Cliff notes report on a recommended book which we have purchased and read known as THE ROOTS OF A CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION by Mullady

THE ROOTS OF A CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION

2015, 2023

Fr. Brian Thomas Becket Mullady, O.P., S.T.D.

Nihil Obstat & Imprimi Potest

key:

TRUTHS

PODCAST, QUOTES, etc.

KEY POINTS

ERRORS

ACTIONABLE

CATHOLIC TEACHING

MARRIAGE

INTRO

“. . . human beings can only attain their perfection within a social context.” /3/

“It is Catholic teaching that both domestic and political communities are natural to man.” /62/

“God is a communion of Persons . . . This is the archetype of all society. . . . the primary source of all society is God through the natural order.” /64/

“. . . man has . . . stewardship over material things.” /26/ [emphasis added]

RESISTANCE:

“. . . must refuse to carry out the orders of authority when these conflict [with] a right, certain, and informed conscience.” /29/

“. . . no authority . . . can make something wrong right or can be said to govern properly if the subjects are treated as animals, as having no will of their own.” /80/

“. . . to disturb the rule of a tyrant by resistance, is not to commit the sin of treason or sedition because that rule is not prudent but rather an exercise of imprudence.” /90/

“. . . only seditious if the people suffer more than the tyrant does.” /90/

“ ‘Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate unless all the following conditions are met [emphasis added]:

there is certain, grave and prolonged violation of fundamental rights ;

all other means of redress have been exhausted ;

such resistance will not provoke worse disorders ;

there is well-founded hope of success ; and

it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.” {CCC 2243} /90/

“. . . a law contrary to God’s law . . . does not have to be obeyed.” /90/

“. . . respect and obedience is not due when authority exceeds its competence by commanding something that has nothing to do with the purpose of the society or unjust discrimination among the members or usurps the order reserved to a lower community of a higher authority.” /95/ [emphasis added]

“One is only not obliged when the action commanded is either a sin or is not related to the common good.” /101/

“. . . the State cannot . . . make any judgments about religion and its truth, as this exceeds its competence. . . . an atheist State that sought to limit the Christian faith . . . would be placing the Church in persecution and should be resisted. The Catholic Faith cannot contradict the natural law, and so the State would exceed its competence. /109/

“There are times when the law . . . commands something unjust, and in [such a] case, the subject is obliged to disobey in conscience.

“For instance, during World War II, the Church sometimes falsified baptismal records [in order] to save Jews from concentration camps and death. The Nazi state had no authority to know who was baptized, and since this knowledge would be used to commit mass murder, it would not be contrary to justice for those subject to such laws to simply mislead the authorities. Nor would this be lying, because a lie can only occur against justice when someone has a right to know the truth.” /129/

“State redistribution of wealth or exaggerated affirmative action that has no relation to the actual people and their needs or gifts would be violations of distributive justice. [e.g., income for DDS vs. hygienist vs. receptionist]” /135-136/

“No one may perform or cooperate in an action . . . contrary to the natural law.” /148/

“Morally good intentions or expedient circumstances cannot make an act that is objectively evil a good.” /149/

“They enjoy a natural right to both educate and choose the kind of education their children will have without interference from the State.” /184/ HOMESCHOOLING?

“To forbid the Church to sponsor and promote educational institutions in which Christian children are educated in the Faith is clearly immoral and an unjust usurpation on the part of [the State].” /226/

“The incursion of the State on the rights of the Church must be resisted.” /247/

“Any law that is not so directed but commands some action contrary to these laws . . . [is] not [a] true [law] and so cannot bind the members of the society to obedience.” /41/

“The good of the whole cannot be pursued at the expense of the part but must respect and promote that good.” /75/

“It is no defense in committing evil for the evildoer to claim he was just following orders.” /87/

“Positive right cannot give title to a right that is contrary to natural right. This would be a usurpation of government.” /116-117/

“ ‘. . . no . . . State . . . can prevail against them.’ ”

“Since the natural law is a reflection of he objective human nature created by God, no person or society can dispense from it,” /124/

“From the Syllabus of Errors:

‘56. Moral laws do not stand in need of divine sanction. . .

57. . . . laws . . . ought to keep aloof from divine and ecclesiastical authority.

58. No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter. . .

59. Right consists in the material fact.

60. Authority is nothing else but . . the sum total of material forces.

61. The injustice of an act when successful inflicts no injury on the sanctity of right.

62. The principle of non-interference . . . ought to be proclaimed and observed.’ “ /33-34/

“Society Is a union of wills pursuing the common good[, defined as . . .] the experience of some perfection that a human person could not attain if left alone.” /39/

“. . . ‘a balanced hierarchy of values’ (JP II). The ability to experience family, marriage, and children is one such good. Commerce and the material prosperity necessary to support a family is another. Civil peace and order necessary to pursue justice, family life, and business is another.” /39/

“. . . only that society that offers the supernatural goal to man and an order that makes this possible of attainment is the true universal human society. This is the Church.” /39/

“. . . the NATURAL LAW . . . is man’s participation in the eternal law present in the mind of God.” /41/

ORIGINAL SIN is . . . the condition of losing grace and its aftermath . . . ‘contracted and not committed’ {CCC 404}.” /51/

“The essence of Original Sin is the lack of grace in the soul, which is expressed subjectively in ignorance, malice, weakness, and death.” /52/

“Christ brings back grace, but not the preternatural gifts. Now virtue is not easy, but very difficult. Though human beings are redeemed, they must work out their salvation, addressing their disordered egos. This is painful and is a cross.” /53/

“. . . due to Original Sin, our nature is wounded. . . “ /225/

“Once people surrender the metaphysical truth that each human person is a unique individual because of the spiritual soul, the value of the person is lost and people become a herd of material individuals without a spiritual inner dimension. ‘Mass’ man enters the picture.’ “ /73/

“. . . there are times when a given society must permit evils to exist in order to efficaciously further the common good, when the attempt to suppress all evil would lead to a greater harm to a higher good, or promote a greater evil. In this human law and authority take their cue from God.” /88/

“THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIENCE

One of the most critical problems in the modern world and the modern Church is the problem of the struggle of the individual conscience in relation to the commands of authority in family, State, and Church.” /97/

“The problem of conscience came to the forefront of moral speculation as a result of the emphasis on private interpretation of Scripture, which in turn was the fruit of a nominalist view of reality in which one could not know objective truth about things. One only knew one’s subjective experience of them.” /97/

“The [Protestant [Rebellion] compromised certainty from the Church and faith. Descartes turned to the ‘subject’ because, when he doubted other authorities, his only certainty was his own doubt.” /97/

“Rights also confer duties . . .” /119/

“. . . by the very act of being born as a human person, one must restore another in his rights, and so one has duties.” /134/

“ ‘. . . conscience has rights because it has duties.’ “ – Cardinal Newman /99/

“That duty would be to the objective truth with its origin in human nature.” /99/

“Since both the [good] conscience and [the good] authority speak with a divine sanction, what happens when the two conflict?”

“When can someone disobey the commands of authority?

Under what rubric should one obey a mistaken conscience?

What is the difference in the manner in which the commands of authority bind the conscience in the family, the State, and the Church?” /101/

“Since conscience is a judgment of reason arrived at through the formation of syllogisms, as with all syllogisms, it can be mistaken. In other words, just because a person judges something wrong in his conscience does not mean that it is in fact contrary to the truth. The premises he uses to form his judgment, especially in the minor and the very formation of the syllogism he makes may be faulty.” /102/

“The major premise in the syllogism is an expression of the general metaphysical relationship of morals to being. Examples would be:

‘Do good and avoid evil’ in reason, or ‘I must obey the law of God’ in revealed religion. /99/

“Ever since Vatican II, some Catholics have claimed the right to dissent from a Church teaching that they deem contrary to their conscience.

“This simply cannot stand, as any Catholic who claims his conscience allows him to dissent from papal teachings has an erroneous conscience.

