for a wife of a Greek Orthodox priest. They try to argue that a picture of her wearing a coif proves that she wasn’t married. This is a false assertion. Regardless you would think that if women priestesses were common in the first thousand years we would have more than just one example to go by. Instead we had early councils specifically condemning the practice of some heretical groups to have women priests and the Councils of Nicaea and Loadicea even saying that women deaconesses were not in fact ordained.

4. As the faithful we have a responsibility in Church law to express our needs to our pastors. The Holy Spirit has spoken to women among us. They have courageously responded.

And if you happen to be a woman who supports the truth that the Church teaches that it has no authority to ordain women? I guess some laity are more equal than others.