A response to the Vatican

But, many more Catholics will be disturbed by the apparent lack of due process behind the decision and the extraordinary lack of consultation once the agenda had been hijacked by the right-wing splinter groups. Once we became aware of this we elected to take the initiative to seek an opportunity, in writing, to present our case to the CDF including sending two moral theologians to Rome. The request was not accepted.

In the absence of knowing just how the CDF reached this decision, people will be left to their own, perhaps unfounded, speculations. They may well see the Vatican’s advice more in medieval than contemporary terms, and evidence to refute such conjecture is sadly unavailable. Transparency and accountability are yet to become part of the Vatican’s protocols.

Further, even if the Vatican’s practical judgement is a correct one – and how are we to know? – the manner in which it has been taken is likely to send the wrong signal to the very people – ordinary, loyal Australian Catholics – on whom it relies for its support and credibility.

Meanwhile, those outside the Church may look on with some puzzlement. Some will not appreciate our concern with the in-principle ethics of an injecting service. Because of our culture’s narrow focus on consequences and outcomes, we tend to ignore the vital question of the inherent rightness or wrongness of our actions. The Catholic moral tradition is distinctive precisely because of its concern with the intrinsic moral meaning of what we do.

St Vincent’s founders strived to do what was right. They think deeply on the age-old question, What ought one to do? Sr M Baptist de Lacy, was effectively branded a heretic and deported in 1859 at the insistence of the local church hierarchy for having the temerity to think ecumenically and leave Protestant Bibles in the wards for Protestant patients. She did so because she believed it was the right thing to do.

With the benefit of hindsight, we might well wonder which action – by the Sisters or the church hierarchy – embodied the letter of the law and which the spirit? Which today would be regarded by the hierarchy as counter-productive and which as prophetic? Wherein lay wisdom? Wherein lay faith, hope and charity?