Catholic Thinkers

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 16. Martyrdom and Witness

The final lecture of this series considers some of the pastoral recommendations made in this encyclical.  Taking the present situation as one of growing secularism (living as if God did not exist), the document considers some of the effects on Christians of having to live in a dechristianized culture.  The lecture concludes with a review of the pope’s remarks about martyrdom as giving witness to the inviolable holiness of God’s law.

https://youtu.be/SWzKn1NDGf4

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 15. Chapter Three, Pastoral Considerations, Morality and the Cross of Christ

Pastoral Considerations: Morality and the Cross of Christ
This lecture examines the first half of the final chapter of the encyclical. After reviewing its explanation about the contemporary “crisis of truth” that is manifest in relativism and skepticism, this lecture explores John Paul II’s instance that the Church’s concern is not only to denounce errors but also to help the faithful to form their consciences. By looking at various texts from St. Paul, we can better understand the demands of practical charity and fraternal correction.
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https://youtu.be/PV03X2Qj3vw

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterksi: 14. Teleology (Good & Bad), Considering Consequences

This lecture focuses on the encyclical’s treatment of intrinsic evils as always and everywhere forbidden.  Consequentialist and proportionalist theories deny the very possibility of asserting that some kinds of action are morally evil by reason of their object, apart from evaluations of the intentions or the consequences. By contrast, sound moral theology insists that it is the impossibility of ordering certain types of action to God and to union with God requires designating them as never permissible.  An object that radically contradicts the good of the person made in God’s image is intrinsically evil.
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https://youtu.be/eRtX9vKYLBQ

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 13. Consequentionalism and Proportionalism

This lecture gives further consideration to the problems that Veritatis splendor identifies in any autonomous (purely rational) morality.  At the heart of the problem is an inadequate understanding of the object of a moral action and a disproportionate (sometimes exclusive) concentration on the calculation of advantages and disadvantages in the effort to provide moral evaluations.  After differentiating between consequentialism and proportionalism, this lecture begins a review of the encyclical’s explanation of the Church’s teachings on intrinsic evils as always and everywhere wrong.
catholicthinkers.org

https://youtu.be/ZH-7gG1Gbvg

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 12. Chapter Two, Section 4 -The Moral Act

Recorded in 2013. This lecture examines the case that Veritatis splendor makes in continuity with the long tradition of Catholic moral theology about the proper way for analyzing the morality of human actions.  The proper analysis of any deliberate human act must involve distinct consideration of (1) the intention of the agent (finis operantis), (2) the object of the action, often called the “nature” of the action (finis operis), and (3) the circumstances, including the consequences.  In this encyclical Pope John Paul insists that we must ask whether a given act is or is not in conformity with the dignity of the human person. This lecture also considers the difference between the positive and the negative precepts of the natural law.

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https://youtu.be/xeA_kfSDEKE

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 11. Chapter Two Section 3 - Fundamental Choice and Specific Kinds of Behavior

Recorded in 2013. Chapter 3, Section 2. This lecture discusses a number of additional topics related to the conscience and to the use of human freedom.  Catholic moral theology has a long tradition of casuistry (an approach to morality that proceeds by considering the problems that arise in cases of various types).  Among these types of situation are the questions about the obligations to obey a dubious conscience and an erroneous conscience.  Veritatis splendor critiques the tendency in contemporary moral theology to suggest that a fundamental option is what determines the moral evaluation of a deliberate human action rather than the conformity of a particular action to the moral law.  This lecture also examines the distinction the encyclical makes between an appropriate and an inappropriate sense of the term “fundamental option.”
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https://youtu.be/91s7kLlKslg

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 10. Chapter Two, Section 2 - Two Senses of Conscience, its Proper Relation to Truth

This lecture considers Pope John Paul II’s understanding of conscience, and his criticism of the notion that there are no really God-given moral norms (in the strong sense of the term), but only recommendations and suggestions that free individuals would do well to take into consideration as they determine for themselves what morality requires. Consideration is given to various scriptural texts on the proper understanding of conscience (e.g., St. Paul’s letters to the Romans and the Corinthians) as well as to writings by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
catholicthinkers.org

https://youtu.be/PJwTjL7iZGo

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 9. Objections and Replies

Recorded in 2013. A part of Pope John Paul II’s second chapter is given to raising some important objections and providing adequate responses.  Among the objections that are considered in this lecture are the charges of physicalism/biologism (against the validity of any appeal to “nature” to be a source of moral norms), historicism and cultural relativism (against the claim that natural law is universal), and promissory appeals to future progress (against the claim that natural law is immutable).
catholicthinkers.org

https://youtu.be/8tHT8LUyfIs

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 8. Two Senses of Autonomy

This lecture concentrates on Pope John Paul II’s treatment of freedom in relation to the moral law and to the conscience. In order to correct the notion that human beings are free to decide on what the standards of morality should be, the encyclical emphasizes that human beings should discern what the God-given laws of morality are (not claim to decide what they are). This discernment comes through understanding (1) what God has revealed (e.g., by studying the texts of Scripture about the commandments or about sin and virtue) and (2) what human nature discloses about the natural moral law. The proper area for decision is about our choices (what we decide to do and what we decide to avoid doing), not about the moral standards by which our choices are to be evaluated. 

catholicthinkers.org

https://youtu.be/8xEVoN__2Ek

On Veritatis Splendor by Fr. Joseph Koterski: 7. Chapter Two, Preface and Section 1 - Truth and the Mora Law

This lecture focuses on the main project that Pope John Paul II has chosen for the second chapter of the encyclical: the identification and analysis of four trends in contemporary moral theology that are inconsistent with sound teaching. After considering the pope’s defense of the claim that revelation is a genuine source of knowledge in moral matters, the lecture proposes that there is an authentic (“good cholesterol”) meaning for each of the terns that have been used wrongly (“bad cholesterol”) by some moral theologians. These may be stated in thesis form: (1) freedom need not be in conflict with the moral law, (2) conscience is not independent of universally binding moral truths, (3) the moral analysis of a deliberate human action can be properly accomplished without taking into consideration the intention of the agent, the object of the action itself (whatever the intentions of the agent), and the circumstances (including the consequences).

catholicthinkers.org

https://youtu.be/aV4sX4bti6k