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This is not to suggest for one mo- ment that the bishops are pure and simple Hobbesians; far from it. Like most contemporary ethicists, they are vastly more influenced by Kant and his latter-day disciples, who managed to give the original rights theory a more exalted status by grounding it, not in a selfish pas- sion, but in practical reason or the dignity of the individual person as an autonomous moral agent. Yet in the final analysis, Kant's theory is still only a modification of the Hob- besian theory, whose nonteleological orienta- tion it preserves and with which it has more in common than it does with classical moral philosophy. Rights remain paramount and the actualization of the just social order is made to depend more on institutions than on moral character. Virtue, although desirable, is not essential to the scheme, and one need not acquire it in order to reap its benefits. Human beings may stay as they are as long as the laws under which they live are as they ought to be. The only condition is that these laws be devised in such a way as to be equally favorable to everyone, to scoundrels no less than to saints. Wars will disappear, not because their atrocities offend one's moral sense, but because with the progress of modern science they are rapidly becoming too costly, if not downright suicidal. Com- merce will curb the spread of religious fanaticism and bind people together more closely than ever before. A strong league of nations will insure the proper relations among the peoples of the world, and a day is coming when no one will have to worry about sacrificing himself for the good of others. In Kant's famous phrase, the per- fectly just society does not require that the bulk of its citizens be angels or even minimally decent human beings; it can be made up entirely of "devils," on condition that they be intelligent. The key to its proper functioning is not genuine moral virtue, on which one can rarely depend, but en- lightened self-interest. compassion, for all its attractiveness, is a passion, only distantly related to what the Christian tradition calls 'mercy' and 'charity, ' both of which, as virtues, require the control of reason.

This is not to suggest for one mo- ment that the bishops are pure and simple Hobbesians; far from it. Like most contemporary ethicists, they are vastly more influenced by Kant and his latter-day disciples, who managed to give the original rights theory a more exalted status by grounding it, not in a selfish pas- sion, but in practical reason or the dignity of the individual person as an autonomous moral agent. Yet in the final analysis, Kant's theory is still only a modification of the Hob- besian theory, whose nonteleological orienta- tion it preserves and with which it has more in common than it does with classical moral philosophy. Rights remain paramount and the actualization of the just social order is made to depend more on institutions than on moral character. Virtue, although desirable, is not essential to the scheme, and one need not ...
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BOSTON COLLEGE MAGAZINE BY ERNEST L. FORTIN THE TROUBLE WITH CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT In speaking out on urgent matters, like the economy and nuclear warfare, the bishops may be neglecting their most important task https://archive.org/stream/bostoncollegemags1988bost/bostoncollegemags1988bost_djvu.txt

BOSTON COLLEGE MAGAZINE 35 THE TROUBLE WITH CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT In speaking out on urgent matters, like the economy and nuclear warfare, the bishops may be neglecting their most important task BY ERNEST L. FORTIN Toward the close of Vatican II, a distinguished Protestant theologian, himself an observer at the council, remarked that, in its endeavor to come to terms with the modern world, the Roman Catholic Church was trying to com- plete in less than five years what Protes- tantism had failed to accomplish in well over a century. The statement was intended as a friendly warning that the domain into which the council fathers had ventured was strewn with pitfalls that the euphoria generated by their deliberations could easily cause them to ignore. The truth of that statement has been amply borne out by more recent devel- opments,...
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Villey says, essentially: That development was itself part of the deformation of classical jurisprudence. For him, modern human rights did not represent the culmination of the classical science of law. They represented its displacement. His complaint is that the modern concept of rights puts the individual subject at the center: “I have a right to X.” Whereas classical jurisprudence asks: “What is objectively due to this person in this relationship?” That is an important distinction because the two formulations can sometimes arrive at similar practical conclusions while resting upon very different philosophical foundations.

AI from https://chatgpt.com/: This passage presents Michel Villey’s critique of the Spanish Scholastics as a turning point in the history of law , especially in the transition from an objective conception of jus to the modern conception of subjective rights . Villey’s basic thesis For Villey, the classical Roman and Aristotelian-Thomist understanding of law is fundamentally objective . Jus is “what is just” ( id quod justum est ). Justice consists in giving each person his due ( suum cuique tribuere ). The jurist or judge determines the proper proportion or relationship between persons, goods, offices, and obligations. Thus, law is primarily concerned with a just order between persons and things , rather than with an individual's personal power to act. In simplified form: Classical law: What is the just thing that belongs to each person? Villey contrasts this with the later subjective conception: Modern rights: What power, liberty, or claim does the individual po...
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School of Salamanca, such as Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suárez, who, despite affirming their fidelity to the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, ended up following the lead of the modern theologians in favour of a subjective conception of law101 . Villey is explicit about this: First, I think it's a legend that the Scholastics were faithful to St Thomas. [...] In any case, regarding the subject of law or legal theory, I have not been able to find in Spanish Scholasticism the doctrine of St Thomas

https://www.giuseppetosi.com.br/arquivos/fill/4c2bbebeee02df2b4c9104f93f66f275_interpretations_of_the_controversy_over_the_conquest_of_america.pdf#:~:text=Some%20defend%20the%20thesis%20that%20the%20scholastics,not%20develop%20a%20doctrine%20of%20subjective%20rights Michel Villey and the "deformation" of the philosophy of law by the Spanish scholastics Michel Villey (1914-1988) was one of the greatest French legal philosophers of the 20th century. Catholic, conservative, brilliant and polemical in his always very clear and profound arguments. He wrote several fundamental works on the history and theory of law, many of which have been translated in Brazil96. We will focus on just one aspect of his thought, which is central and recurrent throughout his work, namely his criticism of what he calls the "deformation" of law caused by the theory of subjective rights, which underpins modern human rights. This deformation97 of law occurred in the passage "from law (jus)...
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Examining the Deep Roots of the Abuse Crisis Taylor Darrick Taylor. - Crisis Magazine [https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/examining-the-deep-roots-of-the-abuse-crisis]

This is partly the subject of Kieran Tapsell’s essay, “Canon Law on Child Abuse Through the Ages.” Tapsell argues that from the time of Gregory XVI in 1842, popes increasingly made the handling of sexual crimes committed by clergy more secretive. The 1917 code dispensed with the requirement to notify and hand over the accused to secular authorities, and Pius XI’s instruction Crimen Sollicitationis (1922) made the entire process a secret one from start to finish. Gone were public “degradations” of offenders, in which clerics were stripped of their status and handed over to the state for punishment. - Crisis Magazine [ https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/examining-the-deep-roots-of-the-abuse-crisis ] Examining the Deep Roots of the Abuse Crisis Darrick Taylor The ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the Church has left many good Catholics shaken, and like many I have tried to understand how this has happened. Obviously, homosexuality in the clergy plays a role, and the all-male nature of the ...
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