Veritatis splendor: Difference between revisions

{{refimprovemore citations needed|date=January 2012}}

| pope = John Paul II<br>[[File:John paul 2 coa.svg|60px|center]]

| web_en = httphttps://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor_en.html

| web_la = httphttps://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor_lt.html

|title=Veritatis splendor|Papal coats of arms=File:John paul 2 coa.svg}}

'''''Veritatis splendor''''' ([[Latin]]: ''The Splendor of the Truth'') is an [[encyclical]] by [[Pope John Paul II]]. It expresses the position of the [[Catholicism|Catholic Church]] regarding fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching. The encyclical is one of the most comprehensive and philosophical teachings of moral theology in the Catholic tradition. It was [[Promulgation|promulgated]] on 6 August 1993. Cardinal [[Georges Cottier]], [[Masterwas ofinfluential thein Sacred Palace|Theologian emeritus ofdrafting the Pontificalencyclical,<ref Household]]name=cottier>{{cite andnews Cardinal-Deacon| ofwork= ''[[Santi30Days Domenico| edate= Sisto]]''March the2004 University| Churchurl of= the [[Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas]]<ref>http://www.vatican30giorni.vait/news_services/liturgy/2003/documents/ns_lit_doc_20031021_titoli-diaconie-cardinali_enarticoli_id_3545_l3.htmlhtm | title Accessed= 17"If Februaryeverything 2013;is {{citegrace, web|url=http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/documents/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_cottier_gjmm_en.htmlthen |title=Archivedgrace copyis |accessdate=Februaryno 18, 2013more" |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214071240/http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/documents/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_cottier_gjmm_en.htmlaccess-date |archivedate=February 14, 2013 }} Accessed 17 February 2013}}</ref> was influential in drafting the encyclical,<ref>{{efn|In an interview in "''30Days"'', 3-2004 Cottier remarkedsaid: "Going back to the early years, the first “big”"big" text I worked on was the social encyclical ''Centesimus annus''. And then the ''Ut unum sint'' on ecumenicalism, the moral encyclical ''Veritatis splendor'', and the ''Fides et ratio… also the Catechism of the Catholic Church" http://wwwratio''.30giorni.it/articoli_id_3545_l3.htm<ref Accessed 17 February 2013<name=cottier/ref>}} as was [[Servais-Théodore Pinckaers]], a professor of moral theology at the [[University of Fribourg]].<ref>See: Romanus Cessario, "On the Place of Servais Pinckaers († 7 April 2008) in the Renewal of Catholic Theology," in: ''The Thomist,'' 73.1 (2009), 1-27.</ref>

''Veritatis splendor'' begins by asserting that there are indeed absolute truths accessible to all persons. Contrary to the philosophy of [[moral relativism]], the encyclical says that moral law is universal across people in varying cultures, and is in fact rooted in the human condition. Pope John Paul teaches that no matter how separated someone is from God, "in the depths of his heart there always remains a yearning for absolute truth and a thirst to attain full knowledge of it."<ref>Veritatis Splendor (VS) §1</ref> He goes on to say that the splendor of truth "shines forth deep within the human spirit."<ref>VS §2</ref>

===[[Moral authority]] of the Catholic Church===

Ultimately, John Paul teaches, "to ask about the good, in fact, ultimately means to turn towards God, the fullness of goodness." Against the idea that the Church's teaching body has a mainly exhortatory role, the pope reiterates the Catholic doctrine that the magisterium of the Catholic Church has authority to definitively pronounce on moral questions. Even more, John Paul teaches that the Church is Christ's particular response to help answer everyone's question of what is right and wrong...

The encyclical affirms that today's respect for human freedom "''represents one of the positive achievements of modern culture." However, he cautions, though it is a good, human freedom is not in itself an absolute. Merely deciding for oneself that one may do something is not at all a true substitute for determining whether something is in fact good or bad. Because God is the true author of good, it remains of critical importance to understand how the divine Law, as expressed by the authoritative magisterium of the Church, considers an issue before determining absolutely for oneself.

The pope welcomes and supports the role of human reason in discovering and applying the natural law (those aspects of the moral law that may be discovered without divine revelation). Nevertheless, because God remains the true author of moral law, he states that human reason will not properly supersede the elements of the moral law that are of divine origin—the encyclical states that this "would be the death of true freedom." In particular, John Paul denies those ideas of morality that treat the human body as a "raw datum,"'' separating man and how he uses his body from his greater meaning derived from the entirety of his person.

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* [httphttps://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor_en.html Complete text of the encyclical from the Vatican website]

*[httphttps://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church] from the official website of the Vatican

[[Category:ReligiousCatholic ethicsmoral theology]]