Family Squabble

"Kind words about natural science come from eminent churchmen at regular intervals. Kind words about religion come from eminent scientists with somewhat less regularity . . . What is the actual relationship between American Catholics and natural science?" asks University of Notre Dame Scientist Julian Pleasants in the current Commonweal. "Is it a happy marriage, a divorce, or a simple case of nonsupport?"

The statistics, according to Pleasants, suggest nonsupport. Roman Catholic colleges turn out relatively few scientists, spend less than their share on scientific research. They apply for far less than their fair share of Government money earmarked for science. Fellowship funds go begging for applicants from Catholic schools.

What has broken up the household? Two things, says Pleasants, a Roman Catholic. On the one hand, "prevailing Catholic philosophy is almost sheer formalism, obedience to certain arbitrary prescriptions for the sake of an arbitrary reward . . . Where the formulae do not apply, the matter is of no real significance. Nothing new need be added. Formalism does not forbid creative activity--it just takes the heart out of it."

On the other hand, Catholics have let modern science usurp "the central governing virtue of Christian life. To it belongs, by right, the spirit of critical investigation, of discovery, invention and experimentation, whether our aim at the time is to know something, to make something, or to do something."

Despite the family squabble, Pleasants is certain that "Catholicism and science were meant for each other. In the church we find the feminine element of life in its perfection . . . Yet the church as a human institution suffers the temptations of its state, les defauts de ses qualites: the temptation to timidity, the temptation to rank custom above life and obedience above prudence. Modern science is a masculine element, inquisitive, daring, critical, willing to try the new, yet careless of holding fast to what is good in the old, lacking often in reverence for human nature and even for things themselves, feeling strangely dissatisfied in the very midst of its triumphs. Each needs the other. Both are suffering from this overlong courtship. The world itself needs their fruitful union."

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