Welcome to everyone out there.
Virtually, we really welcome you to this to our, Newman lecture tonight.
The Newman lecture series is one of the things we've done since the beginning here at DMU, to to really work with different guest lecturers and scholars from around the world who talk about things related to our mission, theology, philosophy, and how the human person needs to be at the center of all we do and how that relates in psychology, but also in in but also in just other air all other areas of life.
And so we're really blessed tonight to have brother Gertig with us.
He comes to us from Rome, and he'll be introduced more, before he comes up by, by sister, Mary Patrice.
But for now, I'd just like to open up we'll welcome you all first and just open in prayer, and we'll put we'll put our evening in our lord's hands.
In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit, amen.
Heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight to gather to reflect upon your goodness, reflect upon your love, reflect upon our call to live, to respond to your love, to love you, and to love others with all of our hearts in a special way in how that our our life, our our moral lives relate to that, how they're to help us become fulfilled, how to how they, are related to our our response to your love and to building your kingdom in the world.
We pray for our speaker that he will fill us with insight and grace and that you give us the the blessings of grace to live, to live out our faith, to live out our moral life, according to your will.
Today's reading, we saw in the first reading today about King David.
King David, who was so great, who was so noble, but yet who also we saw that that fall, how difficult it was for him to live a life of virtue and live a life morally throughout his entire life.
But your mercy was always there, and we can learn a lot from that.
So we ask you to strengthen us in this battle.
This battle of Saint Paul talks about of doing the things that we we don't we we wanna do and and not doing those things that we can't do sometimes or serve not fulfilling the moral law.
We know it's a struggle and it's a battle.
So we ask for your grace, and we hope that this talk tonight helps to it helps us to live that out better.
We pray as well for all those suffering from mental illness who need your help and your comfort.
We pray that that the Divine Mercy University will be an instrument in your hands and help bring hope and healing and faith to so many suffering souls.
And we ask all these things in the name of your son, our lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
So, we will now have, one of our graduates and faculty members, sister Mary Patrice Ahern, will come to introduce tonight's speaker and topic.
Thank you, father Charles.
I have the great privilege of introducing, father Gyrtec, who has come to speak with us from Rome.
Father was born in London, England.
His parents immigrated there from Poland after World War two.
So he grew up there, and after high school, went back to Poland, and went to university there.
And after he graduated from college, he entered the Polish province of the Dominicans, and was ordained a priest in 1981.
He then studied at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas, also known as the Angelicum, where he received a license in spiritual theology and his doctorate in moral theology.
In his community, he's been in various roles as a formater, as the student master, and he's also been a member of their general council at Santa Sabina in Rome.
In 2005, he was appointed by Pope Benedict the sixteenth to be the papal theologian, which is a role he is still in.
What does he do as a papal theologian?
I encourage you to ask him that question for yourselves.
But I would also say he reads, obviously, a lot of documents that are gonna go before the holy father that he would use, to correct for for theological for sound theology.
He also is a consultant for various congregations such as the for the doctrine congregation for doctrine of the faith, for causes of saints.
He's also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas.
He's published many articles and books.
Most of his books, I think, are in Polish, which I'm always on him about this, that if you would publish more in English, it would be great.
He has a book in English called, the the spark of faith, understanding the power of reaching out to God, and I highly recommend that book.
So that's a little plug right there for father's book.
He's been teaching at the Angelicum since 1994.
He teaches fundamental moral theology, and he also teaches a class on the theological virtues, which would be faith, hope, and charity.
Many many of my religious sisters have studied under father, but also because he teaches at the Angelicum, he teaches many American seminarians who are studying in Rome.
And, actually, some of his students are here as priests tonight, which I think is nice.
I would say I took I took father's, fundamental moral theology class when I was in Rome just a couple years ago, and I would say it really changed my life because he presents theology in a way.
I know he doesn't wanna hear this, but he has to sit here and listen to it.
And that he talks about the moral life in a way that is liberating and not something that is oppressive.
And I think this is the beauty of the thought of Saint Thomas as it gets us to focus on God and the freedom that is in that as opposed to just myself and my failures and all the things that I cannot live up to, which I'm sure is what he's gonna talk about tonight.
I would say many I father, his class and conversations that I've had with him, many of them took place on the 62 or 64 bus in Rome, helped fill out my understanding of psychology.
It filled out my psychology and even, the understanding of psychopathology.
And so, I think this is a really important topic for us as psychologists.
Father is very much a teacher, and I would say I just wanna give one personal story of this, in Rome.
Actually, I think this was just last summer because it was during COVID.
And during COVID around Rome, you know, the in in general in Rome, there's a lot of poor people always around Saint Peter's, and you get to know them when you're there.
And there's these two men, Marco and Roberto.
But one night, I was talking it was a hot summer night, and I'm talking on the street with them, on the Borgo PO, for those of you who know Rome.
And father comes walking down the street, and he comes right up to us, and I make introductions.
And father just starts talking about theology.
Now these two men are intelligent educated men.
They they live on the streets, speak few languages like most Europeans do.
But they had this we had this great conversation about religion and different religions, and they were asking questions and very engaged with father.
And the next day, when I ran into them, they were so uplifted that, first of all, I mean, the the conversation was amazing and and very focused on the Lord that you could tell these men had been uplifted just in their own spirits.
And the fact that he just spent the time to talk with them and was very kind to them, left such a huge impression on them that, I mean, I noticed in them the the next day.
So, again, we're very privileged to have father, and I will stop talking now and so we can all hear the talk from father, which is why we are here.
So father, your tech.
Welcome.
Thank you.
I will sit due to my advanced age.
So the question is, am I heard?
Okay?
Yes.
Okay.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's been a great pleasure for me to come here.
I, I've heard about what is being done in this university, and so I thought I it's an occasion to sneak out of Rome and to see something interesting happening in the world, and to give a give a talk.
The, the subject matter, the difficulty of moral virtues.
Well, there is a problem.
Aquinas noted, and Pope Francis quoted him on this in Amoris Laetitia, that those who are in the state of grace and even saints sometimes experience difficulty in living out the moral virtues.
They have received the infused habit of self the moral virtue and yet they cannot easily elicit the appropriate acts.
The person may maintain the primacy of the theological virtues, trusting in the power of grace, and nevertheless, despite the true engaging with God, may experience some form of the flesh that inclines to sin.
This enables the practical living out of a moral virtue and consequently keeps the soul humble in the face of God.
The desire to be free from the moral difficulty may be authentic and intense, and yet the falls may be regular and in some cases even addictive.
On the one hand, the infused moral virtues are said to grant facility, speed, and pleasure in doing the good.
And on the other hand, there appears a contrary blockage.
How are we to assess this phenomenon?
So first of all, the truth of the practical reason.
Correct eliciting of moral acts requires not only theoretical knowledge about the value concern, but also the immediate grasping of the truth of the matter by the practical reason.
The truth of the theoretical reason is measured by objective reality.
Whereas the practical reason is focused on some huge singular future act that as yet does not exist.
And being contingent, it may come about in various ways.
Thus, Aquinas says, the truth of the practical reason is assessed not just by its relationship to the object, but by its conformity with the right appetite.
Such is the teaching of a coin.
At first, this seems this account seems perplexing.
But basically, it boils down to the statement that when the drives of the will and the passions are in accord with their inherent finality, then the act of the moral virtue is easy.
But when they are not, then the act of the virtue is difficult.
In other words, to elicit a good moral act, the practical reason has to directly focus on the proper good together with the effective powers.
In moral action, there's no time for theoretical reflection and syllogisms.
The heart of the matter has to be grasped immediately and supported by correctly ordered affectivity.
If that affectivity is derailed then good action is difficult.
That is why convincing arguments built upon the natural law or the value of social morality do not heal the addict.
He just shrugs his shoulders and does what seems obvious, attractive at the moment even though he may know that it is wrong.
How but how is he to order its affects so that they will be in line with the deepest inclinations of human nature?
Practical perception done on the spur of the moment that impacts the act is not uniquely rational and even will.
It is also conditioned by sensitive cognition, sparking the passions.
In animals and humans, this sensitive cognition is immediate.
Since it is corporal, conditioned by the brain, it may sometimes gear towards that which the human theoretical reason understands to be inappropriate.
Humans, as distinct from animals, have the capacity to correlate their sensitive perception with the general theoretical view.
This is what happens in virtuous action.
But some individuals have a strong, connatural inclination towards that which is unnatural, contrary to the natural law.
They may even say, oh, you're all talking about the natural law but my nature is different.
Of course, human nature is an unchangeable giver But specific distorted inclinations may drive a person towards that which is unnatural.
Aquinas was aware of this.
And he he he gave the example of individuals who have a distorted taste and find deluctation in eating coal, engaging in same sex activity, or with animals or even enjoying cannibalism.
Aquinas also quoted the sociological observation made by Julius Caesar who was baffled by the fact that the Bavarian Germanic tribes had no moral qualms about terrorist warfare.
Thus, there are people who are instinctively, connaturally inclined towards unnatural, immoral action.
The natural law is formulated when conclusions are drawn from metaphysical finalities of being.
Whereas immediate internal inclinations may focus on something else, thereby impeding the eliciting of virtuous acts.
Moral reflection, therefore, has to look into the psychological process in which the heart of the matter is perceived immediately as it impacts the passion.
The assessment of some coming action by the practical reason is accompanied by the activity of the senses.
And rational psychology distinguishes the internal sensitive cognitive powers, namely the sensus communis that may be termed the central unifying sense and it gathers data supplied by the external senses, the memory, the imagination.
And rational psychology mentions the vis cogitativa that may be termed the usefulness judgment.
This last power is called the vis estimativa when it concerns animals, whereas in humans, it is given a different name because it cooperates with the practical reason.
Nevertheless, it remains a sensitive, corporal, and not spiritual faculty that stimulates the emotions.
As a consequence of repeated sins and also received external social influences, the sensitive usefulness judgment may be hijacked.
Inclining towards that which is contrary to the natural good of the individual.
When animals are domesticated or trained to appear in the circus There, this estimator is default, making them behave in ways that they would not do in the natural habitat.
Similarly, it happens that humans suffer internal and external pressures habituating their vis cogita diva in an abnormal way.
Using domestic terminology, we could define this phenomenon as a quasi habitus of the usefulness judgment, the vis cogitagida.
It's not a true habitus because it does not involve the free choice, the reason, and the will consciously and creatively focusing the particular way.
It is a quasihabitus, having its physiological origin in the neurological connections of the brain.
Particularly in youth, these are in flux having a certain plasticity.
But in time, they incline in a specific direction.
This is how languages and artistic capacities are learned.
Such deep rooted inclinations, however, may be flawed.
A person raised in a family where there was alcoholism may acquire an inherent sensitive inclination to reach for alcohol in moments of stress.
An an individual having easy access to pornography from the earliest years may then have to struggle with this addiction in adult life.
The inclination supplied by the sensitive usefulness judgment working together with the practical reason forms an instinctive perception of what is deemed to be sensible.
In his magisterial work, the sources of Christian ethics, father Sergei Pinkerts referred to two uses of the term instinctus by Aquinas.
On the natural level, we have the an instinct of reason that grasps that which complies with our human nature.
And on the supernatural level, as we live by the new law of grace, we have the instinct of the holy spirit opening up to divine promptings suggesting charitable action.
This, of course, is true.
But the portrayal of humanity, not in its morally perfect and sanctified state, but in its factual existence marked by individual and social sense needs to also take into account those flawed instincts that urge against the goodness of virtue.
Such distorted inclinations located in the sensitive psychic need to be individuated.
And then some means, natural, psychic, moral, maybe even medical, and also supernatural have to be searched for so as to help weak individuals to grow in virtue and enable them to elicit virtuous acts with facility, speed, pleasure, and creativity.
Since the sensus communis, the unifying sense, and the vis cogitatima glue onto the judgment of the practical reason, and together they propose some course of action.
Common parlance, certainly in English and in French, has the expression common sense.
This refers not to the sensitive cognitive faculty unifying the perception of the external senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, but to the joint product of all the faculties, the external and internal sensitive faculties, the spiritual faculties, and maybe also the grace habits.
Together, they suggest some course of action that spontaneously is deemed to be sensible and therefore self evident.
This is in the common parlance.
So what is perceived to comply with the common sense of common parlance generally doesn't need theoretical explanation because immediately it focuses on that which is seen to be obvious.
Here I introduce a little excusos on father Gary Goula Grange, the distinguished French Dominican.
So by way of digression, I note that father Reginald Gary Goula Grange way back in nineteen o nine published a book on the common sense in the understanding of common parlors.
He interpreted this as a spontaneous expression of the spiritual cognitive faculties equivalent to the instinctus, the instinct of reason of awareness.
And just as the formal object of sight is color and hearing is sound, So the formal object of the intellect is the truth of being.
This intellectual perception is direct and spiritual independent of knowledge gained through empirical observation.
Thus, the understanding of the difference between a stone, a plant, an animal, and a human is direct irrespective of further information gathered by the positive sciences.
Children immediately perceive the difference between a plant, animal, and a human being.
So beginning with this common sense perception of being, the philosophical mind that works out the principles of identity, sufficient reason, long contradiction, finality, nature of the person, of the soul, and of the substance.
This is what Gary Golovar says.
In this, the reason notes not only the things are such, but it also reaches out to their underlying reason.
Gerig Lagrange was impressed by the writings of a Russian philosopher of a strange name, African spirit, and also of Godfield Gottfried Wilhel Vilhelm Leibniz and seemingly also Christian.
Galileo Lagrange interpreted the metaphysics of Aquinas as an easily explicable system which seems to be self evident because it is based upon the intellectual common sense reading of being.
On his basis, he thought, god, dogmas, and morality can be explained, almost like the principles of geometry.
Garrigou Lagrange therefore disclaim philosophers who saw becoming a phenomena as the primary object of cognition rather than the essence of being true.
His study was geared to the rejection of modernism, which proposed that dogmatic statements may be based upon other philosophies and not on the conceptualist to realist to reasoning of of Aristotle and Aquinas.
In the mind of Gary Lagrange, the spontaneous grasping of the fundamental truths of being by the intellectual common sense enables the adherence to dogmas about God and the incarnation and also the basic tenets of morality.
However, we have to note that this common sense may perceive something as self evident evidently true and clear in itself.
But this may not necessarily be the case as we see it.
In itself, some issue may be obvious, but our minds, subject to various internal and external conditionings, may not see this.
The logic and coherence of a metaphysical view of being and its consequences can be said to be intellectually appealing.
But one should not conclude that those who fail to grasp these truths not only on an academic level but also in their initial spontaneity They're either ignorant or locked in ill will.
This is because the spontaneous perception of the true and good that his decisive and moral action is also impacted by the senses that may be flawed and sometimes deeply so.
Gary Goula Grange did not see this.
But this fact has to be noted and taken into account as social morality is observed and addressed pastorally.
Some people do not see the common sense of what for others is plainly obvious.
And this differing intuition conditions practical morality, and they make the living out of the virtues acquired and infused extremely difficult.
And now I add another on civilizations.
A Polish historian of the early twentieth century, Felix Konetszczna, studied the historical development of morality with new challenges and moral sensitivities appearing.
Even though this process, which is not automatic, does not necessarily lead to improvement nor is it universal.
And he saw that peoples have differing, instinctive ethical perceptions about community how community life is to be organized.
Thus, he individuated the distinct civilizations on the basis of their inherited social ethics, and he viewed universal history in their life.
So collectionists said that the Latin civilization, which derives from Roman antiquity and is supported by the Catholic church, holds that ethical principles are binding also in social and political life.
Public law has to respect and protect the private law of lower entities, local governments, social classes, guilds of craftsmen, monasteries, and universities.
This social ethics promotes personalism with the emancipation of the nuclear family from the clan, rejects polygamy and transfers the meeting out of justice from the clan vendetta to the state.
That's the Latin civilization.
The Byzantine civilization derives from oriental Hellenistic despotic states.
It constantly reduces the field of private law, extending the scope of public law and an intrusive complex bureaucracy.
It places the church below the emperor.
And as a result, the state is not bound to comply with ethical rules.
The Byzantine civilization was eyed with envy by the European medieval Holy Roman Empire, which for this reason was in permanent conflict of the papacy.
This model was later copied by German Protestantism with the principle and by the absolutist states of Europe.
Connectionally interpreted the socialist extension of the competence of states reducing the scope for subsidiarity that generates passivism and a sense of entitlement among the population as a modern version of Byzantilism.
The Turanian civilization originating in Mongolia of Genghis Khan greatly marked Russia and its Asian colonies, but also Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, and to some extent, Poland.
This civilization has no public law.
It recognizes only the private law, but of only one individual, the Khan, the tsar, the sultan, the first secretary of the party, or the president.
In this civilization, law is an expression of the whim of the tyrant, and so social life requires a servile fear towards those who are higher in the social scale and permits brutality towards those who are lower.
If there is some religion, it is totally subservient to the state and almost irrelevant.
Thus in these countries, leaders who are vile are remembered as heroes and those who tried to bring in some European democracy are despised.
The Jewish civilization is for those who are of the Jew of the chosen people.
It constantly differentiates between Jews and non Jews, and its public morality is based upon legal precepts and has little room for the individual conscience.
Now collection held that the specific social ethos of given civilizations was maintained throughout history and handed down from generation to generation.
And whenever in history people of differing civilizations started to intermix, the most common result was confusion and the general decline of the public ethos.
Therefore, the maintenance and transmission of the Lachen civilization with its highest moral standards requires a concerted and conscious effort, which often was slack or inexistence.
Connexion didn't study the view of philosophical ethicists.
Instead, he focused on the general moral reactions of societies, trying to perceive what instinctively was deemed to be in accord with moral common sense and what generated surprise or abhorrence.
Today, it seems we can individuate a new as if civilization characterized by sexual license.
People have committed always sexual sins but generally they were ashamed of them.
Now we observe a novel interpretation of sexuality that is being fervent publicly as an ideology.
In it, sexuality is reduced to the unique function of supplying immediate recreation.
Whenever this perception is so grounded that it is instinctively accepted as supposedly complying with common sense, this has profound personal and social repercussions.
Saint Paul the sixth had the genial intuition that an ordered use of sexuality requires the affirmation of the indissoluble nexus of two significances of the sexual act, the unitive and the procreative.
And only when the husband and wife consciously approve the fact that they are united for the entire span of their life and their mutual responsibility for one another reaches out towards eternity.
And when they cherish their procreative capacity appreciating the perspective of parenthood, they mature in love and then they can handle their sexual urge through the virtue of chastity.
If these two significances are denied or separated and sexuality is deemed to be only recreational, then growth in chastity becomes difficult and may be impossible.
Also, celibates need to instinctively approve both significances, the unitive and the procreate, to be able to manage their own sexual power and to make of it a gift offered to god.
So these were just additions.
Now there are three possible ways of handling the emotions.
It's clear that the instinctive perception of the heart of the confronted matter impacts moral agency.
And when it is not up to the highest level in its reading of the truth, this impedes virtue.
At issue are not just the recognition of theoretical arguments as being convincing and even openness to grace and faith, but also the straightforward common sense intuition that immediately perceives and judges what is about to take place.
This direct instinctive intuition expressing common sense is a product of various factors, including psychic, that is corporal reactions stimulated by the brain, and also social civilizational influences.
In his moral theology, Aquinas individuated three possible ways of handling the emotions.
In the cardinal virtues of temperance and fortitude, their derivatives and allied virtues, the virtue is located within the emotion itself.
This is because the passions have an inherent capacity for cooperation with reason and with racism.
Aquinas disagreed with Saint Bonaventure who located the virtues of temperance and fortitude in the will.
An attempt to dominate the the emotions by the will does not generate the calm of moral virtue.
Thus, in true moral virtue infused by grace as a consequence of the real relationship with god that is maintained through the exercise of the theological virtues and the emotion is respected, and it brings in its natural dynamism and charm to the action even as it is subordinated to and triggered by charity.
It happens, however, that the individual sometimes tries to stem out the emotion by sheer will power.
When this is applied to the sexual desire, the result is not the virtue of chastity but what Aquinas terms continents.
It is located not within the emotion but in the will And so it's not a true virtue.
In continents, the passion reacts in the same way as in the case of the unchaste even though temporarily it obeys the will.
This psychic mechanism is not a true virtue, but it may usefully serve as an emergency reaction in the face of a sudden temptation.
It defends against sin in the moment of struggle but does not generate the peace of mind.
The third way of dealing with the emotion is neurotic, where one emotion is repressed by another.
When the emotion of fear tries to block the undesired emotion as in the case of the person suffering from scrupulosity, or when the emotions of energy of the irascible appetite try to extirpate the temptation.
This does not lead to internal peace, but to greater psychic tension.
Aquinas mentioned this mechanism in the case of repressed anger, but he didn't develop the matter.
His prime interest was the functioning of grace in the soul and not psychic disorders.
However, on the basis of this rational psychology, the neurotic mechanism may be explained.
The neurotic way of handling the emotions is often confused with the second way due to the mistaking of the emotions of the irascible appetite for the will.
The will is a spiritual, a pet appetitive faculty easily drawn by the true god, whereas the emotions are sensitive.
The repression of some emotions by other forceful emotions is a form of Pelagianism.
Its resulting psychic tension may impart be the cause of common reactions against moral teaching.
It may also be the underlying cause of sexual disorders and addictions.
Now why is it that there are some individuals who maintain a life of prayer are in the state of grace and yet they opt for the sheer will or even the neurotic dealing with an undesired emotion even though this approach is not successful.
It may be that they see their prayer only as an expression of the moral virtue of religiosity, the fulfillment of religious obligations.
They have not grown in the theological virtues.
Deep friendship with god allows one to trust that his powerful hand will deal with the difficulty.
It also leads to the patient acceptance of times of trial so that the relationship with with god will mature.
Ultimately, it is not ideal more moral perfection that is our end, but the engaging with God in pure faith, confidence, and friendship.
And this may be coupled with a deep sense of personal weakness.
But viewing from a psychological rather than spiritual angle, we may ask whether it is not often the case that the instinctive common sense perception of the meaning of the passion and its appropriate action is flawed.
And for this reason, the appetite is not right.
And when such an unnatural distorted inclination appears come naturally, it cannot be handled easily.
As a result, there is an attempt to deny it through some natural shortcut.
Then graced charity is not the directing force and either sheer will or the power of another emotion is applied, but this does not generate internal peace.
Thus, when the sensitive reading of sexuality immediately denies its unitive and procreative significances and their inherent nexus, this cannot be conducive to virtue.
It may be that the theoretical understanding of the value of sexuality will be correct and also the spiritual life maintained through prayer will be earnest.
And yet if the immediate sensitive perception of the sexual desire is erroneous, suggesting a uniquely recreational significance, virtue will not be simple.
The form of the flesh will continue to incline towards that which is disoriented.
This same psychic mechanism may be perceived in other dramas.
Is not the rampant alcoholism and brutality of Russian men a consequent of the fact that their civilization denies personalism?
They fail to develop their assertive emotions and do not grow in responsibility for themselves and their families because everything in their cultural heritage con naturally tells them that they are to be fearful, passive, and denying personal initiatives.
This is what the state expects of them, and they're also told by their Russian Orthodox or Russian Orthodox priests that the supreme sign of sanctity is a slave mentality coupled with suffering.
But when there is a war and they're given a machine gun, suddenly they feel they are somebody and they vent their repressed energy in aggressiveness.
And this normally is accompanied with some patriotic ideology, but that is secondary.
Pastors, theologians, and social analysts, and also missionaries need to individuate instinctive, unconscious resistances against the plenitude of the Christian life that are typical in given social civilizations and social straighter.
Once recognized, they need to be reflected upon in the light of the word of God and the great theological and philosophical traditions.
And ultimately, they need to be healed through the power of grace.
Is not the synodal way an invitation to undertake such a process of reflection?
Can a flawed instinctive moral perception be healed?
The word the word healing is appropriate here because the distortion of the instinctive perception is bodily located in the senses that are connected to the brain.
Studies of addicted personalities note their cerebral deformations.
In their case, external theoretical moral exhortations are insufficient.
Although, of course, correct understanding is necessary, theoretical thinking has to be in truth.
And if it persists in error, the setting straight of the sensitive cognition and the practical reason will not come about.
Therefore, faulty terminology has to be avoided.
There is no such thing as a homosexual orientation, But there are individuals with homosexual tendencies that may be deep, superficial, temporary, or long standing.
The term oral orientation suggests an unchangeable ontological condition that supposedly is natural.
Now there are, of course, individuals who affirm their homosexual tendency, calling it an orientation, and they describe themselves as gay or lesbian.
When this is the case and their theoretical thinking persists in this view, the healing of the tendency is impossible.
But there may be individuals who class themselves as gays thinking that they have such an orientation even though the same sex tendency is superficial and may be overcome.
Christian thinking has always stressed the importance of grace.
The exercise of the theological virtues received at baptism opens up to the power of grace.
And so a regular life of prayer and concern about being in a state of grace is conducive to good moral behavior and facilitates the eliciting of the infused moral virtues.
Those who are struggling with some moral difficulty should be counseled to focus primarily on growth and faith and love of God, living out charity towards those who are around them.
Concern for the true good of the neighbor may become so engaging that then there will be little time and energy to follow the thorn of the flesh.
We need to believe in the power of grace that we have received and in the fact that we are God's children.
Meaning that in every moment of crisis, we can trustfully turn towards the forgiving heavenly father.
The reception of the sacraments gives certitude that divine grace is available as if at hand.
But also the church teaches about the complementary role of sacramentals.
Icons, rosary beads, medals, and scriptural texts may be used as reminders of God's grace.
These practical signs, however, have to be changed regularly because in time they are ignored.
Nevertheless, they may help in maintaining a spiritual trust.
Since disordered sensitive inclinations are also conditioned socially.
Some group assistance may be developed.
The healing methods of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement show how such support may be given.
Social influences generate a sense of honor.
When at some moment, a given type of behavior is publicly deemed to be dishonorable, This facilitates the adherence to the true good.
Historical studies of changes in moral perceptions like the medieval breaking of the moral obligation of the vendetta through penances and pilgrimages to distant shrines, or the ending of dueling in Europe, of slavery in the British colonies and in America, and of food binding in China show that at some moment, a given social behavior started to be perceived as dishonorable and then social mores changed.
Also liberation from the Nazi ideology in Germany ultimately was successful.
The initial appearance of small groups who consciously deem wrongful action to be dishonorable in time facilitates the change of the social scene.
Maybe some other means can be worked out aiding in the correcting of the instinctive common cell sense perception of what is deemed to be appropriate, whereas in fact, it is not.
A new pastoral and therapeutic procedures could be developed, helping to deal with current moral blockages.
Conclusion.
In all this, however, it has to be remembered that moral purity or psychic ease are not the primary ends of Christian life.
We all carry some forms of the flesh.
Revelation tells us that God is more concerned about our filial relationship with the heavenly father through our brother Jesus Christ than about our crystalline moral purity.
The Old Testament recalls many immediate perceptions of social ethics that belonged to its historical period.
The heresy of Marcion wanted to drop the old testament because in the light of the new testament, biblical stories about a polygamous society following the moral obligation of revenge seems strange and unacceptable.
Also, our contemporary views of moral urgency, we will focus on human solidarity, transparency, and ecological responsibility seem to be light years away from the ancient scriptural world.
And yet we do not discard the Old Testament because it reminds us that engaging with God takes place within our history, which is complex and marked by weaknesses and sins.
Whereas for God, what is most important is our spiritual tie with kingdom.
And this has to be authentic with no manipulations of guarding.
Thus, honesty to guard may be real even in the face of moral weaknesses that humiliate and remind about the need of saving grace.
But at the same time, we need to reflect how we may grow out of temptations that incline to sin and make the eliciting of virtue difficult.
Okay.
So, well, the questions that I've received, some of them, I think I've already answered them in the talk.
But as some, are sort of common, so I tried to sort of tie them together, and and I will try to explain them.
One, explain the difference between moral virtue and infused moral virtue.
Well, this is a classical distinction between the acquired moral virtue, which a pagan, somebody completely not living out the Christian life, may acquire.
We don't say that all people are, are totally corrupt, and somebody may be honest, just, or, or patient even without a relationship with God.
Whereas the infused model virtues are a consequence of the infused theological virtues that we and we receive them at baptism, and we grow in them if we mature in the spiritual life.
Although in the church, there is a certain doubt about the infused moral virtues.
The catechism of the Catholic church definitely says that the theological virtues are infused at baptism, installed in the soul like a computer program, which may be ignored.
But if it's used, we discover we can relate to God.
Whereas Aquinas says, we also receive a whole batch of the infused moral virtues, and this was repeated in the catechism of Trent, which was addressed to the parish priests.
But the current catechism, which is addressed to the laity, doesn't say this.
Doesn't insist on on claiming that the infused that the moral virtues are infused, like, four cardinal virtues and the allied virtues.
But Thomas insists that we have received in an embryonic form with grace the capacity to live out these virtues, but nevertheless, we may have to struggle and it's a long process how to grow in them.
Are there any moral virtues that are more difficult to uphold than others?
Well, this depends on the individual.
People have different temperaments and also on their cultural their civilization backgrounds.
And, and in some societies, you know, people will not see something.
So there's no one, answer to this to question for everybody.
Missionaries, when they come to some country, an evangelized country, they if they manage to spot where is the basic resistance against human maturity and focus on that, then they help people to grow to grow out.
Now let me move on.
How can one practice moral virtue and remain virtues in a society where immorality is celebrated or rewarded?
And then I have a question.
What should one do when positive or civil law contradicts moral virtue?
And, another question, is there a manner by which an ethos can be presented to an individual in a social setting that is conducive to positive change.
Obviously, we don't live in a society where everybody is an immediate candidate for canonization.
This is clear.
It has always been clear in the church.
So we've always have around us in society people who who behave in a different way, and not all sins, and Aquinas was quite clear about this, not all sins are penalized by the state.
So there are many there's a whole sphere of moral evil that is happening out there, and the state doesn't interfere.
And the question how far the state intervenes is a political issue, and different answers may be given in different societies depending on the the moral sensibility of the given society.
So we shouldn't confuse these political solutions with the power of grace that the church has received, which means that we are all living in a social setting that is not always conducive to positive change.
So we are all in a diaspora.
And, like like in the in the church of antiquity, if we think that the 12 apostles came to a pagan world, and through the slaves who were the first to receive the faith, bit by bit.
They penetrated the the ancient realm.
And and suddenly, the emperor was pagan, the official ethos of the state, the ideology was pagan, but the officials of the state were becoming Christians.
It's a long process.
We would like it it to happen immediately.
We won election, and the problem is resolved.
No.
It's not so simple.
But this means that those of us who perceive the importance of relating to God and living an authentic life, We often meet with people in society who disagree with us or who follow a different way.
Okay.
Maybe we will not make great money.
Maybe we will be even persecuted.
We may die as a martyr, or we may just live a more simple life and not make a great career.
But if we are honest to God and sincere and authentic, in time, we even perceive in the university setting students.
One student tries to be honest and authentic and others have a different lifestyle.
But then when the problem appears, those who were distant from the church, then they look out their friend in class who was known to be honest, and they ask for counsel there.
So those who are authentic and true, in time, their word counts.
But, so we have to live in a society where immorality is celebrated, rewarded, and and this shouldn't bother us.
How does one live the virtue of temperance?
How should we address the immoral evil of today, murder, rape, corruption, poverty, and more?
Does saint, Saint Thomas see continents as a step towards chastity?
I must someone be continent before we're gonna chase them.
Well, first of all, our main focus should not be the addressing of the immoral evils of today, murder, rape, corruption, poverty, and throwing plastic into the oceans and various and and throwing the wrong garbage into the wrong colored bin.
And so, you know, there are many evils in society, but our prime focus should not be on the evils of society, depending on on on our focus.
But our main focus certainly in the church should be on Christ and the power of his grace.
And living out of that grace within those challenges that our life offers to us, and they may be different in married life, different in religious life, different in this profession, in another profession.
Now, how do we grow, live out the virtue of temperance and and continents?
In in the continents and, it's as I said, it's the blocking of the sexual desire with sheer willpower.
It's a bit like driving a car in which with one leg, you press on the accelerator and at simultaneously, you press on the brake.
Well, you can try that, but you won't get far.
It may stop you from misbehaving, you know, in a particular moment, but it doesn't give give the ease, the calm of, of virtue.
So I wouldn't say that continents is a necessary step towards in this understanding that Aquinas gives of the word continents, locating it, in in the sheer well, that this is a necessary step towards chastity.
We grow in chastity primarily by living out charity.
And charity is the befriending of God and the loving of God as our friend and the living in the fellowship of the friends of god and then viewing people as either actual friends of god or potential friends of god.
So somebody may even be, at the moment, my enemy and may be very unpleasant.
But if I view that person with charity, I want the true good for the other.
So also to grow in chastity, I want the true good for the other even though the other person may have may have other projects at the moment.
But nevertheless so to grow in the virtues, we have to primarily focus not on the moral virtues, but on the theological versions.
It is the primacy of the theological virtues.
First of all, ensure that in your daily routine, you have time for prayer.
You have time that you give to God, that you waste for God.
And during that time when you're wasting your time for God, you are exercising faith, believing in the power of your faith.
And then your faith becomes motivated, followed by charity.
It's, I believe towards God.
Why?
For for the good pleasure of God.
And when you establish this relationship with God, in time, it has an impact on your entire being.
And if you did have a problem with chastity or with a bad temper or with injustice or a dislike of of your grandmother or somebody.
You know?
If you focus on God, in time, you see, well, your grandmother, she had a difficult life.
You know?
She lived in the second World War.
You know?
Okay.
You can pardon that.
Yeah.
The relationship with God helps us to come out of the moral disorder.
And so the focus on God has to be has to be primary.
And then in time, we grow.
There was a question here, how do you respond to those who today want to change oh, no.
Just a while, I'll go back to that.
The father Pinker speaks of the necessity of models and teachers in the growth of moral virtues.
How do the models of teachers assist in the overcoming in moral difficulty?
Well, certainly, if we have somewhere amongst our friends, you know, people who are true, who are authentic, who are capable of telling us the truth, We're capable of sometimes being angry with us.
Not because you've done something wrong to me, but because I can't stand such behavior.
Okay?
Because I want you to be better.
And and sometimes, you know, and if somebody knows how to present this in a gentle way, a truthful way, the conversations that we have around the kitchen table in small, private conversations more than preaching in the churches.
The people who are authentic and who are open to the grace of God, that grace passes through their smiles, through their gestures, through their cheeks, through their through their good words.
Uh-huh.
So, certainly, those who are living out truly the relationship with God in their practical life, they're not only an external model to imitate.
Although in some sense, they are also that, you know, you want to be as good as missus so and so whom you knew.
But it it's more a question of sort of grabbing you by the elbows.
I got see.
And and such people it's also good to read saints who are who were such.
I I read a lot of Saint Therese of Lisieux.
Like, I read everything that's been published, all all her writings.
I haven't read everything of Aquinas.
That's what I do.
But I read Aquinas in Latin, and I read Therese of Lisieux in French.
And she was like a young girl who sits next to you, grabs you by the elbow and say, look.
Whereas Aquinas tries to sort of show all the virtues.
In fact, Aquinas described 50 virtues one by one where they are located in the psyche and the contrary, the sins which block that virtue and so on.
And Therese of Lieseux writes, I don't have any virtues because it was important to relate to God.
You know?
And and the virtues, you know, grow automatically as a result.
Now how do you, respond to those who today who want to change human nature or remove any basis for common sense, transhumanists, and so on.
Okay.
Well, there are people with strange ideas.
You know?
We we certainly we have to focus on that, which is which is basically true.
And and there was a question here somewhere that I mentioned where is it that a child can perceive.
The way yeah.
You mentioned that by common sense that children may ease may readily distinguish between a rock or plant and an animal and a human without further empirical knowledge.
In your opinion, why is it that sometimes people with much more empirical knowledge and theoretical knowledge lose common sense and are unable to distinguish between these things?
Letting if you tell a young girl, eight or nine years old, hey.
You've grown.
You're a like a giraffe.
She will say, yeah.
I've grown.
The last time I've seen her was six months back, and in the meantime, she's grown.
And she will like that.
But if you tell a seven year old girl, a nine year old girl, you're a giraffe.
You're not a human being.
You're an animal.
She will protest.
But I know I'm a human being.
So the immediate perception of this difference between stones, plants, animals, humans, This is something which our intellect is capable of grasping immediately.
Now, of course, a scientist may say, well, deep on the in the in the waters of the Pacific, there are something which we don't quite know.
Are they plants or are they animals?
You know?
The the boundary is a little bit foggy for them, and it's difficult.
More than eight year old girl is not bothered by that.
She immediately knows.
She may love her dog.
She may even hug and kiss her dog.
But if you tell her you are only an animal like the dog, no.
I would you remember it.
So we have this natural capacity of the intellect to go for the most important truths and most important distinctions, as we could say, at the joints of of reality.
But, of course, we need the sciences to have more in-depth knowledge of the cosmos, the microcosmos, the microcosmos, and so on.
Now so there are some people who may have a great, empirical knowledge, experimental knowledge in some science, but they lack wisdom.
They lack common sense.
They have no no prayer and no immediate purse well, the immediate perception of the truth was through various ideologies and personal maybe difficulties all messed up.
And such people are dangerous.
So if you know very well how to produce atomic bombs and you don't know why to use them, you are dangerous.
Whereas if you have no idea how to produce an atomic bomb, but you know where is the basic truth.
And sometimes very simple, uneducated people living out in the country who have a traditional Catholic piety and so on.
On television, suddenly you have some professor who's giving a talk and so on.
And this elderly lady will look at the screen, and she will say, this is rubbish.
She's right.
And she's right.
Immediately, she will say, this is rubbish.
This is not true.
So, I think education, should have the task of eliciting this capacity of perceiving the basic truths and and and being fascinated by them and then further to locate them in the mind and so on.
