Martin Rhonheimer (born 1950 in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) is a Swiss

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

professor and priest of the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

personal prelature A personal prelature is an institution of the Catholic Church which comprises clergy, and optionally laity, under the jurisdiction of a prelate, which undertakes specific pastoral activities. Along with dioceses, and later military ordinariates, ...

Opus Dei is an institution of the Catholic Church that was founded in Spain in 1928 by Josemaría Escrivá. Its stated mission is to help its lay and clerical members seek holiness in their everyday occupations and societies. Opus Dei is officially r ...

. he is teaching professor at the Opus Dei-affiliated

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (, ) is a Roman Catholic university under the Curial Congregation for Catholic Education, now entrusted to the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, or more commonly called Opus Dei. It was started i ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Life

Rhonheimer was born 1950 in

into a

Swiss Jewish The history of the Jews in Switzerland extends back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 13th centur ...

family. He studied philosophy, history, political science and theology in Zurich and Rome. In 1974, he joined the

as a numerary member. In 1983, he was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. he teaches at the Opus Dei-affiliated

. His main interests are in

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

, the history of

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

Opinions

Rhonheimer's regular editorials have been published by the German FAZMartin Rhonheimer
Barmherzigkeit schafft keinen Wohlstand
FAZ, 19 February 2017'Barmherzigkeit schafft keinen Wohlstand'
kath.net, 28 February 2017 and

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

Separation of church and state

In 2014, Rhonheimer wrote that a foundational element of Christianity was the separation of church and politics, which could be understood as synonymous to

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

.Martin Rhonheime
Töten im Namen Allahs
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 6 September 2014

Economy

In 2017, Rhonheimer criticized

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

' view that "this economy kills". He supports

neoliberal Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...

views of entrepreneurship, for which

free market capitalism In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

is "necessary". He says that "seeking profits is good per se and in a free and lawfully ordered market system it creates wellbeing for everyone". He criticizes

Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching (CST) is an area of Catholic doctrine which is concerned with human dignity and the common good in society. It addresses oppression, the role of the state, subsidiarity, social organization, social justice, and w ...

s because there were "no exact formulations in the New Testament" and they "had always been a product of their time". ["''In the meantime, we have gotten a welfare-state church-system, because the church has become so integrated into the structures of the redistributive tax and welfare state that it is no longer free to question a system that, for example, blatantly contradicts the principle of subsidiarity and provides economically false incentives''."]

Books

Rhonheimer has published a dozen books on topics concerning the philosophy of moral action, virtue, natural law, Aquinas, Aristotle, the ethics of Human sexuality, sexuality and

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...

. *''Familie und Selbstverwirklichung. Alternativen zur Emanzipation''. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1979 (German) *''Natur als Grundlage der Moral. Die personale Struktur des Naturgesetzes bei Thomas von Aquin: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit autonomer und teleologischer Ethik''. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck-Wien 1987 (German) *''La prospettiva della morale. Fondamenti dell'etica filosofica''. Armando, Roma 1994 *''La filosofia politica di Thomas Hobbes. Coerenza e contraddizioni di un paradigma''. Armando, Roma 1997 *''Etica della procreazione. Contraccezione - Fecondazione artificiale - Aborto''. Edizioni PUL-Mursia, Milano 2000 *''Natural Law and Practical Reason: A Thomist View of Moral Autonomy''. Fordham University Press, 2000, (Translation of ''Natur als Grundlage der Moral'') *''Changing the World - The Timeliness of Opus Dei.'' 152 pages, Scepter Publishers (March 9, 2009) . :(''Die Verwandlung der Welt. Zur Aktualität des Opus Dei''. Adamas Verlag, Köln 2006 (German) *''The Perspective of the Acting Person: Essays in the Renewal of Thomistic Moral Philosophy''.

Catholic University of America Press The Catholic University of America Press, also known as CUA Press, is the publishing division of The Catholic University of America. Founded on November 14, 1939 and incorporated on July 16, 1941, the CUA Press is a long-time member of the Associ ...

, 2008, *''Vital Conflicts in Medical Ethics: A Virtue Approach to Craniotomy and Tubal Pregnancies''.

, 2009 *''The Ethics of Procreation and the Defense of Human Life: Contraception, Artificial Fertilization, and Abortion.'' 336 pages. The

(February 15, 2010) (''Abtreibung und Lebensschutz. Tötungsverbot und Recht auf Leben in der politischen und medizinischen Ethik''. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, 2003. (German)) *''The Perspective of Morality: Philosophical Foundations of Thomistic Virtue Ethics''.

, 2011

Articles in English available online

The Truth About Condoms.
''The Tablet'', UK, 10 July 2004 (free registration required)
The Holocaust: What Was Not Said.
''First Things'', no. 137, November 2003
Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ": A Plea for Fairness.
''Logos'', 8:I, Winter 2005 (PDF)

References

External sources

*
Rhonheimer's personal web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhonheimer, Martin 1950 births 21st-century Swiss Jews 20th-century Swiss Roman Catholic priests Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Opus Dei members Living people 21st-century Swiss Roman Catholic priests Academic staff of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross