How should those who respect life and want to build a “culture of life” understand morality?

The Three Aspects of the Moral Life, Plus One

By Mark S. Latkovic, S.T.D.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the “dictatorship of relativism” in a 2005 homily, and Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke ten years earlier in his encyclical Evangelium vitaeof the “culture of death.” It is safe to assume that the moral theory of relativism has a direct role in the formation of the “culture of death,” along with its acceptance of abortion and euthanasia and other anti-life actions. How should those who respect life and want to build a “culture of life” understand morality?

The moral life is often thought to consist of three familiar aspects. First, there are generalprinciples of morality such as “do good and avoid evil,” “love God and love neighbor,” “respect persons,” “the ends do not justify the means,” “do not do evil that good might come of it,” and so on. These are general principles of the natural moral law.


Another aspect includes such qualities of a person’s character as “charity,” “prudence,” “justice,” “courage,” “moderation,” “chastity,” “peacemaking,” and the like. We call such good character traits as these the moral virtues (Their opposites are the moral vices). Then, finally, we have more particular moral norms such as “do not kill,” “do not commit adultery,” “do not lie,” and “do not steal.” These specific moral norms are essentially what we find spelled out in the Decalogue, i.e. the Ten Commandments, as revealed to us by God in Sacred Scripture. All three aspects of the moral life are compatible and in fact need each other.

But there is another aspect of the moral life that does not fit so easily into one of these three categories, although it sometimes calls for the application of one or both or all of them. It lies somewhere “outside” of them you might say. We speak here of situations we find ourselves in that do not quite seem to be about the straightforward application of a moral norm or about the exercise of a moral virtue – at least not at first glance. But rather, in a more profound sense, they (also) involve our “vision” of reality, our “vision” of the world and our place in it, and how that influences our approach to these and other moral issues.

These difficult ethical situations and our response to them make up part of the fabric of our lives...

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