ON THE EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
An
examination of conscience, the particular examination especially, that is based
on a classical and Thomistic understanding of the virtues risks being overly
individualistic, lacking in social cognizance and vision. True, all social
virtues originate in individual disposition, practice, and habit. The person
who supports progressive social and economic policies, for example, may be
motivated by their personal sense of social justice and a generous heart. However,
social virtues are built on social understanding, so that the person who is
focused on their individual perfectibility shown possibly in their personal
industriousness, sincerity, or temperance, for instance, isn’t necessarily
engaged in deep reflection on or penetrating analysis of larger society. You
can be assiduously engaged in your medical studies, demonstrating the worthy
virtue of diligence, for example, but at the same time blithely oblivious—and
morally blasé as well—about the violent political revolution taking place all
around you. Individualistic virtue does not guarantee a keen social conscience
or adequate social cognizance.
In modern times society has become more and more socially complex and in some respects social reality has outstripped the capacity of many to grasp this complexity and to respond adequately, in both the moral and pragmatic sense. We must be cautious about cultivating individualistic complacency based on ignorance of and indifference towards the often difficult social conditions in which we are invariably immersed. The examination of conscience, paradoxically, risks co-opting self-centered individualism and thereby vice as well.
Photo courtesy of Saya Muncil
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Gonzalinho
STRUCTURES OF SIN COMES OF AGE
ReplyDeleteFr Gustavo Gutiérrez, who has died aged 96, challenged the Church to reconsider its role in a world marked by social inequality and commit more fully to the defence of the weak.
Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez was a pioneer of liberation theology, a movement advocating for social justice and the liberation of the poor.
He died during the night of Tuesday, October 22, at the age of 96.
Emerging in the 1960s as a response to massive social inequalities in Latin America, liberation theology emphasised that the Christian faith must tackle social issues of poverty and exclusion in order to remain credible.
Fr. Gutiérrez's 1971 book A Theology of Liberation was foundational to this movement and has deeply shaped theological thought in Latin America and beyond.
…In an interview with Vatican Radio in 2015, Fr. Gutiérrez stressed that care for the poor is central to the Christian message.
“Poverty is death”, he said, “it destroys people and families. The Church understands this better than in the past.”
‘One of the greatest theologians of our time’
One of the most charming stories about Fr. Gutiérrez was his friendship with the German theologian Cardinal Gerhard Müller, one-time head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—the same office that had once voiced its concern about aspects of liberation theology.
Cardinal Müller spoke to Vatican News about the death of his friend, whom he called “one of the great theologians of our time.”
A challenge to the Church
Liberation theology had a far-reaching impact on the Catholic Church and on society. It challenged the Church to reconsider its role in a world marked by social inequality and commit more fully to defending the weak.
In this and in many other ways, Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez’s legacy lives on.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-10/gustavo-gutierrez-champion-of-the-poor-dies-aged-96.html
—Joseph Tulloch, “Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, champion of the poor, dies aged 96,” Vatican News, October 23, 2024
To be continued
Gonzalinho
STRUCTURES OF SIN COMES OF AGE
DeleteContinued
The roots of the concept of social sin reach even to Biblical times—God would chastise Israel, for example, for its neglect of the poor and the weak, the orphan and the widow, besides many other forms of social injustice.
However, it is only in modern times and according to a deeper analysis of social structures and systems that our understanding of social sin has acquired a salience and sophistication not heretofore seen in the Church.
We would argue that the principal origin of this transformation in outlook is the Industrial Revolution and that Marxist analysis of social structures and systems that purportedly gave rise to injustice, principally economic.
Historically, Roman Catholic spirituality has focused primarily on asceticism, and its necessary adjunct, mysticism. Both tend to show individualistic character.
Structures of sin is now very much part and parcel of present-day Roman Catholic moral vocabulary and consciousness. It is a recent transformation.
Gustavo Gutiérrez and the theology of liberation both played a pivotal role in this transformation.
Gonzalinho
Pure Marxist analysis is materialist and unmoored from God’s law—yet isn’t it possible that some version of socioeconomic analysis related to Marxism is compatible with Christianity? Gutiérrez’s work raises that possibility. Recall that he was investigated by Ratzinger when the latter was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that Gutiérrez came away without official censure. I don’t know the details of the case but the facts say something important.
DeleteGonzalinho
Around 1980 I wrote a term paper for an undergraduate college course (English 3: The Essay) in which I expounded basically the same above observations about the sea change taking place in Roman Catholic spirituality at the time. I was a second-year college undergraduate. I got a top grade for the paper and for the course.
DeleteGonzalinho
SHORT EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
ReplyDeleteDid I love God today? Did I love others today? How did I fail in my duty to love God and neighbor?
Gonzalinho
They are the same—love of God, love of neighbor. It’s probably easier for us to examine ourselves on whether we love our neighbor. It becomes the index by which we love God.
DeleteGonzalinho