World News Editor Max Montana sat down with Rev. Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, an associate professor in the Boston College Philosophy Department. He is a graduate of the Boston College Class of 1969, and he joined the faculty in 1984. Fr. Tacelli specializes in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He has a cousin, Christopher, who attends the Boston College Campus School. This is an abbreviated version of the interview.
MM: As a Jesuit priest and as someone who has taught philosophy, how has your philosophy and your faith instilled the values in and taught you to treat and think of some of the most vulnerable people among us [in the unborn] with great charity and respect?
RT: Well, they’re human persons. As a philosopher, not just as a Christian, I think that’s pretty obviously true. I don’t think you need faith to realize the truth that each single human individual is a person, which means that each human individual is someone absolutely unique in this world. [He or she] isn’t just something you can exchange at will. If you happen to lose a pencil, you get another pencil; no problem. But human persons are not like that. Each human person is unique and has a special contribution to make to this world—one that nobody else is able to make.
MM: You talked about this in your article, but could you repeat and expand on why it’s important to have special needs people among us in society?
RT: My cousin Christopher is at The Campus School [at Boston College] and he has special needs. He’s mentally and physically disabled. I remember a relative once asking me: “Why did this happen? What could possibly come of this that’s good?” And as I recall, I said something in reply like this: “We’re all going to be taught a deeper meaning of love than we had experienced or thought of before.” And that’s what happened. When I see the way my cousins care for Christopher who is so needy and vulnerable, I realize that they’ve been given a real lesson in what true love genuinely is … And in the kind of world in which gratification comes so quickly to us, that kind of love can be not only undervalued, but even rejected … Those of us who are impaired physically or mentally do not, on that account, lose dignity. Dignity cannot be measured in IQ points, fashion, or a pleasing form. Dignity is ultimately measured by the infinitely beautiful and good spirit that gives us life and that exists in every single individual uniquely.
MM: There is a Catholic Charities Disabilities Services group [in Albany, New York]. In addition to this, what’s something that you think that the Church or just the Society of Jesus itself could add to better serve the special needs community?
RT: It strikes me that in losing its focus on the question of abortion, the Church has hurt its ability to speak out in a fully convincing way about how we treat the handicapped. I really think that the shyness of so many of us in the Church to speak out against the slaughter of so many “inconvenient” lives, millions upon millions, has dampened our voice in [proclaiming] the teaching of the Church that every single human being is of incomparable and, in fact, infinite worth. The world does not believe this. The world believes that only certain human individuals have worth; if you lack a certain level of development, or fall below a certain size, or happen to have been conceived in an act of violence, then, at least in the womb, you don’t have any worth. But the Church’s teaching—and what is certainly true, not just from the point of view of Revelation but I think for anyone who looks at the problem clearly—is that all human beings are persons and therefore have immeasurable value. … [The Church is] supposed to have a preferential option for the poor. I would say that a preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for those who are thought of as being worthless in our society, whether that’s the unborn, or someone who’s physically or mentally handicapped.
This interview in full was originally published on Especially Pro-Life, a site run by Max Montana on the intersection between the pro-life movement and special needs community. Find it at especiallyprolife.com.
Max Montana is a senior studying philosophy and theology. When not writing for The Torch, he enjoys reading more about the Catholic faith and philosophy, serving the unborn and mothers in need, and hanging out with friends. Max is honored to hail from the state with many gators and the bishop of the moon: Florida.
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