No Right to Choose Wrongly
By Chris Pelicano ( bio - articles ) | Aug 24, 2012
The "freedom to choose" has grown out of all proportion in American culture over the last several decades. "I have a right to choose for myself," seems to have become the definitive (and way-overused) response to any issue at hand. And even though free will is a defining human attribute, it is not an absolute. Freedom is always for something. Freedom is only a right when it is conditioned by its corresponding obligations.
"With great power comes great responsibility." With these words, Uncle Ben tried to tell Peter Parker that though he was free to choose how to use his great powers, he was under an even greater obligation to choose to use them properly. He only had a right to choose what was right. He had no right to choose wrongly. Freedom divorced from responsibility is mere license. You see, Uncle Ben knew, as all parents or guardians of teenagers know, that young people are easily enamored of and blinded by their new-found "freedoms" and powers, and therefore, prone to leap before they look.
Is it not high time for our society and culture equally enamored by the "freedom to choose" to look again before leaping again—to realize that all choices are not created equal? There is right and there is wrong. They can be known with sufficient certainty. In fact, deep down, we cannot not know the difference. We simply need to use our "Spidey-sense," called deep conscience, to guide our amazing power to choose—bringing those powers in line with our even greater obligation to choose rightly.
We have the ability but not the right to choose wrongly.
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Sep. 14, 2018 11:34 PM ET USA
Talk! Talk! Talk! That is all we will hear. The good Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and lay organizations need to help clean house here at home by pressuring the highly secularized types to change or leave-resign. Start small like a pebble in a lake and watch it expand. Start with Wuerl,Tobin, and Cupich. Lots of prayers along the way.
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Posted by: bill129 -
Sep. 14, 2018 4:55 PM ET USA
The problem is with much more than abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. What about abuse of seminarians and other adults through misuse of the priestly or episcopal office. Like Phil said, this meeting is nothing but a repeat. We know that the problem is more that child abuse. Is this conference another dodge by the Vatican to appear like they are doing something and avoid the issues that are really corrupting the Church and bold witness of the Gospel.
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Posted by: Frodo1945 -
Sep. 13, 2018 11:57 AM ET USA
"Wait it out and hope it will blow over" is the strategy and it will fail.
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Posted by: KC627 -
Sep. 12, 2018 1:11 PM ET USA
So it takes 5 months to to begin discussions on the prevention of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults? This is the best the Council of Cardinals can come up with after "reflection" on the abuse problem? I guess Cardinal Cupich was correct when he said there are more pressing issues than the abuse problem that is presently devastating the Church. I hope and pray that Cardinal DiNardo's visit with Pope Francis tomorrow is more successful.
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Posted by: Justin8110 -
Aug. 27, 2012 2:13 PM ET USA
Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Libertas" would be a good read after reading this fine article.
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Posted by: polish.pinecone4371 -
Aug. 27, 2012 6:49 AM ET USA
When you follow the path of "no right to choose wrongly" then you come to the idea that "error has no rights." And the problem with that is that, while error may have no rights, persons who err have the same fundamental rights as those who do not err. Obviously there needs to be balance on this. The state cannot simply allow all to choose wrongly without consequence. But when you start talking about rights, that's where one can run into trouble since God give us all the right to choose wrongly.
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Posted by: koinonia -
Aug. 25, 2012 3:17 PM ET USA
Orientation. Direction. Intellect. Will. Grace. The problem is vexing and it is deep-rooted. High-ranking prelates are disoriented. The indiscriminate exercise of choosing is celebrated as the highest good in that it is the unencumbered use of the intellect and will to choose what one feels is best for him or her. Nothing can be considered a higher good than this unrestricted exercise of freedom, directionless and disordered as it might be. But there is so much more for us to consider.
