Designed as a Starting Point for Reflection on the Ethical Challenges We Face in the Contemporary World

Authors Jozef Zalot and Benedict Guevin, OSB, offer a pragmatic and insightful presentation on the compelling and sometimes misunderstood teachings of the Catholic Church on contemporary ethical issues.In their revised edition of Catholic Ethics in Today’s World, the authors further clarify their discussion on the Church’s stance on ethics, explicating Church teachings and expounding on the reasons behind those teachings. The authors also illuminate reasons for this confusion about what the Church teaches regarding challenging ethical dilemmas, among them the Church’s deficiency in clearly articulating official Church teachings for a lay audience, the media’s misinterpretation of those teachings, and the lack of ethics training for some educators.

To further clarify the Church’s teaching on ethics, in this revised edition the authors add material that addresses recent developments, most notably the thought-provoking ethical dilemmas centered on the nation’s recent recession, international debt relief, the continued fighting in Afghanistan, premarital sex and cohabitation, beginning of life issues, including federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and end of life issues, including discussions on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The authors’ intent is to explain Catholic teachings so that a clear ethics of morality can arise.