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Structures of Virtue and Vice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Daniel J. Daly
Daniel J. Daly*
Affiliation:
Saint Anselm College, Box 1656, 100 St. Anselm Dr., Manchester, NH 03102, USA
*
Email: ddaly@anselm.edu
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Abstract

The paper argues for new concepts in theological ethics: structures of virtue and structures of vice. The Catholic tradition's development of the ‘structures of sin’ in the 1970's and 80's was a significant contribution to magisterial teaching. However, this concept should be updated in light of the trajectory and concepts of post-Vatican II theological ethics. The article proceeds in two parts. Part one recapitulates the development of the concept of structures of sin in the Catholic tradition from the Second Vatican Council to Pope Benedict XVI's recent social encyclical, Caritas in veritate. Part two reflects on the findings of part one, and proceeds to define and defend the concepts structure of virtue and structures of vice. These related concepts more accurately capture the moral nature of social structures. Social structures have the capacity to produce just or unjust outcomes, and to play a significant role in the character formation of persons. Therefore, the structures of virtue and structures of vice are offered as insightful ways of discussing the moral status of social structures.

Keywords

JusticeSinStructureViceVirtue
Type
Original Articles
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 92 , Issue 1039 , May 2011 , pp. 341 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The author 2010. New Blackfriars © The Dominican Council.

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References

1 See Vidal, Marciano ‘Structural Sin: A New Category in Moral Theology?’, in Gallagher, Raphael and McConvery, Brendan, eds., History and Conscience: Studies in Honour of Father Sean O’Riodan, CSsR (NewYork: Gill and Macmillan, 1989), pp. 181–198Google Scholar.

2 See Keenan, James, ‘Notes on Moral Theology: Fundamental Moral Theology at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century’, Theological Studies 67 (2006), pp. 99–119, at p. 111CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Mannion, Gerard, “After the Council: Transformations in the Shape of Moral Theology and ‘the Church to Come’”, New Blackfriars 90 (2009), pp. 232–250CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Pope Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, in O’Brien, David J. and Shannon, Thomas A., eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992), pp. 14–39Google Scholar, at p. 27.

4 Pope Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, p. 22.

5 Pfeil, Margaret, ‘Magisterial Use of the Language of Social Sin’, Louvain Studies 27 (2002), pp. 132–152, at p. 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Marciano Vidal argues this point in ‘Structural Sin: A New Category in Moral Theology?’, p. 183. Maurizio Ragazzi provides a helpful summary of magisterial use and development on the social and structural nature of sin. See his ‘The Concept of Social Sin in its Thomistic Roots’, Journal of Markets and Morality 7 (2004), pp. 363–408Google Scholar.

7 Lumen gentium, in Flannery, Austin O.P., ed., The Basic Sixteen Documents: Vatican Council II (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Co, 1996), pp. 1–95, at chapter II, no. 36Google Scholar.

8 “When the structure of affairs is flawed by the consequence of sin, man, already born with a bend toward evil, finds there new inducements to sin, which cannot be overcome without strenuous efforts and the assistance of grace.” Gaudium et spes, in Flannery, Austin O.P., ed., The Basic Sixteen Documents: Vatican Council II (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Co, 1996), pp. 163–282Google Scholar, no. 25.

9 See Carroll, Anthony J. SJ, ‘Church and Culture: Protestant and Catholic Modernities’, New Blackfriars 90 (2009), pp. 163–177CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at pp. 164–169.

10 Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops, The Church in the Present-Day Transformation of Latin America in Light of the Council: Conclusions (Bogata: General Secretariat of CELAM, 1970), I: 2Google Scholar.

11 Ibid., I: 2.

12 Ibid., I: 3.

13 Synod of Bishops, 1971, Justicia in mundo, in O’Brien, David J. and Shannon, Thomas A., eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992), pp. 288–300, at p. 290Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., p. 296.

15 Gutierrez, Gustavo, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, trans. and ed. Sister Inda, Caridad and Eagleson, John (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004), pp. 100–01Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 102.

17 For example, Archbishop Oscar Romero often wrote and spoke of ‘institutionalized violence,’‘structures of sin’ and ‘social sin.’ See Romero, Oscar, Voice of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985), pp. 68, 143, and 183Google Scholar.

18 Evangelization in Latin America's Present and Future: Final Document of the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate in Puebla and Beyond, ed. Eagleston, John and Scharper, Philip, trans. Drury, John (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979), no. 1264Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., nos. 385–396.

20 Ibid., nos. 436–438. See also no. 362. There the bishops write, “Evangelization should penetrate deeply into the hearts of human beings and peoples. Thus its dynamism aims at personal conversion and social transformation.”

21 Ibid., no. 438.

22 Ibid., no. 185.

23 Pfeil, ‘Magisterial Uses of the Language of Social Sin’, p. 140.

24 Pope John Paul II, Reconcilatio et paenetentia, no. 16. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_02121984_reconciliatio-et-paenitentia_en.html (accessed December 1, 2008).

25 The analogical nature of social sin is reminiscent of the Church's teaching on original sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church remarks that “original sin is called ‘sin’ only in an analogical sense: it is a sin ‘contracted’ and not ‘committed’-a state and not an act.”http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.html (accessed March 25, 2009).

26 See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ‘Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation’, in Alfred T. Hennelly, ed., Liberation Theology: A Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), pp. 461–497, as well as the Congregation's earlier instruction on liberation theology, “Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’”, in Hennelly, Alfred T., ed., Liberation Theology: A Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), pp. 393–414Google Scholar.

