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Natural Law In Our Lives ( 2 Posts Long)


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Natural Law in Our Lives, in Our Courts (Part 1)
J. Budziszewski on the 4 Ways of Knowing It

AUSTIN, Texas, APRIL 1, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Legal scholars and theologians debate over the details of natural law, but an expert in the field believes that the fundamentals are something that we can't not know.

J. Budziszewski is professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas and author of several books, including most recently, "What We Can't Not Know: A Guide" (Spence Publishing).

Budziszewski shared with ZENIT the four God-given witnesses of natural law: deep conscience, the designedness of things in general, the particulars of our own design, and natural consequences.

Part 2 of this interview will appear Friday.

Q: Your many books and articles in publications such as First Things have expressed the importance of recovering the moral truths of natural law. Briefly, how have you developed this thought over your academic career?

Budziszewski: At the beginning of my academic career I would have agreed with George Gaylord Simpson that man is the result of a meaningless and purposeless process that did not have us in mind.

When I acknowledged God, I was forced to acknowledge that the process has been neither meaningless nor purposeless; natural law expresses both "nature," the human design, and "law," the Designer's command.

In order to think clearly about these things one must unlearn a variety of errors and intellectual vices, and sometimes it seems this is all I do. On the other hand, the culture as a whole has to do the same thing, so perhaps it is not such a bad thing for some of its intellectuals to carry on their unlearning in public.

Q: What is it about natural law that attracts you to the topic? How have your studies of natural law been affected by your own pilgrimage of faith? What conclusions have you come to?

Budziszewski: In the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, St. Paul makes an interesting remark about the pagans. Their problem isn't that they ought to know about the Creator but don't; it's that they do know about the Creator but pretend that they don't, worshipping created things instead.

In modern language, they aren't ignorant, but in denial. It seems to me that this is our problem not only with God but also with his basic moral requirements, and that the natural law tradition needs to wrestle with this problem more seriously. That is what most of my work is about.

Do these matters have anything to do with my own pilgrimage of faith? Yes, certainly. In the old days, when I said there was no God, was no good, and was no evil, it was my way of putting my thumb in his eye, because, like all of us, I really knew better.

Having been redeemed despite myself, I think I've gained some insight into these processes of denial, and in gratitude, the least I can do is write about them.

Q: Why do you say that natural law is written on the heart? Isn't the law of grace what is written on the heart? Or are they really the same?

Budziszewski: The phrase comes from St. Paul's remark in the second chapter of the book of Romans that when gentiles who do not have the law of Moses do what the law requires, they show that the "works" of the law -- its requirements -- are written on their hearts.

Traditionally, this has been considered a reference to the natural law, but it refers to grace, too. As the Catechism explains, "the preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace," and as my friend Russell Hittinger has written, the natural law is the first of these preparations -- the "first grace."

The metaphor of writing on the heart is deeply embedded in Scripture.

Jeremiah 17:1 declares that the sin of the people is written on their hearts. Proverbs 3:3 and Proverbs 7:3 exhort the people to write the law on their hearts.

In Jeremiah 31:33, quoted in Hebrews 8:10 and Hebrews 10:16, God promises to write the law on their hearts more perfectly. And Romans 2:14-15 declares that the "works" of the law, meaning the commands without this promise of further grace, are written on the hearts of everyone already.

Q: How is the natural moral law different from the physical laws of nature, like gravity?

Budziszewski: Strictly speaking, law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the one who has care of the community.

It is addressed to a mind that can understand what is demanded and act accordingly. Principles like gravitation are "laws" only in an analogical sense. They certainly result from God's governance, but the falling apple is not freely and rationally aligning its behavior with a rule that it knows to be right.

Q: How is it even possible to know the natural law, considering how disputed its contents are?

Budziszewski: I hear much about this supposed dispute, but I don't believe in it.

People who talk about the natural law pretty much agree about its basic contents -- don't murder, don't commit adultery, honor your parents, and so on. They are the same things you find in the Decalogue. Moreover, these precepts are recognized -- even if only in their breach -- by societies in every time and place.

