In May 1968 a group of teachers of moral theology from some of the seminaries in the UK held a meeting in the Cenacle convent in Manchester. This meeting gave rise to what is now known as the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology (ATMT). Its original purpose was to provide mutual support to help teachers of moral theology to develop their discipline in the light of Vatican II. After meeting twice-yearly on a residential basis, a special 30th Anniversary Conference was organised by Professor Jack Mahoney SJ, one of the founding members, at UNI. Jack also arranged for the papers presented to be published in a special edition of The Month (August 1999). As one of the original members, I contributed the following piece to ensure that the early history of the ATMT was duly recorded. Forty-three years after its inception, the ATMT continues to meet twice yearly at Hinsley Hall, Leeds. Though the numbers are small, almost invariably members from Holland, Belgium and Germany attend and make very valuable contributions to the meetings.
When I began teaching moral theology at Upholland Senior Seminary in 1965, apart from Fr. Pius OFM Cap, I did not know any other person teaching moral theology in the UK or Ireland. At that time, there were four other major seminaries in addition to Upholland – Ushaw, Oscott, Wonersh and Allen Hall. A number of male religious congregations also had their own theologates – the Jesuits had Heythrop College (then in the countryside outside Oxford) the Redemptorists, Hawkstone Hall, the Sacred Heart Fathers, Malpas and the Capuchins, Crawley. The Missionary Institute was still in its early days, staffed mainly by the Mill Hill and White Fathers. There were also two major seminaries in Scotland, at Drygrange and Cardross.
A full four year course in moral theology was being taught in all these twelve establishments. Since the teaching of moral theology had been thrown into the melting pot by the movement of theological renewal which, in the wake of Vatican II, achieved respectability and authorisation and gained increasing momentum, those of us who were beginning to teach moral theology at that time felt as though we were moving into waters which were largely uncharted. I, for one, felt very alone and needed help and support from other moral theologians who were in the same boat. I shared this feeling with Jack Mahoney who had also just begun teaching moral theology and felt much the same as myself. So a letter was sent out to our fellow teachers of moral theology in Britain, suggesting that it might be helpful if we were to meet and pool our experiences. A first meeting was held in May, 1968, an overnight session at the Cenacle Retreat House in Manchester.
All nine attending were priests. The whole meeting was devoted to our sharing how each of us went about teaching moral theology. The first meeting of which I have any written record was held at Upholland College on 13-15 November, 1970.
The written report indicates that this meeting was a defining moment in the developments of the ATMT’s methodology:
It was thought that the system of having the Respondent as Chairman of the meeting had worked well and it was decided to follow the same procedure at the next meeting. The distribution of the papers before the meeting had also proved successful and it was suggested that in future the papers should be distributed as early as possible beforehand and at the meeting the paper writer should give a very brief resume of his paper and then the Chairman-Respondent should open the discussion and continue to guide it.
The format of that 1970 meeting is virtually identical to the one still followed over forty years later. Ronald Preston, our first Anglican member, came to the third meeting and has been a most valued and faithful member ever since. The 1970 written report also notes that those present decided to restrict membership to ‘those professionally engaged in teaching moral theology and allied subjects’, though it was agreed that ‘members may use their discretion in inviting other interested and competent persons after consultation with the Secretary’. It also states that ‘the continued participation of Canon Preston was welcomed, but again no policy decision was made with regard to throwing membership open to experts from other Churches.
It is clear that the initial purpose of the Association was already developing far beyond that of the ‘how’ of teaching moral theology. There is agreement among members that their purpose in coming together is now being seen as ‘joint creative study of the basic problems of Christian morality’. Very significantly, the word ‘joint’ is used in the report to describe the ‘creative study’ involved. This denotes an early recognition that the sessions are seen as ‘working’ sessions. Members attend not principally to update themselves by listening to papers given by ‘experts’ but to participate in wrestling with the issues raised in the preparatory papers. Over the thirty years of its history the Association has remained remarkably faithful to this aim.
The ATMT has consistently resisted any move to adopt a formal constitution. This was mainly because the members did not want to be labelled as the semi-official voice of moral theology in the UK. They felt that any such move would inhibit their freedom to engage in an honest and critical discussion of moral issues, including so-called traditional teaching or official Church statements. They were also wary of being regarded as a kind of answering service for any and every Church body which was looking for guidance on ethical issues. Nevertheless, members were conscious of their responsibility as moral theologians to be of service to the Church in its engagement with the modern world. They were also anxious to be as helpful to the bishops as they could, within the limits of their personal integrity as professional moral theologians. This last concern led to a relationship with the Hierarchy of England and Wales which has, to date, been consistently both constructive and positively critical.
