Why You Can't Always Trust Theologians

Professor Daniel C. Maguire of Marquette University wrote a letter to the bishops of the United States to tell them why they are wrong. He included two pamphlets, one explaining why abortion and contraception are sensible choices and the other supporting homosexual marriage. What ires me more than Maguire's insistence on calling evil good is his underlying claim that theologians know God's mind better than the bishops. Here is part of Maguire's response to the bishops' censure:



Statement of Professor Daniel C. Maguire to American bishops

When I speak I speak as one theologian. When the bishops (who are not theologians; they are pastors and administrators) speak on moral issues they pretend to speak for the whole church. It is arrogant of the bishops to claim a monopoly on insight in the Catholic community. According to Catholic teaching the Holy Spirit does not restrict illumining grace to three thousand bishops and the pope. History shows, as Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J. has written, that there are multiple magisteria in the Church (including the wisdom of the faithful, sensus fidelium, and the wisdom of theologians) which historically have been mutually corrective.

There are a few basic things that a good theologian should know and internalize. To my mind, the most fundamental knowledge for any Catholic theologian is how the Magisterium works. Maguire's claim that the magisterium is made up of the bishops, the people and theologians is a half-truth that displays confusion over the way Christ chose to guide His Church. Cardinal Dulles' explanation of how the sensus fidelioum, theologians and the bishops work together in a way that is mutually corrective. They sift through Divine Revelation, debate, clarify, disagree, and more carefully define. However, this process is not where the guarantee of truth is found. The Holy Spirit was given to the apostles, and therefore to the bishops in unity with the pope, to lead the Church to truth. The messy, human process of struggling with the truth is authoritatively clarified by the Holy Spirit through the official teaching power of the Church. On their own, bishops may be wrong, as was the case when so many of them embraced Arian heresy. However, united under the pope in the official teaching capacity the cannot err. Such was the case when the Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism and taught authoritatively that Jesus Christ is both God and Man. If the Church really worked the way Maguire claims it does, we would all be Arians today.

Furthermore, Maguire claims that the Church's teachings on sexuality, abortion, contraception and homosexuality are created by the whim of the bishops, who (he reminds us) are not theologians. He seems to assume that there is no theology behind these teachings. He couldn't be more wrong. The works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Paul the Great's (who was a theologian and a philosopher) work Theology of the Body, and many more works by great theologians support the Church's teachings, not just by offering some rhetorical support, but by showing that this teaching is the only way that human beings can find true human development and live in the Will of God. In fact, his arguments in favor of homosexual marriages reveals a complete lack of awareness of a teleological understanding of sexuality. In other words, he does not understand sexuality according to its end - the procreation of children and creation of family. To Maguire, marriage is simply a "unique and special form of committed friendship between sexually attracted persons." This is not the way Saint Thomas Aquinas would define marriage.

In the end, Maguire is just another college professor - a person who thinks that his lofty status and his doctorate make him smarter than everyone else, and apparently someone who embraces the philosophical flavor of the decade, be it communism, modernism, or post-modernism. Not all theologians are like Maguire. In fact, those like him seem to be a dying breed. However, the Catholic in the pews must beware. Having a theological degree does not make a person right, or even intelligent.

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