Disagreements concern not the basics but the details; as C.S. Lewis put it, the peoples of the earth may disagree about whether you may have one wife or four, but they all know about marriage.

Even the cannibal knows that it is wrong to deliberately take innocent human life; what he claims is that the people in the other tribe aren't human. I strongly suspect that deep down, even the cannibal knows better. Why else does he perform elaborate expiatory rituals before taking their lives?

Q: How then do we know the natural law?

Budziszewski: There seem to be at least four different ways that "what we can't not know" is known. In the spirit of St. Paul's remark that God has not left himself without witness among the nations, these might be called the Four Witnesses.

First, and in one sense the most fundamental, is the witness of deep conscience -- the awareness of the moral basics that has traditionally been called synderesis. Although it can be suppressed and denied, and must be distinguished from conscious moral belief, it continues to operate even underground.

Second is the witness of the designedness of things in general, and consequently of the Designer, which some people have called the "sensus divinitatis."

In another sense this is even more fundamental than deep conscience, because unless deep conscience has been designed to tell us truth, there is no reason to take deep conscience seriously. That, by the way, is the cardinal problem of so-called evolutionary ethics.

Third is the witness of the particulars of our own design. An example is the complementarity of the sexes: There is something missing in the makeup of the man which can be completed only by the woman, and something missing in the makeup of the woman which can be completed only by the man. Don't we all really know that?

I cannot be completed by my mirror image; I am made for the Other. A Christian, of course, suspects that this prepares us for intimacy with God, for whom we were also made, but who is even more Other.

Last is the witness of natural consequences. Those who cut themselves bleed; those who abandon their children have none to stroke their brows when they are old; those who suppress their moral knowledge become even stupider than they had intended. And so it goes.

We may think of this witness as the teacher of last resort, the one we are forced to confront when we have ignored the other three.

Q: I understand that you and your wife are to be received into the Catholic Church at Easter. Did your study of natural law lead to your decision to become Catholic?

Budziszewski: No, but it had something to do with it. I will always be grateful for what I learned in evangelical Protestantism, among other things its fierce loyalty to the truth and authority of the Bible.

If you do believe that the Bible comes from God, however, then you have to believe that the natural law comes from him, too, because the Bible so plainly presupposes and points to it.

In particular, it confirms all Four Witnesses: Consider for example its confirmation of the witness of deep conscience in Romans 2:14-15, which I have mentioned already, and its confirmation of the witness of natural consequences in Galatians 6:7. For this reason, I was deeply perplexed that Protestantism did not teach the natural law, and that some influential Protestant writers even condemned belief in natural law as unbiblical and pagan.

Of course I couldn't help wondering why the only place where this deeply biblical doctrine was preserved in its purity was the Catholic Church. This was especially unsettling because, according to Protestant prejudice, the Catholic Church does not take holy Scripture seriously.

Q: It seems that after a long period of skepticism, Protestants have begun to embrace the natural law tradition in recent years. What accounts for this change?

Budziszewski: This welcome change is more a return than a reversal, because the earliest Reformers believed strongly in natural law.

John Calvin remarked: "Now, as it is evident that the law of God which we call moral, is nothing else than the testimony of natural law, and of that conscience which God has engraven on the minds of men, the whole of this equity of which we now speak is prescribed in it. Hence it alone ought to be the aim, the rule, and the end of all law."

Martin Luther made similar remarks. This is one of a number of Catholic beliefs that Protestants used to accept but have over the years given up.

What happened in recent years to bring conservative Protestants back to natural law is that the culture became biblically illiterate. In former generations, Protestants could speak with their neighbors about shared concerns in the language of holy Scripture, because their neighbors knew the Bible and respected it.

Today that is impossible. The new situation requires quoting the Bible less, but following its apologetical example more closely.

Consider the example of St. Paul. When he broached Christian topics with pagans, he didn't pull Scripture verses from his pocket. Instead he appealed to things they knew at some level already.

More and more, Protestants are finding that they must now do as Paul did. In the broadest sense, however, what Paul was following was the method of natural law.

