"The Thirtieth Anniversary of a Forgotten Encyclical"
Stefano Fontana
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana
August 8, 2023
On August 6, 30 years ago, John Paul II published the encyclical Veritatis splendor "on some fundamental questions of the Church's moral teaching." L'Osservatore Romano did not commemorate the anniversary. Vatican News did not mention it. Avvenire did not either.
It is true that 25 and 50 years of such events are usually remembered, as is the case with weddings, just as it is true that WYD has monopolized ecclesial communication these days, but such general forgetfulness leaves one astonished. This attitude expresses well the contempt that the official Church devotes to the encyclical on morality of a great pontiff.
Veritatis splendor does not contain all of Catholic moral doctrine; its purpose was to denounce and correct certain misrepresentations of Catholic morality on fundamental issues.
Yet now those misrepresentations have become the rule in the Church, so commemorating the encyclical becomes compromising. Better not to talk about it, to abandon it in the whirlpool of oblivion, as if it had never been written.
How would it be possible, without blushing, to recall that encyclical these days without noting that it flies in the face of Amoris laetitia and, in general, the status of moral theology under Francis? How would it be possible to pass off such an obvious and substantial difference as continuity? In fact, to find commemorations of this 30th anniversary, one must refer to centers of thought more or less critical of the abandonment of that perspective on moral theology, such as Catholic Thing or Crisis Magazine.
The condemnation of Veritatis splendor and the damnatio memoriae ordered in its regard do not occur expressly, but in the gray of shadows. In the current pontificate, there has been no document revising what John Paul II taught. In other words: why Veritatis splendor should be left adrift has never been explained. What was wrong or inadequate in it was never said. It was just decided to move on, to turn the page. Time goes by anyway, people forget, and those who will continue to keep it in mind and point out the contradictions with the new teachings will sooner or later get tired and it will all just end in nothingness.
But the Church that turns over a new leaf is like an army that leaves its soldiers in enemy territory, abandoning them. Veritatis splendor -- and the same can be said for Humanae vitae -- are not just texts to be put in the archives. On them, many Christians have built the battle of their lives. To forget those documents without saying why is to abandon those fellow travelers to themselves.
Of this turning the page in silence, of this pretending that the stone guest does not exist, of this proceeding as if everything began after Veritatis splendor, two aspects are particularly striking. One concerns the method and the other the content.
The imposition from above of the new course of Catholic moral theology antithetical to Veritatis splendor took place not only without explaining why, but also by means of political coups and maneuvers, by means of subterfuge and tripping, that is to say, in an unbecoming manner.
The affair of the John Paul II Institute testifies to contempt for persons, political machinations, a new juridical placement invented ad hoc and functional to the substantial transformation of the Institute's purposes. Ways could have been chosen that were less damaging to the memory of John Paul II and less disrespectful to those who had validly committed themselves to that institution.
The appointments of controversial members of the Pontifical Academies, the provocative statements on issues of theological ethics by the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the creative slogans uttered by Francis in a variety of interviews, the promotion in the Church of figures aligned on the new perspectives of Catholic ethics, the provocation and management of revolutionary processes as in the synods on the family, the footnotes to Amoris laetitia ... in these unorthodox and disrespectful ways the grave of Veritatis splendor was dug.
As for the content aspect, it must be noted that the damnatio memoriae was total: no aspect of it was saved, no mercy for the vanquished. Not saved were the encyclical's framework of fundamental theology of reference; the anthropological vision underlying it; the problems of knowledge of the natural and revealed norm, and the relationship between the two; the relationship between the norm and conscience; the existence of actions that are always evil and not to be done at any time and on any occasion; the evaluation of the role of circumstances; the objective and public aspect of sin; the very view of sin, now under Francis seen as inadequacy in relation to an ideal; the possibility of legally recognizing actions against the natural law; and the very conception of the natural moral law.
Nothing has been saved from Veritatis splendor. The encyclical does not exist. Why, then, commemorate it?
