A Catholic Response to the Gun Pandemic

Does Catholic Moral Theology have Anything to Say About It?

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My wife asked me last night how I would answer the question of “What does Catholic moral theology have to say in response to the pandemic of shootings?,” such as the one we just saw at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis that provoked Pope Leo to denounce the “pandemic of arms.” So this post is an initial response to the question.

[Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Credit...Jenn Ackerman for NYT]

Of course, denouncing the pandemic of arms follows from the Catholic tradition. There is obviously much immorality, irrationality, and mental illness in the gun situation about which moral theologians could speak or write.

My first reaction, however, is that I don’t see much that Catholic moral theologians can say on a particular topic like gun violence that should be expected to help much in the present situation. The idea of discussing the immorality of the various agents involved reminds me of the “thoughts and prayers” with which self-identified American Christians have responded to such shootings over the decades. After many years, “Thoughts and prayers” now functions as a meme, an empty platitude offered without accompanying action proportionate to the problem. Not that a discussion of the immorality of the various agents is empty, but it is not proportionate to the problem and is not rationally ordered to a remedy.

Because I think the Catholic moral tradition reflects a profound moral realism, I think a Catholic response needs to reflect clear-eyed recognition of the problem and proportionate responses. This is why the phrase “the present situation” is doing a lot of work in the sentence. Readers of this substack will recognize, moreover, that I think we are presently on a rapid trajectory toward dictatorship and a dystopian future unless Catholics become part of the solution to what the Vatican has recognized as the global polycrisis.

My reference to the present situation points to the fact that I think the real issue from the perspective of Catholic moral theology has to do with understanding what the moral tradition has come to call “the signs of the times” and then taking responsible action in proportion to the situation we face.

Although that might not sound like moral theology, I would argue it is the essence of the modern Catholic social tradition, especially if you trace the core of it back from mid nineteenth century France right through the Second Vatican Council.

This response also aligns perfectly with the conciliar directives on the renewal of the discipline (Optatam totius, no. 16), which reflect the previous century of the Church’s experience determining how best to respond to rapid social change. These developments included the rise of secular states, the industrial revolution, the extremes of socialism and laissez faire liberalism, the way this latter tended toward fascism, and the way postwar Catholic Social Doctrine aligned with the “liberal consensus” for a mixed economy with strong public institutions to—among other things—offset the disproportionate economic and political power of the rich.

This conciliar renewal would have moral theology better nourished by the teaching of the bible. This is at least partially because the Catholic world went mostly with the fascists leading up to World War II, and this suggested a need for deeper conversion toward which the Scriptures were conducive. This renewed moral theology would also point Catholics toward our high calling to holiness in Christ (the Council’s Universal Call to Holiness). It would also be ordered to “...bearing the fruit of charity for the life of the world,” as in living out Catholic social teaching through the apostolate of the laity that would inform the world with the spirit of the gospel.

This general response to a specific question like the gun epidemic also aligns with the flurry of social documents since the conciliar era, which are poorly understood and largely ignored as irrelevant. These documents are also ridiculed by prominent Catholic academics as long-winded, but this is not because the Popes and their advisors don’t know any better. It because they are illustrating the kind of thinking needed to discern the signs of the times, which is not a matter of single issue politics.

Such a general response of understanding the signs of the times from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching also aligns with a sound virtue ethic. It does so, for example, because justice regarding the common good is the highest moral virtue according to Aquinas and understanding the requirements of the common good depends on understanding the signs of the times. Solicitude and action for the common good are, moreover, requirements of charity, as the social encyclicals frequently reiterate. Of course, a sound moral theology grounded in Scripture needs to be centered in charity and justice. I think, therefore, that our moral tradition has the resources to address such particular questions as the gun pandemic, but only within the broader context of rightly recognizing the situation at hand and working toward proportionate responses, for which the divine assistance will be needed.

In more concrete terms, does the Catholic moral tradition have anything to help us discern the signs of the times? Absolutely!

There is a rich tradition of study circles and study weeks that was central to the most robust realizations of social Catholicism, whether in the circles that flourished across Europe after the example of Bishop Wilhelm E. von Ketteler, or in the French Sillon movement led by Marc Sangnier, or in the various forms of Specialized Catholic Action inspired by Joseph Cardinal Cardijn. This thought was also central to Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand’s integration of the liturgy with the formation of laity for the social apostolate during his rectorship at Mundelein Seminary (1936-44). This approach resulted in a strikingly confident and fruitful Chicago Catholicism in the decades surrounding the Second Vatican Council, which anticipated the vision of the council, even if we have more forgotten it than realized it.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, I am confident that the divine help is available if we are willing to be the instruments. If we were to draw on the relevant aspects of the Catholic moral tradition, I think we would be creatively exploring how we can foster understanding about the signs of the times and how we might respond to them. Or we can just avoid looking up.

I will stop here as much of what I have written is treated at greater length through this substack and accompanying volumes.