[Friday: When natural law is ignored]
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ZENIT - The World Seen from Rome

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- Daily dispatch - - April 02 , 2004

VATICAN DOSSIER
Pope Sees "Moment of Hope" for Church in U.S.
Reform Calls for Holy Bishops, Says John Paul II
For U.S. Bishops, a Pause for Discernment
Mideast Peace Requires Restart of Dialogue, Says Pope
Recognition of U.N.'s Regulatory Role Urged
Unborn-Victims Act Praised by Vatican Official

NEWS BRIEFS
In Britain, New Digest Updates Legislators

INTERVIEW
Natural Law in Our Lives, in Our Courts (Part 2)

SPIRITUALITY
Papal Preacher Urges Renewed Approach to Confession

DOCUMENTS
Pope's Address to a Group of U.S. Bishops


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VATICAN DOSSIER

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Pope Sees "Moment of Hope" for Church in U.S.
But Warns Nation Is Losing a Sense of the Transcendent

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The purification that the Church in the United States is undergoing in the wake of the clerical sex-abuse scandals constitutes a "moment of hope," says John Paul II.

To a group of visiting bishops from the ecclesial provinces of Atlanta and Miami, the Pope wanted "to reaffirm my confidence in the Church in America" and "my appreciation of the deep faith of America's Catholics and my gratitude for their many contributions to American society and to the life of the Church throughout the world."

"Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope, that hope which does not disappoint, because it is rooted in the Holy Spirit, who constantly raises up new energies, callings and missions within the Body of Christ," the Holy Father said in the address he delivered in English.

John Paul II recalled that a 2001 special assembly of the Synod of Bishops presented the bishop as "a prophet, witness and servant of hope to the world."

The exercise of this prophetic witness in contemporary American society, the Pope said, quoting reports presented to him by the bishops, has "been made increasingly difficult by the aftermath of the recent scandal and the outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion, yet it cannot be evaded or delegated to others."

"Precisely because American society is confronted by a disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent and the affirmation of a culture of the material and the ephemeral, it desperately needs such a witness of hope," the Holy Father said.

"It is in hope that we have been saved; the Gospel of hope enables us to discern the consoling presence of God's Kingdom in the midst of this world and offers confidence, serenity and direction in place of that hopelessness which inevitably spawns fear, hostility and violence in the hearts of individuals and in society as a whole," he continued.

"I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal," the Pope affirmed.

He added: "This time of purification will, by God's grace, lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier Church, a Church ever more convinced of the truth of the Christian message, the redemptive power of the Cross of Christ, and the need for unity, fidelity and conviction in bearing witness to the Gospel before the world."
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Reform Calls for Holy Bishops, Says John Paul II
Addresses a Group of Visiting U.S. Prelates

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The necessary reform of the Church in the United States calls above all for the "interior renewal" and "conversion" of bishops, says John Paul II.

In a meeting today with the pastors of the ecclesiastical provinces of Atlanta and Miami, the Pope indicated the first challenge that the U.S. Catholic community faces, shaken by the scandals attributed to priests, is "the renewal of the episcopal office."

"The history of the Church demonstrates that there can be no effective reform without interior renewal. This is true not only of individuals, but also of every group and institution in the Church," the Holy Father told the bishops, who were on their five-yearly visit to Rome.

"In the life of every bishop," he continued, "the challenge of interior renewal must involve an integral understanding of his service as 'pastor gregis' (pastor of the flock), entrusted by Christ's will with a specific ministry of pastoral governance in the Church and the responsibility and apostolic power which accompany that ministry."

Therefore, the "apostolic authority" of the bishop "must be seen first and foremost as a religious witness to the risen Lord, to the truth of the Gospel, and to the mystery of salvation present and at work in the Church," the Pope said.

"The renewal of the Church is thus closely linked to the renewal of the episcopal office," he said. "Since the bishop is called in a unique way to be an 'alter Christus' (another Christ), a vicar of Christ in and for his local Church, he must be the first to conform his life to Christ in holiness and constant conversion."

