Has the Vatican forgotten St John Paul II’s great encyclical on moral life?
Catholic Herald, 18 August 2018
Veritatis Splendor was not referenced once in nearly 400 notes accompanying Amoris Laetitia. It cannot be ignored
Last week, on the 25th anniversary of Veritatis Splendor, I looked at how St John Paul’s encyclical of 1993 took up the challenges created in the aftermath of Humanae Vitae 25 years earlier. Blessed Paul VI went to his grave 40 years ago this month secure in the knowledge that he had “not betrayed the holy truth”, but fully aware the Church had lost its confidence that it could teach authoritatively on moral questions, particularly those related to marriage and family.
Veritatis Splendor came amid the most extraordinarily rich decade of papal teaching since Leo XIII. In 1991 John Paul issued his charter for the free society, Centesimus Annus, and his affirmation of the essential missionary identity of the Church, Redemptoris Missio – a theme that dominates current priorities in Rome. In 1995 came Evangelium Vitaeand in 1998 Fides et Ratio. That’s just the encyclicals, and does not include the monumental achievement of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
But 25 years after Veritatis Splendor, what is its status in the Rome of Pope Francis? Is it still considered now what it was acknowledged to be in 1993, namely, the deepest magisterial treatment of the moral life as a whole, rather than a specific moral question? That it was the most comprehensive magisterial teaching on freedom, truth, conscience and choice after Vatican II?
It is tiresome to return to Amoris Laetitia, but it offers clear evidence that the reach of Veritatis Splendor is restricted in Rome today. In the nearly 400 footnotes in the longest papal document in the history of the Church, not a single citation was made to Veritatis Splendor; it was simply excised from memory by the drafters of Amoris.
Continue reading at the Catholic Herald: