Morals Edited

1.
Moral Theology is a branch of systematic theology that studies the interrelationship of faith and
life. It is to be understood and appreciated in light of Christian discipleship rooted in the Word of God
and in the context of the Church.
OUTLINE
1. Moral Theology
1.1 Definition and Nature
1.2 Two Perspectives
2. Philosophy/ Theology in Morals
2.1 Autonomous Ethics
2.2 Faith Ethics
3. Nature of Good
4. Structure/ Foundations of Moral Theology
4.1 Ethics (What we study)
4.2 Morals (What we live)
5. Division of Moral Theology
5.1 Fundamental Moral Theology
5.2 Special Moral Theology
1. Moral Theology: - The term moral comes from the Latin word mors which means manner, custom, habit
and the term theology comes from two Greek words theos and logos which means God and word
respectively. Thus, moral theology (MT) is “God talk” about manners, customs, and habits. This
etymological meaning is quite accurate but not adequate. In moral theology faith and human dimensions
must be included.
1.1 Definition and Nature: - (Summary of Christian Morality: “TO DO IN LOVE WHAT TRUTH
DEMANDS,” Bernard Haring) MT is just one discipline of Systematic Theology. While Dogmatic
Theology’s focus is God’s Revelation and Christian Ethics’ focus is the Human Person responding to that
revelation. MT’s focus is the response to revelation (i.e., the implications of faith in Jesus Christ for the way
in which we live). MT attempts to find the meaning of the relationship between Christian Faith and moral
action (Life). The norms of MT are not only those given by reason but also by faith which includes the data
from the Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. MT seeks to give a systematic, organized account of
the requirements of Christian vocation to perfection/holiness (cf. Mt 5:48). MT has existed in continuous
dialogue with the Church and the world which has led it to develop the field of casuistry (to determine what
one’s precise moral obligations are) and to maintain a relationship with Canon Law (which determines the
gravity of actions).
1.2 Two Perspectives: - (Lat. Agere seguitur esse, “Doing follows being” or “To do is to be and to be is to
do.”)
Ethics of Being: character/ disposition of the agent; what sort of (good) person should I become as a
result of my faith in Christ?
Ethics of Doing: To perform right actions; what sort of actions should I perform as a result of my faith
in Christ?
2. Philosophy/Theology in Morals
2.1 Autonomous Ethics: - (Reason) Morality through Reason.
The emphasis is not on God who reveals morality, but on the human person who discovers it.
2.2 Faith Ethics: - (Revelation) Moral reflection is based on Scripture and the Mystery of Faith.
Revelation is the specific contribution in knowing what morality is.
NB: Christian morality is rooted in both approaches. We know Moral truths through Revelation and
Human Nature (“Reason informed by Faith”).
3. Nature of Good (Cf. “The Rich Young Man” Mt 19:16ff.)

 GOD, the source of all good.
 FRAMEWORK of Catholic Moral Theology in the Judeo-Christian tradition: DISCIPLISHIP IN
CHRIST
(Answer the call; Follow Jesus; Share in His destiny)
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4. Structure/Foundations of Moral Theology (James Gustafson)
4.1 Ethics (What we study): - Theoretical (or thinking) level of moral theology. Three formal elements;
1. Understanding good as the goal of moral life. The nature of good (object).
2. Human person as a moral agent. The nature of the human person (subject).
3. Points of reference which serve as the criteria for a moral judgment. Criteria or judgment (process).
4.2 Morals (What we study): - Practical level of moral theology giving direction to human behavior in the
light of what one believers to be right or good, according to the following four points.
1. Fundamental convictions or religious beliefs.
2. Character of the moral agent
3. Appropriate use of norms.
4. The situation in which the conflict of values arises (Situation Analysis).
5. Division of Moral Theology

5.1 Fundamental Moral Theology: - General Moral Principles and their Sources (Revelation or the Word
of God: Scriptures and Tradition; human Reason and Conscience).
5.2 Special Moral Theology: - Bioethics, Sexual Ethics, Reproductive Ethics, etc.
In Brief (James M. Gustafson):

ETHICS Nature of Good (Object) ----- Fundamental Beliefs MORALS
(Theoretical Nature of the Human Person ----- Character of the Moral Agent (Practical
Interests: (Subject) ----- Use of Moral Norms Interests:
What we Study) Criteria for Judgment (Process) ----- Situational Analysis What we
live)
REFERENCES:
Caga, Raul G. Biblical and Fundamental Moral Theology. Class Notes. Tagaytay City: DWST, 2006-07.
Gula, Richard M. Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. New York: Paulist Press,
1989.
. Moral Theology experienced a “paradigm shift” from the Pre Vatican II to Vatican II. A student of
moral theology has major task in order to get in touch with the challenges of the times and in
consonance with the directions of the Church.
Outline
1. Three Shifts after Vatican II
1.1 Shift in Focus
1.2 Shift in World View
1.3 Shift in Method
2. Three Tasks of Moral Theology
2.1 Sensitivity
2.2 Reflection
2.3 Systems
1. Three Shifts after Vatican II: - Gula identifies three important shifts relevant to the renewal of moral
theology. These are the shifts in focus, in worldview, and in method.
1.1 Shift in Focus
 From Act-Oriented to Person-Oriented (law values/persons)
 Rooted in Scripture (Scripture, the soul of Theology”) and multi-disciplinary (in dialogue). Cf
Optatam Totius, no. 16
 Morality is a Vocation (“I do things because I want and understand”).
 From “act oriented” to “person oriented.”
 Love and Justice as the basic principles of Morality (Cf. Deus caritas est, Benedict XVI)
1.2 Shift in World View
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 From Classist to Modern Historically Consciousness
 “To read the signs of the time.” Dynamic and evolutionary concept of reality, continuous reform, on
going dialogue (Lat. Ecclesia simper reformanda)
 Historical Consciousness. Human freedom and uniqueness of the historical moral situation. Truth is
in history.
 The truth is something we explore and don’t possess in its fullness.
 Two consequences: Commitment to the Truth (Cf. Jn 16:13-16) and Commitment to truths which
challenge us to broaden our horizon.
1.3 Shift in Method (A sound approach applies both methods)
 From Deductive to Inductive
 Classic deductive method. We can grasp the essence of reality, human nature and human good.
 Historically conscious method (“historical consciousness”). Empirical and deductive, begins with the
historical particulars, concrete and changing; moral behavioral norms do not spell out everything in
advance.
2. Three Tasks of Moral Theology
2.1 Sensitivity: - To be moral and to be loving imply one another. To experience the sacredness of human
life and the value of the human person;
2.2 Reflection: - It explores and extends into all areas of life the primary affective experience that has
generated an awareness of basic values and a commitment to them. To support, analyze and communicate
what we grasp by heart (“critical realism”).
2.3 Systems/ Methods: - Strategies that help us to choose/love well and in the most of conflicting values:
• Teleology. Human being the builder; what is my goal? (Goal Ethics)
• Deontology. Human being the citizen; what is the law? (Duty or Law Ethics)
• Relational – Responsibility. Human being the answer; what is happening?
REFERENCES:
Caga, Raul G. Biblical and Fundamental Moral Theology. Class Notes. Tagaytay City: DWST, 2006-07.
1989.
Peschke, Karl H. Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II. Volume 1: General Moral
Theology. Manila: Divine Word Publications, 1996.
3. The human person is God’s greatest gift in all creation. He/she is embodied spirit with the dignity of
being made in God’s image and redeemed by Christ’s blood. He/she is “embodied freedom,” called to
authentic love of self, others and ultimately of God.
Outline
1. Christian Moral Anthropology
1.1 Human Life
1.2 Human Person
1.3 Imago Dei
2. Human Freedom
3. Authentic Responsible Freedom
4. Basic Freedom or Freedom of Self- Determination
5. Freedom of Choice
6. Impediments Freedom/Obstacle of Human Acts
7. Sources of Human Acts
1. Christian Moral Anthropology

1.1 Human Life. Human person: Dignity, Freedom & Responsibility and conscience.
1.2 Human Person It has Dignity as Creature from God (created in the image and likeness of
God)
…. Which also flows out from Redemption (becoming children of God)
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Destiny & Fulfillment (beatitude and eternal life as the end)
It is Inalienable (Intrinsic) & Inviolable (Innate)
To know (cognition) Reason Truth Human Person tow/

1.3 Imagio Dei Good, Beauty,
We share in the Truth, Unity.
nature of God To will (volition) Will Good
2. Human Freedom: - It is the power/capacity (rooted in reason and will) to act or not to act; to chose good
and to avoid evil; to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. Freedom is connected to will
and knowledge. The higher is the value a person can choose among several options the greater the person’s
freedom.
3. Authentic Responsible Freedom

 Freedom is related to the dignity of the human person. Being created in the image and likeness of
God.
 To become one’s authentic self in relations to God and others. Following Christ our model of
Freedom.
 Freedom, being directed to salvation is a task and process.
 From “Must” (obligatory) to “Should” (directional).
 Freedom is value oriented, always toward what is good (or what is the higher good).
 Freedom is creative. It is the ability to take the risk (martyrdom) and a sign of contradiction.
Freedom From: Everything that opposes our true self- becoming with others in the
community
Three kinds of obstacles: Biological, Psychological and Social pressure.
Interior obstacles. Ignorance, distorted passions and fears.
Exterior forces: Threats of violence.
But the great obstacle is sin. We need liberation from slavery of sin.
St. PAUL
Freedom For: Growing as integrated persons and children of God sharing in the
life of
Christ, our liberator, through his spirit.
Freedom of Choice: Fundamental Freedom of one’s very – self in the moral act.
As task: Striving to overcome obstacles.
As process: Gradual growth towards authentic freedom.
Freedom of: To be set free from slavery & share in the glorious “Freedom of the Children of God.”
4. Basic Freedom or Freedom of Self – Determination: - Loving relationship with God, the ultimate end
of our life, in the way we relate to all things. It demands personal involvement and rests in understanding
the human person as a complex multi – leveled being (body, soul, spirit).
5. Freedom of Choice: - It is the freedom to choose an identity as person (to become a certain sort of
person). It is to realize our capacity to be ourselves through the particular choices we make. It is to choose
one option among a number of others.
Fundamental option
Self- determination
A. Freedom Fundamental stance
The Moral Freedom of choice
Subject of self (self-awareness)
(or Agent) conceptual knowledge (head)
B. Knowledge of moral values
Evaluative knowledge (heart)
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Through person involvement and reflection.
6. IMPEDIMENTS TO FREEDOM/ OBSTACLE OF HUMAN ACTS:-

1) KNOWLEDGE
A. IGNORANCE
i) INVINCIBLE:
A man is not able to dispel by such reasonable diligence. It is inculpable. It prevents the human act
from being voluntary in regard to what is not known.
ii) VINCIBLE:
It could be removed by reasonable diligence but is not because negligence or bad will. It is culpable.
It doesn’t take away voluntaries. It leads to indirectly voluntary effects.
B. ERROR: negative influence of forces that misguide freedom.
C. INATTENTION: momentary privation of knowledge.
2) WILL
A. PASSION
Emotions are part of who/what we are. They are the connection between senses and mind. They are
emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something
felt or imagined to be good or evil passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified to the
extent that they are effectively engage reason and will. Therefore, they are morally good if they contribute to
a good action (virtue); they are morally evil if they contribute to an evil action (vice).
Love: it is an attraction for the good for the good absent or desire. It is to will the good of another.
B. FEAR AND SOCIAL PRESSURES: Shrinking back of the mind on account of an impending evil.
C. VIOLENCE: Compulsive influence brought to bear up on one against his will by some extrinsic agent.
D. DISPOSITIONS AND HABITS: inclinations to act and react that have root in the character and inherited
propensities.
3) FUNDAMENTAL OPTION/ FUNDAMENTAL STANCE

 FUNDAMENTAL OPTION:- Fundamental decision which affects the basic direction of our life. It expresses our
basic freedom of self-determination to commit ourselves profoundly towards a certain way of being in
the world. It is the act of faith in which we agree to live in covenant with God, freely oriented toward
love and life, since we are marked by grace.
 FUNDAMENTAL STANCE:- Direction we choose for our life it expresses the sort of person we have chosen to
be. It is the fundamental direction we have chosen for our life: identity and stance.
4) HUMAN ACTS (ACTUS HUMANIS)

DEFINITION:- Actions that proceed from insight into the nature and purpose of one’s doing and from consent
of free will: intellect and free will.
DIVISIONS OF THE VOLUNTARY ACTS AND EFFECTS

a) ACT:
 Perfect voluntary act: Act performed with full knowledge and full consent
 Imperfect voluntary act: Attention or consent of the will or both together is imperfect.
b) EFFECT:
 Directly voluntary effect: It is intended in itself as an end.
 Indirectly voluntary effect: It is not intended but merely permitted as the inevitable result of an
object directly willed.
 The positive voluntary effect: In which the will influences in causing an effect.
 The negatively voluntary effect: In which the will influences in avoiding as effect.
7. SOURCES OF HUMAN ACTS

a) Object (Finis Operis):- It is the external part, the material element of the action.
b) Intention (Finis Operantis):- It is the internal part, the formal element, the whole purpose, the end
and the personal meaning of the action. CCC 1753: The end doesn’t justify the means. A good
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intention doesn’t make an evil act good. A bad intention makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can
be good.
c) Circumstances:- It is the total context in which the action takes place. CCC 1754: Circumstances
contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts. They cannot
change the moral quality of the action.
REFERENCES:
Caga, Rahul G. Biblical and Fundamental Moral Theology. Class Notes. Tagaytay City: DWST, 2006-07.
1989.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1749-70.
4. Conscience is “inner core and sanctuary” of the human being. There he/she is alone with God,
whose voice echoes in his/her depths. The human person is morally obliged to develop a good
conscience, a free, correct, clear and certain conscience. The moral formation of a personal and
moral conscience is a moral imperative for every man and woman of good will.
I. CONTEXT
The thesis statement is all about the description of Conscience.
II. EXPOSITION/CONTENT
1. Definition/description of conscience
• The inner voice summoning us to love the good and avoid evil by applying objective moral
norms to our particular act.
• Man’s most secret care and sanctuary of man (GS 16).
• Three phases of functioning of conscience
a. Antecedent: takes place before the decision-commands, exhorts, permits, forbids.
b. Decision: moment when made up mind to do or not to do something.
c. Consequent: takes place after the decision- approves, excuses, reprove, and accuse.
• For Peschke, Two Divisions:
a. As a moral faculty: manifests to men their moral obligations and impels them to fulfill
them.
b. As a practical moral judgment: tells man in the concrete situation what their moral
obligations are.
• For Gula, Three senses of Conscience
a. Capacity – synderesis
b. Process – Moral Science
c. Judgment – conscience
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2. QUALITIES OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE
A. Personal Freedom; FREE: it assumes personal decisions with full responsibility unhindered.
Unfree: hindered by some obstacles; forced, fears, passions, habit.
B. Objective Value; Correct (right): conformity with objective moral values.
• Erroneous: lack of conformity with objective/personal moral demands.
• Vincible: with some good will can be corrected. (Culpable).
• Invincible: unaware of the possibility of error. (Inculpable).
C. Moral Attitude; CLEAR: with due regard to values is able to achieve sound moral demands
and make the proper transition.
• Scrupulous Conscience: judges sin to be present even where there is not.
• Lax Conscience: judges lawful what is sinful/light what is grave.
• Strict Conscience: judges too harshly.
• Pharisaical Conscience: small (grave) things judged too (not) important.
• Compensatory Conscience: attempts to conceal.
D. Degree of certitude; CERTAIN: all practical doubt is resolved. It judges without fear and
error.
• Doubtful: uncertain about morality; lacks sufficient confidence to make a secure judgment.
• Perplexed: one cannot make a morally good choice since it seems both equally wrong act or
to refrain from acting.
• Probable: arriving to a point where it finds security in its own formation of a moral attitude
at a habitual level.
PRINCIPLE USED TO RESOLVE DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE

1. DIRECT SOLUTION – refer to pastors, experts, and papers.
2. INDIRECT SOLUTION- use reflex principles.
3. Principles used in Moral Discernment

a. Principle of Double Effect
b. Principle of Lesser Evil- “Compromise Principle”
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In conflict situation where harm will result from either two alternatives open to the agent, the
rule of Christian reason is to choose a lesser evil.
c. Principle of Cooperation: formal and material
3. THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

Formation of conscience is related to the formation of the person (i.e. one’s personality and
character) and the society at large- it is about the formation of both, personal and/or social conscience.
It interacts with various factors and the influences: family, friends, school, media, and environment.
FACTORS AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE

1. Internal
• Maturation
• Intellectual Development
• Empathy: level of affectivity-sensitivity
• Temperament
• Experience of contrast
2. External
• Familial: love and nurturance, discipline, and training, parental values and examples.
• Extra-familial: peer groups, society
III. INTEGRATION
Louis Munden’s classification of conscience aptly summarized our thesis statement.
1. Fear Conscience: operates on the instinctive level of the person governed primarily by fear acting
only on the basis of avoidance of punishment and accepting praise or approval from authority.
2. Moral/ethical conscience: operates on basic values and not just on what is commanded by some
authority; person recognizes the moral good or evil of an act; the law or command is obeyed not with
blind deference to authority but see it and is now corresponding to one’s personal value.
3. Christian- Religious Conscience: speaks of faith illumines, clarifies, and deepens what are
perceived of value to persons; places values in context of the Gospel and faith; vertical relationship
with God.
FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF CONSCIENCE: (according to GS) to love, to do good and to avoid evil. To
use the words of Bernard Haring, it is rightly to say, “To do in love what truth demands.”
REFERENCES:
1989.
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5. Sin is “No” to God’s love. At best, it is the arrogance of power.” It is rooted in the mystery of evil
from ancient times to present times. It can be illustrated in various ways. Church teaching clarifies
the reality (object, intention and reality), roots (pride, sensuality and selfishness), structure (personal,
social and original) and degree (mortal and venial) of sin.
Outline:
I. Personal Sin
II. Original Sin
III. Social Structural Sin
IV. Sources of Sin
V. Degrees of Sin: Mortal & Venial…Criteria for Mortal Sin
I. Personal Sin
A. Definition and Nature
• It is the refusal to follow one’s conscience whose call brings one to good.
• Breaking the covenant with God (turning away from Him) who is the absolute good.
• It is an offence against reason, truth and right conscience
• It is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor cause by a perverse attachment to
certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injuries human dignity or solidarity.
• “It is an utterance, a deed or a desire contrary to the eternal law.
• Gula: “It is an arrogance of power.” The capacity to influence a change in others or
situations, whether for good or evil.
B. Biblical Understanding
• OT. Missing the mark: rebellion, transgression, or disobedience
• NT. The sin of the world: A no to God’s love, will and salvation
C. Models of Sin ( Transgression, Spiral and sickness)

D. Threefold Dimension of Sin
• Personal
• Social
• Sin as a rejection of God
E. Division of Sin
1. Internal Sin: Sins that are consummated in the mind. They are sins of the heart. They
arise form evil dispositions and desires.
 Mental complacency in sinful imagination
 Sinful joy in an accomplished evil deed. Sinful regret of not having
performed an evil act.
 Evil desire. Wish to perform a sinful action
 Prejudice or bias. Tendency to eliminate one’s considerations and decision
data that are perceived to be potential threats to one’s well being.
2. Sin of Commission and Omission

Commission: It is a performance of forbidden act an offence against a negative precept.
Omission: It is a failure to perform an obligatory act and offence against positive precept.
3. Capital Sins: the 7 capital sins (gluttony, lust, avarice, anger,
sloth, envy, pride or vainglory) are called capital sins because they become vices and
sources of many other sins.
F. Reality (Object, intention and circumstances)

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o Object: it is the material object of the action, the external part, the action itself;
when the object of an action is against natural law, thus the action is said to be
intrinsically evil. (eg. Murder, euthanasia, abortion, genocide and masturbation.
o Intention: it is the formal element of the action, the internal part, the whole
purpose, the end of the personal meaning of the action. CCC, 1753: “The end
does not justify the means. A good intention does not make an evil act good. A
bad intention makes an act evil that in and of itself, can be good.
o Circumstances: it is the total context in which the action takes place> CCC,
1754, “Circumstances contribute to increasingor diminishing the moral goodness
or evil of human acts. They cannot change the moral quality of the action.
G. Roots of Sins
o Pride
o Sensuality
o Selfishness
II. Original Sin
A. Sin of the World
It is the mystery of iniquity that entered the world in the original fall and that dramatically
unfolds itself down the ages. It works in each one of us, so that our personal sins can be
considered its manifestation. Original sin is not simply the fact that each person is inclined to
follow the bad example of his predecessors. It drives from the basic solidarity of each
individual with evil of corporate life.
B. Relationship between Original and Social Sin

o God created man and woman from whom we all come
o God gave us a pre-natural and supernatural graces
o Adam and Eve sinned and lost their graces
o The effects touch our lives. We are born in the state of no equilibrium
o God promised salvation and redemption
III. Social Structural Sin
A. Elements of Social Sins

o SS refers to every sin against justice in interpersonal relationship.
o SS refers to every sin against the common good (graft and corruption)
o Sacred Scripture recognizes the reality of human solidarity in all human
endeavors. There is “no” to “private sin”. As there is a communion of saints, there
is also communion of sinners
B. Some Characteristics of Social Sin

 Dehumanizing element built into social, political, economic, and religious
institutions (eg. Bias, prejudices, ethnocentrism)
 Cultural and religious symbols that legitimate and reinforce their influences. (eg.
division bet. Lived truth & revealed truth)
 False consciousness. Any questioning of the profit-oriented dominion is evil.
 Collective decision made by organs of existing social structure that permeate and
aggravate dehumanizing trend.
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C. The Church
o The Church is an imperfect reality, but the church itself is the agent and growth
toward holiness.
o We are brother’s keepers, and we are responsible to each other.
o Every person we meet is a sacrament of God, his image.
o All sins are forgivable except the sins against the Holy Spirit: God, who created
with you, will not save you without you” St. Agustine
IV. Sources of Sin
A. Temptation
 It is the incitement acting upon the person to do evil. It is the attraction by the good that in
the larger context of the entire hierarchy of values constitutes an evil.
B. Seduction
 It is a deliberate effort to lead others to sin. It is a sin against charity and the moral duty
whose violation is caused. It presupposes that the seduced person is lead to an action that
stands in contradiction to his/her original personal intention or mind.
C. Scandal
 It is a conduct of individuals or groups by which they tempt others to evil more or less
imputable.
 Active scandal: any conduct that give rise to another person’s sin even if this conduct is
lawful or justified.
 Passive scandal: it is a taking of scandal at the provocative action of another. Scandal due
to bad example and sinful evil deeds, scandal of the weak, lawful action with evil
appearance. Pharisaic scandal; rightful action whose provoking effects is due only to the
malice of the person who is incited to sin.
V. Degrees of Sin: Mortal & Venial…Criteria for Mortal Sin
Three conditions need to be present for a sin to be mortal; if small matter or one of the other two
is lacking it is venial.
A. Grave matter (related to object of human act)

 It is about the importance of the matter. It undermines the covenant relationship
with God. The objective gravity of sin is determined by the gravity of the objective
disorder and injury a human action cause in the sphere of human values.
B. Full knowledge (related to the intention of human act.
C. Full consent (related to the circumstances of human act)
o It is about the potency of the commitment and it is the internal condition of the
agent.
D. Mortal Sin
o Sin that leads to spiritual death
o It destroys charityin the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law. It turns
man away from God, his ultimate end and beatitude, by preferring and inferior
good to him.
o Three conditions: grave matter, full consent and full knowledge.
E. Venial Sin
 It is a transgression of God’s law in a light (small matter) or of God’s law in a
grave matter but without full knowledge or full consent.
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 It does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity,
and eternal happiness.
REFERENCES:
1989.
6. The Scriptural Word of God is the point of reference of contemporary Moral Theology (“soul of
Moral Theology”). The use of Scripture in Moral Theology has gone through various changes: “Proof
text” method, biblical fundamentalism, Scripture as “revealed morality” and as “revealed reality.”
Relating Scripture and Moral Theology in a critical fashion has four tasks: exegetical, hermeneutical,
methodological and theological tasks.
OUTLINE
1. CRITERIA FOR MORAL JUDGMENT
2. USE OF SCRIPTURE IN MT: TWO EXTREMES
3. FUNCTIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE
4. FOUR TASKS
1. CRITERIA FOR MORAL JUDGMENT (cf. J. Gustafson)

A. SACRED SCRIPTURE
B. CHURCH TEACHING
C. LAW & MORALITY
2. USE OF SCRIPTURE IN MT: TWO EXTREMES
A. FUNDAMENTALISM. Sola scriptura as source of moral wisdom
B. PROOF-TEXT. Scripture only to support conclusion reached through natural law reasoning.
3. FUNCTIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE

A. REVEALED REALITY
This is the illuminative function of the Scripture (e.g., Bible stories). It provides the theological framework
that informs
our moral life. The Word of God (in both, Scripture and Tradition, as a single deposit of faith) is the heart of
moral
theology. The Word of God is a person (Christ).
Revelation is the self-communication of God to people. Revelation is an experience of and with
God.
1. The first form of revelation is the experience of God through deeds and words.
2. The second is the experience of communicating what we have learned from the first experience.
3. The third aspect is the moment of the written text (Scripture).
4. The forth step is the moment of interpretation of the scripture through the light of faith.
B. REVEALED MORALITY
This is the prescriptive (or normative) function of the Scripture (e.g., Ten Commandments, Wisdom
sayings) by offering an authoritative guidance for judgment and behavior.
4. FOUR TASKS
A. EXEGETICAL TASK. Determine what the text means in its original setting (the author’s intention).
B. HERMENEUTIC TASK. Seeks to establish the meaning of the text for today (application).
MAGISTERIUM (“The Servant of the Word”)
It is the Official Teaching Authority of the Church.
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It is formed by Pope and college of bishops in communion with him.
Three responsibilities: Listening, Teaching, Guarding.
C. METHODOLOGICAL TASK. The use of the Scripture within the various levels of moral reflection.
D. THEOLOGICAL TASK. Ways to combine the Bible with other sources of moral wisdom.
REFERENCES:
1989.
7. FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS

The first three commandments underline the basic covenant relationship between God and his people.
God is the absolute value, the basis of all values, the supreme good. God is also (rather than “only”)
worshipped and adored when the human person, each and everyone, is loved and respected.
A. FIRST COMMANDMENT
I am the lord your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.
 I t is our duties towards God arising from his Oneness and Lordship.
 This is the most important commandment; all other commandments are derived and governed.
 God calls every person to share in His love through a life of Faith, Hope and Charity.
a. Fruits of the 1st Com. Liberating truth: basis of personal freedom, unity, trust, love.
b. Duties. It is the recognition of God's Lordship expressed in filial devotion and service. Prayer, Worship,
Virtue of
religion (adoration, prayer, sacrifice, religious vow and human rights, religious freedom).
c. Prohibitions. Idolatry (no carved images), Superstition, Atheism, Agnosticism.
B. SECOND COMMANDMENT
You shall not take the name of the lord in vain.
 It commands reverence for God's holy name, which represents God himself.
 It means rejecting blasphemy, cursing, taking false oaths.
a. Reverence for God's Name. God's name in itself is an act of revelation.

b. Prohibitions. Blasphemy, Perjury, Cursing, Profanity.
C. THIRD COMMANDMENT
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
 It enjoins us to keep holy the day set aside to rest in the Lord, in God’s presence for divine worship
and fellowship.
 The source relates to the Sabbath rest of God from his creative actions.
 The ultimate goal of the Sabbath is the fellowship with God the creator.
 The Sabbath is a symbol of the final celebration and rest which is the conclusion/fulfillment of all
God's work.
a. Reasons for the Sabbath. God's rest on the seventh day; Liberation from slavery in Egypt.
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b. Importance of the Lord's Day (Sunday). Easter: New Sabbath; Sunday Eucharist; Resting in God's
presence.
c. Duties. To worship as community on Sunday; Observance of the Lord’s Day.
d. Ethics of Grace. It prevents us from absolutizing our own achievements, heightened anxiety, hyper
activism, successorientation,
workaholism.
SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS
1ST COMMANDMENT
1. They protect the absolute value of God.
2. Faith in God. The fundamental value is the belief in God of whom we are his image and likeness.
3. There is also a value in the veneration of religious images.
4. Adoration is for God alone; Veneration is for sacred images; Hyper-dulia is veneration to Mary and
the saints.
The 1-3rd Coms. are ab/ the relationship w/ God.
The 4-10th Coms. are ab/ the relationship with one’s neighbor.
2ND COMMANDMENT
1. Giving name means having dominion on things.
2. To value the name of God who has dominion over all things.
3RD COMMANDMENT
1. To protect the Day of the Lord; Resting in God's presence.
2. To value of God above all things.
3. Ethics of Grace.
SINS AGAINST THE FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS

Idolatry,Superstition, Blasphemy, False Oaths, Perjury, Agnosticism, Atheism, Sacrilege , Simony, Heresy,
Incredulity, (In)Voluntary Doubt
8. The fourth to the tenth commandments call us to protect, defend and enhance the values of
marriage and family life, human life in all its stages, human sexuality and chastity, truth, justice, the
right to private property and the universal destination of the earth's goods, desire for God and
poverty of heart.
4. Honor your father and your mother.

