worth noting . . .

BIOETHICS AND CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGY . . . During the past 40 years or so a new discipline has developed which deals with ethical/moral decisions concerning life issues, such as in vitro fertilization or fetal experimentation. In this issue you will find an article by Msgr. George P. Graham in which he offers us a brief history of bioethics. Some bioethicians wish to distance themselves from the objective and universal moral principles of Catholic moral theology. In doing that they become relativists and so reject Catholic teaching. Msgr. Graham argues that the moral principles enunciated by Pope John Paul II should govern ethical discussions in our Catholic health care facilities.

THE PRIMACY OF THE POPE . . . An essential part of the Church of Jesus Christ is the primacy of the Pope, the successor of St. Peter. Our Lord conferred the primacy on Peter at Caesarea Philippi (see Matt. 16). Down the centuries there have been enemies of the papal primacy both inside and outside the Church. In this issue Mr. Kenneth D. Whitehead, who is familiar to our readers, reviews at length a new book by Russell Shaw entitled, Papal Primacy in the Third Millennium. The sad part of this story is that many Catholics, including priests, have been and are attacking papal primacy. Mr. Shaw and Mr. Whitehead offer a vigorous defense.

GROWTH IN SEXUAL MATURITY . . . There is no doubt that we now live in a sex-obsessed society. Turn on the TV, listen to the radio, open a magazine or newspaper, look at billboards on the highway — sex is everywhere. Deliberate stimulation and use of the sexual faculty outside of marriage is a sin — more or less grievous depending on the circumstances. This presents a special problem for the priest and the priestly candidate or seminarian. In this issue Fr. Paul A. McGavin, an Australian convert from the Anglican Church, analyzes the situation and offers some sage suggestions on how to grow in celibate chastity. It is mainly directed to clerics, but with some qualifications it also applies to the laity.

DIVINE MERCY VISIBLE . . . Jesus our Savior is infinitely merciful and calls on us to be merciful to others. He revealed himself to Sr. Faustina and asked her to have a picture painted of him with red and white rays coming from his divine heart. There is something very attractive about this new image of Jesus Christ. In this issue Mr. Robert A. Stackpole writes about the history of the image, and he also explains the theology behind it. The image contains a marvelous combination of the essential characteristics of an eastern icon and a western holy picture of Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary. It merits our attention and prayerful meditation (p. 45).