Ordo Praedicatorum

The Dominican banner is not gray-somewhat white and somewhat black-rather, it is dramatically black and white, with all the virtues of blackness and whiteness fully expressed. From the beginning we have always had a capacity for combining furious opposites, by “keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.” We are, so to speak, mobile monks with a deep contemplative 
life of prayer at the feet of Jesus like Mary and an active life of 
service like Martha. The 
contemplative life is in some way better than the active as Saint Thomas Aquinas says, it is 
a “foretaste of the coming rest, the eternal contemplation of God” (Summa 
Theologica I, 183, 2). In prayer, we are already somehow with God, and 
to be with God is the deepest longing of our hearts. So prayer is a foretaste 
of that moment when all activities will be resolved and we enjoy eternal rest 
with God and all His children.

 But given our present situation, Aquinas suggests that a life of both 
contemplation and action is best of all: “Even as it is better to enlighten than 
merely to shine, so it is better to give to others the fruits of one’s 
contemplation than merely to contemplate” (ST I, 188, 6). One of the fruits of Aquinas’ contemplation was his outlook on faith and reason.

For many people, faith and reason stand in opposition to one another; they are black and white, irreconcilable and best kept apart. As Dominicans we strive to maintain the delicate unity-in-tension between faith and reason: ‘Deprived of what revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal. Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience, and so runs the risk of no longer being a universal proposition. It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the risk of withering into myth or superstition. By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being.’ (John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 48).”

Despite this clear and constant teaching of the Church, faith and reason are not always seen as complementary even among Catholics. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman, U.S. Bishops Committee on Doctrine, had to issue a statement correcting certain false claims that the beginning of human life is a “personal and private” matter of religious faith. The U.S. Bishops pointed out that this is a matter of objective fact discovered by reason not solely a matter of faith. As any embryology textbook confirms that a new human life begins at conception.

As Dominicans we seek to help Catholics properly form their consciences in accordance with the truth, so they can make sound moral choices in addressing the many challenges of today. I was recently asked: “Can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice candidate?” Archbishop Chaput gives an answer worth contemplating:

I can’t, and I won’t. But I do know some serious Catholics- people whom I admire-who may. I think their reasoning is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They don’t keep quiet about it; they don’t give up; they keep lobbying their party and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite-not because of-their pro-choice views. But [Catholics who support pro-choice candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a “proportionate” reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life-which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.

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