VERITATIS SPLENDOR: THE MODERN MORAL CRISIS AND THE WAY
OF TRUTH
The Purpose of the Encyclical:
Today…it seems necessary to reflect on the whole of the Church's moral teaching, with the
precise goal of recalling certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present
circumstances, risk being distorted or denied (VS 4).
There is both an external and an internal reason, which of course cannot be separated from
one another. The internal reason is related to the purpose of Christianity itself…In addition
to this internal reason for the encyclical there is also an external one, which is not, however,
external to the encyclical itself. More than ever before, the question of morality today has
become a question of the survival of mankind itself (Cardinal Ratzinger).
Chapter I. The Rich Young Man
In the young man, whom Matthew's Gospel does not name, we can recognize every person
who, consciously or not, approaches Christ the Redeemer of man and questions him about
morality. For the young man, the question is not so much about rules to be followed, but
about the full meaning of life (VS 7)… The young man senses that there is a connection
between moral good and the fulfilment of his own destiny (VS 8)... To ask about the good, in
fact, ultimately means to turn towards God, the fullness of goodness (VS 9)… Only God can
answer the question about the good, because he is the Good (VS 12).
In this intensive listening to the word of Christ it becomes apparent, first of all, that the
search for the good is inseparably linked with turning toward God. He alone is the good
without limitation. The good par excellence is a person, that is, God who is all-good. To
become good, then, is to become like God. The Ten Commandments are a self-revelation of
God; they help us to find a way of becoming like God (Cardinal Ratzinger).
Chapter II. The discernment of certain tendencies in present-day moral theology
In addressing this Encyclical to you, my Brother Bishops, it is my intention to state the
principles necessary for discerning what is contrary to "sound doctrine", drawing attention to
those elements of the Church's moral teaching which today appear particularly exposed to
error, ambiguity or neglect. Yet these are the very elements on which there depends "the
answer to the obscure riddles of the human condition which today also, as in the past,
profoundly disturb the human heart. What is man? What is the meaning and purpose of our
life? What is good and what is sin? What origin and purpose do sufferings have? What is the
way to attaining true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death?
Lastly, what is that final, unutterable mystery which embraces our lives and from which we
take our origin and towards which we tend?" These and other questions, such as: what is
freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of
conscience in man's moral development? how do we determine, in accordance with the truth
about the good, the specific rights and duties of the human person? — can all be summed up
in the fundamental question which the young man in the Gospel put to Jesus: "Teacher, what
good must I do to have eternal life?" Because the Church has been sent by Jesus to preach the
Gospel and to "make disciples of all nations..., teaching them to observe all" that he has
commanded (cf. Mt 28:19-20), she today once more puts forward the Master's reply, a reply
that possesses a light and a power capable of answering even the most controversial and
complex questions.
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VERITATIS SPLENDOR: THE MODERN MORAL CRISIS AND THE WAY
OF TRUTH
(Chapter II continued)
This chapter in its details is first and foremost directed to the professionals in moral
theology and ethics. The axis of the whole around which the detailed questions revolve is
easy to recognize: it is the relationship between freedom and truth. Here the pope seizes
upon what is probably the most important issue of the present time, the one which has
become even more pressing since the end of the communist dictatorships: How can we learn
to live correctly with freedom? Freedom conceived in a purely individualistic way, one which
would be mistaken for arbitrariness, can only be destructive; it ends up pitting everyone
against everyone else. The danger that freedom will once again be determined from the
outside and will be replaced by collective capriciousness is clear. Such a danger can be
defended against only when freedom finds its inner measure, which it recognizes to be the
order of its being. But what is this measure? The first and fundamental answer of the pope is
that this measure is truth. Freedom can freely follow only truth, if it is to be true freedom.
This immediately raises the next question: What is truth? The encyclical answers that the
truth which orders our activity lies in our human existence as such. Our being, our "nature,"
which comes from the Creator, shows us the truth. That we ourselves bear our truth within
us, that our being (our "nature") is our truth, is expressed among other ways with the term
natural moral law ("natural law") (Cardinal Ratzinger).
Chapter III. Less the Cross be emptied of its power
The fundamental question which the moral theories mentioned above pose in a particularly
forceful way is that of the relationship of man's freedom to God's law; it is ultimately the
question of the relationship between freedom and truth. According to Christian faith and the
Church's teaching, "only the freedom which submits to the Truth leads the human person to
his true good. The good of the person is to be in the Truth and to do the Truth" (VS 84).
Jesus, then, is the living, personal summation of perfect freedom in total obedience to the will
of God. His crucified flesh fully reveals the unbreakable bond between freedom and truth,
just as his Resurrection from the dead is the supreme exaltation of the fruitfulness and
saving power of a freedom lived out in truth (VS 87).
Through the moral life, faith becomes "confession", not only before God but also before men:
it becomes witness (VS 89)…Martyrdom, accepted as an affirmation of the inviolability of the
moral order, bears splendid witness both to the holiness of God's law and to the inviolability
of the personal dignity of man, created in God's image and likeness (VS 92).
[T]he third chapter of the encyclical…integrates the insights of the first and second chapters
into the context of the communal life of the Church and of society. We might call it the
pastoral chapter of the document (Cardinal Ratzinger).
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