) is a Swiss academic philosopher and a priest of the Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 personal prelature

Personal prelature

Personal prelature is an institutional structure of the Roman Catholic Church which comprises a prelate, clergy and possibly laity who undertake specific pastoral activities. Personal prelatures, similar to dioceses and military ordinariates, are under the governance of the Vatican's Congregation...

 Opus Dei

Opus Dei

Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...

. He currently teaches at the Opus Dei-affiliated Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is a Roman Catholic university under the Curial Congregation for Catholic Education, which it has entrusted to the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, or more commonly called Opus Dei...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

Life

Rhonheimer comes from a Swiss Jewish family. He studied philosophy, history, political science and theology in Zurich and Rome. He joined Opus Dei in 1974 as a numerary

Types of membership of Opus Dei

The Catholic organisation Opus Dei is made up of several different types of membership:-Supernumeraries:Supernumeraries, the largest type, currently account for about 70% of the total membership...

 member and was ordained a priest in 1983. His main interests lie in the field of ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

 and the history of liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

. He has published on a wide range of topics, especially concerning the philosophy of moral action, virtue, natural law, Aquinas, Aristotle, and the ethics of sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 and bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....

.

Major publications

• Familie und Selbstverwirklichung. Alternativen zur Emanzipation. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1979
• 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
• 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, ISBN 0823219798 Translation of Natur als Grundlage der Moral above.
• Abtreibung und Lebensschutz. Tötungsverbot und Recht auf Leben in der politischen und medizinischen Ethik. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, 2003
• Die Verwandlung der Welt. Zur Aktualität des Opus Dei. Adamas Verlag, Köln 2006
• The Perspective of the Acting Person: Essays in the Renewal of Thomistic Moral Philosophy. CUA Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0813215112
• Vital Conflicts in Medical Ethics: A Virtue Approach to Craniotomy and Tubal Pregnancies. CUA Press, 2009
• The Perspective of Morality: Philosophical Foundations of Thomistic Virtue Ethics. CUA Press, 2011
• Ethics of Procreation and the Defense of Human Life: Contraception, Artificial Fertilization, and Abortion. CUA Press, 2010

Articles in English available online

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

External sources

• Rhonheimer's personal web site
• List of publications