The revolt from Rome turned each man into his own pope and gave him a presumed authority to know infallibly the word of God, altogether without benefit of clergy, tradition, natural law, or even basic learning. The delicate balance between authority and the power to implement its commands was shattered, and man has suffered the consequences ever since. The natural law governing man's conduct can be known by human reason, but that law does not operate in a vacuum. Every law implies a lawgiver, and the Catholic faith has always insisted that the ultimate lawgiver is God who alone is sovereign. The ultimate interpreter of that law is the magisterium of the Church, itself crowned by the infallibility of the successors of Peter, the popes, who have the keys to bind and to loose.
Sound law is reasonable.
It is not the expression of blind will. It makes sense, but often enough that sense can only be unraveled by whosoever is recognized as being its voice in matters human. That voice, we have always believed, is the Church. Dr. Schlesinger is not a Catholic, but I can insist that he recognize that the evils he deplores have come upon the world because the faith was in large part lost. Our religion, the Catholic, condemns the assumption of killing or not killing on one's own presumed authority.