The Encyclical Evangelium Vitae: what are the new elements?

Abstract

The article analyses John Paul Il's Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (EV) and points out the new elements it contains. First of ali it shows a connection between the EV and Leo XII's Encyclical Rerum Novarum on the question of workers. In fact, on one hand both touch on a subject that is important in a social and worldwide context (not a question of private morals), which is to have consequences in the future, and on the other hand, they see the Church as on the side of the weakest areas of humanity. A second new element in the EV is of an epistemological-reasoning nature: that is, the EV provides first of ali the vision of faith, and only later does it appeal to reason and to the natural law. With this, the Encyclical proposes to avoid the fact of faith, among the faithfuls, being considered pleonastic or secondary to the problems of life, while it aims to state that the overall vision of the value of life is the one that comes from the point of view of faith, although this does not nullify and is not juxtaposed alongside reason, but rather it illuminates and enriches it. The cultural perspectives that the EV suggests are another new element. According to the author, for our culture, it is a question of reconstructing some "bridges": 1. between reason and faith; 2. between the person and nature; 3. between civillaw and moral law; 4. between freedom and responsibility; 5. between the ethics of principles and the ethics of virtue. Some aspects of applied ethics also appear for the first time in the Church's official teaching thanks to this Encyclical, for example, the moral evaluation of the new "abortive-contraceptives" and of the demographic control. The relationship between ethics and law is dealt with in a new way. The author concludes that only a superficial evaluation could support the opinion that the EV would not have anything new to say about the subjects dealt with and that, if anything, it would only be valid within the Catholic Church.