There is a Latin phrase, “In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas” often (mis) attributed to St. Augustine. In English it means “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
There are certain points of the faith that are essential. Without them you are not a Christian. For instance, the divinity of Christ.
Other aspects of Christianity are not essential. For instance, a particular devotion. But in all things, we should be charitable towards others who disagree with us.
As a Catholic it is important to understand what is essential and what is non-essential. I recently had a conversation with a friend who said “being Catholic means opposing evils like abortion, the death penalty, and nuclear war.” Sounds good, but are all of those essential for a Catholic? Some people think none of those are essential. Others think carious combinations of them are essential. How can we know?
Fortunately, the Church provides lots of guidance. The easiest place to look for information is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Every family should have at least one copy. You can get one for about $9 new, or under $4 used online or from your local Catholic book store or from various other places. If you don’t have one, stop reading this and order one now.
Got one? No? Well you should. In the meantime you can refer to the Vatican’s copy, which is available for free online.
Now, let’s look up the three things mentioned. Not surprisingly, all three issues fall under the section on the Fifth commandment. Take a look, because there’s a lot more there and I’m going to quote in this post. In the section on abortion, the catechism has this to say (emphasis mine).
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.76
No wiggle room there. Nor, it notes, will the Church ever change this position. God has spoken on this matter.
Likewise, the Catechism offers this on nuclear war:
2314 “Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.”110 A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons – to commit such crimes.
On the death penalty, it says the following:
2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”68
In other words, the death penalty is not always an evil to be avoided, and Catholics can in good faith disagree on this topic.
In summary, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) wrote, in a memorandum on worthiness to receive Holy Communion:
While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
And so I agree with two of the three propositions that my friend made. I plan to explore this in more depth in a future post.
Copyright © 2013, Michael Lindner
Michael Lindner
Mike is a scouter, a science geek, a dad, a husband and a Catholic. He earns a living as a software engineer in beautiful New Jersey. In his spare time (ha ha) he muses at his blog What Does Mike Think? He is not a writer (which will be painfully obvious after reading his posts) but feels called to apologetics and evangelization anyway. You have been warned.
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