When I use the language of "morals," my students are self-proclaimed relativists.

'The crisis of the Church is at its core a crisis of the clergy.'

The public intellectual sees the story as a warning about idolizing the intellect (rationalism) and pursuing heaven on earth (utopia).

Ralph Waldo Emerson had moments more perceptive than his vague religiosity: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

Reasoning has acquired a sketchy, even negative, reputation in recent years. 

Recently, a priest who was prominent in the pastoral care of those with sex addictions received his fifteen minutes of fame when he revealed to his congregation at a Sunday Mass and to the "National Catholic Reporter" that he was
gay." 

As a chaplain in a state mental hospital, I quickly learned two things.

Annals new and old are filled with quotations that most people can recognize. 

"Use your brain" is a maxim often heard, but often resented.

A deeper examination of Pope St. John Paul II's "Veritatis Splendor" will illustrate how some interpretations of "Amoris Laetitia" are incompatible with the Catholic Church's moral tradition.