The Seamless Garment

THE SEAMLESS GARMENT: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, edited by Thomas A Nairn. Orbis Books, New York. 320pp

Reviewed by Paddy Kearney

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, one of the best known and most popular American cardinals in recent times, is remembered especially for what he called the “consistent ethic of life”, an idea he introduced in a lecture at Fordham Jesuit University in New York in 1983. This book was published to mark the 25th anniversary of that first lecture on the topic.

At the time, Bernardin had just finished work on the US bishops’ famous pastoral letter “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and our Response” and at the same time had been elected chair of the bishops’ pro-life committee. He was aware that both abortion and defence-related issues would play an important role in the build-up to the US elections just a year later, so he used the Fordham lecture to link both areas of concern.

The principle involved in the consistent ethic of life is the sacredness of life—and the viability of this principle depends on its consistent application across a broad range of diverse questions such as abortion, euthanasia, war, capital punishment, poverty, hunger and health care—a spectrum of life issues from womb to tomb. They are all, says Bernardin, “distinct problems, enormously complex. Each deserves individual treatment. Each requires its own moral analysis”. He is at pains to say that he is not proposing that all these issues be collapsed into one, just as he rejects a focus on any one as the moral issue of the time.

The US Catholic Church has often been polarised between those strongly opposed to abortion but have no problem with nuclear weapons and vice versa. Bernardin embraces concern about both issues within what he calls a “seamless robe”—the consistent ethic of life. They all involve the value and dignity of life, what Vatican II described as “the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life”.

There are several refreshing aspects of Bernardin’s approach to moral theology which make him stand out in the US Church. That Church is obsessed with questions about whether Communion should be refused to Catholic politicians who do not openly condemn abortion, or whether Catholics should be instructed to vote only for those who do, without evaluating the whole political process and the position of such politicians on the spectrum of life issues.

Oddly, no-one suggests denying Communion to those who openly supported the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq.

Bernardin’s position is that those participating in public life must be given the “freedom to exercise professional judgment and the virtue of prudence”. It would have been helpful if he had spelt out more fully what he meant by this. Clearly he does not want candidates for political office to be castigated or ostracised, nor to be cut off from continuing dialogue.

“There is the danger”, he says, “that we might become increasingly shrill or strident, forgetting the importance of civility and charity in public discourse. There is the temptation simply to proclaim positions, forgetting that, in a pluralistic society, we must persuade, build coalitions, and reach out to shape opinion in support of human life.”

For him it is not enough to be against abortion and to work for the legal protection of the unborn (both of which he did vigorously): there is a need to work for economic justice for women and children, and to ensure adequate nutrition, housing and health care for all (issues which he also championed).

Bernardin was also strongly opposed to the tax dollars of those who, like himself, were totally opposed to abortion being used to make provision for more than 1,5 million abortions annually in the United States. He campaigned to ensure that those funds be re-directed to the defence and support of life.

Between 1983 and 1996 Bernardin devoted nearly three dozen lectures to topics related to the consistent ethic of life, continuing until just before his death from pancreatic cancer. Under his influence the US bishops adopted this ethic as the basis for various statements on life issues and on political responsibility. This book is the first compilation of all 35 lectures dealing with this theme, some of which had not previously been published.

Obviously there is a good deal of repetition in the lectures. It is nevertheless interesting to see how slight changes of familiar themes indicate how Bernardin’s understanding of the consistent ethic developed over the years.

A closely linked idea of his was that of “common ground”, an attempt to help the divided US Church to emphasise what they had in common rather than the reasons for their divisions. He described it as “this space for authentic dialogue”. The proposal was not warmly received by his brother cardinals, other than Roger Mahony of Los Angeles. The other US cardinals ignored his proposal which was a great disappointment to Bernardin in his last years. Surprisingly, the idea is also not mentioned in either the Foreword or the Introduction to this book.

This book is a fascinating examination of some of the most important moral issues of our time, written in a simple and accessible style. By the time you have finished reading it you should be able to hold your own on the consistent ethic of life.