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u Among the freedoms that the Revolution of I shall never forget how then-leading German
1968 sought to fight for was this all-out sexual free- moral theologian Franz Böckle who, having re-
dom, one which no longer conceded any norms. turned to his native Switzerland after his retirement,
The mental collapse was also linked to a pro- announced in view of the possible decisions of the
pensity for violence. That is why sex films were encyclical Veritatis splendor that if the encyclical
no longer allowed on airplanes because violence should determine that there were actions which
would break out among the small community of were always and under all circumstances to be clas-
passengers. And since the clothing of that time sified as evil, he would challenge it with all the re-
equally provoked aggression, school principals also sources at his disposal.
made attempts at introducing school uniforms with It was God, the Merciful, who spared him from
a view to facilitating a climate of learning. having to put his resolution into practice; Böckle
Part of the physiognomy of the Revolution of died on July 8, 1991. The encyclical was published
‘68 was that pedophilia was then also diagnosed as on August 6, 1993 and did indeed include the de-
allowed and appropriate. termination that there were actions that can never
For the young people in the Church, but not only become good.
for them, this was in many ways a very difficult time. The pope was fully aware of the importance of
I have always wondered how young people in this this decision at that moment, and for this part of his
situation could approach the priesthood and accept text, he had once again consulted leading specialists
it, with all its ramifications. The extensive collapse who did not take part in the editing of the encyclical.
of the next generation of priests in those years, and He knew that he must leave no doubt about the fact
the very high number of laicizations, were a conse- that the moral calculus involved in balancing goods
quence of all these developments. must respect a final limit. There are goods that are
(2) At the same time, independently of this de- never subject to trade-offs.
velopment, Catholic moral theology suffered a col- There are values which must never be aban-
lapse that rendered the Church defenseless against doned for a greater value and even surpass the
these changes in society. I will try to outline briefly preservation of physical life. There is martyrdom.
the trajectory of this development. God is (about) more than mere physical survival. A
Until the Second Vatican Council, Catholic moral life that would be bought by the denial of God, a
theology was largely founded on natural law, while life that is based on a final lie, is a non-life.
Sacred Scripture was only cited for background or Martyrdom is a basic category of Christian exist-
substantiation. In the Council’s struggle for a new ence. The fact that martyrdom is no longer morally
understanding of Revelation, the natural law op- necessary in the theory advocated by Böckle and
tion was largely abandoned, and a moral theology many others shows that the very essence of Christi-
based entirely on the Bible was demanded. (…) anity is at stake here. (…)
In the end, it was chiefly the hypothesis that Part II
morality was to be exclusively determined by the
purposes of human action that prevailed. While the Initial Ecclesial Reactions
old phrase “the end justifies the means” was not (1) The long-prepared and ongoing process of
confirmed in this crude form, its way of thinking dissolution of the Christian concept of morality was,
had become definitive. Consequently, there could as I have tried to show, marked by an unprecedent-
no longer be anything that constituted an abso- ed radicalism in the 1960s. This dissolution of the
lute good, any more than anything fundamentally moral teaching authority of the Church necessarily
evil; (there could be) only relative value judgments. had to have an effect on the diverse areas of the
There no longer was the (absolute) good, but only Church. In the context of the meeting of the pres-
the relatively better, contingent on the moment and idents of the episcopal conferences from all over
on circumstances. (…) the world with Pope Francis, the question of priest-
Pope John Paul II, who knew very well the situa- ly life, as well as that of seminaries, is of particu-
tion of moral theology and followed it closely, com- lar interest. As regards the problem of preparation
missioned work on an encyclical that would set for priestly ministry in seminaries, there is in fact a
these things right again. It was published under the far-reaching breakdown of the previous form of this
title Veritatis splendor on August 6, 1993, and it trig- preparation.
gered vehement backlashes on the part of moral In various seminaries homosexual cliques were
theologians. Before it, the “Catechism of the Cath- established, which acted more or less openly and
olic Church” already had persuasively presented, in significantly changed the climate in the seminaries.
a systematic fashion, morality as proclaimed by the (…)
Church.

18 MICHAEL May/June/July 2019 www.michaeljournal.org