Morality Should Be Inspired by Encounter With Jesus,
Says Cardinal Ratzinger

In a Congress on the Encyclical "Veritatis Splendor"

ROME, NOV. 26, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger says that sets of rules shouldn't be the
motivation for moral behavior. 

"Morality should be inspired by an encounter with
Jesus Christ, and not by a series of indications: It
is an encounter of love," said the prefect of the 
Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in
a congress on John Paul II's encyclical "Veritatis
Splendor." 

"Walk in the Light: Perspectives of Moral Theology Ten
Years after 'Veritatis Splendor'" was the theme of
this international meeting of moral theologians, 
held Nov. 20-22 and organized by the Lateran
University and the John Paul II Pontifical Institute
for Studies on Marriage and the Family. 

In his address, Cardinal Ratzinger said the encyclical
"opens new horizons to moral theology." It tried to
"recover the message of Christian morality," he said. 

The cardinal insisted on the centrality of Jesus
Christ for morality. "If there is an encounter with
the living person of Jesus Christ, from this love all
the rest flows," he explained. 

The congress highlighted the connection between grace
and morality, emphasizing that far from being a
subjective topic, or something that is lived 
independently of the community, "morality has an
ecclesial dimension," Cardinal Ratzinger 
stressed. 

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian
episcopal conference, lamented "the dichotomy that
separates faith and morality." This aspect was also 
emphasized by Monsignor Livio Melina, director of
research in moral theology at the John Paul II
Institute for Marriage and the Family. 

According to Monsignor Melina, "The morality of
autonomy, addressed by the encyclical, poses a serious
ecclesiological problem: It favors an emancipation of
the moral conscience from ecclesial 'communio,'
bringing into question the nexus between faith and
morality." 

Archbishop Antonio Cañizares of Toledo, primate of
Spain, also referred to the separation of "faith and
life," and presented Christianity as a "light on the 
way." 

"We are not our conscience," he said. "We are not our
own light; rather, a light exists that comes to us
from on high." 

In this same line, Father Luis Ladaria, a professor at
the Gregorian University and consultor of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said: 
"Christian morality stems from Revelation and is not
founded solely on rational deductions." 

Spanish Bishop Juan Antoni Reig Pla of
Segorbe-Castellon pointed out among the most important
elements of "Veritatis Splendor" the "dynamic aspect
of behavior" and mentioned the need to learn to be
"disciples and witnesses" and to grasp "the truth of
our actions." 

In regard to the connection between moral life and
witness, Cardinal Ratzinger highlighted the martyrs,
who "teach us the way to understand Christ and what it
means to be man. They are the real apologia of man and
show that the creature is not an error of the
Creator." 

Cardinal Ratzinger also focused on the vocation of the
moral theologian, emphasizing that the latter's task
is "to know profoundly the difference between good and
evil in human action, seeking to be a faithful
follower of the magisterium of the Church."




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