William E. May, Ph.D.
Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology
John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family
at The Catholic University of America
Washington, D. C.
Kevin Ryan, in an essay with this title on "MercatorNet" begins with a citation from Mark Penn, "the social trend guru," in which Penn declares: "Men are now lagging women in every major category from lifestyle to health, from education to employment." Ryan considers some major causes of this phenomenon. The primary factor for this, he thinks, is that "many, many boys are lacking what the psychologists call 'role models,' most important of which is a visible, present father." In a short time, "the shape of the American family has undergone radical surgery and the part most obviously cut away is Dad. A 50 percent divorce rate, plus simple walk-away separations are well known factors in the dismal family landscape."
Date posted: 2009-10-30
At the conclusion of the presentation I made when the Culture of Life Foundation gave me the first annual award named after me in September 2008, I offered a "Suggested Strategy for Helping Adversaries Understand Culture of Life Arguments." Here I will recapitulate and develop that strategy. Before doing so, however, I think it important to point out why excellent arguments developed by those who propose the "culture of life" are not able to persuade advocates of the "culture of death" to change their minds.
Date posted: 2009-10-20
Men and Women: Diversity and Mutual Complementarity is the title of an important and helpful book published by Libreria Vaticana Editrice in 2006 containing papers given at the Study Seminar held in Vatican City 30-31 January 2004. It contains 12 essays divided into 4 major parts. I will try to summarize the thought of some of the major papers in two articles. Here I will take up the following essays: (1) Lucetta Scaraffia's "Socio-cultural changes in women's lives"; (2) Vincente Aucante's, "Fatherhood"; (3) Maria Teresa Garutti Bellenzier's "The identity of women and men according to the teaching of the Church"; and Carlo Caffarra's "Benchmarks, problem areas and issues for debate." In another article I will consider the contributions of Karna Swanson, Manfred Lutz, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, and Marguerite Peeters.
Date posted: 2009-08-22
First, I will present Pope Benedict's teaching on life issues in the encyclical and then offer comments thereon. Pope Benedict XVI addresses issues related to the sanctity of human life and human sexuality in depth in three different areas of his new social encyclical, Caritas In Veritate (Charity in Truth).
Date posted: 2009-07-31
Since God created man as a bodily person sexually differentiated into male and female, it follows that human sexuality "is by no means something purely biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such" (John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, n. 11). Male and female, complementary in their sexuality, are, as it were, two "incarnations," "two ways...of 'being a body' and at the same time a man, which complete each other" (John Paul II, "Male and Female He Created Them": A Theology of the Body, Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2006, p.183).
Date posted: 2009-04-30
Napier's interesting article is marred, in my opinion, by some serious ambiguities. Premise 1 (one ought to respect the patient's wish to refuse artificial nutrition and hydration), which is seemingly not compatible with premise 2 (ANH is proportionate treatment), is, he says, "endorsed primarily by Catholic hospital ethicists." But what in fact do those ethicists hold?
Date posted: 2009-01-21
There are two broad kinds of organ transplants: (1) heteroplastic and (2) homoplastic. The first refers to transplanting organs from a lower species of animal to a human person; the second, to transplanting organs from one human being to another. Homoplastic transplants are subdivided into those (a) from the bodies of dead persons to living persons and (b) from one living person to another, or transplants inter vivos.
Date posted: 2008-08-09
Why are homosexual acts always gravely immoral, and why is it simply impossible for persons of the same sex to marry? To answer these questions I will first review the teaching of the Church. I will then argue that human persons, by choosing to engage in homosexual acts, harm the great goods of marriage. They also harm their own bodily capacity for the marital act as an act of self-giving which constitutes a communion of bodily persons. Since this argument's intelligibility depends on a proper understanding of these great goods, I will prepare its way by considering the intrinsic goodness of marriage and the marital act. I will then conclude with an argument to show why it is simply not possible for persons of the same sex to marry.
Date posted: 2004-08-08