Alan Schreck helps us to see the vital importance of Veritatis Splendor, a ground-breaking document of John Paul II.

In this encyclical letter, John Paul II notes that ‘This is the first time, in fact, that the Magisterium of the Church has set forth in detail the fundamental elements of this teaching [regarding morality], and presented the principles for the pastoral discernment…’ (VS 115). Veritatis Splendor is, as we shall see, a ground-breaking document. It requires careful study, and its content is crucial for Catholics today to appropriate—especially the objective truth and unchanging nature of God’s moral law in the face of increasing moral relativism. In order to do justice to this encyclical we are treating it in three parts, over the next three issues.

The title of the encyclical tells us that the subject with which we are dealing is that of truth. Human beings are made for truth. They burn with an innate desire to know the truth. Jesus Christ, of course, is the truth (Jn 14:6), ‘the decisive answer to every one of man’s questions, his religious and moral questions in particular’ (VS 2.2). The role of the Church, particularly her pastors, is therefore to proclaim and teach God’s truth as revealed by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And what the Church can teach about morality is particularly important because ‘it is precisely on the path of the moral life that the way of salvation is open to all’ (VS 3.2), even to those who through no fault of their own, do not yet know or believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord and the Truth.