“
Hela Weiss, now an artist in Prague, escaped death at Auschwitz by lying to Josef Mengele about her age and saying she was fit to work” (Source:
The Guardian)
As outlined in the article above, Helga Weiss, a Jew living under the Nazi regime, narrowly missed being sent to the gas chambers because of a simple lie. She was one of the 150 out of 1,500 children to have avoided imminent extermination. Yet, the Catholic position would be to declare this action as sinful and recommend that she goes to Confession (assuming she was Catholic) as soon as possible. Had she died (and indeed, the article says she narrowly missed death a second time), Helga would have probably had to do some time in Purgatory. This is Catholic theology.
Whilst Catholics claim the Church has taught “Truth” for 2000+ years, what they often forget to mention is that this means no flexibility. This means in situations such as the one Helga faced, the optimal or theologically correct choice would have been to say the truth and be sent to the gas chambers. Of course, virtually everyone would lie if it meant that their life was spared. But orthodox Catholicism’s ethical system suggests otherwise.
What we aren’t dealing with is a case of rigidness “handed down from Heaven”. This isn’t a case of God and morality, which Catholics suggest must be necessarily absolute. What we are dealing with is a battle between the three major ethical systems, namely, Virtue Ethics, Deontological Ethics and Utilitarianism. The Church has historically preferred Virtue Ethics and Deontological ethics, both predicated on the thoughts of Aristotle and Immanuel Kant respectively.
We see it on these forums all the time. There is an “anomalous” case regarding a Catholic doctrine, whether it be it concerning birth control or working for an “immoral” business in time of mass unemployment. The orthodox Catholic position ignores the welfare of the agents in cases such as these and instead places precedence on laws and rules. We can clearly see Kant’s influence in this, as he held that morality must be everywhere and anywhere universal.
Helga Weiss lives today as an eminent artist. She lives today because of a simple lie she told. A better ethical system would be to take the “best of all worlds”, taking into consideration virtue ethics, deontological ethics and utilitarianism. This would extend the scope of the multitude of “exceptional cases” certain Catholics across the world face. It would be a more robust ethical system that could easily adjust to an ever-changing society.
What are your thoughts?
). But I’m not trying to imply that her beliefs of Yahweh are reflective of Yahweh. What I do wish to do is discourage the general application of the better-off-dead thought when talking about some one that is not yet dead. I discourage it, but I don’t consider it off limits. There are some extreme circumstances where I would see it as justifiable. Ex: the people that jumped from the WTC buildings on 9/11 probably figured they were better off jumping to their deaths than burning up in the fire.