So we know that there are some people who are distorted and whether they are people who who change their sex.
Are they distorted as a result of some poisoning that they have received even back in the womb of their mothers?
Is it, what are the what are the reasons?
Well, that's a medical question.
I don't have the expertise to discuss this.
Certainly, there are people for whom this is not just an ideological craziness or some idea suggested by the media, by music, by films that they've seen.
But it's very deep in them way back from their childhood.
So there is something very profoundly, that has marked them.
But, nevertheless, the basic differentiation between male and female is also something that we immediately grasp.
And transhumanists, well, people who sort of want to change humans into machines or machines into humans or or or humans into animals and so on.
There have been such experiments, and, of course, we have artificial intelligence, which is much more intelligent than we, but it's not right.
Artificial intelligence may calculate things and very quickly at an enormous speed.
And this may be very useful in many in many fields, in medicine and so on.
But, nevertheless, the basic truths and certainly the truths of faith are transmitted from person to person, as I said, in the ancient Roman Empire by person to person.
This is how how, the truths were were transmitted.
What are the questions that I haven't answered?
How would you, would one propose or how would small groups propose to society little by little that current social laws are in fact flawed and need a change?
Well, if you live out authentically your life, then ultimately, it turns out you're happy.
And then people will see this.
You know?
This is a family where there is something.
And and and sometimes people from without notice, and sometimes they may tell you many years later, you know, that you've been noticed, that your family life was an example for others.
And somebody picked that up.
But, we should focus more on living our relationship with god and being offending rather than thinking about changing society first.
First of all, change yourself.
Change yourself.
The wounds of original sin are not erased by baptism.
Nevertheless, baptism provides infusion of grace into the soul.
Given that we live in a post Christian society where not everyone is baptized, do you think psychologists should assess baptismal status?
Assess?
How do you think this might impact the treatment plan?
Well, certainly, if a psychologist is dealing with a person, not only a psychologist, everybody.
If you're working in the shop, people come, you know, put the goods, you know, and you're at the account, you know, or or you're working on the on the motorway sitting there and people are paying for the motorway and just say one moment and the car is gone and the next car you have a boring job, one person after the other.
Now if you are living out truly the life of faith authentically, trying to live out charity, every person is coming by for half a minute.
You may treat them with with charity, And you may invite the Holy Spirit who's living in their soul since baptism, or maybe they are unbaptized, but the catechism says in the section on baptism that God has tied the giving of graces with the sacraments, but God is not tied by them.
So God may reach souls that are unbaptized.
So either the missionary out in the in the pagan world or today in the pagan world, people may have may not be baptized or they may have been baptized and the, installed, virtues in the the all the way around the soul have not been used at all throughout their life.
But you, when you make an act of faith in that presence there, you spark that faith.
And somebody has paid the money on the motorway.
You know?
And there was a not just a machine, but a human contact for today, but take care of whatever.
And the driver, and that woman said take care.
But she said it in in such a way that there was something humane there.
There was something and then the grace of God works.
Why does Amoris Laetitia speak so often of marriage as an ideal seeming to suggest that it can be obtained only by a few, Pope Francis.
Well, I could say, well, this question asked the author of the.
I I didn't write it.
But certainly, we can say this about the entire Christian teaching.
That is an ideal.
But in Veritatis, John Paul the second says, that, warns against priests who think, well, okay.
The Christian teaching is an ideal, but we have to adapt it.
You know?
And so they'll make it simple and cut out all the demanding things, you know, and, because people are not on this level.
Well, this is unfair towards those whom to to whom you are talking to them.
And we have to believe in the power of the cross and the power of grace.
And even talking to people are very complicated or far away.
It doesn't mean that we have to be constantly preaching.
Come here, and I'll give you all the metaphysical arguments like Gary Gula Gaus, Fortuna, and immediately you will you will catch the truth.
We have to see I think this is also different between the male and the female approach.
Men often think according to the principles of the family.
Child is misbehaving, and the dad takes the child and starts talking about, you know, the rules and so on.
And the mother says, hang on.
Hang on.
Don't begin with the first principles of metaphysics or even the 10 commandments.
And the mother sees what truth has to be said to the child in this particular moment.
And I think pope Francis is very much attentive to note noticing the individual.
The individual who may be complex, who may be sort of living in a in a in a in a absurd situation.
But nevertheless, there is a human person there, and the purple grate and pat on the shoulder.
It doesn't mean that he's canonizing the person.
It doesn't mean that he's approving the morale of the person.
But, but sometimes the human gesture, the noticing of the individual is also important.
And and we should not ignore this.
I think I basically answered the question.
Well, there was what about those who struggle with what is termed addiction?
Well, I tried to say in in my conference, I mentioned this, that this is a a problem, which ultimately is in the brain.
So it's partly medical, but also some social groups can help out.
And how can moral virtues help in the seminary formation of seminarians?
Of course, they may help if they're living out of that.
Okay.
So this is all.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So thank you very much, father of your tech and great thanks for all the attention you put into those questions.
I really like those.
Yeah.
Thank you for taking the time to Yeah.
So we're gonna conclude here, and we have some refreshments out in the lobby there.
Mhmm.
And thank you to all of you who are out there virtually, enjoying for joining us.
And Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Are we gonna send the recording out of the tape?
We'll yeah.
Okay.
So we'll email a copy.
So if your friends didn't get to watch it or your family members, you could show it to them.
And, thank you all for being here and attending.
God bless you all.
Thank you, Rob.
Thank you for the invitation.
And if what I said was not up to your expectations, it's not my fault.
It's the fault of those who invited me.