“It is the result of vincible ignorance. This ignorance is a sinful error since it remains within the power of the subject to know the truth and change his conscience to conform to this truth. [emphasis added]

“. . . Catholicism states that some causes of this ignorance may be ‘ignorance of Christ and His Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one’s passion, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity’. {CCC 1792}” /110/

“. . . the person has a duty in conscience to seek the one true Faith.” /114/

“Though it is true that the conscience is the final place where God speaks to the person about moral life, the judgment of conscience must be constantly verified in relation to reality.

“The illogical jump from saying that one must always follow one’s conscience to saying that there is no standard outside the subject leads to the mistaken notion of the autonomy of conscience cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the source of erroneous judgments in the conscience.” /111/

THE ORIGIN OF RIGHTS

“Justice is defined as ‘the constant and perpetual will to give another his due.’ (The ‘due’ in this case is the ‘right’.) /115/

“Charity is the companion virtue to justice.” /140/

“The question is: What entitles a person to receive rights?

“In societies that have developed after the denial of metaphysics began with Descartes and his ‘turn to the subject’, the origin of right was in power. /115/

“The legal entitlement to right follows on the natural right, and the prime origin of natural right is the transcendence of the human soul. The spiritual nature of the human soul sets man above material calculation and so obliges others in justice to recognize this transcendence.” /115/

“Three conditions that must be met for a [being] to be entitled to rights:

He must be a person

Such rights must be observed

Right realizes equality among human beings

Each receives his own

Only what is strictly due to another can be considered a right” /116/

“. . . authority is primarily an application of the virtue of prudence.” – /220/

“. . . rights’ . . . origin is either the natural or the positive (human) law.” /116/

“The current tendency of the nanny state to usurp to itself the ability to determine all rights ignores this obvious truth. This denial is based on the denial of the objective spiritual nature of man. When man is treated only as a material being without a spiritual soul, this leads to determining right only by what is useful. This is contrary to the natural law and natural right, and divorces politics from ethics. /117/

“ ‘Nothing is ever advantageous if at the same time it is not morally good.’ – Cicero /117/

“. . . when the State oversteps its bounds, it does not encourage liberty and freedom, but dependence and collectivism. Man is no longer an individual with inalienable rights, but a cipher [i.e., a zero] of the collective that must determine and control every facet of his life.” /117/

“The nanny state is a contemporary expression of the idea that our rights do not have their origin in God . . . or in any[thing] other . . . than state control.

“It is, therefore, morally destructive and cannot be justified.” /119/

“The proximate source of human rights . . . is:

not the State (Hegel)

not the social contract of individual wills (Rousseau)

not the emergence of new biological factors (Spencer)

not the will of the majority

not the socially useful

not a constitution

not a dictator

not a parliament . . .

. . . but [it is] a person made in the image and likeness of God.” – Bishop Fulton J. Sheen /118/

“The basic goods that are natural to man have been summarized by many people Onee example is: ‘By virtue of his nature, man is intended

to preserve and protect his life

to procreate

to prove and perfect himself intellectually and morally, both as an individual and a social being.” – Eberhard Welty, Man in Society, vol. 1, A Handbook of Christian Social Ethics /76/

“Judeo-Christian thought in his regard has been most helpful because of the divine revelation of the Ten Commandments.” /124/

“ ‘Primary fundamental rights are:

the right to maintain one’s life

the right to pursue thee ultimate end of life (God and man ; s own moral perfection) in such wise that it can be obtained

the right to fulfill obligations with personal responsibility

the right to live as a man among fellow-men

the right to marry and to provide for and bring up children

the right to acquire, possess, and use private property.’ “ – [ibid.] /131/

“There is a fundamental difference between the modern idea of justice that has its origin in the relativistic philosophy beginning in the 18th century, which recognizes no objective nature, and the ancient idea of justice based on the recognition of a prior existing nature.

“Since the modern idea of justice is based only on rights and not normally on duties, justice is primarily about the subject getting his rights.

“The ancient idea on the other hand is about giving rights to another and so about duties. It is always concerned with the other, not the self. The interior intention of justice is determined by the external act and is so judged. Justice then also has an objective exterior standard that is its measure.” /133-134/

“These TEN FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES reflect the kind of society enjoyed by the Persons of the Trinity in God, the archetype of all social union. Social order is one of the principle [sic] means God uses to communicate His goodness and glory to creation.

