Category: Morals

The First Vatican Council pronounced that the pope, in or out of council, would be protected by God with the gift of infallibility whenever he should define a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. Matters of Faith can only involve religious propositions and the matter of those propositions are true or false judgments. A moral definition would involve a proposition that is right or wrong, rather than true or false. The difference between the two involves the end being sought. A doctrinal pronouncement defines a religious truth, which is the object of the intellect. A moral pronouncement defines a good, which is the object of the will. One could say that Faith engages intellectual belief, morals engage voluntary action.

A moral act is a human act performed with knowledge and free will. Every consciously deliberate action is a moral act, and each one is either morally good or morally evil. If it leads us to our final end, eternal salvation, it is a morally good act. If it takes us away from salvation, it is a morally evil act, a sin. Morals, therefore, pertain to human conduct.

Articles in this section treat of a wide variety of issues that, immediately, proximately, or remotely, deal with the morality of human acts, whether individually or as a society.

War and the Rumors of War

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Introduction It has been twenty years since I stopped going to the Novus Ordo Mass and returned to the immutable Faith and the traditional Catholic Latin Mass. Like other cohorts of my generation, returning to Traditional Catholicism was a search … Continue reading →

The Summer of Our Discontent

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Doubtless it is because summer means vacation time for most Americans and Europeans that there is always a feeling not much happens – there is no big news – during June, July and August. The feeling is probably due to … Continue reading →

Changing Church Teaching

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However readers of the present lines first read or heard the news on August 2, the report included the words. “Pope Changes Church Teaching”. The full headline in the Washington Post was, “Pope Francis changes Catholic Church teaching to say … Continue reading →

Ignoring Church Teaching

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Here is a question for any reader who is a lifelong Catholic younger than 50: Have you ever heard a homily preached against the evil of contraception? My guess is that you have not. I know that I never have … Continue reading →

Barbarian Triumph

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It was one hundred years ago, on July 17, 1918, that Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered — shot, bayoneted and bludgeoned — on the orders of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Since his canonization by the Russian … Continue reading →