Madam, - Fr Vincent Twomey (January 11th) is correct in listing popes and church councils who condemned slavery, a list well known to academic theologians. But the fact remains that in the New Testament there is not a single word against it, and neither Jesus nor Paul raised the slightest objection to it. It was simply taken for granted. In fact, Paul invited slaves "to be obedient to your masters as representatives of Christ".
For centuries the Church not only tolerated slavery but canonists argued that it had its uses; and in fact popes, bishops and monasteries all had slaves. It was part of the social fabric of society. The threat of excommunication and slavery was even used as a deterrent by four ecumenical councils (Lateran III and IV, Lyons I and II in the 13th century). Pope Nicholas V in 1452 gave full permission to King Alphonse of Portugal to invade, conquer and subjugate all kingdoms and lands possessed by Saracens, pagans, infidels and enemies of Christ, to make slaves of them.
Bartolomé de las Casas succeeded in defending Indian slaves, but he himself had African slaves. In 1571 Pope Pius V had 400 slaves, especially Turks, and after the victory of Lepanto he received the gift of 558 more. Pius VI (d.1799) made use of slaves in his galleys. Only at the beginning of the 19th century did the Church finally join the anti-slavery wave that swept through Europe and the Americas.
Fr Twomey tries to show that church practice which condemned intercourse with a sterile wife or by a man in old age, or forbade menstruating women to enter a church or receive Communion can all be understood as the opinions of disputing theologians, as distinct from the official teaching of the Church. Academic theologians and historians are quite aware of papal encyclicals, but for the vast majority of God's holy people the only teaching they were ever aware of was what they were given from the pulpit or in the confessional. Any pastoral theologian who is trying to help present-day Catholics struggling to hold on to their faith by the skin of their teeth is only too aware of the psychological and spiritual harm done to them by some "church teaching". Few of them can recall being helped by the church to follow their conscience.
Finally, I am not sure if the Holy Father would be pleased with his former student's reference to the younger Ratzinger I quoted developing further his understanding of the primacy of conscience. - Yours, etc,
Fr SEAN FAGAN SM, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2.
Madam, - According to past practice, when theologians disagree, the members of the laity are free to make their own judgments and take their own decisions.
From the exchange of letters in The Irish Times between the academic theologian Fr Vincent Twomey and the pastoral theologian Fr Seán Fagan, one can see they clearly are not in agreement. So, conscience wins - thank God. - Yours, etc,
DAVID MURNAGHAN, Dublin 9.