The German Bishops’ Conference, Over the Cliff

The German bishops’ conference, over the cliff

When it was first published in 1993, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the reform of Catholic moral theology, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), dealt a severe blow to the pride of many German [...]

The German Bishops’ Conference, Over the Cliff

When it was first published in 1993, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the reform of Catholic moral theology, Veritatis Splendor, dealt a severe blow to the pride of many German theologians, who had long thought themselves the cutting edge of Catholic intellectual life. Indeed, within a year of the encyclical’s publication, a book composed entirely of essays critical of John Paul’s deeply humanistic explication of Catholic teaching on the pa…