Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE BASIC GOODS THEORY AND REVISIONISM 195
would classify norms such as those prohibiting contraception,
masturbation, reproductive technologies, etc., as moral truths
that pertain to material norms of rightness and wrongness, not
truths of salvation that pertain to moral goodness. As such, they
cannot be considered as the proper object of infallible teaching.
One of the texts that FUCHS and many other revisionists cite
to justify their argument against the plausibility of teaching nonrevealed
infallible natural law norms is Gaudium et Spes, paragraph
33: “The Church guards the heritage of God’s Word and
draws from it religious and moral principles, without always
having at hand the solution to particular problems.” 74 Religious
and moral principles relate to truths of salvation and moral
goodness, whereas solutions to particular problems relate to
material norms and rightness/wrongness. The BGT gives two responses
to revisionism’s use of this and similar texts to argue its
position. In his response to revisionists who make “some play”
with this and similar texts to deny that absolute specific moral
norms exist, JOHN FINNIS asserts that revisionists have committed
a non sequitur by overlooking the distinction between “not
every” and “not any.” In doing so, they move from “‘The church
cannot give a specific answer to every moral question’ to ‘The
church cannot teach with definitive authority any specific moral
norm.’” 75 In his references, he cites SULLIVAN, FUCHS, and GERARD
HUGHES, S.J., as theologians who have repeatedly committed this
non sequitur. According to FINNIS, then, revisionists have taken
great liberty in their hermeneutic of passages from Vatican II to
deny that some specific moral norms have been taught infallibly
by the magisterium.
GRISEZ has another response to revisionism. In his response,
he cites a passage from Gaudium et Spes that substantiates that
there are some specific moral norms whose truth precludes substantial
revision: “Contemplating this melancholy state of humanity,
the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent
binding force of universal natural law and its all-embracing
74 WALTER M. ABBOTT, S.J., Documents of Vatican II (New York: America
Press, 1966) 232 (emphasis added), see also, n. 90.
75 FINNIS, Moral Absolutes 92.