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Document Details :

Title: Particular Goods and Personalist Morals
Author(s): JANSSENS, Louis
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 6    Issue: 1   Date: 1999   
Pages: 55-59
DOI: 10.2143/EP.6.1.505364

Abstract :
In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Vatican II devoted a chapter to “Fostering the Nobility of Marriage and the Family”. We read in the text, as it was brought to a vote in the general session of 16 November 1965 and approved by the overwhelming majority of the council fathers, that spouses must determine the moral character of their activity according to 'objective criteria based upon the dignity of the human person' (objectivis criteriis in eadem personae humanae dignitate fundatis). Among the changes suggested by a number of fathers along with the voting for this text were several concerning the formulation of this personalist standard. According to the rules of the council, no changes could be allowed which would alter the essence (substantia) of the teaching already ratified by a more than sufficient majority. However, individual formulations in the text could be clarified or nuanced.

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