Catholic ethics and social justice: natural law and beyond

Abstract

Looking at the pastoral letter of the United States Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, as a form of public moral discourse, three aspects are particularly noteworthy. First of all, like its companion letter, The Challenge of Peace, Economic Justice for All was a text approved democratically by a two-thirds majority of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which reflected the consensus reached by this collective body after a long process of public deliberation and consultation within the Catholic community. The letters went through several drafts which elicited public debate even before the publication of the final text. In their public deliberations the drafting committees and the episcopal conference heard the testimony of various interest groups (administration, business, labor), professional economic "experts," social movement activists, other religious groups, and dissenting Catholics. The bishops also consulted with Rome and with other episcopal bodies.1 Taking into account the scope and the systematic nature of the public deliberations, one may say that the most relevant characteristic of the let? ters from a public point of view was the very process through which they were written. Indeed, they represent perhaps the closest empirical approxi? mation to the institutionalization of discourse ethics at the general level of civil society.2 Surely, the episcopal deliberations did not represent an "ideal speech situation," since the speakers were hierarchs who claimed to be the authoritative teachers of a particular moral tradition with universal validity claims. But from a Catholic perspective the pastoral letters represented a radical departure from traditional modes of doctrinal and moral teaching. Nothing illustrates this better than the hostile reaction of Cardinal Ratz? inger: