Lk 14, 15-24 + CSDC and CV

Luke 14, 15-24 + CSDC and CV 

CV 45b. Their positive effects are also being felt in the less developed areas of the world. It would be advisable, however, to develop a sound criterion of discernment, since the adjective “ethical” can be abused. When the word is used generically, it can lend itself to any number of interpretations, even to the point where it includes decisions and choices contrary to justice and authentic human welfare. Much in fact depends on the underlying system of morality. On this subject the Church's social doctrine can make a specific contribution, since it is based on man's creation “in the image of God” (Gen 1:27), a datum which gives rise to the inviolable dignity of the human person and the transcendent value of natural moral norms. When business ethics prescinds from these two pillars, it inevitably risks losing its distinctive nature and it falls prey to forms of exploitation; more specifically, it risks becoming subservient to existing economic and financial systems rather than correcting their dysfunctional aspects.  

Cloning  in the proper sense is contrary to the dignity of human procreation 

CSDC 236b. From an ethical point of view, the simple replication of normal cells or of a portion of DNA presents no particular ethical problem. Very different, however, is the Magisterium's judgment on cloning understood in the proper sense. Such cloning is contrary to the dignity of human procreation because it takes place in total absence of an act of personal love between spouses, being agamic and asexual reproduction[534]. In the second place, this type of reproduction represents a form of total domination over the reproduced individual on the part of the one reproducing it[535]. The fact that cloning is used to create embryos from which cells can be removed for therapeutic use does not attenuate its moral gravity, because in order that such cells may be removed the embryo must first be created and then destroyed[536].

Notes: [534] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy for Life (21 February 2004), 2: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 3 March 2004, p. 7. [535] Cf. Pontifical Academy for Life, Reflections on Cloning: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1997; Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The Church and Racism. Contribution of the Holy See to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 21, Vatican Press, Vatican City 2001, p. 22. [536] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Eighteenth International Congress of the Transplantation Society (29 August 2000), 8: AAS 92 (2000), 826.

(Lk 14, 15-24) "Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God" 

15 One of his fellow guests on hearing this said to him, "Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God." 16 He replied to him, "A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. 17 When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, 'Come, everything is now ready.' 18 But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, 'I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused.' 19 And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.' 20 And another said, 'I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.' 21 The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.' 22 The servant reported, 'Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.' 23 The master then ordered the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. 24 For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'" 

CSDC 143. Freedom mysteriously tends to betray the openness to truth and human goodness, and too often it prefers evil and being selfishly closed off, raising itself to the status of a divinity that creates good and evil: “Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God ... Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things”[278]. Human freedom needs therefore to be liberated. Christ, by the power of his Paschal Mystery, frees man from his disordered love of self[279], which is the source of his contempt for his neighbour and of those relationships marked by domination of others. Christ shows us that freedom attains its fulfilment in the gift of self[280]. By his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus places man once more in communion with God and his neighbour.

Notes: [278] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 13: AAS 58 (1966), 1034-1035. [279] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1741. [280] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 87: AAS 85 (1993), 1202-1203.

[Initials and Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; -  SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]