Moralists as Historians: Papal Authority, Humanae Vitae, and Defining Catholic Moral Theology in the United States

Abstract

The twentieth century was a time of enormous change in Catholic moral theology. The move from seminary to university helped end the use of the manuals that priests used to judge moral matters and inform their response to confessions. Though steeped in the manualist tradition, John C. Ford and Gerald Kelly, seminary professors in the 1950s and 1960s, recognized deficiencies with Catholic moral theology but feared that those seeking to correct the problems would ultimately remove moral theology's defining characteristics, especially the role of papal authority. A historiographical analysis of the works by contemporary moral theologians John Mahoney, Charles E. Curran, and James F. Keenan demonstrates that Ford and Kelly's concerns were well-founded. The historical assessments these three scholars provide are remarkable for their first-hand accounts and knowledge of moral issues. Inversely, their weakness is the subjectivity of their analyses. In considering papal authority in relation to the birth control encyclical Humanae Vitae, this article demonstrates how the three authors' historical perspectives necessitated altering the definition of Catholic moral theology. While Ford and Kelly believed that Catholic moral theology without papal authority could only be considered Christian ethics, later moral theologians preferred a discipline without an explicitly Catholic basis.