Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church: A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Mark Miller

This episode is the eleventh episode of the second season of What Matters Most and features Reverend Dr. Mark Miller. Fr. Mark is currently the visiting scholar in health care ethics for St. Mark’s College and Providence Health Care in Vancouver for the academic year of 2023-2024. Fr. Mark Miller, C.Ss.R., was ordained in 1975 as a Redemptorist priest after studies in Winnipeg, Toronto and West Germany. Fr. Mark worked with young people for six years followed by the preaching of parish missions for seven years.

After receiving a doctorate in moral theology from the University of Notre Dame (1992), he spent 16 years as a clinical bioethicist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon and for the Catholic Health Association of Saskatchewan. In 2008 he moved to Toronto as part of the leadership team of the Redemptorists but continued his work in Catholic healthcare ethics at the Centre for Clinical Ethics (St. Joseph’s Health, St. Michael’s Hospital, Providence Health). He has taught and provided workshops at Catholic Colleges, in adult formation programs, for Catholic teachers, and many health care practitioners. He also gave an excellent lecture for the CCE in December 2023; please listen to it here. 

Fr. Miller mentioned a number of thinkers, Margaret Farley and her book Just Love, James Keenan, Richard A. McCormick, Charles Curran, and Catherine Mowry LaCugna. Many of these scholars have died, but their work is still available for consultation. Mark also noted the Catholic World Forum on Ethics, which is actually called Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, but he told us he had a hard time remembering the name!  The recent document from the Vatican on blessing people in same-sex or other non-marital relationships is Fiducia Supplicans.  My recent piece in America Magazine on mercy and Pope Francis is available at the link. 

As to "moral distress" and "moral residue," I was not familiar with these terms prior to our discussion, so I am linking to an article I found online, but I am not certain that I am linking to the best discussions of these terms. Please let me know if you know of better articles on this matter. On MAID in Canada, please go to this Government of Canada link. On the Catholic response to MAID, please see the documents at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Church remains opposed to the intentional taking of human life. 

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. 

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me at jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca. Let me know what you think.

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John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement, St. Mark's College at UBC