The Task of Living Together and Learning from Each Other: Catholic Ethics in the Context of Religious-Cultural Diversity

The article discusses the possibility of doing Catholic ethics in a religiously and culturally pluralistic world. Beginning with the possibility of a pluralistic approach in Catholic ethics, the article refers to the Indian context as an example for the discussion, although the arguments here may be applicable to other contexts of pluralism. Particularly, it takes two issues—ecological ethics and sexual ethics—to reflect on the need and possibility of doing Catholic ethics in a pluralistic context. The article adopts a broadly Catholic perspective, explaining why Catholics should be open to different sources and approaches in ethics, and how they can work together with others in identifying common ground for ethics. Although a few guidelines for constructing a pluralistic ethics are indicated, the intent is not to propose a framework for such an ethics, but mainly to show the need and possibility of such an ethics.