The Encyclical Abstraction

Abstract

The flock will safely pick its way across the stony hills to patches of fresh pasture, for the shepherd is there and, it is hoped, his trusty dogs, yet the hyaenas can be heard, alike from the Osservatore Romano and the Guardian, calling from one side that we should greet Humanae Vitae with joyful submissiveness and from the other that we are damned if we do: it is hard to tell which howls are the more remote. (Hyaenas, of course, have their merits; they are the ancestors of animals we domesticate and grow fond of, terriers, spaniels, and so forth.) These interim notes, written in mid-September when the pastoral instruction of the English Bishops is still to come, offer nothing fresh; they follow the marks in the old ordnance maps published ever since moral theology was established as a scientific discipline about seven centuries ago. They will indicate, first, the place of abstraction in moral teaching; second, the intervention there of ecclesiastical authority; third, the argumentation offered to support a decision; fourth, its consequent appeal to natural law; fifth, the varieties of assent. For convenience these five headings are expanded into five sections.