Unity

unity in multiplicity: each natural being, from atoms to solar systems, has a diversity of structure that also tends to a unity

Order

one size does not fit all: rather, social unity recognizes and encourages the diverse contributions of each member of the group

EQUITY: “. . . there will ever be differences and inequalities of condition . . .” /127, 146/

“. . . there was no absolute equality, even in the state of innocence . . “ [i.e., Eden before the Fall]

“ ‘Equality’ is being reinterpreted . . .’ “ /247-248/

order is not uniformity

Acting True to Nature

Man does not exist for the community, but the community exists for man, and so must respect human nature

The means of production are not the factory implements or the computer, but the human soul of the one who operates them

When any society reduces law to convention so that it values quick fixes of the moment against more overarching human values, it is impaired deeply.

The attempt to solve poverty by contraception and abortion has led to a complete destruction of marriage and even of population to the expenses of social taxation and welfare in the Western democracies. Fifty-five millions abortions in fifty years have led also to a complete lack of respect for human life

Acting for a Proper End

When God is left out[,] . . . the State substitutes . . . domination . . .

The Common Good

The common good and the order necessary to attain it must be truly good, which means . . . accord with the natural law. Because this good leads to a further perfection of man that he could not attain on his own, the community has a right and duty to demand everything necessary to attain this good from its members.

Lest this principle be used to justify totalitarian states, it must be emphasized that the common good must always accord with the moral law.

. . . each community has only that competence to demand of its members [only] what truly fits into the common good of that particular society [emphasis added]

Authority

. . . no authority exists to perpetuate or affirm only itself

. . . those who exercise authority are held to a higher standard than other members of the community

Organic Growth

The health and reform of the larger community depends on that of the more basic

It would be a social error to try to reform men from the top down

Instead, the role of the larger community is to encourage the reform of the smaller community

The present attempt of the nanny state to make rules for every cell of society . . can never produce needed stability . . .

Solidarity

each is necessary . . .

Since everyone in the community has an intellect and will, each person is responsible for fulfilling his part in the pursuit of the common good

Children in families are obliged to obedience and respect

Parents to love, care [for], and educate their children

Employers are morally obliged to pay a just wage and provide humane working conditions

Employees are obliged to give an honest day’s work

Subsidiarity

This is one of the most important social principles that presupposes all the rest

It is not good for the higher community to try to replace the lower community in the pursuit of the good that is characteristic of the lower community

The purpose of the higher community is to encourage the lower community to do what it should do on its own

The purpose of the lower community is to act in conjunction with the higher community and carry out the things that it contributes in a timely and responsible way

Toleration of Evil

Tolerance is an attitude of soul, a disposition by which one bears evil patiently on account of either avoiding a worse evil or robbing a society of a more central good

But one does not approve of these actions

One tolerates things that one is not able to prohibit or ought not to prohibit for grave reasons

By not resisting these evils, one allows them to exist

One gives comparative permission

In this, the authority follows the example of God

One important Scriptural source for this principle is the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares [i.e., weeds]

“ ‘Human power is derived from divine power and ought to imitate it.’ – St. Augustine

“There are two principles that both must be affirmed in the application of the tolerance of evil, which entails simply choosing not to punish evil, not [in] mandating evil actions as a right

. . . what is false and evil objectively speaking does not have a right to exist and so to be promoted

. . . to not impede it by means of state laws and coercive regulations can nevertheless be justified in the interests of a higher and greater good or to avoid a greater evil /143-156/

MARRIAGE

“Marriage is . . . the greatest natural friendship among human beings.” /185/

“The greater the friendship, the more solid and long-lasting relationship will be . . .” /185/

“The most basic community that is the foundation of all the others is the family.” /161/

“The sacrament of Matrimony was instituted by Christ.

