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Editor, News-Register:
In his column, published in the March 17 edition of the Sunday News-Register, Andrew Napolitano showed a serious misunderstanding of both St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope Francis.
Napolitano asserts that, according to natural law, we instinctively know that 2+2 is 4, the sun rises in the east, that stealing a purse is wrong. In fact, according to St. Thomas, we have the potential to know these things, but that potential must be actualized through learning.
For example, we have the potential to know arithmetic. And although most of us don't remember learning that 2+2 is 4, we probably remember grade school and struggling to learn long division. We have the potential to learn astronomy but as children, we actually learn that the rotation of the Earth gives the illusion that the sun rises from the direction that we learn is east. A small child may grab a toy from a smaller child and not know that it is wrong unless he is told so.
There isn't space in a letter to explain St. Thomas' idea of natural law, but I can sum it up. Natural Law is the participation of the rational creature in the eternal law. The law by which all creatures are directed to their end. The term "end" does not mean demise but rather goal, purpose and fulfillment. Creatures below the human level, including plants and animals, seek their end naturally. We humans must seek our end voluntarily. Contrary to Napolitano, Aquinas did not say that our will is perfect. We can seek our purpose in life, including the purpose of becoming a saint. But we do so with much difficulty and the constant possibility of error. By contrast, becoming a sinner does not require any striving on our part. Evil is the absence of good as darkness is the absence of light. Vice is the absence of virtue.
Napolitano claims that Aquinas knew that "government is the negation of liberty." He seems to be confusing Thomas Aquinas with Ayn Rand. Aquinas acknowledged the positive role of government and making laws for the common good. We humans are naturally social in achieving our purpose. We need all the help we can get -- from family, community, church, state and especially the grace of our Creator.
Napolitano slanders Pope Francis, calling him the worst in history, and asserts that he has watered down Church teaching. Anyone familiar with the Gospel accounts should know that Pope Francis is following the example of Jesus and standing up for those who are condemned by self-righteous hypocrites. His Holiness, Pope Francis is a blessing not only for Catholics, but for all people and for the Earth itself. And he urges us to "care for our common home."
Richard P. Mullin
Professor Emeritus
Wheeling Jesuit University