5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house… nor anything else that belongs to him. (cf. Ex 20; Det 5)
I. UNDERSTANDING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
 The TC constitute the basic imperatives needed for moral life in the community.
 The values of the TC can be grounded in their historical origin: covenantal character and liberating
power.
 The TC are the terms of the covenant; they are “Ten Commitments” (Fr. A. Ceresko).
 The TC are part of the redemptive plan of God (i.e., salvation history).
II. PREAMBLE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
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 God as liberator: “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of
slavery” (Ex. 20:2).
 This preamble sets us free of all enslavement by nature (nature worship), by history (historical
fatalism), or by death (bondage of fear of death).
III. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ARE A CONSISTENT PATTERN FOR CHRISTIAN MORAL
LIVING
They provide:
a. Credible and durable moral norms for everyday life.
b. A pattern and structure for living according to Christ's Commandments to love God (1-3) and neighbor
(4-10).
c. A universally accessible source for relating to non-Christians in matters of morals.
FOURTH TO THE TENTH COMMANDMENTS
 The fourth to the tenth commandments call us to defend, and enhance the values of marriage and
family life, human life in all its stages, human sexuality and chastity, truth, justice, the right to
private property and the universal destinationof the earth’s goods, desire for God and poverty of
heart.
 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT: BRIDGE BETWEEN FIRST THREE AND LAST
SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
“Bridge” because it is in the family that we first discover “God” and “neighbor.”
PART I: RESPECTING HUMAN LIFE
 The most fundamental way we love our neighbor is to respect human lives in general.
 Life is not an absolute value (only moral integrity is as such) but the necessary condition for actively
loving others and for receiving their love as well.
 Following Christ means doing all in our power to defend, maintain, and promote the dignity and
value of human life.
 Respect for Human Life is expressed in two commandments: 4th Honor your father and mother. The
origin of human person. Responsibility for the transmission of human life. 5th You shall not kill. The
value of any human life. Responsibility for the quality of human life.
Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and your mother.
DISCUSSION
 Obligation of children to take care of their aged parents. Aged parents are not evaluated in terms of
productivity.
 Both parents are to receive equal-respect and honour.
1. Obstacles to the 4th Com.
a. Not all fathers and mothers act as booing parents to avoid child abuse.
b. Children distancing from their parents (e.g., in period of growing up). It needs parental presence and
understanding.
c. Generation gap (inability of parents to communicate with children and vice versa).
d. Parental Absence (e.g., going abroad).
2. The Family as Originating Context of Life
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a. Covenant relationship. Calling family members to mutual love (w/in and w/out the family).
The 6, 7th Coms. are about our outward actions: our relationship w/ our neighbor.
The 9, 10th Coms. are about our inner desires/dispositions of the heart (…w/ ourselves).
b. Domestic Church. Family shares in the communion of live and love of the persons of the Holy Trinity.
c. Foundation for civil society. Family nourishes the existence and development of the society itself.
3. Family Relationships
a. Filial respect for parents: Children showing proper gratitude, affection, respect, obedience, and care.
b. Parental respect and responsibility for children.
c. Duties as Christian parents, the transmission of faith.
4. Obligations of Parents and Children
a. To learn to communicate with one another openly and deeply (communion task).
b. To be willing to admit errors (humility).
c. The whole family must look beyond itself to strive to offer Christian witness (mission task).
Fifth Commandment
You shall not kill.
DISCUSSION
 It forbids direct attacks against human life and physical integrity.
 It protects God's gift of life and promotes practical care and respect for the life and dignity of all
persons.
 The basis for the extraordinary value of human life is God.
 The basic value: God alone is the ultimate Lord and master of life.
NB: Jesus Perfected and Intensified this commandment (“Love your enemies;” “Love one another as I have
loved you.”)
1. General Offenses against Life. Murder, Genocide, Abortion, Euthanasia, Willful suicide.
2. Particular Offenses against Life

a. Vices. Alcohol, Drug abuse, Smoking.
b. Bio-ethical Issues. Abortion, Ordinary means of life support, Extraordinary means, Euthanasia.
c. Reproductive Ethical Issues. Artificial Fertilization, Sterilization, Tubal Ligation, Surrogate Motherhood,
Cloning.
3. Violations against integrity of the human person. Mutilation, Physical/Metal torture, Undue psychological
pressures.
4. Offenses against human dignity. Misery, Arbitrary imprisonment, Human trafficking, Deportation,
Prostitution.
5. Some important issues. Hatred and anger, Morality of self-defense, Just war, Death penalty.
6. Response for Christians. Work for peace (cf. Pacem in Terris, John XXIII)
Part II: RESPECTING HUMAN SEXUALITY
The 6th and the 9th commandments deal with the respect for human sexuality in two areas:
1. The external relationship between men and women.

2. The interiority or disposition of the heart.
NB: Human sexuality is God's gift to us and, therefore, it is good.

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A. Sixth Commandment
You shall not commit adultery.
DISCUSSION
 It is connected to the 9th com. (same value, family, but the 6th is ab/ outward act while the 9th is
about inward attitude).
 It forbids married persons from entering into sexual union with someone other than their spouse.
 It points to an enduring bond and mutual commitment between a man and a woman (a communion
of life and love).
1. Aim: Protection of two main values: Marriage (covenant relationship) and Family.
2. Christian view of Sexuality:
a. God endows man and woman with equal personal dignity.

b. Man and woman are different and complementary.
c. Both are called to the mutual gift of self (reciprocity in self-giving).
d. Sexuality is a relational power.
e. Sexuality is a means for loving.
3. Offenses: Adultery, Divorce, Fornication, Rape, Polygamy, Incest, De facto unions, Homosexuality,
Same-sex marriages.
B. Ninth Commandments
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
DISCUSSION
 The interior root/source of the sin of adultery: the covetousness of the heart.
 From the heart evil designs stem (e.g., Murder, Adulterous conduct, Fornication, Stealing, False
witness, Blasphemy).
 Covetousness - It is an inner impulse of the heart, a human desire and power which can lead to the
selfish taking of what rightfully belongs to one's neighbors (Lust of the flesh, Lust of the eyes and
mind, Pride.)
1. Aim: Protection of the value of Chastity (“purity of heart”) vs. covetousness (derived from
concupiscence).
2. Offenses: (vs. conjugal love, sexual integrity). Lust, Homosexuality, Masturbation, Prostitution,
Fornication,
Pornography.
3. Virtue of Chastity
a. The purity of the body (orthopraxis), heart (orthopathia), mind (orthodoxy). Our internal dispositions and
external acts.
b. The integrity of one's sexuality.
4. Functions of Chastity in the Life of a Consecrated Person
a. It puts order into sexual drives.
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b. Channels sexual energies.
c. Seeks sobriety and Self-control.
5. Some Important Issues
a. Contraception. Artificial means of contraception or birth control; to encourage natural family planning.
b. Masturbation. An abuse of sexual power.
c. Homosexuality. Grave impediment to integral sexual growth. Distinction bet/ Homosexual orientation and
act.
d. Prostitution and pornography. They are directly opposed by the virtue of chastity and purity of heart.
Prostitution. It robs one’s dignity as a person by being reduced to a mere means of other’s selfish pleasure.
Pornography. It propagates sexual indecency in a dehumanizing and exploitative manner.
PART III: BUILDING JUSTICE

 This theme develops the commandments to love others in terms of our basic social obligations.
 This is a Christian social challenge: to work for true justice and peace.
 Social Responsibility: love, justice, peace, reconciliation and freedom (esp. of religion and of
conscience).
 Main issues at stake: Stealing, Poverty, Exploitation of people and natural resources, Violation of
human rights.
A. Seventh Commandment
You shall not steal.
DISCUSSION
 It is connected to the 10th commandment, protecting the same values (esp. the right to private
property).
 While the 7th is ab/ outward action, the 10th deals w/ inward attitude (i.e., interior force).
1. Values Protected. Private Property or private ownership, Common good, Universal destination of earth’s
goods, Social
Justice, Preferential option for the poor, Dignity and integrity of creation.
2. Offence. Theft, Robbery, Kidnapping, Embezzlement, False Pretenses, Graft and Corruption, Social
mortgages,
Pollution, Unjust wages.
B. Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house… nor anything else that belongs to him.
DISCUSSION
 It deals with the inner disordered desires of the human heart from wh/ stealing and exploitation of
our neighbor arise.
1. Prohibitions. Unjust craving for another's property, Envy, Greed.

2. Promoting good attitudes, e.g., Reform, Conversion, Restitution.
3. Encouraging, e.g., Deep trust in God's care, our Social responsibility.
4. Church's Social Doctrine
a. Political Ethics. Pursuit for the common good, Promotion of justice, Spirit of service, Preferential love for
the poor.
b. Socio-economic Problems. Widening gap bet/ rich and poor, Unemployment, Malnutrition, Hunger,
Violation of human
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rights.
c. Solutions
a. Concretization of human rights (in the Economic, Social, Political, Religious spheres).
b. Building Just Society is a primary duty of all Catholics.
PART IV: SAFEGUARDING TRUTH
 Eighth Commandment
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
DISCUSSION
 This commandment must be understood in the context of the covenant.
 It is ab/ the value of Truth which makes one free.
 Truth is a value per se
1. Obligations: To Seek the truth, Pursue the truth, Give witness to the truth (greatest witness: Martyrdom).
2. Offenses (vs. Truth). Lying, Detraction, Calumny, Slander, Tale-bearing, Gossiping.
3. Other Important Issues. Professional secrecy, Seal of confession, Duty of the Mass Media to promote
the truth.
9. The beatitudes present an alternative culture and life style. They provide a “blueprint” of Christian
living towards
holiness. While law is a fundamental source of Christian morality, there are priority values rooted in
the gospel, grace, love, life and salvation.
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall attain mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are you when
men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:2-12)
A. DEFINITION AND NATURE

 Beatitude is a kind of Christ's law which liberates from mere externalism, from being bound to the
letter of the law inorder to live by the gift of the Spirit.
 This “new basis” of moral life is graphically portrayed in Christ's poetic sketch of those “Blessed.”
 The wisdom of the beatitudes opposes the wisdom of the world (Materialism, Lust for power,
Greediness, Ruthless competition, Success orientation, etc.; in God's kingdom worldly values are
reversed).
 The basic thrust of the Beatitudes is eschatological joy (i.e., blessedness) associated with the arrival
of the kingdom of God and therefore the accomplishment of the salvation process. The paradoxical
nature of the Beatitudes (the poor will inherit, the mourners will be comforted, etc.) forces the
listener to redefine the suffering within the more global context of God's plan of salvation in Christ
(cf. Catholic Dictionary and Encyclopedia, Our Visitor Sunday, 1994).
B. VALUES OF THE KINGDOM PROMOTED.
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1. Detachment from material goods and Spiritual dependence on God alone (spiritual childhood).
2. Thirst for Justice. Offering authentic human interpersonal relationship vs. self-centeredness. Working for
peace.
3. Cleanness of Heart. Single-mindedness.
C. CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDING OF BEATITUDES.
 The Beatitudes are the essence of the Sermon of the Mount.

 J. Jeremias concludes that for a true understanding of the Sermon of the Mount, one must situate the
moral imperatives in the context of the indicative which gives them their ultimate reading. In fact,
without the indicative of Jesus' call to discipleship, of the gift of unconditional love, compassion and
forgiveness, the Christian moral life demanded by the Sermon of the Mount is impossible.
FIRST BEATITUDE
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
Poor. Materially poor, Lowly of heart (“in spirit,” spiritual childhood).

Contemporary Reading. Total dependence on God's grace and providence.
SECOND BEATITUDE
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Mourning. An ethical attitude; Mourning for our sins and others’ as well (sorrow in our hearts).
Contemporary Reading. We must first be healed from our own brokenness, and then we can mourn in
solidarity w/ others.
THIRD BEATITUDE
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.
Meekness. Gentleness due to the mastery of one's passions, God as the ultimate source of one's meekness of
heart.
Contemporary reading. Life based on trust in God wh/ makes one truly meek of heart.
FOURTH BEATITUDE
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Righteous. An ethical attitude characterized by energetic and ardent longing for what is right and willed by
God.
Meaning. Blessed are those persons who desire God's righteousness.
Contemporary Reading. Authentic Christian love; Justice is the first demand of love.
FIFTH BEATITUDE
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall attain mercy.

Mercy. Ability to see the others’ needs, Compassion/understanding as derived from personal experience of
God’s mercy.
SIXTH BEATITUDE
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
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Pure of heart. Those who are upright, sincere, totally single-minded; Promise of intimacy and communion
with God.
Contemporary Reading. Called to be “pure of heart” in the midst of life’s challenges relying on God for
solace/liberation.
SEVENTH BEATITUDE
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Shalom.
Human condition where people live in compete harmony with themselves, w/ others, w/ nature and w/ God;
Perfect contentment and total well-being.
Peacemakers.
Toiling actively vs. forces that violate peace; to them the Promise of blessedness, not to the “peacekeepers.”
Contemporary Reading.
It teaches us that peace must be built on the authentic human values of love, justice and truth;
Not a mere silence of guns, or absence of conflict, but on opening of hearts, respect of human dignity,
healing, etc.
EIGHT BEATITUDE
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are you when
men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Content.
It is ab/ the treatment that awaits the faithful disciple (revilement, persecution, and calumny) for Jesus’ sake.
Contemporary Reading. All of us are called to live our Christian faith, only to a few are given special honor
of dying for it.
10. Moral Theology has three ethical systems: deontology, teleology and relational responsibility
systems. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. However, the process of arriving at a moral
decision is a significant area of concern. Discernment of spirits is one of the many ways to arrive at a
moral decision.
A. Utilitarianism
B. Prudential Personalism
C. Rule Proportionalism
D. Consequentialism
SYSTEMS IN MORAL THEOLOGY
1. TELEOLOGY IN MORAL DECISION MAKING (MDM): GOAL ETHICS
TWO PROPONENTS. Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Fucks.

MORAL QUESTION FOR DECISION. What is my goal? What ought I to do to fulfill my goal?
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POINTS OF REFERENCE FOR DECISION. It is not in duty or laws but in Consequences. Here
alternatives are weighed against
each other to determine which produces the greatest possible value in their consequences.
ADVANTAGE. It takes seriously the future implications.
WEAKNESS. It substitutes a part of morality (consequences) for the whole.
UTILITARIANISM. Morality is achieved by the greatest good for the greatest number.
2. DEONTOLOGY IN MDM: DUTY / LAW ETHICS
TWO PROPONENTS. Germain Grisez and William E. May.

