Abstract

In the analyses to date only the conciliar guidelines concerning the basic issues
of moral theology have been considered. %is does not mean at all that in the
documents of the Council’s renewal there are no indications on many issues
that are simply discussed in the detailed part of moral theology. Such a subject
is the issue of religious freedom, which is linked to the treaty on faith. %e
Council’s postulate is also to discuss the problem of the priesthood of the faithful
in connection with the treatise on the honour of God (de religione). Moral
issues of dialogue and ecumenism, including the participation of Catholics
in the religious life of other faiths (communicatio in sacris), are awaiting elaboration.
%e Council’s guidelines for the moralistic theologian also refer to the
issue of contemporary social life, which has become the subject of the second
part of the Gaudium et spes Constitution and were developed by Paul VI in the
encyclical Populorum progressio.
It seems superfluous to give a complete list of conciliar indications in the
area of moral theology which relate to detailed topics of this theological discipline.
In the Council’s renewal of theology, it is not a question of seeking new
content, but of showing the “old” truths and principles in a living relationship
with the revealed word of God, taking into account the needs of the human
race of our time.