Pierantoni: ‘Gaudete et Exsultate’ Appears to Support Error of Situational Ethics

National Catholic Register ^ | April 25, 2018 | Edward Pentin

[ebb tide]

Soon after the publication on April 9 of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on holiness, Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad), various scholars were invited to give their responses to the document for this Register article that was published last week.

One of them was Professor Josef Seifert, the Austrian Catholic philosopher, whose positive take on the document has been published in full on this blog here.

Another was Professor Claudio Pierantoni, a patristic scholar of medieval philosophy at the University of Chile, who takes a more critical view and whose entire contribution is now published below.

Pierantoni says the document has “beautiful and useful pages about holiness,” but on the passages that equate abortion with other social justice issues such as the suffering of migrants, he reminds readers that abortion is an “intrinsically evil action, monstrously justified” by legalization, whereas issues such as immigration are matters of “prudential judgment.”