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.

Up from the Bottom

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It was in 1962, fifty-six years ago, that an article by me was first published in a U.S. periodical of consequence. I was living in France, working as a rewrite man at what was then the Paris edition of the … Continue reading →

Abberosexualism in State and Church

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I. The political Left is reacting with hysteria to impending plans by the administration of President Donald J. Trump to reverse the arbitrary and dishonest interpretation of federal law, contrived by the Obama administration, to include so-called “gender identity” in … Continue reading →

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 →