Relationships with the Hierarchy of England and Wales
There have been four meetings between the bishops and members of the Association.The first came from an initiative by the ATMT who requested an informal meeting between Cardinal Hume and a couple of our members. We wanted to express some of our concerns to the Cardinal, while stressing that, as an Association, we would be very happy to be of service to the bishops, provided this did not compromise the informal nature of our Association. As a result of this conversation with the Cardinal, an overnight meeting between the ATMT and the bishops was held in 1979 at the Upholland Northern Institute. It looked at the theological and pastoral questions linked to the issue of remarriage after divorce. The preparation of this meeting was largely left to the ATMT. The overall theme of divorce and second marriage was broken down into a number of key issues and various ATMT members were assigned the task of preparing short inputs (no longer than an A4 sheet) on each of these topics.
The second meeting, held at the express request of Cardinal Hume, was also an overnight meeting, this time at Loyola Hall, Rainhill on 30 June-1 July 1987. The purpose of the session was partly to give the bishops an opportunity to share with ATMT members some of their concerns about the current method and content of moral theology teaching.
The third meeting on 19-20 February 1993 was again at Upholland and was part of the consultation process leading up to the publication of the new Catechism. Some ATMT members were asked to present short papers on various issues linked to the Catechism and moral teaching.
The fourth meeting was again the brain-child of Cardinal Hume and was designed to help the bishops and moral theologians look together at the encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, and how it had affected their different ministries. An overnight session at London Colney, 4-5 February 1994, was attended by the Cardinal and twelve bishops, as well as by fifteen ATMT members, including four women members, five members of the Bishops’ Secretariate, including the Secretary of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, and James Keenan SJ, a US moral theologian on sabbatical in the UK. Like the previous meetings, this session was carefully planned in advance, this time by a joint committee headed by Bishop Brewer, Chair of the Bishops’ Theology Committee. The programme was arranged in such a way that the bishops were able to share with the moral theologians the way they had experienced the impact of the encyclical on their pastoral ministry as bishops. Similarly, the moral theologians were able to share how the encyclical had affected them and their teaching ministry. In the light of that sharing, the group were able to look together at a number of specific questions arising from Veritatis Splendor.
The consistent and continuing support of Bishop Brewer, Chair of Bishops’ Theology Committee, is worthy of mention in this brief history. Bishop Brewer has made sure that the Secretary of the Theology Committee, Father Michael Campbell, OSA, attends each ATMT meeting as an explicit sign of his encouragement and also to keep channels of communication open between the ATMT and the bishops.
Links with moral theologians abroad
From its earliest days the ATMT has close links with moral theologians in Ireland. Membership has always been open to Irish moral theologians, and, more often than not, meetings have been enriched by the presence of one or more Irish members.
Joint meetings between the ATMT and its Irish equivalent have also been held on three occasions. All these joint sessions have been held in Ireland and the Irish members, through their respective colleges and religious congregations, have been more than generous in offering hospitality to ATMT members from England and Scotland.
The first joint meeting was held at Marianella Pastoral Centre in Dublin, 9-11 November 1990. The second took the form of a Theological Consultation on HIV/AIDS which was arranged and hosted by Caritas Internationalis. It was held at Marianella Pastoral Centre, 6-9 January 1994. The objectives proposed for this theological consultation were:
The third joint meeting was held at Maynooth College, 10-12 November 1995. Among items discussed in the Open Forum was the potential impact of the Internet on the study and teaching of moral theology.
When ATMT meetings have coincided with visits to the UK by moral theologians from overseas, they have been invited to our meetings. Such visitors have included Charles Curran and James Keenan from the USA, Bruno Schuller from Germany, Bill Daniels, Larry McNamara and Damien Heath from Australia, and Richard Greco (now bishop) from Ontario, Canada.
In the early years ATMT meetings were given added breadth of vision by the participation of moral theologians from the Missionary Institute who had spent time in Africa and Asia. They often forced us to look at moral issues from quite a different perspective as they brought in radically different cultural practices and expectations. In this way, we were already being prepared for the inculturation and inter-faith debates of more recent years.
