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Actually Barry, what I'm saying confirms the part of the Catechism that you quoted.

JPII states in Fides et Ratio:

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."

Faith and reason are not incompatible: in fact, reason confirms faith. What the Randians believe is that they can derive ethics explicitly from the natural world. Note what the Catechism states:

"..."Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith."

That's the point I was trying to make. Morals come from other places, and are confirmed by reason.

An excellent book on the superiority of Judeo-Christian ethics and their complete compatibility with reason is A Clash of Orthodoxies by Robert George (2001).

Morals come from other places, and are confirmed by reason.

Interesting, we may be making progress. You're saying that reason can be used to evaluate competing moral views (e.g. "love your neighbor" versus "kill the Jews"), but is insufficient to develop those views in the first place?

Faith is unquestioning belief, that's the common definition. In what you say, you use "faith" in place of "truth". Reason can only confirm truth. Not everything accepted on faith is true. Reason can only confirm faith that is true. Now at the very basic levels of knowledge some things are accepted on faith, such as the law of identity and existence. I do agree with you on:

"That's the point I was trying to make. Morals come from other places, and are confirmed by reason."

Rand says morals come from what is the nature of man and you say they come from elsewhere. In either case, the morals have to be identified (or derived) by man and their whole purpose is so that man can live harmoniously within his nature. I agree with you that morals are absolute and a few things must be accepted on faith I just disagree with you on the source. I think you believe that they are revealed supernaturally and I believe they can be derived from a proper understanding of mans nature.