Our Rapidly Disappearing Absolute Moral Rules, by David Carlin

By David Carlin, The Catholic Thing, Oct. 27, 2023

David Carlin is a retired professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America, Three Sexual Revolutions: Catholic, Protestant, Atheist, and most recently Atheistic Humanism, the Democratic Party, and the Catholic Church.

One of the great distinguishing marks of Catholic moral doctrine is that there are certain absolute or exceptionless rules of morality.  These exceptionless rules include prohibitions of:

• Adultery

• Fornication

• Homosexual sodomy

• Rape

• Incest

• Polygamy

• Artificial contraception

The examples I have just given all pertain to sexual conduct, which is far from surprising since Catholicism has been a very emphatically pro-chastity religion since Apostolic times.  But there are many other absolute rules that have nothing directly to do with chastity.

For instance:

• An absolute ban on abortion. Abortion is, of course, closely associated with sexual conduct, but it is banned, not because of the rule against unchastity but because of the rule against unwarranted homicide. …

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