Br. Peter Carroll: Applying a consistent ethic of life

Br. Peter Carroll, Provincial of Australia and Presidente of the Catholic Religious Australia

It’s extraordinary the lengths to which Governments have gone to prevent deaths from COVID-19. Policy measures around the world have brought nations and economies to a stand-still – quite literally. For example, our own Government, which canonised and promised a return to budget surplus, has deliberately sacrificed its plans and spent billions of dollars on stimulus programmes and social support. Officially we are now in recession because of decisions made here on how best to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s commendable that our Government chose to give precedence to human life over political ideology and economic philosophy.

By contrast, we recently witnessed what has been described as the ‘public murder’ of George Floyd in Minneapolis; the whole tragic episode caught live on film and broadcast and re-broadcast in every country on the globe. It’s hardly surprising that protests erupted spontaneously in so many places. It touched a raw nerve, a suppressed rage. On one hand, the clear message from Governments is that ‘life matters and we have to do everything we can to protect it’. On the other hand, we have an official of the State, employed to protect life and maintain social order, delivering a very different message. No wonder so many people are asking ‘which lives matter’?

Pope Francis captured the dilemma concisely: “My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life”. Every human life matters, and the quality of human life matters.

You may know of Eileen Egan, Catholic writer and activist, who coined the phrase “seamless garment” (John 19:23) to refer to the idea that Gospel values must be applied to a broad range of social and political issues. “The protection of life” she said, “is a seamless garment. You can’t protect some life and not others”. Similarly, in the 1980’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin spoke of the necessity for a consistent ethic of life. Based on the fundamental Christian belief in the sacredness of all life he argued that every attitude or action that destroys or diminishes life should be condemned and opposed. “The spectrum of life cuts across the issues of genetics, abortion, capital punishment, modern warfare and the care of the terminally ill … When human life is considered ‘cheap’ or easily expendable in one area, eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy.”

Br. Peter Carroll – Catholic Religious Australia – 10 June 2020