The Holy Father added: "Only by himself putting on the mind of Christ and acquiring a fresh, spiritual way of thinking, will he [the bishop] be able to carry out effectively his role as a successor of the apostles, the guide of the faith community, and the coordinator of those charisms and missions which the Holy Spirit constantly pours out upon the Church."
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For U.S. Bishops, a Pause for Discernment
Pope Sees Their Visit as an Opportunity in Wake of Scandals

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The five-yearly visit to Rome by a group of U.S. bishops is an opportunity for discernment and renewal for a scandal-shaken Church, says John Paul II.

The Pope made this proposal today when he received a group of U.S. bishops from the ecclesiastical provinces of Atlanta and Miami.

"Our meetings are taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States," the Holy Father told his guests.

He said he hoped the meetings will "bear particular fruit in a deeper appreciation of the mystery of the Church in all its richness, and a far-reaching discernment of the pastoral challenges facing the bishops of the United States at the dawn of the new millennium."

The visit has three parts. The first is the personal meeting between the bishops and the Pope. The second involves the bishops praying together, particularly at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. And the third part is an opportunity to meet with members of the Roman Curia.

At the end of their visit, the Holy Father will meet with groups of bishops to address the challenges facing the Church in the United States.

"Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between bishops, priests and the laity in your country," John Paul II said.

"I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal," the Pope added.

"For this reason I pray that our meetings will not only strengthen the hierarchical communion which unites the Successor of Peter with his brother bishops in the United States, but will bear abundant fruit for the growth of your own local Churches in unity and in missionary zeal for the spread of the Gospel," he continued.

"In the coming months, I would like to engage you and your brother bishops in a series of reflections on the exercise of the episcopal office," the Holy Father said.

"It is my hope that a consistent reflection on the gift and mystery entrusted to us will contribute to the fulfillment of your ministry as heralds of the Gospel and to the renewal of the Church in the United States," he said.

John Paul II hoped that for the U.S. prelates the "visit to the tomb of Peter and to the house of Peter's Successor" would be "a spiritual pilgrimage to the heart of the Church."

"May it be for you," he exhorted, "a summons to a more intense encounter with Jesus Christ, a pause for reflection and discernment in the light of faith, and an impulse to new vigor in mission."
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Mideast Peace Requires Restart of Dialogue, Says Pope
Calls on the World Community to Exert Pressure

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II says the international community has the responsibility to exert pressure to rekindle Palestinian-Israeli dialogue in order to halt the "infernal cycle" of Mideast violence.

The Pope spoke out again today about the "terrible conflict that continues to crush" the Holy Land, when he received the credentials of Naji Abi Assi, Lebanon's new ambassador to the Holy See.

"The international community cannot flee from its responsibilities with the pretext of other urgencies, but must assume them courageously," the Holy Father said.

The world community must invite "all the parties in dispute, especially Israelis and Palestinians, to renew the dialogue without delay to provide the means that will put an end to the infernal cycle of reciprocal violence," he added.

"This is the necessary condition for a global solution of the conflict which must involve all the countries of the region," the Pope said.

"A lasting peace will not be able to be re-established in this region without political courage, without the firm determination to recognize the rights of all, including those of the adversary, in order to undertake with him the path to peace, in respect of justice," the Holy Father continued.

This also calls for "acceptance of recourse to mutual forgiveness to heal the terrible wounds inflicted by mutual violence during such long years at the cost of so many broken lives," he said.

The Pope concluded: "May political leaders listen to this appeal to work actively and without delay to renew ties, at the service of the long-awaited re-establishment of peace!"
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Recognition of U.N.'s Regulatory Role Urged
Pope Calls for a Return to International Order

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Amid ongoing strife in Iraq and world terrorism, John Paul II has appealed for a return to international order, particularly through recognition of the United Nations' regulatory role.

The Pope expressed the Holy See's position on the matter today when he received the letters of credence of career diplomat Naji Abi Assi, Lebanon's new ambassador to the Vatican.

In his address, delivered in French, the Holy Father began by referring to "the uncertainties of the present international situation, characterized by a profound destabilization of relations between nations, under the pressure of the events that have occurred in Iraq."

This situation is caused "also and above all" by "the unjustifiable and disturbing continuation of international terrorism," he said.

