Sociology and public theology: a case study of pro-choice/ profile common ground - 1998 Presidential Address

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 1999 by James R. Kelly

The consistent ethic made morally suspect any but a very tactical connection with those economic ideologies whose proponents argue, in Bernardin's disapproving words, that "compassion and significant public programs on behalf of the needy undermine the moral fiber of the society or are beyond the proper scope of governmental responsibility" (Fuechtmann 1988: 9).

As it challenged the "right," the consistent ethic as radically challenged the "left." Bernardin explained that the Bishops' opposition to nuclear war is based on the same premise as their opposition to abortion: Besides the more general "attitude of respect for life," the "more explicit connection is based on the principle which prohibits the directly intended taking of innocent human life. The principle is at the heart of Catholic teaching on abortion; it is because the fetus is judged to be both human and not an aggressor that Catholic teaching concludes that direct attack on fetal life is always wrong. This is also why we insist that legal protection be given to the unborn. The same principle yields the most stringent, binding, and radical conclusion of the pastoral letter (The Challenge of Peace): that directly intended attacks on civilian centers are always wrong . . . even if our cities had been hit first. . . . The principle which structures both cases, war and abortion, needs to be upheld in both cases. It cannot be successfully sustained on one count and simultaneously eroded in a similar situation."

The Eclipse of a Consistent Ethic of Life

A constitutional amendment reversing Roe was the focus of the most prominent social movement organizations opposing abortion and the movement's rationale for a specific connection with the fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party, whose platforms, since 1976, have endorsed a "human life amendment."(12) But Bernardin cautioned against making an amendment a "litmus test" of an authentic consistent ethic approach to abortion. In his 20 March 1990 address entitled "The Consistent Ethic of Life after Webster" (Langan 1998:90 ff.). Bernardin taught that moral integrity meant that a politician who claimed to personally oppose abortion could not simply say that they supported Roe without making any public effort to contribute some community and legal protection to the unborn. So Bernardin did not "accommodate" moral teaching to political interests. Rather, he offered a short course to activists on the meaning of "prudence" in pluralistic societies. Bernardin said that when bishops express judgments about abortion policy and abortion law they should explicitly acknowledge that these judgments are "open to debate," just as they did in their 1983 pastoral letters on nuclear war (The Challenge of Peace) and in 1986 on economic justice (Economic Justice For All). Since the "relationship of moral principle, civil law, and public policy is complex," Catholics especially, but others as well, "should encourage and foster an ongoing conversation with the church about strategies to address abortion," especially because a "public consensus is needed to support law."