Now, in Father Bretzke's Chapter 25: "Moral Theology and the Paradigm Shift of Vatican II" in The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (pp. 418-431), he calls attention to the prolific German Redemptorist priest and moral theologian Bernard Haring (1912-1998). Bretzke says that Haring "play[ed] a very important role as a peritus [expert] at the council in the drafting of Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern world, as well as Optatam Totius itself" (p. 419). Bretzke also mentions Haring's three-volume work in moral theology in German in the 1950s that was translated into English in 1963 as The Law of Christ: Moral Theology for Priests and Laity (p. 419). In Bretzke's "Suggested Reading" (p. 431), he lists the English translation of Haring's post-Vatican II three-volume work Free and Faithful in Christ: Moral Theology for Priests and Laity (1978-1981).
So what, if anything, can we infer from the change in titles from Haring's pre-Vatican II three-volume work in moral theology to his post-Vatican II three-volume work in moral theology? Did the documents of Vatican II inspire Haring to switch from emphasizing the Law of Christ to emphasizing Free and Faithful in Christ? In which Vatican II documents should we look to find the source of Haring's apparent inspiration to change his tune, figuratively speaking?
In Bretzke's subsection titled "Conscience" (pp. 426-428), he says, "The locus classicus for the council's expanded understanding on conscience is found in Gaudium et Spes 16, which speaks of the 'sanctuary' of conscience as being both a sacred place in which the individual meets God in a privileged manner and a safe place in which no other force or authority may legitimately intrude (including the official magisterium)" (p. 427).
Bretzke also says, "The seeds planted in Vatican II's documents that involve conscience - Gaudium et Spes [the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World], Lumen Gentium [Dogmatic constitution on the Church], and Dignitatis Humanae [Declaration of Religious Freedom] - would continue to germinate and grow, but the struggles over the fruits of their cultivation further illustrate the thesis about the difficult tensions involved in deep-seated paradigm shifts" (p. 427). All three of the Vatican II documents that Bretzke mentions here are in the fresh English translations in the 2012 book Vatican II: The Essential Texts, mentioned above.
So let's take a look at what Bretzke refers to as "The locus classicus for the council's expanded understanding on conscience," Gaudium et Spes 16, as translated into English by John Mahoney, S.J., in Vatican II: The Essential Texts (pp. 194-298):
"Deep within their conscience individuals discover a law [reminiscent of Haring's pre-Vatican II emphasis on The Law of Christ] which they do not make for themselves but which they are bound to obey, whose voice, ever summoning them to love and do what is good and to avoid what is evil, rings their heart when necessary with the command: Do this, keep away from that. For inscribed in their hearts by God, human beings have a law whose observance is their dignity and in accordance with which they are to be judged. Conscience is the most intimate center and sanctuary of a person, in which he or she is alone with God whose voice echoes within them. In a marvelous manner conscience makes known that law which is fulfilled by love of God and of neighbor. In their faithfulness to conscience, Christians are united with all other people in the search for truth and in finding true solutions to the many moral problems which arise in the lives of individuals and in society. And the more a correct conscience prevails, so much the more do persons and groups abandon blind whims and work to conform to the objective norms of morality. Not infrequently, however, conscience can be mistaken as a result of insuperable ignorance, although it does not on that account forfeit its dignity; but this cannot be said when a person shows little concern for seeking what is true and good and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin" (pp. 207-208).
The conceptualization of conscience in this passage suggests that it involves a kind of inner dialogue within the person.
In conclusion, if we were to conceptualize Vatican II as a paradigm shift in the Roman Catholic Church, as Bretzke's title suggests, then we might have to embrace a trickle-down theory of assimilation to account for the resistance to Vatican II's teachings among certain conservative Catholics.
(Article changed on May 11, 2023 at 6:24 PM EDT)
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