“Marriage . . .is a reflection of the Trinity and also of God giving life.” /194-195/

“If someone chooses marriage, he must choose it exactly as it was instituted by the Creator from the beginning.” /198-199/

“The final purpose of sacramental Marriage is to prepare the children for the worship of God.” – St. Thomas Aquinas /207/

“Man’s body and his soul belong to God.” /168/

“ ‘. . . chastity . . . manifests itself as self-mastery or continence.’ ” – {Humanae Vitae, 20} /201/

needed even in marriage

“It is possible for a man to rape his wife [and vice versa] if he does not treat her with the dignity accorded to a human person . . .” /204/

“ ‘. . . distinguish between use and enjoyment.’ “ – Marriage, Love and Responsibility, Pope St. John Paul II /201/

“. . . the rights and duties of the State regarding marriage . . . are supplemental.” /185/

“ ‘. . . there is something divine about human seed.’ ” – St. Thomas Aquinas /172/

“. . . the emission of human seed has a twofold object:

Procreation, which is the ontological existence of mind from matter and in matter

Education, which is the final perfection of the human person through the actions of the virtues.” /172/

“. . . every act of the emission of semen from which the upbringing of children cannot follow is against the good of man and also gravely sinful.” /174/

“The procreative act participates in the physical aspect of matter, but from it a spiritual being issues who will never die.” [i.e., the human soul is immortal] /162/

“CONTRACEPTION destroys” /211/

“. . . any willed disorder regarding the use of sexual potency . . . is considered always a mortal sin in object.” /163/

“If [the] inability is the willed result of the individuals performing the acts, their moral participation in this physical act is disordered and has a sinful quality.” /172-173/

“Such would be the case with homosexuality, masturbation, & birth control.” /173/

“The practice of contraception, which leads to eugenics, abortion, . . . euthanasia [divorce, abuse, single-parent households, and the like], has further deadened people to the moral nature of their . . . choices and their freedom.” /74/

“A doctrine which dissociates the moral act from the bodily dimension of its exercise is contrary to the teaching of Scripture and Tradition.” /163/

“Couples have experienced the fact that when they practice contraception, this creates a climate of using and a lack of communication.”

“The personal dimension means nothing, provided that the parties satisfy their desire for pleasure (and so it does not really matter who the partner is in the sexual act). /178/

“In the modern world, the unitive is often exalted to the expenses of the procreative, and this leads to wholesale contraception, which in turn has led to a myriad of other [mortal sins], not least of which . . . is same-sex ‘marriage’. When marriage is completely divorced from childbearing, there [seems] no reason to condemn same-sex ‘marriage’. /206/

“Contraception is based on a worldview that separates children from [sexual relations].

“It is one of the reasons why same-sex ’marriage’ is finally triumphing in the Western world.” /211/

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONTRACEPTION AND NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING:

Contraception is pleasure-oriented. NFP is person-oriented.

Contraception denies the objective order. NFP respects objective morals.

Contraception is simply a method. NFP is not utilitarian.

Contraception seeks to deny the role of providence. NFP remains open to God.

Contraception is simply against conception. NFP flows from a right intention.

Contraception necessitates no personal communication. NFP encourages it. /213-214/

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING (NFP) is consistent with Catholic teaching

“On the other hand, when couples practice NFP, this increases communication and personal interest because it is based on a moral bond.

“Abstinence for the sake of what is really good and that respects the rights of the Creator in the act does . . . increase the rooting of the spouses in divine providence.” /178/

“. . . the choice of the natural rhythms involves accepting the cycle of the woman, and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility and self-control.” /212/

“The practice of NFP must be based on the good of the other person and cannot be done for a trivial motive or when circumstances do not warrant it. All things being equal, marriage is oriented to family, and so to children. It would be wrong to postpone having children indefinitely or to limit oneself to one or two. This requires one to respect the order of nature and the possibility of parenthood found in the act. The moral aspect of NFP demands that it be done from love for the other and as an act of the virtue of chastity. It is not just another method of birth control. Continence and chastity are not ends in themselves but are rooted in the affirmation of the person of the other, which in turn is based on the presence of the spiritual soul. Because the person is a spirit, no person may be reduced to an object of use, but every person must be a subject of love.” /214/ [emphasis added]

“God Himself is the Author of marriage . . .” /164/

“God is necessarily a part of each sexual act, and so each marriage, because He must create the soul by a direct action of His providence.” /164/

“In the sexual act, the parents provide the matter, but since the soul can be proven by reason to transcend matter, only God induces the soul by an act of direct creation.” /170/

“The physical procreative action becomes a participation in the very creative action of God . . . “ /171/

“The parents are the” primary “educators of their children” [i.e., both the first and the most important]. /184/

“. . . moral education and spiritual formation”! /220/

“Education of [the] soul, then, is a more essential mission of the family than [even] nourishment of the body.” /222/

“The Christian family nourishes the whole life of grace, which includes reason, prayer, moral life, and theological faith.

