..and especially for Fr. Sircio and Raymond Arroyo who seem to think that Obama speaking at Notre Dame is a greater moral evil than the United States torturing people. I single out the United States, for I doubt they would equivocate over torture being a “prudential judgment” that might be licit if done by a “competent authority” or “depending on circumstances” if (say) the Khmer Rouge were the acting agent. No, this is a sad attempt by those on the Catholic right to align themselves not only with a secular partisan movement, but also with the interests of American nationalism and the security state.
A few months back, John Carr of the USCCB made the following crystal-clear points about the Church’s approach to torture, and Sirico and Arroyo need a little education, so it seems:
“I’m honored to be part of this very distinguished panel. I have an exalted title as Executive Director of Justice, Peace and Human Development, but we cannot have justice, peace and human development when our nation advocates and practices torture. There has been a lot of discussion in Congress, CIA, White House, newspapers and even television expressing confusion, dismay, disagreements, and doubts over whether torture can be used or justified.
The Catholic Church has no such doubts when it comes to torture. Torture is abhorrent and can neither be condoned nor tolerated. Pope Benedict XVI has said that “the prohibition against torture ‘cannot be contravened under any circumstance.’” Simply put, torture is a classic moral case of ends and means. Good ends cannot legitimize immoral means. In the context of torture, we cannot defend our life and dignity by threatening the lives and attacking the dignity of others.
The moral test in economic life is how we treat “the least of these,” according to the parable of the Last Judgment in St. Matthew’s Gospel. It may not be biblical but it is also true that the moral test in this area is how we treat the “worst of these” – those who would violate all boundaries in their attacks on us.
Torture is morally wrong because it debases human dignity, which is God-given, not earned by good behavior. Respect for human dignity is a fundamental teaching of the Catholic Church. In their November 2007 statement assaults the dignity of human life, it is “intrinsically evil” (No. 23), one of very few action to be labeled “intrinsically evil.”
The Catholic bishops went on to state in fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person and ultimately counterproductive in the effort to combat terrorism” (No. 81).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently and strongly opposed torture in a long series of letters to Congress and the Administration, in public statements, and in a Catholic study guide entitled “Torture in a Moral Issue,” produced in collaboration with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. We fully support this common call for an early and effective Presidential Executive Order banning torture as it would help restore the legal and moral credibility of the United States in the international arena.
In less than a week, President Obama takes office. We have areas of agreement and differences. But we hope that he will take this important step to promote a culture that respects life. In the end, this is not about them, the detainees – they have made their choices. This is about us – who we are, what we believe about human life and dignity, and how we act as a nation.”
It seems from the behavior of EWTN that the cafeteria is wide open on the right. But this is quite possibly more serious than the standard issues on the left, which usually have to do with issues of sexual morality — sixth commandment issues. Torture in the other hand is a fifth commandment issue — that is how it is treated in the Catechism. Gaudium Et Spes lists it up there with the most serious sins, right after murder, genocide, abortion, and euthanasia.
When Biden and Pelosi made stupid comments challenging the Church’s teaching on the intrinsic evil of abortion, the episcopal reaction was swift, loud, and stern. Will we see a similar reaction to this equally grave distortion of Church teachings?
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