Witnesses to a Proper Fear, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, Jan. 19, 2022

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. …

Note: The Papal Posse – TCT Editor in Chief Robert Royal, Fr. Gerald Murray, and Raymond Arroyo – will appear again on EWTN’s “The World Over” tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET to discuss various developments in the Vatican and the Church at large. Check local listings for broadcast and re-broadcast times. EWTN programs are also usually available on the network’s YouTube channel shortly after their original broadcast.

There are important respects in which any martyr is important for our time. But are there some more relevant than others?  If so, which are most relevant – and why?

You may be familiar with the fascinating passages in Veritatis Splendor where St. Pope John Paul II teaches that false views of ethics are refuted by the witness of any martyr:

The unacceptability of “teleological,” “consequentialist,” and “proportionalist” ethical theories, which deny the existence of negative moral norms regarding specific kinds of behavior, norms which are valid without exception, is confirmed in a particularly eloquent way by Christian martyrdom, which has always accompanied and continues to accompany the life of the Church even today. (n. 91) …

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