27 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ‘Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation’, in Hennelly, Alfred T., ed., Liberation Theology: A Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), pp. 461–497Google Scholar, at p. 484.

28 John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis, in O’Brien, David and Shannon, Thomas, eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), pp. 395–436, at no. 36Google Scholar. See Gaudiam et spes, no. 25, quoted above in note eight. See also Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ‘Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’, in Hennelly, Alfred T., ed., Liberation Theology: A Documentary Heritage, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), pp. 393–414Google Scholar. See nos. 14 and 15.

29 Ibid., no. 38.

30 Pope John Paul II, Centessimus annus, in O’Brien, David and Shannon, Thomas, eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), pp. 439–488Google Scholar, at no. 38.

31 Pope John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, no. 24. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html. (accessed January 10, 2009). The original Latin reads: “Ipsa in intima morali conscientia perficitur Dei hominisque sensus obscuratio, multiplicibus suis perniciosisque de vita consecutionibus. Ante omnia cuiusque conscientia in medio ponitur, quae una et non iterabilis sola Dei in conspectu stat (Cfr. Gaudium et Spes no. 16). At agitur quoque ratione quadam de societatis ‘conscientia morali’; ipsa quodammodo est responsalis non modo quia tolerat vel consuetudinibus vitae adversantibus favet, verum quia et ‘mortis culturam’ alit, quippe quae ipsas ‘structuras peccati’ adversum vitam efficiat et confirmet. Conscientia moralis, tum personalis tum socialis, etiam ob instrumentorum socialis communicationis praepotentes virtutes, pergravi mortiferoque periculo hodie subditur: permixtionis scilicet boni malique, quod attinet ad idem fundamentale vitae ius.”

32 The only usage of the concept by Pope Benedict XVI that I could find is located in ‘The Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the Sixteenth World Day of the Sick’, January 2008. “Mysteriously united to Christ, the one who suffers with love and meek self-abandonment to the will of God becomes a living offering for the salvation of the world. My beloved Predecessor also stated that: ‘The more a person is threatened by sin, the heavier the structures of sin which today's world brings with it, the greater is the eloquence which human suffering possesses in itself …’.”http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/sick/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20080111_world-day-of-the-sick-2008_en.html (accessed August 1, 2009).

33 Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html. (accessed July 7, 2009).

34 Ibid., no. 34.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid., no. 36.

37 Ibid., nos. 42 and 68.

38 Ibid., nos. 11 and 20.

39 See, for example: Yáñez, Humberto Miguel, ‘Opting for the Poor in the Face of Growing Poverty’, in Hogan, Linda, ed., Applied Ethics in a World Church: The Padua Conference (New York: Orbis, 2008), pp. 13–20Google Scholar; and Chathanatt, John, ‘An Ethical Analysis of Globalization from an Indian Perspective’, in Hogan, Linda, ed., Applied Ethics in a World Church: The Padua Conference (New York: Orbis, 2008), pp. 21–31Google Scholar.

40 Landon, Michael, ‘The Social Presuppositions of Early Liberation Theology’, Restoration Quarterly 47.1 (2005), pp. 13–31Google Scholar.

41 Berger, Peter L. and Luckmann, Thomas, The Social Construction of Reality (New York: Anchor Books, 1967)Google Scholar.

42 Berger, Peter L., The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Anchor Books, 1990), p. 4Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., p. 6. See also: Aristotle, , Nicomachean Ethics in McKeon, Richard, ed., The Basic Works of Aristotle (New York: The Modern Library Classics, 2001)Google Scholar, book VII, 10, 1152a; and Thomas Aquinas, quoting the aforementioned Aristotle passage in Summa theologiae. 5 vols. trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, reprint, (Allen, TX: Christian Classics, 1981), I–II 53.1, ad 1; 57.5; and 58.1.

44 See The Social Construction of Reality, pp. 60–61; and The Sacred Canopy, p. 4.

45 Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis, nos. 37–40.

46 This definition is largely taken from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's ‘Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation.’ I have amended the definition to capture what I find to be the fullness of social structures. I have expanded the definition so that it can accommodate positive social structures that promote the human good. The Congregation's definition of structures reads as follows: “These are the sets of institutions and practices which people find already existing or which they create on the national and international level, and which orientate or organize economic, social, and political life. Being necessary in themselves, they often tend to become fixed and fossilized as mechanisms relatively independent of the human will, thereby paralyzing or distorting social development and causing injustice. However, they always depend on human responsibility; human beings can alter them, and they are not dependent on an alleged determinism of history.”, p. 484.

47 “Ignorance of the common good goes hand in hand with the exclusive and sometimes excessive pursuit of particular goods such as money, power or reputation, when viewed as absolutes to be sought for their own sakes: namely as idols. This is what created the ‘structures of sin’, all those places and circumstances in which habits are perverse and which demand proof of heroism on the part of all new arrivals if one is to avoid acquiring such habits.” See Cor Unum ‘World Hunger, A Challenge for All: Development in Solidarity’, no. 25. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/corunum/documents/rc_pc_corunum_doc_04101996_world-hunger_en.html (accessed August 12, 2009).

48 Keenan, ‘Notes on Moral Theology: Fundamental Moral Theology at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century’, p. 111.

49 See, for example, Slater, Thomas, A Manual of Moral Theology (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1908)Google Scholar. Servais Pinckaers provides helpful commentary on reductive nature of the moral manuals in Sources of Christian Ethics, Sr.Nobel, Mary Thomas O.P., trans., (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1995), chapter 11Google Scholar.

50 Slater, p. 119.