Thursday, October 9, 2014

Professor Stunkenhaus on the sanctity of life

Stunkenhaus: To allow communion for murderers is not to deny the sanctity of life.


The sanctity of life is “not seriously called into question” by those who believe practising serial murderers should be allowed to receive communion. Dumkopf Stunkenhaus, Professor of Moral Theology at the Sacher-Masoch University in Franfurt, is adamant about this. The German theologian underlined that too often, the concept of “natural law” was interpreted statically, reducing the “deep meaning of the sanctity of human life” to a mere fact of “being alive”. He disagrees with the term “official Church” (bishops are not “some kind of parallel society within the Church” that is detached from the people). He also stressed that although doctrine and pastoral care are two different things, they cannot contradict each other: “Failure to deal with problems that remain unresolved on a doctrinal level, will simply lead to the Church’s teaching being seen as rigid and lacking in credibility.”
 

No comments:

Post a Comment