Natural Law
What is natural law?
The Catholic Church teaches that natural law consists of those moral principles that are "written and engraved in the heart of each and every man" (Pope Leo XIII, Liberatis Praestantissimum, 1888).As such, when the Church appeals to natural law, it is not appealing to moral principles that are only recognized by adherents of any particular religion, but rather, it is appealing to moral principles that all human beings have the potential to recognize as true, independent of their religious adherence.
Related links
• Catholic Encyclopedia - Natural law• Papal Encyclical - Veritatis Splendor ("The Splendor of Truth")
• Papal Encyclical - Liberatis Praestantissimum ("On the Nature of Human Liberty")
• International Theological Commission - The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at Natural Law