“This is the reason why the Church has always called the family . . . ‘the domestic church.’

“Christian parents nurture the Word in their children by conforming themselves to Christ.” /222-223/

“. . . parents’ . . . lives are a constant offering to God . . .” /223/

' The role of parents in education is of such important [sic] that it is impossible to provide an adequate substitute.’ “ The right and duty of parents to educate their children is primordial and inalienable.” {CCC 2221} /184-185/

“They enjoy a natural right to both educate and choose the kind of education their children will have without interference from the State.” /184/ HOMESCHOOLING?

The current “philosophy of education places an exaggerated faith in the unfettered freedom of the human person to set his own limits and find his own truth. It is incompatible with Catholicism and also sound philosophy because it fails to find any truth outside the subject.” /224/

“The mission to educate . . . cannot be completely delegated to another, especially the State.” /225/

“. . . only when both parents are spiritually and emotionally present to the child can the child really discover his unique identity as a person.” /221/

“. . . the good of the children demands total fidelity from the spouses and requires an unbreakable unity between them.” /164/

“Because the human person is such a complex being, . . . the lifelong commitment of the father and the mother, in their consent to live together until death, is essential.” /175/

“This experience is limited if only one parent participates.” /179/

“Many believe that the great threat to family life . . . is more a problem of [needing] authentic fatherhood . . . “

“. . . the father is essential as the bedrock . . .” /184/

“He must be the spiritual head of the family[, and as his faith goes, so goes the family’s].

The mother “is the spiritual heart of the family.” /183/

“The place of the man and [of] the woman . . . differ, and the interest and direction of both are necessary for a child to grow up in a mature way.” /175/

“The roles of man and woman are different in the education of children. Though their roles are complimentary [sic?], their participation is also based on equality.” /179/

[In Catholicism,] “the Code of Canon Law [states]:

The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life, and which of its own very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children, has, between the Baptized, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. (Can. 1055 S1)

The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility ; in Christian marriage they acquire a distinctive firmness by reason of the sacrament. (Can. 1056) /165/

“. . . indissolubility is the most important good of marriage . . .” /165/

“. . . the three goods of marriage [in Latin]:

proles (procreation and education of children)

fides (faithfulness and mutual trust and love of the spouses)

sacramentum (indissolubility) /167/

“. . . all the goods of marriage: fidelity (indissolubility), friendship (no manipulation), and fecundity/fertility (being open to life). This is the fullness of what marriage has to offer.” /199-200/

“The original goods . . . receive a further moral quality – . . . a preparation for Heaven despite our tendencies to egotism and domination.” /208/

“. . . every conjugal act must remain open to procreation. If this is denied by use of human devices, then the act becomes a means of (mutual) manipulation.

Each marital consummation “must entail both mutual respect and the possibility of procreation . . “ /206/

DIVORCE

“. . . the chief obstacle to the renovation and the rehabilitation of marriage willed by Christ the Redeemer lay in the constantly increasing facility of divorce.” /189/

In answer to the Pharisees’ questions, Jesus condemns divorce {Matthew 19:3-8}.

“As Christ will never leave His Church, even when crucified, the husband must never leave his wife.” /187/

“Marriage . . . is naturally indissoluble. Divorce is not just a sin against Christian Marriage but also a grave sin against the natural law.” /176/

[Even t]he possibility of divorce leads to the destruction of family life and thus of society. /186/

[Even t]he possibility of divorce threatens the very nature of a mature relationship that is expressed by the free choice to live with problems in a relationship that the parties cannot change, rather than ending it.” /187-188/

SO TAKE THE “D WORD” OFF THE MENU OF POSSIBILITIES!

“Some psychiatrists believe that it is a principal contributor to the present prevalence of neurosis in society.

“ ‘Whatever detracts from natural family relationships will tend to bring on psychological defects. Foremost among the factors that weaken the natural family bond stands the radical dissolution of marriage: divorce. Apart from the emotional shock the child suffers when the father and mother, to whom it is tied by the strongest possible natural bond, go their separate ways, it also suffers in its further development through the lack of s most essential emotional factor. For only through its relationship with both parents, not with either the father or the mother alone, is the child capable of optimal maturation.’ “ /186-187/

“. . . be clear here that one is not speaking of a civil divorce viewed as simply dissolving the civil effects of marriage, such as property rights. One is speaking of the notion that civil divorce can dissolve a valid marriage bond and thus leave the parties free to marry again.” [It cannot.] /187/ [emphasis added]

“Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society” {CCC 2382,2384-85}. /177/

“. . . the State cannot dissolve even a natural marriage.” /177/

“Civil divorce is always evil if viewed as the dissolution of anything except the civil effects” [of marriage, such as property, inheritance, etc.]. /177/

“The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by Canon Law.

“If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, [and/or] the care [or safety] of the children [or of a spouse], . . . it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense” {CCC 2383}. /177/ BUT NO RE-MARRIAGE!

“. . . the baptized couple are the ministers of Marriage. . . . The priest or deacon witnesses the Marriage in the name of the Church. Catholics are bound to this form.” /208/

“The consummation [i.e., sexual intercourse] of such a Marriage ratifies the consent so that only God can dissolve it by death.” /175/

“Sterility is an accidental evil . . . beyond the power of the human will to control, so those who are sterile and yet participate in the marriage act still contract marriage /175/

However, those who are precluded permanently from the performance of the action itself – for example, those who have been castrated – cannot validly give their consent so that the state of marriage can exist. /175-176/

“Sexuality . . . must respect the order of reason and the objective truth of human nature...

“. . . one cannot treat sex as simply a biological or material thing that man makes use of as he sees fit.

“. . . it always transcends the material order and must have a moral dimension. /168/

“. . . if the person were to withhold something [e.g., fertility via contraception,] . . . he or she would not be giving [themselves] totally [to the other].” /169/

“ . . . fornication is a mortal sin . . .” /170/

“. . . divorce and polyandry [and pologamy] are . . . natural and moral evils. /182/

“The same is true of extramarital sex and same-sex ‘marriage’.” /188/

“. . . one does not have to have the intention to have a child in every sexual act.

“The couple may simply have the good of their relationship in mind.

“But they cannot exclude the ordering of providence to the common good of the human race and the perfection of creation.” /173/

Pope St. John Paul II “teaches that . . . realistic sexual education of the youth is not primarily about techniques of body. It is, rather, about learning to respect the relationship of the sexual act to personal affirmation of the other and thus resist using or being used by another in a sexual relationship. It is about developing a soul characterized by self-restraining love.” /205/

WORK

“The question of the theology of work . . . has been called “the social question” since the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century.

“. . . popes have always maintained that the issue of the just wage for work [done] is the key to [solving] this question.” /229/

“The necessity of work and material goods would have applied even in Eden.” /229/

“Man is called to work. It is one of the characteristics of his nature. . . “ /230/

“Man is called to work in creation and dominate the earth.” /234/

“Work is ethically necessary for human perfection for three reasons:

It makes family life and upkeep possible

It makes education possible, which realizes one of the main purposes of the family

It aids the purpose of the state in preparing responsible citizens and ensuring domestic peace” /236/

“. . . with the right to property is the corresponding duty to develop it for the common good.

“No man is entitled to manage goods merely for himself, but he must do so in the interests of the common good and thus share them with others. There is a common right to participation in goods. This does not mean common property. [emphasis added]

“Property is a natural right but not an absolute right.

“It [began] in the Original Sin as protection for possession of goods.” /233/

“. . . the teaching of the Catholic Church on the morality of the economic order . . . affirms neither strict liberal capitalism nor Marxism.

