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(cont.)
III. The Seamless Garment: A Pastoral and Public
Contribution
The moral teaching of the Church
has both pastoral and public significance. Pastorally,
a consistent ethic of life is a contribution to the
witness of the Church's defense of the human person.
Publicly, a consistent ethic fills a void in our public
policy debate today.
Pastorally, I submit that a Church standing forth on the
entire range of issues which the logic of our moral
vision bids us to confront will be a Church in the
style of both Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes and in
the style of Pope John Paul II's consistent witness
to life. The pastoral life of the Church should not
be guided by a simplistic criterion of relevance.
But the capacity of faith to shed light on the concrete
questions of personal and public life today is one
way in which the value of the Gospel is assessed.
Certainly the serious, sustained interest manifested throughout
American society in the bishops' letter on war and
peace provides a unique pastoral opportunity for the
Church. Demonstrating how the teaching on war and
peace is supported by a wider concern for all of life
may bring others to see for the first time what our
tradition has affirmed for a very long time: the linkage
among the life issues.
The public value of a consistent ethic of life is connected
directly to its pastoral role. In the public arena
we should always speak and act like a Church. But
the unique public possibility for a consistent ethic
is provided precisely by the unstructured character
of the public debate on the life questions. Each of
the issues I have identified today—abortion, war,
hunger and human rights, euthanasia and capital punishment—is
treated as a separate, self-contained topic in our
public life. Each is distinct, but an ad hoc approach
to each one fails to illustrate how our choices in
one area can affect our decisions in other areas.
There must be a public attitude of respect for all
of life if public actions are to respect it in concrete
cases.
The pastoral on war and peace speaks of a "new moment"
in the nuclear age. The pastoral has been widely studied
and applauded because it caught the spirit of the
"new moment" and spoke with moral substance
to the issues of the "new moment." I am
convinced there is an "open moment" before
us on the agenda of life issues. It is a significant
opportunity for the Church to demonstrate the strength
of a sustained moral vision. I submit that a clear
witness to a consistent ethic of life will allow us
to grasp the opportunity of this "open moment"
and serve both the sacredness of every human life
and the God of Life who is the origin and support
of our common humanity.
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