Interview with Fr. Basil Cole, Master in Sacred Theology (Magister in Sacra Theologia)
Basil Cole, OP, a son of St. Joseph Province (USA), who was ordained priest in 1966, obtained a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome – Angelicum and held various teaching and formation positions, received the degree of Master in Sacred Theology (Magister in Sacra Theologia) of the Order of Preachers, which was conferred on him by the Master of the Order, Bro Gerard Timoner III, OP, in 2023.
In the following interview given to the Ordo Praedicatorum media, Bro Basil Cole, OP argues that today the Order needs to train preachers capable of convincing people to abandon disordered lifestyles, pointing out that ancient theological concepts will not do the job, but are a support for the preacher, and stressing that in today’s world, characterised by moral decline, there is a need for preachers who are not afraid to answer difficult questions and convince people of the truth of moral thinking.
Magister in Sacra Theologia1
What does it mean to you to have received the degree of Master in Sacred Theology from the Master of the Order?
Although I wished to receive the honour of Preacher General in my early years as a Dominican, and was disappointed when the revised Constitution abolished the honour, I became more aware that I became a preaching friar for others, not for myself. Moreover, I never considered myself capable of being honoured with the title of Master of Sacred Theology. I was more inclined to be a priory administrator and then a preacher. For many years of my Dominican life, it occurred to me that becoming a preacher is more than developing an art of rhetoric. At the heart of a simple homily to children, or in retreats for the laity, or retreats for priests and religious, one must become a theologian within the limits of one’s talents. During my formative years, I was not attracted to the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas or his commentators. Rather, I was more attuned to the writings of D. Von Hildebrand, Jacques Maritain and many others who had influenced previous generations. It was not until I became a young collaborator of Germain Grisez, whose writings inspired me, that this experience drew me to the works of Aquinas in a way that St. Thomas spoke to me. As I preached parish missions for twenty-five years, I agreed or disagreed with Grisez’s monumental work, chapter by chapter, The Way of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes he accepted my criticisms of his ideas and sometimes he rejected many suggestions for improvement. This experience, in turn, gave me a certain confidence in my ability and gradually oriented me more and more towards the writings of St. Thomas. Somehow, the teachings of my original formators came alive in my mind and heart. I also began to see how practical and true to reality Aquinas’ theological and philosophical works were, both naturally and supernaturally.
In your opinion, what would be the Order’s current theological proposal to the Church and the world?
Today, the Church in the United States and in the Western world seems to live by subjective feelings rather than principles. What past generations that were more or less Christian, if not Catholic, considered evil is now seen as a good to be pursued or tolerated, even if not always personally satisfying. One could say that the new definition of happiness is to follow what is natural, freely chosen and makes one feel good. Dogmas, commandments, advice, admonitions are irrelevant as long as no one is harmed. In the field of medicine, what is possible should be pursued and followed. Sexual experiences are all good except rape, bodily teleology can be remade, euthanasia can be done to save someone from undue suffering and also save a country from undue expense by keeping the elderly alive. Marriage and family life can be manipulated to be whatever one wants it to be, adultery as a kind of marriage with or without contraception can be a good to pursue, relationships with many members of both sexes occur, members of the same sex marry. The near collapse of the financial system is looming over us. These disvalues are only the tip of the iceberg of a chaotic culture that is on the verge of death. The task of the Order in these tumultuous days of economic and moral decline will not be to create a new metaphysical system of thought. A new Christology or a new Trinitarian project is not the solution to the enormous problems facing civilisation. Dialogue with atheists, Muslims or Protestants cannot be the Order’s great challenge today. What the Order needs today is to train preachers capable of convincing people to abandon disordered lifestyles. The old theological concepts will not do the job, but they can be a back-up for the preacher. As is sometimes said in warfare, “we need boots on the ground”. While we need authors who write for scholarly journals, even more we need friars on the Internet who convince their audiences of the values of chastity, selfless love, family life, and who answer questions about faith. For every author of the Order, we need ten preachers who are not afraid to answer difficult questions and convince people of the truth of moral thinking.
In the context of the scandals involving the clergy, what would be the contribution of moral theology to the formation of future Dominicans?