“. . . property and labor both have an individual and social dimension.

As is the case with all rights, each includes corresponding duties.” /236/

“. . . the Church has always maintained that the morality and progress of the economy must be primarily related to the society of the family and not the State.” /220/

“Work has a twofold meaning.

Objectively, it denotes the means of production of technology by which man’s dominion over the earth is perfected.

“Man is the proper subject of work.

“. . . the worker is not viewed as simply a more sophisticated machine and remunerated as such.” /234/

“Work also has a subjective sense refer[ring] to the person who performs the work. /235/

“The primary purpose of work is for man, not man for work.

“The purpose of developing economics must always have a human dimension.” /235/

Sadly, “since the Enlightenment, work is a commodity . . . “ /235/

“Pope Leo XIII:

upheld the right to private property

denied laissez-faire capitalism

affirmed . . . the State[‘s] . . . supplementary role . . .

condemned the class struggle as unnatural,

but also recognized the rights of workers . . . to form unions

recalled the duties of workers to employers for a just day’s work

But he also demanded a salary for work that recognized that a human being has done this work. The salary was thus declared to be a moral and human problem, and not just a commodity to be bought and sold in the market.

Later popes . . . clarified that the just wage should be a fair wage.” /237-238/

Pope St. “John Paul II reaffirms . . . that a just wage is the family wage, ‘a single salary given to the head of the family for his work, sufficient for the needs of the family without the other spouse having to take up gainful employment outside the home. ; “ /240/

“. . . St. Thomas Aquinas:

Capitalists should not be in opposition to labor

Man’s work concerns not only the economy but also (especially) personal values” /239/

“SUMMARY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING RE: RIGHTS AND DUTIES IN THE ECONOMIC ORDER (from Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical, Centesimus Annus):

The dignity of work is a direct result of the spiritual nature of man. This involves not only the right to work but also the social character of work in relation to the family and the common good of State.

The right to private property is not an absolute right, as it entails the corresponding duty to develop property for the universal destination of human goods.

The right to establish professional associations of employers with workers or of workers alone is affirmed. The State must not frustrate this right. The corresponding duty is always that this right is not based on class warfare but to encourage and ensure class cooperation.

There is a right to limitation of working hours, legitimate rest, and the right of women and children to just working conditions.

These are all founded on the right to a just wage, which ‘cannot be left to the free consent of the parties, so that the employer having paid what is agreed upon, has done his part and seemingly is not called upon to do anything beyond.’ . . . /241-242/

EPILOGUE

“There are . . . three basic societies

Family (the most basic cell)

Purpose is the procreation and education of children and the mutual perfection of the spouses

The order needed to attain this end is

Openness to life

Freedom of choice regarding education

Mutual relationship of the spouses [w/ indissolubility]

State (supplementary role)

Has peace and justice in the temporal order sa its final purpose

The order necessary to attain such an end is a constitution . . . in which human laws are made that apply the moral law.

The authority structure that makes and executes such laws is any form that is just. This could be a monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or a combination of the three. The criterion for determining if this authority structure is effective is based on how much this authority pursues the common good rather than its private good or sacrifices the common good for the private good of authority. The former is a just government ; the latter, a tyranny.

The large bureaucracies and media demanded by the modern State open immense possibilities for . . . great injustice

Church (“The common good of the Church . . . is of a higher order.” /79/)

The final goal of the Church is the Beatific Vision of Heaven. The Church is only perfected in the Communion of Saints in Heaven.

The order necessary to attain this end is a sacramental one because it is an extension of the human nature of Christ throughout time and space

. . . the end and sanction behind this order is supernatural

The proper authority structure to attain this order is . . . [the] hierarchy founded by Christ that acts in His Name to serve the members of the Church here on earth by teaching the truth and promoting grace and morals through the sacraments.

“Instead of living wills, which often leave medical decisions to professionals with no real interest in what the patient wants and place economic considerations over moral principles, durable powers of attorney should be encouraged. In these, the patient chooses someone who knows and approves his values to make decisions about his health.” /244-245/