The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

The Thomist 73 (2009): 1-27 ON THE PLACE OF SERVAIS PINCKAERS (t 7 APRIL 2008) IN THE RENEWAL OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGY ROMANUS CESSARIO, 0.P. St. John's Seminary Boston, Massachusetts I. APERC::US ON FATHER PINCKAERS AS FAR AS I AM ABLE to determine, The Thomist first took extended notice of Servais-Theodore Pinckaers's moral theology in an article that I wrote in 1987.1 The essay treated theology at Fribourg, and it introduced the main lines of Fr. Pinckaers's Les sources de la morale chretienne, his chef d'oeuvre which had been published a few years earlier at the Editions Universitaires in Fribourg, Switzerland. Because the Belgian Dominican whom this current issue of The Thomist honors for his life-long commitment to the truth of the Catholic faith practiced the virtues that he wrote about, especially the virtues of modesty and humility, few were aware in 1987 that the Holy See was turning to this distinguished University of Fribourg theology professor for assistance with two very important projects: The Catechism ofthe Catholic Church and Pope John Paul H's encyclical letter Veritatis splendor. The protocols of the Holy See do not allow official confirmation of the list of persons that are consulted about its important documents of recent date. The Church wisely leaves this information for historians to examine. Still, those who later espied on his bureau the handsomely white leather-bound edition of the Catechism that today holds an honored place in the Pinckaers Archives can only 1 See Romanus Cessario, O.P., "Theology at Fribourg," The Thomist 51 (1987): 325-66. 1 2 ROMANUS CESSARIO, O.P. conclude that Fr. Pinckaers had contributed to its composition. Even those who never visited his office in Fribourg could recognize his theological fingerprints in more than one place in the Catechism, which first saw the light of day in a French edition of 1992. Much the same can be said about Fr. Pinckaers's participation in the officially summoned "workshop" that provided Pope John Paul II with the draft materials for the encyclical that he would eventually sign on 6 August 1993. Most Catholic scholars knew in 1987 only that these two literary milestones in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II were forthcoming. Father Pinckaers's work on both the Catechism and Veritatis splendor turned out to supply crowning moments to his more than half-century professional theological life-sixty-three years as a Dominican. No definitive evaluation of the contributions that Servais Pinckaers made to the shaping of twentieth-century Catholic theology exists in print. This happy task awaits the patient work of some future historian of theology who--thanks to the Dominican Fathers of the Albertinum in Fribourg, Switzerland-will find at his or her disposal the bulk of our author's primary materials. At the same time, Fr. Pinckaers's work has not gone unnoticed. On the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 2005, a celebratory symposium was held at the University of Fribourg. During the program, I sketched out the broad lines of Fr. Pinckaers's biography, both spiritual and academic, and located him within the long tradition of commentators on St. Thomas Aquinas, especially the strain that developed within the borders of his native Belgium.2 Other speakers on the same program highlighted selected themes from his theological corpus, writings in moral and spiritual theology, and pointed out their significance for contemporary issues. Father Pinckaers first took up his teaching of the whole of moral theology in his native Belgium. The year was 1953, a time when Europe was still living out the traumas of the post-World 2 This intervention was later published: Romanus Cessario, O.P., "Hommage au Pere Servais-Theodore Pinckaers, OP: The Significance of His Work," Nova et Vetera, English edition, 5 (2007): 1-16. SERVAIS PINCKAERS AND THE RENEWAL OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGY 3 War II period. In fact, the experience of the Second World War left a strong impression on the young Servais Pinckaers. The wartime hostilities began for him shortly before 27 May 1940, the date that Belgium surrendered to Germany. They ended in the fall of 1944 when Brussels was liberated from the...