Catholic Bioethics: The Catechism Of The Catholic Church

Catholic Bioethics is not its own entity, rather it is a collection of understanding based from sources within the Catholic Church. Catholic Bioethics is a further comprehension of what Catholics know to be true and delve further into difficult moral dilemmas using resources already at every Catholics disposal; Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Natural Reason. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church shows how teaching is strongly based in what is already known to be true.

The Catechism opens by explaining the ways by which man comes to know God and shows the three main sources from which all other knowledge of God is then discerned. Firstly, humans, with their natural reason. Natural reason points back to the human person's ability to choose freely and make judgments for himself. The Catechism delves into the ways that man can come to seek God, which is an

Through his revelation, God has made himself known since the very beginning of time (CCC 1995, 40-55). This truth is revealed to us not through ourselves, but rather through Holy Scripture. Throughout Scripture, God's consistence and evolving covenants with man show a desire for harmony and goodness, and a disdain and hate towards what is evil, as evidenced through Noah's story, where men, in their perverse state, were wiped from existence, except Noah, who was an upright and holy man. Following the Scripture, we are led to Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of God, and the perfection of Humanity. Ultimately, Jesus gives us the gift of Sacred Tradition through the apostles and their successors. This rich and abundant understanding is sourced in Christ, who is the Son of the one true God, and thus passed down, both orally and through writing (CCC 1995, 76) For Catholics, the epitome of Sacred Tradition is promulgated by the Creed (CCC 1995,