"In the face of this precarious situation, the Holy See does not cease to advocate a return to stability and to international order, thanks to the regulatory role of international bodies, in particular the United Nations," the Pope said.

Echoing a point in his message for the World Day of Peace, the Holy Father advocated the reinforcement of the "methods of decision making and action" of this institution, "for the purpose of reducing powder kegs of tension and of guaranteeing peace."

In No. 7 of that message, John Paul II said that it must be acknowledged "that the United Nations organization, even with limitations and delays due in great part to the failures of its members, has made a notable contribution to the promotion of respect for human dignity, the freedom of peoples, and the requirements of development, thus preparing the cultural and institutional soil for the building of peace."

However, the Holy Father also called for "a reform which would enable the United Nations organization to function effectively for the pursuit of its own stated ends, which remain valid."
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Unborn-Victims Act Praised by Vatican Official
Bishop Sgreccia Calls U.S. Law "Important Event"

ROME, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A new U.S. law designed to protect unborn victims of violence is an important event "juridically and ethically," says a Vatican official.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, commented today on Vatican Radio about the measure signed into law a day earlier by U.S. President George Bush.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act provides that, under federal law, anyone who causes death or injury to a child in the womb will be charged with a separate offense, in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

"As of today," Bush said, "the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims."

"Undoubtedly, it is, juridically and ethically, a very important event," Bishop Sgreccia said of the new law.

He noted that U.S. Supreme Court decisions have focused on the principle of woman's rights. But the new law shows "there is another priority principle: that the fetus represents a human being who has juridical importance, who must be respected as man," the bishop said.

Bishop Sgreccia believes the obstacle to recognizing the parity between the fetus and the human being is motivated by the fact that "it goes against a principle called 'autonomy,' and a libertarian principle that wants adults to have the power of life and death over the 'nasciturus.'"

"This is anti-human," he said, "because it goes against the equality of all men, of all human beings, and the human being does not begin at birth but before."

In Washington, D.C., a U.S. bishops' aide also welcomed the new law.

"We applaud the president for bringing justice to women and their children who are victims of violent crime," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokeswoman for the bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

"Thanks to him, and to a bipartisan majority of Congress," she said, "a woman who loses her child to a brutal attacker in a federal jurisdiction will no longer be told that she has lost nothing."
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NEWS BRIEFS

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In Britain, New Digest Updates Legislators


LONDON, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales and related agencies have launched a Public Policy Digest to provide legislators with information about the Church's work.

The first issue of the digest has been sent to every Catholic member of the House of Commons and House of Lords -- about 500 politicians and legislators in all.

"Its purpose," said Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, general secretary of the bishops' conference, "is to provide Catholic parliamentarians and others working in the public policy arena at Westminster with up-to-date information about what briefing papers are available from the bishops' conference secretariat and three of its agencies -- CAFOD, Caritas-Social Action, and the Catholic Education Service -- on current bills or government consultations."

"We have taken this initiative in response to requests from a number of Catholics who said they did not know what was available from the bishops' conference or its agencies to support them and nor did they know to whom to go with queries," Monsignor Summersgill said.

"Our aim is to produce a short digest of this kind three times a year during a parliamentary session," he added. "It is available electronically on the bishops' conference Web site at www.catholicchurch.org.uk and the briefing papers referred to can be downloaded from there."
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INTERVIEW

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Natural Law in Our Lives, in Our Courts (Part 2)
J. Budziszewski on Latency, Denial and Rationalization

AUSTIN, Texas, APRIL 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- U.S. courts have been giving short shrift to natural law for the past century, says a professor of government and philosophy.

J. Budziszewski, a professor at the University of Texas and author of several books, including "What We Can't Not Know: A Guide" (Spence Publishing), shared with ZENIT why he thinks many modern courts, thinkers and members of society unfairly, and unwisely, ignore the basics of natural law.

Part 1 of this interview appeared Thursday.

Q: What is the moral significance of natural law and how can it most effectively shape the laws enacted by governments?

Budziszewski: The natural law simply is the moral law. We may think of it this way. Everything God made has a nature. However, not everything he made is subject to him in the special way called natural law.

