Vatican to Release Major New Document on the Natural Law

Well this should be interesting. It is actually the International Theological Commisson a dicasteryof the Roman Curia consisting of 30 Catholic theologians from around the world. Over at Mirrors of Justice we learn:

More on the Moral Natural Law


A while back, several of us had a friendly exchange on natural law and the moral natural law. The International Theological Commission (ITC), whose five year mandate expires at the end of this calendar year, is meeting over the next five days to address a draft document on the moral natural law. The draft is presently entitled, The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at Natural Law. These sessions of the ITC are under the direction of my former colleague at the Gregorian University, and, I believe, still friend, Luis Ladaria, S.J., who retains his post at the Gregorian but is also the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the General Secretary of the ITC. It is thought that the draft will receive the ITC’s approval soon; however, there are still some procedural issues that must be dealt with prior to publication. Since the ITC will have an audience with Pope Benedict later this week as they conclude their plenary, there may be some chance that the approved text will be released shortly thereafter. I, for one, look forward to reading this document and will try to make it available by hyperlink, perhaps with a brief commentary.

RJA sj

Posted by Robert Araujo on December 1, 2008 at 04:36 PM in Araujo, Robert Permalink TrackBack (0)

Hopefully if there is something controversal in this document it will not be released on a Friday like the last major document of the Commission was last tyear. That is The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised (April 19, 2007). Catholics had to endure a whole weekend of bad reporting such as the POPE SHUTS DOWN LIMBO and other silliness in newspapers and publications that it took forever to recover from and no one was there to respond to it.