MORAL QUESTION FOR DECISION. What does the law require?
For decision: What does the positive law apply? What is my duty? What ought I to do?
Or by Asking/Referring to an authority (whether secular, ecclesial, or divine).
POINTS OF REFERENCE FOR DECISION. a) Law; b) Duty; c) Obligation.
STRENGTH. * Preserves consistency and stability.
* Some aspects of actions cannot be sacrificed to consequences.
WEAKNESS. * It does not adequately account for the temporality and contexuality.
* Absolutizes the past and present without considering the future.
3. RELATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN MDM
PROTESTANT PROPONENTS. H. Richard Niebuhr and James M. Gustafson.

CATHOLIC PROPONENTS. Bernard Häring and Charles E. Curran.
MORAL QUESTION FOR DECISION. What is happening? What ought I to do?
POINTS OF REFERENCE FOR DECISION. Here one decides what to do by determining what action is
most harmonious or
proportionate to the meaning of the whole relational context. Moral life is comprised of relationships held
together by
ongoing interaction with God, neighbor, world and self. It requires a “sympathetic” attitude.
STRENGTH
* It realizes that all human behavior must be judged in the context of actual relationships.
* It accounts for the complexity and ambiguity.
* Highlights moral meaning.
* Acknowledges the person’s ability.
* Does not accept imposing the meaning from external authority.
* Moral meaning can be found in the context of person and in the process of ongoing interaction.
* Emphasizes character formation, virtue and moral discernment.
WEAKNESS. * Uncertainty and tentativeness.

GOAL. The purpose of moral analysis is to reduce this uncertainty to a manageable size.
JAMES GUSTAFSON. What ought I to do? It considers the agent, the beliefs, the situation, and appropriate
norms.
4. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OR PROCESS OF MORAL DECISION MAKING
A. DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS (Gula). Prayer, Gathering Information, Seeking Confirmation.

B ASTORGA. A Set of Seven Rules to Follow in Making Moral Decisions.
C. CFC 835-7. Discerning, Demand, Judgment or Decision.
5. DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS (Gula)
MEANING:
 Relationship with God.
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 Discernment refers to the quality of perception and the capacity to discriminate degrees of
importance among various features before making a judgment.
 Involves keenness of perception, sensitivities, affectivities and capacities for empathy, subtlety, and
imagination.
 Matter of heart.
 Requires fuller use of the virtue of prudence and the theology of moral conscience.
 Prudence is the virtue which enables a person to discover the best way to do the right action (St.
Thomas).
PRUDENCE (moral virtue). “Capacity to choose well,” or “Intelligent decision making.”
IMPORTANCE: Discernment gives a central place to the person over norms as the locus for discovering
the call of God.
THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS:
a) Faith. Commitment to God in Christ through the Spirit.

b) God. God is present always and everywhere redemptively.
c) Jesus. God-with-a-face (the Revelation of God). The embodiment of fundamental meaning, direction,
orientation of the
human life toward God.
d) The Human Person. Nature and grace. The human person is a multi-leveled being.
PROCESS OF DISCERNMENT:
a) Prayer. Discernment begins with prayer, it is sustained by prayer and follows upon prayer.
- Basic element
- Daily experience
- God’s presence and action in our lives
- Spiritual liberty
b) Gathering of Informations/Facts. It involves the discipline of research. In order to be properly informed,

we need to use
methods of investigation appropriate to the areas at issue. Objective investigation.
c) Confirmation
Internal. The internal signs of confirmation are the affective experiences of consolation or desolation.
External. The Community (esp. those responsible w/in) confirms the decision; e.g.: Community-Rector-
Ordination.
LIMITS
- Depends on Psychological and Spiritual maturity.
- Quality of prayer.
- Clarity of perceptions of the situation.
- Accuracy of the information we gather.
11. Christian morality consists in living a discipleship in mission of Jesus. It relies on the single deposit
of faith. The Word of God in Tradition and Sacred Scripture. The Magisterium guides the Church in
its role as communal support, active formative agent, and bearer of moral tradition and community of
moral deliberation. Nevertheless, in its official teaching the Church recognizes the possibility of
dissent as a means to clarify teachings.
I. CRITERIA FOR JUDGMENT
A. SACRED SCRIPTURE
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1. It is the norma non normata
2. Christian Morality relies on the Single Deposit of Faith, i.e., the Word of God in: Sacred Scripture and
Sacred (or Living Tradition.
3.Approaches.
Two Extremes. Proof-text & Biblical Fundamentalism

Catholic. Revealed Reality (e.g., God’s love for us): Illuminative Function (e.g., Bible stories).
Revealed Morality (e.g., our love for God): Prescriptive Function (e.g., Ten Coms., Wisdom sayings).
B. CHURCH TEACHING
a. Extraordinary Infallible Ex-Cathedra.

Faith Assent; no room for dissent.
b. Ordinary Non-Infallible Authentic.
Religious Assent.
Allowed dissent but w/ Submission of Mind and Will.
Here disagreement is only acc/ to specific Criteria & Guidelines.
C. LAW & MORALITY (Reason/Recta Ratio must point to truth/good/value/unity)
Types of Law
a. Eternal or Divine Law.
b. Natural Law (participation in the Divine Law).
c. Positive or Human Law.
d. Moral Norms.
D. METHODS / SYSTEMS IN MORAL DECISION MAKING: Deontology, Teleology, Relational

Responsibility.
E. CHRISTIAN VIRTUE OF EPIKEIA. Discerning human law not according to its letter but to its spirit.
II. FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS
A. FIVE MAIN BELIEFS. 1Creation, 2Fall/Sin, Redemption (3Incarnation, 4Paschal Mystery),

5Eschatology.
B. SACRED SCRIPTURE
C. CHURCH.
1. Bearer of moral tradition (as servant of the Word).
2. Community of moral deliberation, enabling and assisting people to make prudential decisions.
3. Shaper of moral character toward personal and social transformation (about the formation of both,
personal and
social conscience).
III. MAGISTERIUM (Gula)
Magisterium is an institutionalized authority in matters of Faith, Morals (and Worship). The primary
responsibility of the
Magisterium is to help us understand the Gospel for our time and to foster our assimilation of its basic
values.
MAGISTERIUM (“The Servant of the Word”)
It is the Official Teaching Authority of the Church.
It is formed by Pope and college of bishops in communion w/ him.
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Three responsibilities: Listening, Teaching, Guarding.
IV. EXTRAORDINARY INFALLIBLE EX CATHEDRA CHURCH TEACHING (Curran)
LG 25: "Although the bishops individually do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they nevertheless
proclaim the
teaching of Christ infallibly, even when they are disperse throughout the world, provided that they remain in
communion
with each other and with the successor of Peter and that in authoritatively teaching on matter of faith and
morals they
agree in one judgment as that to be held definitively." E.g., Jesus is the only savior, or the Immaculate
Conception.
FOUR CONDITIONS
Communion with one another.
Authoritative episcopal teaching in matter of Faith and Morals (and Worship, since “Lex orandi, lex
credendi”).
The bishops agree in one judgment.
Judgment to be held definitively.
V. ORDINARY NON-INFALLIBLE AUTHENTIC CHURCH TEACHING (Curran)
It must be recognized various degrees and levels of relationship to faith; e.g., Abortion (here no room for
dissent bec/ of the
solemn pronunciation of Pope JP II in Humane Vitae against, murder, euthanasia, abortion). Ab/ moral
teachings:
They are also based on Natural Law and not merely on Faith and Scripture. These teaching are removed
from the
core of Faith. They are reflections on human nature.
Issues are concerning specific, concrete, and universal moral norms existing in the midst of complex
realities. They
have less possibility of certitude.
There is about them a responsibility and rights for the Catholic theologians in general.
VI. DISSENT (Gula)
It pertains to critical disagreement with some aspects of a moral teaching (non-infallible authentic teaching),
but not to
the prudential judgment of applying a teaching in a situation.
THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF USA IN 1968 WROTE THREE CRITERIA FOR DISSENT
The reason for dissent must be serious and well-founded.
The manner in which one dissents must not impugn the teaching authority of the Church.
The dissent must be such as not to give scandal.
CRITERIA FOR DISSENT (Richard McCormick)

1. Responsible dissent distinguishes between different degrees of authority and teachings.
2. Responsible dissent follows when the only remaining reason left for holding a position is that it is being
taught by the
Magisterium, though not adequately supported by convincing reasons.
3. Responsible dissent is proportionate to the competence of the person to make an assessment of the
teaching at stake.
GUIDELINES FOR DISSENT

1. Affirm the teaching authority of the church.
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2. Be concern for the means.
3. Contribute toward reformulating the teaching.
4. Count the cost.
VII. FAITH ASSENT (Curran)
Assent that the faithful owe to the Extraordinary Infallible Ex Cathedra Teaching of the Magisterium in
matter of Faith
and Morals.
VIII. RELIGIOUS ASSENT / SUBMISSION OF MIND AND WILL (Gula)
 G 25: "In matter of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to
L
accept their
teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent of the soul."
Submission of will and mind calls for a serious effort to reach intellectual agreement that what is taught
(although
Ordinary Non-Infallible Authentic Teaching) is an expression of truth.
Submission of Mind (to know/study the teachings) & of Will (to appropriate the teachings)
IX. INTERNAL DISSENT (Gula)
There is Internal Dissent when someone is unable to accept certain aspects of the teaching as being true, but
he or she
keeps this dissent as personal internal matter.
X. PRIVATE DISSENT (Gula)
It is an external expression of internal dissent, but to a very private (limited) audience.
XI. PUBLIC & ORGANIZED DISSENT

Public dissent refers to open disagreement with official church teaching. It is communicated publicly
thr/ mass media
and thr/ popular and professional journals. Public dissent can be No. 10, or 11 (see below).
The entire investigation centers on theological writings. By two ways:
1) The theological writings which come out in public.
2) Public speaking on the non-infallible theological issues.
XII. ORGANIZED SCHOLARLY DISSENT (Gula)

XIII. ORGANIZED POPULAR DISSENT (Gula)
12. What ought I to do? The process of decision-making considers the moral agent, the values, the
criteria and the culture of a given place. In the end, a decision should be lifted up in prayer.
1. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OR PROCESS OF MORAL DECISION MAKING

A. DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS (Gula). Prayer, Gathering Information, Seeking Confirmation.
PRUDENCE (moral virtue). “Capacity to choose well,” or “Intelligent decision making.”
B ASTORGA. A Set of Seven Rules to Follow in Making Moral Decisions.
C. CFC 835-7. Discerning, Demand, Judgment or Decision.
2. GENERAL STEPS IN DECISION MAKING

a. Search ab/ issue. Listening and dialoguing (I am only one point of view).
b. Probing the facts.
c. Values that are involved: identify Human and Christian values at stake; never sacrifice a higher value for a
lower one.
26
d. Confluence of emotions/feelings at play.
e. Seeking the kind of person we ought to become (my “personal vocation,” i.e., my very “name” in God:
one’s identity and
mission in, with and for Christ).
f. Social consequences of one's choice (we are social/political beings).
g. Place of prayer and spirituality.
3. ASTORGA: A SET OF SEVEN RULES TO FOLLOW IN MAKING MORAL DECISIONS

How does one make moral decision? The Virtue of Prudence3 is necessary (the capacity to choose well).
What ought to do in order to become or to be the Person I want to? Main obstacle to this process: Bias.
A Set of Rules to follow in making moral decision.
1. What is happening?
a) What is the problem o issue involved in the situation?
b) How did this come to be? What are the significant factors that may have brought about the
issue/problem?
c) What could be the origin or root of the issue/problem?
d) Who are involved or effected? Why and how are they effected?
e) What are choices that one has to deal with the issue or the problem?
2. What are the values involved?
a) What are the human and Christian values in the situation?
b) Why should these values (human and Christian) be protected?
c) Which of the values are higher?
3. How are these values fully realized?
a) What is the value that the choice seeks to foster and protect?
Which value would be sacrificed? (Identify accurately the values involved).
b) Which of these values is higher? Why is this the higher value that must, by all means, be protected?
If the value protected is not higher, is it at least equal to the value sacrificed?
Why do you say it is equal? (Refer to the hierarchy of values).
c) Is the means to protect the higher or at least equal value the last result? Are all possible alternatives
exhausted?
d) What are the concrete consequences if this higher or equal value is protected?
What are the concrete consequences in the immediate present and in the far-reaching future, if the value is
violated?
e) Is the harm only immediate and transitory?
Or is the harm more serious and fundamental with far reaching consequences?
f) Are all the conditions of a prudential moral judgment realized?
4. What kind of person does one seek to become?
a) Is this choice faithful to the kind of person that one is before God and others?
b) Does this choice contribute to who one seeks to become for others, according to God’s loving will and
purpose?
c) What is the significance of this choice in terms of one’s eternal destiny?
5. How do one’s emotions figure in the decision?
a) If the choice is brought into one’s heart, what positive or negative feelings are evoked?
b) Where do these feelings come from? Or, why does one have these feelings, regarding one’s choice?
c) If choice is projected into the future as one imagines himself/ herself in a situation beyond the now and
the present,
what feelings or emotions are evoked? Why does one have these feelings and emotions?
6. What are the social consequences of one’s choice?
a) If this course of action is taken, what would be the immediate consequence?
What could be the far-reaching social consequences?
b) If this decision is universalized or if everybody were to do the same thing, would objective moral values
be protected
or would they be compromised or destroyed?
c) What could be the actual and concrete consequences of choice on the person, on his/ her relationship and
his/her
27
sphere of social influence?
7. Is one’s decision confirmed in prayer? (Primacy of Grace: consolation-desolation as in the “Spiritual
Exercises”)
a) When the decision is brought to prayer, are there feelings of peace and repose in the deepest stirrings of
one’s heart?
b) Is this peace deeper and stronger than whatever pain and suffering the decision may bring?
Is it a peace that comes from the conviction that one is doing what is right according to the reasonable
demands of his/her conscience as guided by the objective moral norms of the faith community?
3 Rules of Prudence: 1) Never sacrifice a higher value for a lower; 2) Determine that the means taken to
protect the higher value is the best resort after exhausting all
possible alternatives; 3) If harm is inevitable, prudence dictates that we must choose the least possible harm
(Principle of the Lesser Evil); 4) We must ensure that the higher
value should not be compromised or destroyed by the means to protect it; 5) Rules Nos. 1 to 4 must be
realized in order for the act to be moral (if only one of the former four
conditions is not realized the act is immoral). Examples of Fundamental Moral Values: life, faith, human
dignity, justice, truth, integrity of conscience. When two fundamental
values are at odds there is need to do an in-depth reasoning. E.g., the right to live in dignity is higher than
the value of profit and investment; goods for the welfare of the
community are more important than goods for the welfare of the individual; the universal destination of
earth’s goods takes priority over the right to private property; value of
faith in God and integrity of conscience are preferred over life prestige, honor and carrier.
4 They may cripple us from making a good moral decision. The need to develop a delicate moral sensitivity.
16
c) Is this peace perduring, leading one to a greater love of God and inspiring one to live a life of service for
others?
4. THREE ASPECTS OF MORAL DECISION MAKING (CFC 835-837)

