By Irene Lagan
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 10/2/03)

Beginning with a discussion on meeting the demands of non-traditional households and ending with a debate on the Federal Marriage Amendment, Catholic scholars from around the country tackled a range of topics that included social justice concerns, just war and bioethical issues.

The annual Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Convention held recently in Arlington drew upon philosophers, physicians, lawyers and others to address issues of concern for Catholic citizens. The conference theme, "debating issues of justice," included a broad range of issues and animated debate.

Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde celebrated the closing Mass on Sunday. After thanking those present for their contributions to Catholic intellectual life, he encouraged their ongoing work in forming intellectual life at universities and in the culture.

The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars (FCS) was founded in 1977 by a group of Catholic intellectuals who recognized the need for interaction among scholars of different disciplines who wished to remain faithful to Catholic teaching and tradition. Now in its 26th year, the FCS is a forum for exchange as well as support for the Church.

Several panel discussions at the convention focused on topics in which Church teaching was clear but at odds with the values of society. Others tackled issues that called for debate and clarity in meeting the demands of morality.

Jesuit Father Peter Ryan, chairman of the FCS Board, said the conference was a success.

"Some sessions included lively debate and presented different points of about controversial issues, but all the positions presented were within the pale of Catholic doctrine," he said.

Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, joined moral theologian William E. May and Marquette University political professor Christopher Wolfe in discussing the just demands of non-traditional households. While May and Wolfe defined the various types of non-traditional households Eberstadt said Church teaching on homosexual practices is supported by empirical evidence, citing research statistics that indicate high levels of depression, alcoholism and drug addiction among actively practicing homosexual persons.

Patrick Lee, professor of philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville and Catholic University’s Columbia School of Law professor Robert Destro discussed the personhood and rights of the human embryo. Lee presented a philosophical argument for the personhood of the human embryo. Destro focused on how rights are related to the legal and moral status.

William L. Saunders, a research fellow at Family Research Institute and Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, an ethicist at St. Anne Hospital in Falmouth, Mass., debated the ethics of embryo adoption. Acknowledging the Church’s teaching against in vitro fertilization, Saunders argued that embryo adoption is a morally licit option, while Father Pacholczyk claimed that embryo adoption is an interruption of the procreative act.

A session on capital punishment by Steven A. Long, professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and E. Christian Brugger, assistant professor of ethics at Loyal University in New Orleans sparked a discussion about how to understand Pope John Paul II’s encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" in light of the Church’s traditional teaching on capital punishment.

A session on just war and pacifism also elicited lively debate about the limits of participation in war as well as pacifism.

Oxford University professor John Finnis, an expert in natural law, gave the keynote address on Friday evening. Finnis’ talk, titled "Secularism, Faith and Public Policy," affirmed the role of moral reasoning in political discourse, refuting claims made by prominent political theorists that a person’s private and political reasoning can be entirely separate. Finnis defined the tradition and forms of secularism, beginning with Plato and Thomas Aquinas, and critiqued the position taken by contemporary political theorist John Rawls.

Other sessions included panel discussions on the problems of formal and material cooperation with evil in the military, legal and medical professions by Msgr. William B. Smith, a moral theologian from St. Joseph Seminary in New York; Franciscan Father John J. Coughlin from St. John Law School; and Professor John Hittinger from Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit; and presentation on the Federal Marriage Amendment by Gerry Bradley, FCS president and University of Notre Dame professor, and William Saunders.

Noted author and Emory University professor Elizabeth Fox-Genovese received the Cardinal Wright Award for outstanding service to the Church.

Fox-Genovese said the award was an "extraordinary and unexpected honor." In receiving the award, she spoke about what it means to be a Catholic scholar at a secular university. "As I see it, the conflict between faith and reason is no conflict at all," she said. "Even before I was Catholic, I always loved what St. Anselm said, ‘I believe in order that I might understand’. The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars is important because the work that we do cannot be done in isolation, but only in conjunction with other Catholics."

Other award recipients included Franciscan Father Ronald Lawler, who received the Founder’s Award for service to the FCS, and the honorable Melquiades Martinez, secretary of Housing and Urban Development and his wife, Kathryn, who received the Cardinal O’Boyle Award for their Catholic witness in the world.