Catechism index

1741 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free." …
1742 II. Human Freedom in the Economy of Salvation Freedom and grace. the grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that …
1743 IN BRIEF "God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel (cf Sir 15:14), so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his …
1744 IN BRIEF Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign Good.
1745 IN BRIEF Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him.
1746 IN BRIEF The imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear, and other psychological or social factors.
1747 IN BRIEF The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man. But the exercise of freedom does not entail the putative …
1748 IN BRIEF "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal 5:1). Previous - Next Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
1749 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS Freedom makes man a moral subject. When he acts deliberately, man is, so to speak, the father of his acts. Human acts, that is, acts that are freely chosen in consequence of …
1750 I. The Sources of Morality The morality of human acts depends on: - the object chosen; - the end in view or the intention; - the circumstances of the action. The object, the intention, and the circumstances …
1751 I. The Sources of Morality The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. the object chosen morally specifies the act of the will, insofar …
1752 I. The Sources of Morality In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it by its end, intention is an element …
1753 I. The Sources of Morality A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. the end does not justify the …
1754 I. The Sources of Morality The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a …
1755 II. Good Acts and Evil Acts A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself …
1756 II. Good Acts and Evil Acts It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply …
1757 IN BRIEF The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three "sources" of the morality of human acts.
1758 IN BRIEF The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil.
1759 IN BRIEF "An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention" (cf St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). the end does not justify the means.
1760 IN BRIEF A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together.