A. DISCERNING STAGE. “STOP” formula: Search, Think, [consult] Others, Pray.
B. DEMAND. The role of pertinent moral norms which our conscience uses to formulate its dictates on
what we must do.
C. JUDGMENT OR DECISION. It refers to the judgment of conscience we make on the morality of any
proposed action, and our
consequent decision to follow this dictate of our conscience or not.
_________________________________________________
APPENDIX
EXCERPTS FROM MAGISTERIUM
From: Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, Part I, “The Church and Man’s Calling,” Chap. 1, “The Dignity of the
Human Person,”
1965.
16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which
holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when
necessaryspeaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is
the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary
of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience
reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor. In fidelity to conscience, Christians are
joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems
which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway,
the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of
morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot
be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows
practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.
17. Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this
freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license for
doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the
divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain "under the control of his own decisions," so
28
that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty
to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally
motivated and prompted from within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man
achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a
spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself through effective and skillful action, apt helps
to that end. Since man's freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God's grace can he bring such
a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgment seat of God each man must render an account
of his own life, whether he has done good or evil.
(…)
19. The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God. From the very
circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he
not created by Gods love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according to truth unless
he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have
never recognized this intimate and vital link with God, or have explicitly rejected it. Thus atheism must be
accounted among the most serious problems of this age, and is deserving of closer examination. The word
atheism is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly
denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him. Still others use such a
method to scrutinize the question of God as to make it seem devoid of meaning. Many, unduly ransgressing
the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific
reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth. Some laud man so
extravagantly that their faith in God lapses into a kind of anemia, though they seem more inclined to affirm
man than to deny God. Again some form for themselves such a fallacious idea of God that when they
repudiate this figment they are by no means rejecting the God of the Gospel. Some never get to the point of
raising questions about God, since they seem to experience no religious stirrings nor do they see why they
should trouble themselves about religion. Moreover, atheism results not rarely from a violent protest against
the evil in this world, or from the absolute character with which certain human values are unduly invested,
and which thereby already accords them the stature of God. Modern civilization itself often complicates the
approach to God not for any essential reason but because it is so heavily engrossed in earthly
affairs.
SOCIAL-POLITICAL ETHICS
13. Diverse authors agree on the three characteristics of justice as: a social norm, approbative and
obligation. The basis of this conclusion is the study on the properties and theories of justice. The
Catholic Tradition (St. Thomas) gives further specification or application of justice namely,
attributive and proportionate (commutative, distributive, contributive/legal and social justice). Social
justice comprises different concepts of justice in view catholic social teaching.
I. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF JUSTICE

A. JUSTICE AS SOCIAL NORM: a directive for guiding people in their actions toward one
another.
B. JUSTICE IS APPROBATIVE: Judging an action to be just manifests approval of that action.
C. JUSTICE IS OBLIGATORY: Judging a certain course of action to be just entails that a
person in the like situation ought to do the same thing.
II. BASIS OF CONCLUSION ABOVE

A. THEORIES OF JUSTICE
1. Positive law theory
2. Social good theory
3. Natural right theory
B. PROPERTIES OF JUSTICE
1. The demands of justice are enforceable
2. The demands of justice are of definite and determinable nature
3. The demands of retribution
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III. THE CATHOLIC TRADITION: FORMS OF JUSTICE
A. ATTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
B. PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE
1. Commutative
2. Distributive
3. Contributive (or Legal)
4. Social Justice
C. RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
DISCUSSION:
Common Characteristics of Justice
Despite the differing concepts about justice, authors agree on three characteristics of justice. First, justice is
a SOCIAL NORM, a directive for guiding people in their actions toward one another. Second, justice is
APPROBATIVE, i.e. judging an action to be just manifests approval of that action. Third, justice is
OBLIGATORY, meaning that judging a certain course of action to be just entails that a person in the same
situation ought to behave similarly.
Basis of Conclusion Above
Theories of Justice. There are basically three theories as to the essence of Justice: First, the POSITIVE
LAW THEORY which defines justice as conformity to the law, thereby reducing what is just to that which is
legal. Second, the SOCIAL GOOD THEORY which defines justice as doing what is useful for the social
good. And third, the NATURAL RIGHT THEORY which holds that natural rights is the ultimate basis of
justice.
Properties of Justice. Justice is characterized by certain properties which it owes to the fact that its demands
constitute basic and essential requirements for the existence and development of the human person and
society.
THE DEMANDS OF JUSTICE ARE ENFORCEABLE. Every community takes provisions and creates
authorities to enforce the rights of its members against those who disregard and violate them.
THE DEMANDS OF JUSTICE ARE OF DEFINITE AND DETERMINABLE NATURE, at least as a rule.
Insofar as justice excludes certain actions as strictly unlawful, it states in a definitive way what must be
omitted.
THE DEMANDS OF RETRIBUTION. Violated claims of justice on principle demand restitution, or at least
compensation if the damage inflicted cannot be repaired, e.g., in a case of mutilation.
The Forms of Justice
In the classical definition1 of justice two basic forms of justice are distinguished: (1) ATTRIBUTIVE
JUSTICE which is justice that leaves to every person what is own by right and attributes to it what he really
is; and (2) PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE, justice that renders to every person what is due by right. But
Peschke also mentioned a third, RETRIBUTIVE or VINDICATORY JUSTICE, justice that demands
indemnification of the injured person and active punishment of the offender. This is in view of requirements
of social coexistence and human development that are also the demands of justice.
1
See Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (CSDC), Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2004),
201: According to its most classic formulation, (justice) “consists in the constant and firm will to give their due [by
right] to God and neighbor.” From a subjective point of view, justice is translated into behavior that is based on the
will to recognize the other as a person, while, from an objective point of view, it constitutes the decisive criteria of
morality in the intersubjective and social sphere.
30
The proportional justice is subdivided into four subspecies:
(1) COMMUTATIVE OR CONTRACTUAL JUSTICE commands exchange of goods and services take
place according to strict equality of values (e.g., commercial exchange, just regulation of prices, just
remuneration for labor/work and insurance of contracts). It is mainly based on contracts.
(2) DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE regulates the relations of a community with its members. It demands that
benefits and burdens be distributed in the community according to the principle of proportional equality
(e.g., the gradation of direct taxes according to income), according to needs, capabilities and merits.
(3) CONTRIBUTIVE OR LEGAL JUSTICE obliges the members of a community to comply with the
demands of the common good (e.g. tax laws, social legislation, military service). It is concerned with the
general good of the community. Every person has the strict duty to contribute the share to the common
good of those communities which essentially help it in securing existence and self-realization or assist it in
the fulfillment of its obligations.
(4) SOCIAL JUSTICE2 refers to the economic welfare of social groups. As such it demands a proportionate
share for the social partners in the fruits of their economic cooperation. It demands a proportionate equitable
distribution of the wealth of a nation among the different groups and regions of a society. It speaks of human
dignity, of “proportionate share,” i.e., of the fruit of the economic process (proportionate according to one’s
contribution and responsibility; different from “proportionalism”), and of the concentration in the hand of a
minority that must be avoided.
SOURCES:
Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church.
Peschke, Karl H. Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II. Vol. 2. Revised Ed. 7th
Printing. Manila: Logos Publications, Inc., 2001.
14. The common goal and the existential ends of men can be realized if common good is promoted by
the society. The aim and function of society is common good. As conditions of social living, common
good will be achieved if the society promotes solidarity and subsidiarity. Society necessitates the
principles of solidarity and subsidiarity as orientation.
Outline:
I. Notion of Society
A. Definition
A.1 Wide Sense
A.2 Restricted Sense
B. Distinction between Community and Society
B.1 Community
B.2 Society
C. The main cohesive force of a Society
II. Common Good
A. Definition
B. Twofold Understanding of Common Good
C. Conditions of Social Living
D. Functions of Common Good
E. Limits of the Scope of the Common Good
2
See QA issued by Pope Pius XI in 1931 and CSDC, 202: Ever greater importance has been given to social justice,
which represents a real development in general justice that regulates social relationships according to the criterion of
observance of the law. Social justice… concerns the social, political and economic aspects and, above all, the
structural dimension of problems and their solutions.
31
III. Principle of Solidarity
A. Definition
B. The Relevance of the Principle of Solidarity
IV. Principle of Subsidiarity
A. Definition
B. Twofold Meaning
C. Range of the Principle
I. Notion of Society
A. Definition of Society
A.1 Society in the wide sense is a lasting association of men for the attainment of a common good.
Society can be divided into two necessary societies:
1. Necessary or Natural or primary societies
e.g. - Family, tribe or nation are necessitated by nature. Although men usually accept
their belonging to these societies and by free consent agree to it, they necessarily pertain to them, even if
they should dislike their being a member of them.
2. Voluntary or secondary societies, which results from freely chosen purposes
e.g. - religious societies, educational societies, joint stock companies, clubs for sports
and entertainment, etc.
A.2 Society in the restricted sense defined as a lasting association of men for the attainment of their
existential ends. This definition applies to communities necessitated by nature, to religious communities, to
educational societies, but not to join stock company or a bridge club. Only in the societies of restricted sense
impose more serious social obligations (e.g. duties of obedience) and hence are of particular interest to
moral theology.
The following are their existential ends:
Self- preservation
Self-perfection
Procreation and education of children
Promotion of common utility
Care for the welfare of one’s fellowman
Commitment to goodness and value in its transcendent form
B. Distinction between Community and Society
The term society and community are often used interchangeably, which indicates that there is no
definite distinction between them. Nevertheless the two terms imply a difference in emphasis.
B.1 Community is preferably used for associations of men which are primarily concerned with the
inner development of the group, i.e. with the building of values important for the personal growth of their
members and of mutual ties of solidarity.
B.2 Society designates association of men which are characterized by systematic organization and
external institutions (laws, administrative bodies, governing officials) for the achievement of their goals.
The state exemplifies this form of association in atypical way. But the terms are never totally
exclusive of each other. No community is possible without a minimum of external organization and no
society is possible without the minimum of solidarity and personal interest of the members in one another.
C. The main cohesive force of a Society
- is the shared values, ideals and commitments of its members. They guarantee the dignity of men,
their freedom, equality, solidarity and creative genius. The stronger the affirmation of these values, the
stronger the cohesion of community, and vise versa.
II. Common Good

A. Definition
The common good is the sum of those conditions of social living whereby men/women are enabled
more readily and more fully to achieve their perfection and appointed ends (cf. GS 26; 74; DH 6). It
ultimately consists in good and values actualized in the members of society.
B. Conditions of Social Living (Elements of Genuine Progress)
1. Sound state of physical and mental health in society as a whole
2. Sufficient degree of education and schooling of its members
32
3. Opportunities of work for all
4. Favorable condition of religious, moral and cultural life
5. The good of social justice
6. Real freedom
7. Equality among men.
C. Functions of Common Good
C.1 It promotes and makes possible an integral human existence for its members. In the
realization of this goal man is helped by different societies, which all have their own common good
in order to assist him in the attainment of full humanity.
C.2 The common good is to preclude antisocial impulses in human nature from interfering
with the rights of others and with the social order. This aspect of the common good is realized by the
establishment and securing of peace and order. The most efficient means to it is the law of the state,
which has the power of coercion behind it.
E. Limits of the Scope of Common Good
The helps of the common good are meant to assist men in the realization of their tasks and existential
ends. Its function is therefore subsidiary and complementary. From this it follows that the common good is
not an end in itself. It stands in the service of the human personality and of God’s creative and salvific
design. This signifies that the human person can never become a mere means towards the common good and
the purposes of society. Man is always more than merely a part and cell of society. He is directly responsible
to God.
III. Principle of Solidarity
A. Definition
It signifies a bond of mutual concern and obligation. It is a firm commitment to the common good. It
makes the fraternity of men/women more concrete. The members have the responsibility for the common
good. The whole society is responsible for the Good of its members.
B. The Relevance of the principle of Solidarity
1. The strong must feel responsible for the weak
2. The weaker must do their best as well
3. A concrete mode of solidarity
4. The rich nations responsible for poorer ones.
IV. Principle of Subsidiarity

A. Definition
The principle of subsidiarity states that social institutions have an auxiliary and complementary
function concerning the tasks and needs of the smaller groupings and individuals.
The principle of subsidiarity protects the particular rights and competence of individuals against
excessive domination by societies, as well as the competence of minor associations against oppressive and
totalitarian claims of the larger society.
B. Twofold meaning
1. Negative Role: The state should leave to the individuals and groups what they can do by
themselves.
2. Positive Role: The State must subsidize where the individual and groups cannot do by
themselves.
C. Range of the Principle
As much individual responsibility as possible
As much intervention of the State as needed.
Sources:
Peschke, Karl H. Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vat. II, vol. 2 (Manila, Logos
Publication, 1994), 518-525.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #164-170.
33
15. At present, authority and obedience are perceived negatively. Yet the wisdom of authority and
obedience can be grasped in the context of human growth, service, rationality and function of
authority and formative aspect of obedience. IN case of abuse of authority, God and conscience
becomes significant
Outline
I. CONTEXT: AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE
II. CONTENT
 Authority
B. Distinction
a. Personal vs. Official/Social
b. Theoretical vs. Practical
C. Authority in Scriptures
D. Reasons for Authority.
E. Functions of Authority
a. Educational
b. Functional
c. Means
E. The exercise of authority in a spirit of service
 OBEDIENCE
A. Obedience in the past and present understanding
B. Obedience in the Scriptures
C. The need and value of Obedience
a. Educational Obedience
b. Functional Obedience
D. The practice of Obedience in a spirit of Co-responsibility
a. Responsible Obedience
b. Cooperative Obedience
III. INTEGRATION (Authority vs. Obedience)
I. CONTEXT:
 The perception of authority and obedience in the present day milieu and its role in human development.
II. CONTENT:
 Authority
-It is the supremacy of a person or an institution where in they are entitled to make demands to each
other for the good of an individual and of the society as well.
-Ordering and coordinating authority is necessary in the existence of any given community.
-The true and proper mission of authority as an institution is the enrichment and promotion of those
over whom it is exercised.
B. Distinction
a. Personal. Authority - The authority is based on a person’s intellectual,
professional, spiritual or moral superiority
Social Authority – Authority that is conferred by the society
b. Theoretical Authority – authority that is based on the special competence in a particular filed of
knowledge, science or religious faith. - -
- It appeals to acceptance by intellect.
Practical Authority – It is concerned with instruction for activities, prescriptions, discipline,
civil and ecclesiastical law
C. Authority in Scriptures
a. All authority is from God (Gen. 1:28, Rom.13:1)
b. Authority is for the common good (Mk.10:43-45; ; 1Pet.5;1-4; Rom.13:1-7)
D. Reasons for Authority
34
a. The special competence or skills of a person, including the obligation of helping others and the
right to acceptance.
b. That men and woman may be guided in the attainment of the common good
E. Functions of Authority
a. Educational – It assist the person in the attainment of personal maturity, independence and
responsibility (parents, teachers, pastors. etc)
b. Functional - It consist in the preservation of order in the society which may be considered as
its primordial task. (Civil government, police authority).
c. Means – By them the authority fulfills its task; primarily by persuasion of its subjects
concerning the necessity of the demands; only secondarily, may the authority have recourse to
coercion.
F. The exercise of authority in a spirit of service
Superiors must look upon their authority not as dominion but as service after the example of Christ.
They must be convinced that their subjects are nit just instruments in the achievement of goals but
rather as fellow workers who also have a direct responsibility toward God
 OBEDIENCE
- It is the promptness of the will to carry out the command of somebody in authority in the spirit
responsibility.
A. Obedience in the past and present understanding
Past – It is considered as value and was held in high esteem. They had a conviction that
man attains perfection only by giving up his own will and submitting to God’s
(Scholasticism)
Present - Obedience is considered as an obstacle on the way to self realization and
creative independence. It is a necessary evil and not a virtue
B. Obedience in the Scriptures
-Obedience to fellow human is derived from basic religious attitude but it is not identical with
obedience to god from whom it flows (Acts5:29)
O.T – Obedience to the Covenant statutes is the essence of OT morality;
disobedience against them is the essence of sin.
N.T. – Obedience to the Father’s will as a characteristic of Jesus’ mission and proof of
the disciples love for Jesus.
C. The need and value of Obedience
Obedience is primarily consist in the determination to accomplish the Will of God
Will of God is revealed to us through:

