FROM THE ARCHIVES
[ home | archives | e-mail ]
Ratzinger on "Progress"
[Angelo Matera 03/22 09:04 AM]There is truth to Nick’s comment about traditionalist thought – its rarefied arguments have played little to no part in the conservative ascendancy of the past 25 years. Reagan certainly never questioned progress, and as for the Neo Cons, Irving Kristol recently made the point that, unlike traditional conservatism, neoconservatism was “a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.”
The only traditionalist voices questioning “progress” with any real weight in the world have been those of the Popes, JPII, and now Pope Benedict XVI. In 2001, then Cardinal Ratzinger made this comment in an interview with Le Figaro: “I have always been skeptical of the concept of progress. There is, of course, a progress in the amount of knowledge, in science and technology. But this progress does not necessarily bring about a progress in moral values, nor in our ability to put to good use the power granted by knowledge. On the contrary, power can be a factor of destruction. I have always been contrary to the Utopian spirit, to faith in a perfect society–conceiving of a perfect society once and for all means excluding the freedom of every day….
…For modern man, the idea of placing limits on research sounds like blasphemy. However, an intrinsic limit exists, and this is human dignity. Progress obtained at the price of the violation of human dignity is unacceptable. If research attacks man, it is a deviation of science. Even if we protest that this or that research will open possibilities for the future, we must say no when man is at stake.”
|