The Ecumenical Dimension
While it has always been accepted that the ATMT is primarily an association of Roman Catholic teachers of moral theology, from the earliest days there has been an openness towards those from other traditions who are professionally involved in the equivalent field of Christian Ethics. Professor Canon Ronald Preston has been a most valuable, and extraordinarily faithful, member from the very earliest days. He has also been extremely sensitive to the ecumenical ambiguity linked to ATMT being a professedly Roman Catholic association which welcomes members from other Churches. Due to his influence and encouragement, over the years there has been a regular membership from outside the Roman Catholic Church, even though, sadly, this has mainly been from the Church of England. Over the years our membership list has also included Professors Gordon Dunstan, Peter Baelz, Oliver O’Donovan, Anthony Dyson, Duncan Forrester and Ian Markham as well as John Elford, Stephen Platten (now Bishop of Wakefield), Linda Woodhead and Anne Loades.
Although most Roman Catholic ATMT members are actually operating in ecumenical settings of one kind or another, there is always the danger that our focus narrows somewhat when we come together for our ATMT meetings. The presence of members from outside the Roman Catholic tradition has helped us avoid that pitfall. Hence, even when issues of a more specifically Roman Catholic nature are under discussion, it has invariably been refreshing and enlightening to be helped to see these issues from a somewhat different perspective. Such is the nature of moral theology, or Christian ethics, however, that for most of our discussions an outside observer would find it difficult to guess which Church tradition contributors belong to. Our disagreements about ethical matters usually have little or nothing to do with our particular Church allegiance.
Women and ATMT Membership
When the ATMT was founded in 1968 there were no women teaching moral theology in Roman Catholic institutions in the UK. Consequently, there were no women ATMT members in the early days. It is probably true to say that the ATMT members in those days saw nothing unusual about this. The study of moral theology at that time was largely the sole preserve of students preparing for the Roman Catholic Priesthood. It was taught by priests to future priests. I can only speak for myself but to my shame I saw nothing untoward about that. Hence, I failed to recognise that the ATMT was the poorer for the fact that the voice, experience, reflection and insights of women were not offering their specific contributions to our discussions.
Before too long, as ATMT members our eyes began to be opened. Not only did we become more aware that the vision of moral theology was seriously impaired through the absence of the feminine dimensions, we were also forced to recognise that women were beginning to play an increasingly important role in theology in general, and that this was starting to impact on the field of moral theology. We knew we needed to open ourselves to this important ‘sign of the times’ in the life of society in general and of the Churches in particular. Consequently, we contacted Daphne Hampson, who was probably the leading and most challenging feminist theologian in the UK at the time and asked her to join us for a whole weekend in order to help us understand the specificity of feminist theology. She presented two papers to us, one entitled ‘Feminist Ethics’, the other, ‘On Power and Gender’. She also played a full part in all our sessions and discussions over the weekend. It must have been a very difficult experience for her and there were a few rather hurtful reactions. However, the overall consensus was that it was a most valuable weekend. In hindsight, it probably marked a milestone in the life of the ATMT.
What is also becoming more evident is that the contribution of women moral theologians, who are increasingly active members in the ATMT, will figure increasingly prominently in Roman Catholic writing in the field of moral theology in Britain,
Concluding Reflections
A quick glance through the list of papers and their authors confirms a regrettable fact that has often been commented upon in ATMT meetings. On the whole, the active ATMT membership is drawn almost entirely from what might be described as the more liberal school of moral theology in the UK today. That is regrettable. Sadly, the original close link between the ATMT and those teaching moral theology in the seminaries and religious theologates is becoming more and more tenuous.
I am left wondering, therefore, about the appropriateness of continuing to call ourselves the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology. For many years our meetings have paid little or no attention to issues related to the actual ‘teaching’ of moral theology. We have focused far more on the substance of moral theology itself – how we arrive at our moral knowledge as human persons, Christians and members of a specific Church with its particular teaching claims; what kind of certainty we can have about moral truths; the meaning of moral goodness and virtue and their opposites; how we go about making our moral judgements in a sin-infected world and allowing for our unique history of moral woundedness and/or growth; also specific issues relating to social, personal, sexual, medical and environmental ethics. Clearly, all these questions have far-reaching implications for the way moral theology is actually taught. Nevertheless, the actual ‘how’ of teaching moral theology would seem to be an additional skill and one which has never been a matter of great concern in our ATMT meetings.
We are constantly being told that information technology is bringing about a major revolution in the way we live our lives. If that is true, then it has implications for moral theology – and for an association of teachers of moral theology or moral theologians. Even though there is no substitute for us as moral theologians to make personal face-to-face contact with each other, once we have got to ‘know’ each other as persons, contact through e-mail or other forms of IT becomes much more three-dimensional and value-added. As the ATMT faces the future it might we worthwhile exercising our imagination to explore how new developments in information technology might open completely new possibilities for us, not just as individual moral theologians but as an association.