a. The revealed Word of God = Scriptures, Traditions and Magisterium
b. Demands and laws of nature
c. Authority
Obedience to: God – always good and unconditional
Man – derivative and conditioned and is conditioned as follows:
a. Educational Obedience – It is in the service of personal growth
- As guidance and instruction
b. Functional Obedience - It is in the service of the community.
- It deals with the coordination of competences for the welfare of the
whole society.
D. The practice of Obedience in a spirit of Co-responsibility

a. Responsible obedience – Obedience must be recognized as good at least in an implicit way
b. Cooperative obedience – To execute orders in an cooperative way for the sake of the common
Good
The limit of obedience – The obedience due to God allows disobeying human orders when they go
against natural or divine law or one’s conscience
35
III. INTEGRATION:
Authority and Obedience must not be perceive negatively or an hindrance to he development of
an individual and the society as well but rather to perceive it as a value and virtue that flows
from God for the purpose of order and coordination of the society and for the enrichment of an
individual and of the society that will to the attainment of common Good. Authority and
obedience is subject to abuse that will defeat its purpose and origin.
Sources:
Peschke, Karl H. Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vat. II, vol. 2 (Manila, Logos
Publication, 1994), 24, 48-56, 621, 525-530, 532- 541.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, “On Obedience”, #1900.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, “On Authority”, #1897-1899, 1901– 1904.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #380 – 383.
Thesis #16 Despite the crises of family today: divorce, weakening of parental authority, etc., but
family life and children are still the principal source of fulfillment for people. The reason must be the
nature and functions of the family. The community of parent is oriented towards wider family and
society.
I. CONTEXT:
In this particular thesis it focuses on the family in which according to GS, 47 Family is a
primordial community, font of new life, where the human person can normally develop bodily and
spiritually in a healthy fashion. However, now a day there are many changes happening that brought it to
crisis. High rate of divorce in many nations; strongly asserting independence of spouses; increasing number
of single parent; weakening of the authority of the parents over their children; increasing step-parents;
growing practice of non-marital unions.
Despite the fact, family is still enjoying high esteem in today’s world; highest priority is attributed
to the family for meaningful life; family life and children still a principal source of happiness for people;
monogamous marriage is commonly considered the basis of family.
II. CONTENT:
A. Nature and functions of the family
The natural structure of the family as the community of parents and children: the needs and
inclinations of the child; the affections and innate tendencies of the parents; the ties of blood with all the
bodily and spiritual affinities.
a. What are the Basic Functions of the Family as the primary unity?
Economic Function:
- provision for food, shelter and clothing; the contribution of all the members is demanded; there
is a need for a responsible household management
Educational Function:
- Basic education in the family (the basic understanding of the world around them); agent of
education (primarily the parents, but also the children themselves, and the children toward their
parents).
Spiritual Religious Function:
- Exchange of ideas, faith, experience joys, and sorrows; mutual sympathy and friendship;
religious values sense of belonging.
B. Mutual rights and Obligation of Spouses:
In this context, the man and woman being bind together becomes one according to our faith. Being
bind together it presupposes also that they are united in heart and in mind. Thus, it calls for solidarity in all
needs of body and soul.
b. What are the obligations of Spouses toward each other in the context of family:
· Trust and awareness which grants a security which bridges over anxieties
· Openness to each other which makes a spouse share his or her own joys and sorrows with
the others.
· Ability to confront difficulties and differences in the Spirit of the Gospel.
· Willingness to grow continually in tolerance and forgiveness.
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· Mutual right and duty to marital act, but also the obligation to live their sexuality with
due respect for the dignity of the other.
· Both spouses have the duty to seek after the material and spiritual welfare of the family,
though partly in different roles.
C. Parental duties:
The fact that the parents have given life to their children it is there responsibility also to rear and
protect them from any danger with loving care. As such, it is the duty of the parents to feed and help
them in their spiritual and mental development in all aspects of life.
a. What are the duties of the parents?
- A well-ordered love. Love as the fundamental parental obligation; to avoid its defects: too little
or exaggerated love harshness, undue punishments, leniency, favoritisms, over possessiveness,
lack of social contact, isolation in the family circle; to foster openness/sympathy tow/ outside
world.
- Provide for life, health and material well being of the children
Education. To look after the spiritual welfare of the child, e.g.:
a. development of the children’s personality
b. intellectual training and schooling
c. religious education and instruction
d. to help discerning about state of life and vocation.
e. to accustom children to work and to provide a profession for livelihood.
D. Parental Rights:
- They have the first and inalienable duty and right to educate their children in every aspect of
live (Vat II GE, 6).
- They have the original and primary right to determine the child’s basic religious and moral
education.
- Right to freely select schools and other educational means according to their moral and
religious outlook.
- Right to proportionate contribution from the state to the private schools of their choice.
- Right to an adequate help by the state for the upbringing of their children.
E. Limits of parental duties and right:
- Children: they are not property of parents; they have their own dignity/conscience as human
beings; right to develop an individual personality; right of freedom in matter of religion.
- State and Church in the field of schooling.
- Teachers, guardians and relatives.
F. Duties of children toward parents:
- Reverence and honor. The 4th commandment of the Decalogue; if parents are found to be
irresponsible, they will greatly hinder the development of true reverence in the child’s heart.
Reverence to parents flows fro the mystery of life, in which they are cooperators with God.
- Obedience. The former brings about the duty of obedience. The child should learn the capacity
for discrimination and the right attitude towards mistaken commands.
- Love and gratitude. Because of life, livelihood, education and other benefits children owe to
their parents, there should be gratitude expressed in words and signs.
G. The concept of a wider family. (Peschke, 548 ff.)
Domestic servants and maids belong to the family in the wider sense, and the employer
should see in them more than just workers and wage earners.
What should be the attitude needed to it?
a. Duties of Justice: Both the employers and servants should follow the terms of the contract.
On the part of the employer:
- To pay just wages.
- Not to overburden the servants with work.
- To grant them a reasonable measure of free time.
- Not to dismiss them without sufficient reasons.
(Cf. CCC,, 2221 – 2231; Cf. CCC, 2214 – 2220; Peschke, p.563 ff)
On the part of the servants:
- To measure their work up to the wage benefits they received.
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- To obey with regard to work and domestic order.
- To follow any further agreements without the bridge of contract.
b. Duties of loyalty and personal care

On the part of the employer:
- It has parental duty toward the younger servants.
- To look after corporal/spiritual welfare of servant.
- To prevent loose talk, cursing, and impure language.
- To be watchful regarding the danger of sin.
- To take precautions against servants who might endanger its children or other employees.
- To have special duties of loyalty and respect to servants of long service.
On the part of the servants:
- Sympathetic interest in the family
- To hold to discreet silence about family matters
- To be respectful and properly behaving.
III. INTEGRATION:
The family is the basic unit in the society. It is in the family where the human person fully develops
his physical, mental, and spiritual need. However the ideal views of family today becomes distorted
because of the problems that threaten the sanctity in the life of the family. That’s why there are families
who are no longer united because they themselves experience brokenness. It is obvious that the high rate of
divorce particularly in Western countries affect the life of the children and the entire families, single parent
which is common happen when a father or mother goes to abroad to earn better income to their families, the
non-marital unions and other factors that weaken the good values of the family.
It is good that the family should be protected from the different threats totally ruin the union of the
family. Parents should protect and raise there children in the Christian values. This is their primary goal as
parents and head of the family. However, children too have their own responsibility toward there parent. In
fact, this duty of the children has been stated in the 4th command in the Old Testament, to give reverence and
honor them. With this kind of attitude it shows also our obedience, love, and gratitude to our parents.
However family does not confine their duty only to there children since family in a wider sense it
includes the extended family and even to there servants/maids. It is the obligation or duty of the employer to
look for the spiritual or corporate welfare of there servants/maids….
Lastly, one could easily recognize what kind of society has through the lives of individual family
living in a certain community.
Thesis # 17
17. The power of the state (its rights and duties) is acceptable if universal common good is promoted. The
limits of its power must be viewed upon the assertion of the oppressed citizens. The rights and duties
of both the state and the citizens find clarity in the nature and origin of the state, concept, purpose
and its moral character.
I. CONCEPT OF STATE
II. ORIGIN OF STATE
A. Human nature and God
B. Need of human groups
C. Free agreement of citizens
III. PURPOSE OF THE STATE
A. Ordering function
B. Welfare function
IV. MORAL CHARACTER OF THE STATE
A. The state is part of the moral order
1. The social nature of man is created by God.
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2. So the state is willed by God.
B. CONSEQUENCES OF THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE STATE
1. The state can also appeal to conscience.
2. Citizens on their part are bound up to back up political authorities.
DISCUSSION
The state enjoys pre-eminence, not to mention acceptance, over all the other natural societies for the reason
that it has to take care of the universal common good of the civic community. The moral rights and duties
of the state as well as the limits of its power on the one hand and the moral rights and duties of the citizens
regarding this state on the other essentially depend on the conception of the nature and origin of the state, its
purpose and its moral character.
There are varying views of the nature of the state which impinge on common good. If the state is the “moral
universe” with the highest, even divine rights (as held by Hegel & Marx) then the power of the state is
almighty and resistance against it is immoral. Or if the state is nothing else than a servant of the well-being
of the individual, it cannot reach out to supra-individual and supra-national goals, e.g. the advancement of
less developed nations, but will be narrowed down to individualist and nationalist functions. In both cases,
common good doesn’t seem to be the main concern.
Christian philosophy, however sees the state as a servant of the common good as well as the servant of the
purpose and plan of God. It merely reflects the concept that the state is not the highest purpose of human
existence. While human beings have existential and natural rights that the state power has to respect, the
state is not merely the servant of the individual welfare and interests. Both the state and the human beings
are ultimately called to serve God’s Kingdom and his salvific plan.
Concept of the State

The state is an independent (or sovereign) political community—the higher sovereignty. In a more complete
way the state is defined as a geographically delimited society endowed with a supreme authority for the
establishment of the universal common good. It is distinguished from smaller communities and also from
religious communities (e.g., Church). The State enjoys preeminence over all the other natural and voluntary
societies for the reason that it has to take care of the universal common good of the civic community. In its
quality as supreme, public authority possesses the power of ultimate decision, which has the primacy over
all the other temporal societies within the territory. The establishment of the common good is circumscribed
by a positive legal and constitutional order, which also determines and legalizes the political authority. The
state is traditionally termed a “perfect society” because it possesses all the means necessary for the
attainment of its needs and ends and therefore it is independent of other societies.
Origin of the State

Peschke identifies ontic and juridical origin of state as follows:
1. Human nature and God. The state is a necessity founded in human nature, and consequently has God
for its author, not of human will (Leo XIII as quoted in PT; GS 74). The necessity of the state and of
state authority ultimately has its source in God himself, who has created man as a social and political
being (Aristotle and St. Thomas).
2. Need of human groups. Many important and necessary tasks cannot be achieved without the help of the
state as proven by experience. Existential ends, whether by individuals and by groups, can only be
realized fully under the protection of the state through its organizing and coordinating power. Same is
true with universal goals of humankind. Hence, the state in its substance is a demand of human beings’
constitution.
3. Free agreement of the citizens. The concrete form of a state and the concrete political order depend on
this. “The state and its structure pertain at least as much to men’s free will and pleasure as does the
style in which they build their houses (J.Messner).” Hence, any form of government is possible (PT 67f)
except for totalitarian state because of it does not recognize any limits to its arbitrary power. The
decisive factor here is the state’s willingness and ability to serve the common good and its disposition to
respect fundamental rights of human beings.
39
Purpose of the State
The purpose of the state is the promotion of the general, political common good. It is especially important
that the common good of all be promoted without preference for any single citizen or civic group. This
implies that particular attention be given to the less fortunate members of the community, since they are
less able to defend their rights and to assert their claims.
Peschke distinguished two main functions:
A. Ordering Function, which consists in:

1. Establishment of social justice and legal order.
2. Securing of domestic tranquility.
3. Provision of common defense.
B. Welfare Function
1. Promotion of economic, sanitary, ecological, cultural welfare.
2. Creating the conditions of social cooperation in those areas.
Moral Character of the State

Since the state has its foundation in human nature which is God’s will, it is part of the moral order. State
authority is an order willed by God and can appeal to conscience as Holy Scripture repeatedly asserts (Rom
13:1-7). Regard for the common good is a very important part of the moral responsibility of the person.
Inasmuch as the functions of the state are “fundamental for the performance of all man’s tasks in the
material and cultural spheres, its value is the most comprehensive in comparison with the individual values
in these spheres; hence, it is a distinct moral value of very high rank” (Messner). This means that the state as
a realization of the moral idea can appeal to each one’s moral duty to collaborate readily for the good of all.
A particular indication of the moral nature of the state is its securing of a minimum of morality among men.
The moral character of the state is also what gives moral justification to the use of force in the service of its
orders. Citizens from their side are expected to feel responsible for the state. They are obliged to support it
by their cooperation in the realization of the common tasks.
SOURCE:
Peschke, Karl H. Christian Ethics; Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II. Vol. 2. Revised edition.
Manila: Logos Publications, 1994: 565-570.
Thesis # 18 (Social Ethics # 6)
The right of the state to death penalty is biblically based. Even St. Thomas argued that killing a
criminal is like amputating diseased organ of the human organism. In view of the common good, it is
lawful, but death penalty is against the value of life (human dignity), St. Thomas’ presentation must
be reinterpreted, the dynamism of Jesus’ love commandment, corrupt state has no right to death
penalty, many states abolish death penalty for humanitarian reasons, in short, it is inhuman and
unchristian.
Outline:
I. Problem: Whether the state has the right to death penalty
II. In the Sacred Scriptures:
A. In the OT
B. In the NT
III. Arguments:
A. Right of the State to Inflict Punishments
B. Reparation Theory
C. Death Penalty as a Deterrent to Crimes
40
D. Aquinas: Protection of the Common Weal
Granted that the state has the right to punish in general, it is today controverted whether it also has
the right to the death penalty. The latter right recently is often questioned on humanitarian grounds, and in
several states capital punishment has lately been abolished. Thus it must be discussed whether the state has
the right and may be also the obligation to inflict death penalty for major crimes. Holy Scriptures in the Old
Testament expressly attribute to the state both the right and the obligation of the death penalty for more
serious crimes. “For blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for blood that is
shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Num. 35:33; also Gen 9:5; Ex. 21:12-25; Num. 35:16-
34). The lex talionis allows and demands the death sentence for the murderer only and excludes the abusive
killing of an innocent member of the evil-doers clan by blood revenge, as was the frequent practice in
ancient times. Besides murder other serious crimes are punished with death, e.g. blasphemy, grave sexual
offences, idolatry, etc. Later Judaism however shows more and more restraint in the application of the death
penalty.
Since the New Testament is the perfection of the Old, the regulations of the Old Law cannot, without
further examination, be applied to the present order of grace. The NT is less explicit than the OT.
Nevertheless it nowhere denies the state the right to capital punishment. In his trial before Pilate, Jesus does
not contest the governor’s authority over life and death (Jn. 19:10f). And Rom 13:4 doubtless presumes the
authority of the state to penalize with the sword. “If you do wrong, be afraid, for he (the person in authority)
does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.” From this
teaching of the Bible as well as from the entire Christian tradition we must conclude that the state in
principle has the right to inflict capital punishment for serious crimes. Also today, “and this is valid without
distinction of confessions, no questioning in principle has come to pass yet, at most a declaration of the
inopportuneness of its application.”
The reasons listed for the right of the state to impose punishments in general do not all equally prove
the right to inflict the death penalty as well. The transgressor is not able to be reformed by this penalty.
Nevertheless if he accepts his death in a spirit of atonement for the irresponsibility of his actions, his dignity
as a moral being will be restored. (In 1976, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore successfully insisted on his
right to die for his crimes in Utah, U.S.A.) This can still be considered a reformation of the criminal, which
is of a profound social and religious significance.
The reparation theory requires that the wound inflicted on the body politic should be repaired by him
who caused it, the graver the wound, the graver satisfaction required. People have often judged that the most
commensurate atonement for very serious crimes should be the death of the criminal. If however a
community concludes that under the concrete conditions of the time other severe forms of expiation can
restore justice and suffice as atonement for even very grave crimes, it is up to the prudent judgment of a
nation to substitute other punishments for the death penalty. Two additional factors would argue in favor of
such a substitution if possible: first, the great difficulty of completely excluding the execution of an innocent
person, and second, the difficulty of drawing a clear-cut line between sanity and insanity.
As to the deterrent effect of the difficulty, criminologists question whether it is any greater than that
of other grave penalties (e.g. of lifelong imprisonment). The validity of this objection however still needs
further careful examination. A comparison is often made between states which have abolished the death
penalty and others which theoretically still retain but hardly ever inflict it. On this condition it cannot be
surprising that the deterrent effect in the latter states is no greater than in the states which have abolished the
penalty. But in states where the death penalty is still inflicted resolutely and therefore a real threat to the
criminal, the crime rate seems to be reduced effectively. The effectiveness of the deterrence, namely, is
generally stronger the greater the chance is that a crime will be avenged with the threatened penalty. The
strong and very common conviction of people of all times that the death penalty is a deterrent and that
criminals fear death more than lifelong imprisonment might not be just a plain deception after all.
Of special importance in this question is the argument taken from the protection of the common
weal. (Cf. Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. II-II. Q. 64, a. 2: Killing a criminal that is a danger to the community and
of a corrupting influence in it is like amputating a diseased member of the human organism, and so is
lawful, even praiseworthy for the common good.) Criminals who seriously endanger the welfare of other
citizens and of the community have to be hindered from their pernicious activity. Whether this necessity to
protect the public requires the death of the criminal or not, depends on the question whether his death is the
only efficient and morally possible means of safeguarding the life and well-being of the community of
41
citizens. (Opponents of capital punishment sometimes argue that in this case the man is being used as a mere
means, which is judged inadmissible. But Kant himself, the author of the maxim, does not see a contrariety
between the principle and capital punishment, which he upholds. So does Hegel.)That means in its
consequences: different penalties can be justified for the same crime at different times and in different
circumstances (e.g. peace and war). The death penalty can be both justified and necessary in certain
circumstances; in other circumstances it may not be necessary. That largely depends on whether or not a
state is morally in the condition to keep the criminals under safe detention.
The argument from the defense of the common weal also holds for insane persons who endanger the
life of others. If a community is not in a condition to provide for a secure detention, as e.g. in primitive
societies, the right to self-defense of the community would also justify the killing of a dangerous lunatic.
Even though in his case no formal crime is had, he is nevertheless a materially unjust aggressor against the
life of others, although after his capture for the time being only a potential one.
Under the presupposition that the state is able to protect the common weal against crime just as well
by other penalties as by capital punishment, the latter can in principle be substituted by those other
penalties. For it cannot be proved that the state must unconditionally avail itself of the right to inflict the
death penalty; although it is not equally evident that the state is even obliged to abolish the death penalty in
this case altogether. But wherever the death penalty is in force, sufficient precautions must be taken that an
error of law and a judicial murder be precluded. Moreover some authority in the state must have the right of
pardon to commute death sentence into other penalties. In the case of dangerous lunatics, of course, security
detention would be imperative if this rather than their death can guarantee the protection of the community.
Source:
Karl H. Peschke, Christian Ethics, pp. 584-588.
19. While the state protects citizens’ rights, the latter have their corresponding duties: love for one’s
country, civic responsibility and participation, and obligation to pay taxes. But as state authority is
exposed to the excesses and corruption of rulers, morality provides the norms on the resistance
against illegitimate rulers and even the legitimate rulers.
I. Definition and Nature of the State

II. Duties and Responsibility of Citizens (Engaged Citizenships)
a. Love for one’s country
b. Civic Responsibility and Participation
c. Obligation to Pay Taxes
III. Resistance against illegitimate rulers
IV. Resistance against legitimate rulers
I. DEFINITION AND NATURE OF THE STATE

The state is an independent (or sovereign) political community—the higher sovereignty. In a more
complete way the
state is defined as a geographically delimited society endowed with a supreme authority for the
establishment of the
universal common good.
It is distinguished from smaller communities and also from religious communities (e.g., Church). The
State enjoys
preeminence over all the other natural and voluntary societies for the reason that it has to take care of the
universal
CG of the civic community.
In its quality as supreme, public authority possesses the power of ultimate decision, which has the
primacy over all the
other temporal societies within the territory.
The establishment of the common good is circumscribed by a positive legal and constitutional order,
which also
42
determines and legalizes the political authority.
The state is traditionally termed a “perfect society” because it possesses all the means necessary for the
attainment of
its needs and ends and therefore it is independent of other societies.
A. PURPOSE OF THE STATE

The purpose of the state is the promotion of the general, political common good. Two main functions:
A. ORDERING FUNCTION
1. Establishment of social justice and legal order.
2. Securing of domestic tranquility.
3. Provision of common defense.
B. WELFARE FUNCTION
1. Promotion of economic, sanitary, ecological, cultural welfare.
2. Creating the conditions of social cooperation in those areas.
B. MORAL CHARACTER OF THE STATE
A. THE STATE IS PART OF THE MORAL ORDER; this is so because:
1. The social nature of man is created by God.
2. So the state is willed by God.
II. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITY OF CITIZENS (ENGAGED CITIZENSHIP)

A. LOVE FOR ONE’S COUNTRY
Patriotism is the basic duty for citizens, i.e., love and gratitude for one’s moral, cultural, religious
environment.
It demands the readiness to defend the just causes of one’s country.
Patriotism is not mere nationalism. True patriotism means also love and respect for another’s nation.
B. CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY AND PARTICIPATION
a. Scope of Civic Responsibility
The duty to comply with just laws.
The duty to pray for the authorities.
Constructive cooperation (common good, pay taxes, respect social laws).
b. Civil disobedience
It is a non-violent resistance in the form of an intentional violation of certain laws otherwise duly enacted
and
approved for the majority. It is a call for the attention to the minorities.
c. Right and Duty to vote
C. OBLIGATION TO PAY TAXES
Obligation confirmed by Christ (Mk 12.13-17).
Citizens are obliged to contribute their share to the necessity of the state, whose help they need, by
which they profit,
and which also assumes certain obligations in the citizens’ place.
III. PRINCIPLES IN THE RESISTANCE VS. ILLEGITIMATE RULERS (Those who hold the
government without a just title)
a. Citizens do not owe any obedience to illegitimate rulers; they can rather fight with the legitimate power.
b. Limited obligation of obedience to the orders of the usurpers once they have gained assured control and
as long as
they are in power. Justifications:
For the sake of the common good
This does not prejudice the right of the legitimate rulers to call citizens for resistance
c. After the illegitimate rulers have attained the peaceful possession of power, their authority can become
legitimate in
the course of time.
Necessity to spare the civic community for further disasters and instability
A tyrant can never become legitimate
43
 former authority cannot claim legitimacy anymore [in case of revolution]
A
IV. RESISTANCE VS. LEGITIMATE RULERS
God is the supreme authority.
Obedience to the state authority has its limit in Natural Law, Divine Law and common good.
Means of resistance:
1. Utilization of the legally afforded means
2. Passive Resistance: Non-violent refusal to obey laws if the laws are against Divine Law, Natural Law,
common good,
or the fundamental values of human life.
3. Active Resistance: Organized defense against the abuse of state authority
a) Non-violent forms
Mobilizing the public opinion.
Appealing to higher juridical tribunal.
Mass demonstrations.
General strike.
b) Violent resistance
1) Reasons for violent resistance
Natural Law: safeguard human rights.
State authority should promote the common good.
Moral theology: right to self defense in imminent and violent aggression.
2) Conditions for violent resistance
Gross continued and widespread abuse of civil authority against the essential freedom and common
good.
All peaceful and non-violent means of resistance have been exhausted without success.
There must be a well-founded hope that the violent resistance will prove successful and that the civil
conditions will not worsen.
Limitation of force to the necessary and sufficient measure.
The decision must be made by the person acknowledged as representative of the community.
20. The church cannot just too spiritualistic and ascetical to the extent of denying the affairs of the
world, politics and human rights. The church must be in the world. The harmonious and equitable
relation between church and state must follow some basic guidelines and the appropriate
understanding of the two institutions.
Outline:
I. The Church
II. Tasks of the Church’s Authority
1. Teacher of the Divine Truth
2. Mediator between God and Man
3. Building of the Christian community
4. The Church as servant in her ministry
III. Church and State
1. Basic Principle
2. Guidelines for the relations between Church and State
i. The Church has the right to work and to govern herself in full
Freedom from state intervention.
ii. The Church does not posses any political power over the temporal
Order.
iii. The State does not posses any authority over the spiritual, religious
Order.
iv. The Church posses a plenary teaching office, which also extends
Over the moral laws governing political life.
v. The State has the right and duty to protect religious freedom and to
Promote conditions favorable to religious life.
44
IV. The Church is the Conscience of the Nation
V. Religious Tolerance
I. The Church
The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or
afflicted in anyway, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.3 In the
midst of mankind and in the world the church is the sacrament of God’s love and hope. She inspires and
sustains every authentic undertaking for and commitment to human liberation and advancement.4 Thus, as
minister of salvation, the Church is not in the abstract nor in a merely spiritual dimension, but in the context
of the history and of the world in which man lives.5
II. TASKS OF CHURCH’S AUTHORITY

: The church is the sacrament of salvation (communion with God and unity among human beings.)
LG, 1. The main functions of the Church are the mediation of religious truths and care for the religious life
on the one hand and the building of Christian communities and the promotion of brotherhood among men
on the other.
A. .TEACHER OF DIVINE TRUTH

The foremost duty of the ministers of the Church is the preaching of the Word of God whose service
demands:
· Truthful meditation of the Word.
· In agreement with the Church.
· In faithfulness to the Gospel and without fear of man.
· Distinguish personal views from “in the name of the Church.”
· Care for catechetical instruction.
· Constant formation and study.
B. MEDIATOR BET/ GOD AND HUMANKIND
1. Care for the service of worship
· Celebration of liturgy, sacraments, rites, and devotions.
· Maintenance of religious things and buildings.
2. Spiritual direction and guidance
3. Duties concerning the personal life of the minister
· Care for personal union with God in prayer.
· Daily office of the hours and Mass.
· Way of life befitting to priestly office.
· Striving after perfection.
C. BUILDING OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
1. The office of the pastor comprises:
· Promotion of religious and apostolic associations.
· Charity and Christian education.
· Defense of justice, love, and truth in public life.
2. Foster a spirit of communion and cooperation.
3. Implementation of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
D. THE CHURCH AS SERVANT IN HER MINISTRY
1. The Church is meant to be the sign of God’s will of salvation in Christ, in the spirit of service.
2. Live on the example of Christ.
3. Live in imitation of Mary.
THE CHURCH AS…
a. Bearer of moral tradition (the “servant of the Word”).
b. Community of moral deliberation, enabling and assisting people to make prudential decisions.
c. Shaper of moral character toward personal and social transformation (about the formation of both,
personal and social conscience).10
III. THE CHURCH AND THE STATE
3
Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1AAs 58(1966), 1025.
4
Compendium of the Social doctrine of the Church, 37
5
GS, 32
45
1. Basic Principles
Church and State have different objectives and are autonomous in their own fields: state, temporal;
church, spiritual. Yet, they are also related as to subjects, temporal needs, and the divine calling in the
Kingdom of God.
The State must accept diversity of religions and religious beliefs (no official or State religion). No public
funds should be used by the State to support one religion against others. Separation bet/ Church and State
does not mean or imply separation bet/ God and politics (engaged citizenship).
2. Guidelines for the relations between Church and State

i. The Church has the right to work and govern herself in full freedom from the state intervention.
ii. The Church does not posses any political power over the temporal order.
iii. The state does not posses authority in matter of religion order.
iv. The Church possesses the plenary teaching office, which also extends over the moral laws
governing political life.
IV. GS, 76: The Church is the CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION.

