New documents on preborn life and the natural law. From Sandro Magister:

But the second new document, the one on natural law, will be the very first of its kind. On a number of occasions Benedict XVI has indicated as the foundation of shared existence among all men the moral principles inscribed upon the heart of every man, and “spoken in an unmistakable way by the quiet but clear voice of conscience.” But even as prefect of the congregation of the doctrine of the faith, he never dedicated a specific document to this.

Amato explains:

“A Catholic, for example, cannot consent to legislation that introduces marriage between two persons of the same sex; this is contrary to biblical revelation and to the natural law itself. […] The pope often cites natural law in his catecheses. Our congregation is preparing something on this topic, and to that end has already consulted all of the Catholic universities. Everyone’s responses are very encouraging, even those from the professors considered the most ‘difficult’. The natural law is very important, in part because it alone provides the foundation for productive interreligious dialogue.”

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Amato granted this interview on the occasion of the publication of a large volume that collects the 105 documents issued by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in the period from 1965 until the present.

The request to publish all of these texts in a single volume – Amato explains in the interview and in the introduction to the volume – came from “many bishops, cardinals, and theologians” all over the world.

Almost all of the texts are in the original Latin version, or in Italian. But to read the most important of them in the various languages, one may simply consult the section for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith on the Vatican’s website.

The first 200 pages of the volume collect the documents released by the congregation when its prefects were the cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Franjo Seper. The next 400 pages collect the much more extensive and numerous texts from when Ratzinger was prefect. In Amato’s view, it is possible to speak of a “Ratzinger style” in the congregation.

“With him, there was an effort to extend and articulate the arguments in defense of contested truths of the faith, and also a desire to present reliable guidelines on the many challenges of contemporary culture.”