A book on moral theology by a Dublin-based priest has been described as "in error" by the Irish Catholic bishops.
The bishops have described Does Morality Change? by Father Seán Fagan, a Marist priest based at the Catholic University School on Dublin's Leeson Street, as an "attempt to articulate a renewed fundamental moral theology" which "contains a number of errors common to similar attempts at renewal".
Father Fagan's book, first published in 1997, has sold 5,000 copies internationally to date, a high figure for a book on theology, and has received many very positive reviews.
It had gone out of print and was re-released in September last by Columba Press. Currently it is said to be selling very strongly.
The bishops' five-page document, Notification On Recent Developments in Moral Theology and their Implications for the Church and Society, has been placed on the Catholic Communications Office website without fanfare.
The errors in the book were listed in the document as "the denial of the binding force of the Magisterium (Rome) on conscience"; "the uncritical acceptance of the tendency 'to substitute a dynamic and more evolutionary concept of nature for a static one',"; "the effective rejection of the Church's understanding of the natural law (illuminated by revelation)"; "the explicit denial of moral absolutes, specially those concrete acts which are intrinsically wrong"; and "the promotion of a false understanding of conscience".
It is understood that an anonymous individual, thought to be an Irish bishop, complained directly to Rome about the book. The Irish Bishops' Conference was then directed by the Vatican to address its "errors".