Getting Unstuck: Advancing Aquinas, Conflict Analysis, and Complex Moral Theology

In my past life, working in foreign affairs and politics, I learned a simple but profound rule: people are rarely fighting about what they tell you they are fighting about. This is excellent advice for any aspiring diplomat but also for spiritual advisors.

We tend to tell other people what we want them to hear. And in defending ourselves against accusations of doing something unjust we especially cling to appealing reasons that conveniently help us cover up our own shortcomings.

The Church will have an ever-growing number of individuals who have broken Church law (like a couple using IVF to conceive) or who have made the difficult life decisions to get remarried after a divorce.  And for those who have found positivity and stability in their choices, we are increasingly having difficulty explaining why the Church cannot walk the journey with them.