Posted April 14, 2008 Book: Catholic Ethics in Today’s World Authors: Jozef D. Zalot and Benedict Guevin, OSB Saint Mary’s Press. Winona. MN. 2008. Pp. 277 An Excerpt from the Jacket: In Catholic Ethics in Today’s World, Dr. Jozef Zalot and Rev. Benedict Guevin, OSB, address what they describe as “a sense of confusion” expressed by many about what the Catholic Church really teaches on a range of ethical topics, as well as why it teaches what it does. In an accessible and engaging presentation, the authors demonstrate how the Catholic Church approaches many of the social, sexual, and medical challenges that face today’s world communities, and they discuss the moral principles the Church provides for the formation of our consciences with respect to these challenges. An Excerpt from the Book: Chastity What is chastity? Most people would probably say, “Not having sex – period,” “Being pure,” or “No sex before marriage.” Although there is a measure of truth in each of these answers, they are inadequate. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, chastity is “the successful in integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.” It is not denial of one’s sexuality or of one’s sexual feelings, but the virtue by which sexuality becomes personal and interpersonal — becomes truly and fully human. “The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift. The integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift of one’s sexuality are not assured in our fallen human nature. According to Scripture, the first man and woman chose to act in a way that was at odds with the truth of who they were — creatures who shared in God’s creative activity through, among other things, the blessing of the power to procreate. With this choice they began a history of sexuality all too often marked by impersonalism, selfishness, and a lack of integration; in other words, by lust. Pope Benedict XVI captures well the dynamic of lust in his encyclical God Is Love: Eros, reduced to pure “sex,” has become a commodity. This is hardly man’s great “yest” to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will. Nor does he see it as an arean for the exercise of his freedom, but as a mere object that he attempts, as he pleases, to make both enjoyable and harmless. We are actually dealing with the debasement of the human body; no longer is it a vital expression of our whole being, but it is more or less relegated to the purely biological sphere. Table of Contents: Part 1: Foundations 1. The foundations of Christian Morality 2. The moral act and conscience 3. Catholic social teaching: an introduction Part 2: Considering ethics in today’s world 4. Business ethics and the American corporation 5. Global economic ethics: debt and structural adjustment 6. The death penalty 7. Just war and the presumption of peace 8. Medical ethics 9. Sexual ethics