Formators must also be theologians capable of explaining and convincing their confreres of the height and depth of what it means to possess vowed chastity. The students must understand that temptations of the flesh are neither sins nor signs of being evil. There are many ways of dealing with such temptations and the students should be aware of them and be convinced that becoming chaste is a true fulfilment and a deep foundation for growing in contemplation, studiositas and learning to sacrifice for the good of one’s community. The future priest or trained teacher will then be able to convince married and unmarried people of the realisation of self-mastery of this passion for pleasure by wanting and living the values of chastity. In many cases, the cause of scandals among the friars goes back to their life before they became Dominicans. In a culture where sexual licence is the new normal, looking at pornography on the internet, having parents who coddle their children or criticise them excessively, produces young adults who are basically unassertive in their masculinity, producing an exaggerated negative or positive self-image. Ultimately, such false parenting leads to sadness or a poor self-image or a person who thinks he or she does not need training. It also leads to bad moods. Such moral problems make prayer, study, contemplation and community life much more difficult to acquire these and other virtues. Once brothers are accepted into a novitiate, formators tend to water down discipline or regular observance as if these dispositions simply disappear with time. Ignoring problems in the novitiate and studentate only produces more serious problems later on, which partly explains the chaos of sexual abuse that has occurred in many communities. It has also been the explanation for the decline in the number of vocations in the Western world.
Among the Dominican theologians who have enriched the history of the Church, which do you consider to be the most current and why?
Besides the giants of the past (Aquinas), there are many who, to a lesser extent, have made forays into their fields of specialisation (Austrian in bioethics, Emery and White in dogmatics, Caesario, Pinckers and E. Sullivan in moral theology, … in patristics, … in sacramental theology, … in Scripture). Because of the many current problems, no contemporary theologian has all the answers.
How is the family conceived in a society like the US?
There is no abstract, one-size-fits-all concept of “family” in the United States. There are too many variations for the theologian to generalise, largely because of the sexual revolution that began after the First World War. Arguably, there are Catholic families who still pray together, go to mass and teach their children (“homeschoolers”) or send them to secular or Catholic grammar and high schools. On the other hand, there are many divorced families with new husbands and wives with or without previous children, there are variations of families among those grouped under the LGBTQ+ acronym, there are single-parent families or families raised by adoption or by a blood relative taking the place of mother and father, and there are mixed-religion families that let the children decide which religion to choose when they are old enough to think for themselves, while mixed marriages seem increasingly acceptable, with their own problems. In this varied ‘stew’ of family life, we Dominican theologians seem to avoid commenting, as we tend to stay away from what is controversial in the practical order and are more comfortable with abstract issues found in dogmatic theology.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Sometimes I get the impression that friars like to become “experts” in their little theological interest and claim “ownership” as if anything outside their field of interest is not really important. We are called to become real thinkers, we have to think beyond the “bubble”. Theology is something like an apple: one bite is not enough.
Basil Cole, OP, entered the Order in 1960 and was ordained priest in 1966. He completed his theological studies at Le Saulchoir in Etiolles, France, obtaining his lectorate and licentiate in 1968. He then obtained a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome – Angelicum. After teaching theology and philosophy at Pilarica College of the Sisters of Notre Dame (1968-69), he was elected prior of St. Dominic’s in San Francisco, where he also served as pastor, member of the provincial council and lecturer at various institutions (1970-1975). Elected prior of the community at Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles in 1975, he joined the preaching team of the Dominicans of the western United States and preached throughout that region after completing his term. Later, he was a visiting professor at the Angelicum from 1985 to 1997. In 1998 he was appointed assistant professor of moral, spiritual and dogmatic theology at the Dominican House of Studies. From 2010 to 2013, he was prior of the Cincinnati novitiate and taught at Mt. St. Mary Seminary as associate professor of theology. He then returned as a full professor to the Dominican House of Studies, where he has been professor emeritus since June 2023. He is the author of numerous books and publications.
- It is an honorary degree granted by the Master of the Order, following the recommendation of the General Council in accordance with certain requirements for the granting of this degree. The title dates back to 1303, when the Pope of the time, Benedict XI, a Dominican, created this degree so that the Order of Preachers could grant the faculty of teaching theology. Today it is an honorary and exclusively academic title, but it is the highest recognition of excellence in the sacred sciences within the Order of Preachers. ↩︎