Natural law is a privilege of created rational beings -- that includes us -- because it is a finite reflection of his infinite wisdom in their finite minds. This is what Thomas Aquinas means when he defines natural law as "the participation of the rational creature in the eternal law."

In view of the fact that the natural law specifies the universal requirements for the common good of human beings, it is the basis for the human laws enacted by governments.

Ordinary human laws may be connected with the natural law in either of two ways. These used to be called the way of "conclusions" and the way of "determinations," but today it might be clearer to call them "inference from general principles" and "filling in the blanks."

An example of the first kind of connection is that since it is wrong to harm one's neighbor, the human law should forbid poisoning.

An example of the second is that since we ought to have regard for the safety of our neighbors, the human legislator must pin down such matters as whether automobiles are to drive on the right or the left. Sometimes the "pinning down" is by unwritten rather than written law; this is one of the ways in which culture is built up.

Q: American courts have often referred to natural law and traditional notions of "ordered liberty" in their decisions in the past century, but their decisions seem often at odds with Christian moral truth. How do you explain this phenomenon?

Budziszewski: I would put it differently: Though American courts have sometimes referred to natural law over the course of our history, during the past century they have been more and more loath to do so.

During the same period, their references to "ordered liberty" -- a phrase that once upon a time presupposed the natural law -- have become more and more incoherent.

We reached the nadir in 1992, when the Supreme Court opined that, "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

What the court seemed to be propounding in this passage was a degenerate theory of natural law -- a universal moral right not to recognize the universal moral laws on which all rights depend. Such liberty has infinite length but zero depth.

A right is a power to make a moral claim upon me; if I could "define" your claims into nonexistence -- as the court said I could "define" the unborn child's -- that power would be destroyed.

I have written elsewhere that in such a polity, no one can long be safe. Indeed, the wonder of it all is how one thing leads to another. Having declared that the Constitution somehow includes a right to define reality, the judges must put themselves in its place: If he wishes to survive, any king who says, "Everything is permitted" must add, "But I decide for everyone what 'everything' includes."

To take a longer view of the matter, in order to justify violating the natural law against murder, the court has at last found it necessary to defy the principle of our own republican government -- the balance of powers; the principle of all republican government -- that the weak have equal standing with the strong; and the principle of government as such -- that rule is ordained to protect, not destroy.

Q: Why do modern thinkers and modern culture so willingly ignore even the basics of the natural law, when, according to you, these are matters we "can't not know?"

Budziszewski: One reason is latency: It's possible to know something without knowing that you know it. The complementarity of the sexes is like that; it may not even occur to you until someone calls it to your attention, when you say, "Of course, that's obvious."

Another reason is denial: It's possible to know something and yet tell yourself you don't.

Usually, we play such tricks on ourselves either because we know something is wrong but want to do it very much -- or because we've already done it, and conscience is too painful to face. Denial is a much more serious problem than latency, because a person or a culture in denial resists being taught.

A third reason is rationalization: We make excuses for doing wrong not because we don't know it's wrong, but because we do. In fact, the knowledge of right and wrong provides the very material for our excuses.

For example, the feminist Eileen McDonagh admits that it's wrong to deliberately take innocent human life, but she says that the fetus isn't innocent -- it's an aggressive intruder in the woman's womb. She even compares it with a rapist. I don't think many women would be able to believe that the baby in the womb is a trespasser, but a lot of judges might.

Q: What prospects do you see for a renewed appreciation of the natural law in the courts, the law schools, and the other high places of our culture?

Budziszewski: Here's why your question is difficult. The foundational principles of the natural law are not only right for everyone, but at some level known to everyone.

This doesn't mean we can't deny them. What it means is that when we do deny them, the problem lies less in the intellect than in the will. Your question, then, becomes "How likely are our elites to repent?" The answer to that question is hidden in the providence of God.

However, I don't think we need an answer anyway. We know our own duty well enough. One of the permanent advantages of evil is the temptation that it offers us to despair. This is a burden.

But we have a permanent advantage in the virtue St. Paul calls hope, for our confidence, unlike the bravado of our opponents, is not presumption. It does not rest in our own small strength, but in the strength of the One whom we serve.
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