The state has the right and duty to protect religious freedom and to promote conditions favorable to
religious life.
3. Mixed areas
· Religious instruction in schools.
· Social institutions like schools, hospitals and other charitable works.
· Holydays with religious significance.
· Filling of state’s positions: military chaplain.
4. Separation bet/ Church and state
· The state should not identify with religion and vice versa.
V. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
The choice of religion is a matter of conscience. Religious tolerance is not a mere indifferentism (all
the religions are the same), but is to respect the beliefs of all especially of other religious groups. The state
should intervene against abuses of the freedom of religion and conscience.
_________________________________________________
Karl H. Peschke, Chrsitian Ethics Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II vol. 2 p615-
ECONOMIC ETHICS
21. Human beings have the right: to work and to just recompense or just wage, to protection and
social security, but these rights can only be deserving if our moral duties to work, of conscientious
preparation for one’s professions will be faithfully complied.
Outline
A. Rights of Human beings
a. Right to work
b. Right to just recompense or just wage
c. Right to protection and social security
d. Right to organized and to strike
B. Duties of Human beings
a. Duties to work
b. Duties of conscientious preparation for one’s professions
A. Rights of human beings
46
a. RIGHT TO WORK
Vatican II asserts the right to work (GS 67). This right follows from man’s right and obligation of self-
preservation, support his dependants and from his calling to cooperate with God in the plan of creation.
Right to work refers to any kind of work whether paid and unpaid. “It is duty of society… to help citizens
and opportunities for adequate employment.”6 (GS 67). Those who are able and willing to work and who
depend on their wage for their livelihood cannot find employment; they have a claim to be assisted by the
community. The right to existence also gives them the right to the necessary means for it. Unemployment
gives psychological problem to a person because they begin to loose their sense of worth and human
dignity.7
b. THE RIGHT TO JUST WAGE

Wage is a contractual remuneration for labor service; a compensation for dependent work which is a
work contract. Pope Leo XIII (Rerum Novarum), the wage ought not to be in any way insufficient for the
bodily needs, livelihood for his wife and children. Quadregesimo Anno and Meter et Magistra by John
XXIII, completing the doctrine of Leo XIII. They emphasize that just wage is to be determined not by one
factor, but by consideration and several factors. COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE – means a demand equivalent
between service and remuneration. The worker must receive a wage, which corresponds to the service
he/she renders, and energy he/she spends. It must be adequate in supporting his/her family in decent
conditions. An income sufficient to afford food, rent or buy a house, suitable education and medical care.
Commutative justice demands that equal workmanship receives equal compensation while higher efficiency
is also entitled to higher remuneration. CRITERIA OF SOCIAL JUSTICE – the wage must allow the worker
care for his/her spiritual and cultural needs. It must enable to perform the role of society, which is the one
supposed to perform. The social encyclicals make it a point that the wage income should be so high as to
enable that thrifty worker to make some savings and acquire moderate property, insurance, old age, sickness
and unemployment.8
c. RIGHT TO PROTECTION AND SOCIAL SECURITY

In the beginning of industrialization was not only characterized by too low, unjust wages but also too
long working hours, want of vacations, insufficient safety measures, overtaxing of women and worst of all
child labor. The workers have the right to be protected against them.
Leo XIII demands that the workers be treated as human beings and not as slaves or mere things for
gain. Basic right of Leo XIII – employers and state are obliged to protect workers from religious and moral
harm. Man has the right to have adequate period office time to attend to their religious obligations and
renew their energy. There are four categories of social insurance: (a) Old Age, invalid and survivors
insurance, (b) Health and maternity insurances (c) Work injuries insurance (d) Unemployment insurance.9
d. THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE AND TO STRIKE

In order to enforce and protect their rights, workers have organized themselves into trade unions.
They enable the workers to bargain for just labor contracts in a collective way. Workers acting in concert are
more powerful than the individual alone. Strike is the refusal to work on the part of the organized workers.
The refusal of employers to admit the workers to work is called a lockout.10
B. Duties of Human Beings
a. The duty of work

Work is a normal way of self-preservation. It is ordinarily by his work that a person satisfies his
material needs and the needs of others. Vatican II stresses that every man's duty to labor faithfully (GS 67).
For every man is called to save his fellowmen and to cooperate with God in the unfolding of his creation,
naturally to the extent that he is able to do so. Work in a wider sense includes adoration in contemplative
6
Vat II Doc. Gaudium et Spes, 67.
7
Karl H. Peschke, Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light Vatican II. Vol. II Rev. Ed. (Sta. Cruz: Divine Word
Publication), 641.
8
Peschke, 643.
9
Peschke, 647.
10
Peschke,650-654.
47
life. Work here is universal duty. It is an obligation towards the different communities which contribute to
the welfare of a person. It is a duty towards God, who created man to govern the world and to bring creation
to perfection.11
b. The duty of conscientious preparation for one's profession.

The significance and purpose of work further demands that a person choose his profession
responsibly and prepare himself conscientiously for it. The responsible choice of profession requires above
all the sober, realistic assessment of one's talents and capabilities. One can choose that profession where
one believes that one can serve God, oneself and one's fellowmen best. Having made is choice; he must
prepare himself for it conscientiously. Negligent preparation is a sin against God, oneself and neighbor.12
22. Liberal capitalism, Marxist socialism, social market economy and democratic socialism are
different thoughts that provides us with different economic view/theories are insufficient and
unacceptable to catholic social teaching but some views agree with the material basic orientation.
A. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC THEORIES

1. Liberal capitalism
2. Marxist socialism
3. The social doctrine of the church
4. Social market economy
B. The Authentic Ends of Social Economy
1. Immediate ends of economy
2. ultimate ends of economy
Two fundamentally opposed social theories have greatly influenced society and economy in the
contemporary age: liberal capitalism and Marxist socialism. Liberal capitalism is a radical liberalism. The
main theory of liberal capitalism centers on the demand for the greatest possible economic freedom of the
individual from state authority and from moral values: free enterprise, free competition, and free trade. This
is merely based on Profit or Utilitarianism. The law of supply and demand ought to regulate the entire
economic process.
The main contributions of these are the ff.

Creativity is possible (e.g., innovation and inventions).
Free enterprise and trade.
Creating wealth and power.
In spite of these strengths there are also weaknesses

Individualist and impersonal (e.g., competition)
Overemphasis on “supply-and-demand” law.
Demand of freedom, pushed too much to the point of rejecting moral norms/values.
Work becomes mere commodity; people is hired for what they do; little participation in decisions.
Wealth and power in the hands of few.
The MARXIST SOCIALISM

The main idea of Marxist socialism is the abolition of private property and enterprise.
All property is to be transferred into the hands of the state w/ must be the only owner and enterpriser. The
socialist society is favored with equal prosperity for all (classless society).
THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
11
Peschke, 638.
12
Peschke, 639.
48
 he Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church opposes the first two systems (Liberal Economy and
T
Marxist Socialism).
They build upon concepts of human being, which are deficient and wrong.
The fundamental fallacy of liberal capitalism is its interpretation of economic activity as essentially
profit-oriented,
self-centered and ruthlessly competitive. Human work is valued merely as an impersonal commodity, and
the social
character of economic life is disregarded. This is the reason why the system breeds class struggle.
The principal errors of Marxist Socialism on the other hand are its global rejection of private property
and the
inability to understand the positive function of personal ownership in society and in the economic process.
From profit-oriented (exploitation) to person-oriented (service): the Church emphases economy at the
service of the person (not vice versa; for the integral solitary development of the person—the whole person
and every person especially the poor). The Church appeals to Integral Solidary Humanism.
Catholic social doctrine has found its official formulation especially in the social encyclicals and in the
documents of
Vatican II (esp. GS 63-72; 83-90):
Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum, 1891.
Pius XI: Quadragesimo Anno, 1931.
John XXII: Mater et Magistra, 1961.
Paul VI: Laborem Exercens, 1967.
John Paul II: Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 1981; Centesimus annus, 1991.
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.
Compendium, 160: The permanent principles of the Church's social doctrine constitute the very heart of
Catholic social teaching. These principles, the expression of the whole truth about man known by reason
and faith, are born of “the encounter of the Gospel message and of its demands summarized in the supreme
commandment of love of God and neighbor in justice with the problems emanating from the life of society.
These are the principles of:
1. The dignity of the human person (the foundation of all the other principles and content of the Church's
social doctrine).
2. The common good.
3. Subsidiarity.
4. Solidarity.
SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY (Favored by the Church)

It combines creative forces of a free market (free economy) with protective control by social
legislation.
It balances free market (Liberal Capitalism) and state control (Marxist Socialism).
It relies not solely upon individual or state, but both must be subordinated to the service of integral and
solidarity
humanism.
THE AUTHENTIC END(S) OF SOCIAL ECONOMY (GS, 64)

The ultimate basic purpose of market economy must be the service of human being:
At the service of the needs of material, spiritual, intellectual, cultural nature of all people.
Special attention for the poor.
IMMEDIATE ENDS OF ECONOMY

1) Satisfaction of human needs in the material realm: food, clothing, housing, health care, etc., in harmony
with a life fitting for a human being.
2) At the service of the common good: intellectual, moral, spiritual and religious, in the light of both present
generations and future generations.
49
3) The existential ends
Self-preservation.
Self-perfection.
Procreation and education of children.
Promotion of common utility.
Care for the welfare of one’s fellowmen.
Commitment to goodness and value in its transcendent form.
The liberation of human beings.
ULTIMATE END OF ECONOMY

The Glory of God in the concretization of fundamental values such as promotion of justice, love and
peace, unfolding of
God’s creative and salvific plan, care for creation, etc.
Source:
Peschke, Crhistian ethics
23. The state plays a vital role in the specification of the economic ethical norms of justice: the value
of principle subsidiarity, creation of just institutions , option for the poor and socialization of land
reform. It must guard entrepreneurs to be servants of the common good and outline consumer ethics.
I. PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY
A. The Principle of Subsidiarity states that social institutions have an auxiliary and complimentary function
concerning the
tasks and needs of the smaller groupings and individuals in helping them to achieve their goal/end (see,
Quadragesimo
Anno, Pius XI, 1931: This principle is the most important principle of “social philosophy.”7). That means to
say that on the
one hand societies must leave to the smaller groupings or individuals what they can do by their own power;
and that on
the other hand they must assist the smaller groupings or individuals where they are unable to accomplish a
necessary or
at least useful task. It protects:
1. The particular rights and competence of individuals against excessive domination by societies.
2. The competence of minor associations against oppressive and totalitarian claims of the larger society.
B. TWOFOLD MEANING:
1. Negative Role: The State should leave to the individuals and groups what they can do by themselves.
2. Positive Role: The State must subsidize where the individual and groups cannot do by themselves.
C. RANGE OF THE PRINCIPLE
1. As much individual responsibility as possible
2. As much intervention of the State as needed.
3. At present, authority and obedience are perceived negatively. Yet the wisdom of authority and obedience
can be
grasped in the context of human growth, service, rationality and function of authority and the formative
aspect of
obedience. In case of abuse of authority, God and conscience becomes significant.
B. CREATION OF JUST INSTITUTIONS

1) Basic Principles
14 All forms of Communism/Socialism are based upon Marxist theory of the state and class struggle.
13
Appropriate institutions have to evaluate/check private initiative, the anti-social tendencies of individuals
and
intermediate bodies (vs. inequalities in power and monopoly).
50
 ppropriate institutions must also evaluate/check state control, the power of the state (vs. despotism,
A
oligarchy,
and dictatorship).
2) Concrete demands
Promotion of a strong middle class and democratic institutions.
Appropriate social and labor conditions.
Family and educational politics.
The developmental and environmental politics.
Stability of currency.
C. PREFERENTIAL ATTENTION (OR OPTION) FOR THE POOR
1) Basic duty of the Government. Guarantee of minimum condition of human dignity for all:
Health and well being for one’s self and one’s family.
Food, clothing, housing, medicals, etc.
Security in case of sickness, unemployment, disability, etc.
This is a task not only for the state but also for all society from family to different organizations.
D. SOCIALIZATION AND LAND REFORM
1) Socialization
Definition. It is the transfer of certain properties to the ownership of the state (nationalization) or of other
public law
corporations, especially municipalities (communalization).
Justification. When required for the needs of the common good that must be proven in clear terms. It must
have
limits and take into consideration all the drawbacks. LE, 14: Socialization must not aim to the elimination of
the
private property and the creation of a sort of monopoly. Socialization should be the last resort, the principle
of
subsidiarity should take priority.
Difficulties. The function of the entrepreneur is different from that of the civil servant. There is not sufficient
interest
in being personally involved in state endeavors. The budgetary strain of state enterprises is often in negative
and
citizens taxes are being violated. Other examples: corruption and scandals.
Concrete application
Justified areas of socialization: nuclear energy, goods which supply basic needs (water, gas, electricity,
telephone
hospitals), coal, etc.
Improper areas of socialization: banks, public information (press, television, radio, etc.), agricultural land,
etc.
2) Land reform
It is the sound and just distribution of agricultural land for the profitable use of it.
Excessive and insufficiently cultivated land-holdings must be divided for reason of social justice.
Attention for the issue of proper and just compensation is a demand of commutative justice (GS, 71).
2 MARKET ECONOMY AT THE SERVICE OF HUMAN NEEDS
A. REGULATIVE FUNCTION OF THE MARKET
1) Functions of the market
It secures better provisions for material and cultural needs.
It secures the best quality good at the cheapest price.
It guarantees a careful use of the capital resources and raw material.
2) Function of competition
To improve the quality of the production.
To control the price of the goods.
To control the market so that it will function in the service of the goal of social economy to:
Prevent any abuse against the system of the market; Forestall abuse monopoly.
Guarantee just wages and proper working conditions.
Protect the environment.
51
B. THE ENTREPRENEUR AS SERVANT OF THE COMMON GOOD
1) Functions of the entrepreneur
To find markets, to develop and to supply them.
To provide goods and services needed by the society.
2) Advantages of medium and small enterprises
In accordance to the principle of subsidiarity.
Distribution of economic power.
Great satisfaction of the person with his/her work.
3) Responsibility of the employer
To some decree assured by the law.
It is also a personal duty of fairness and loyalty.
To be enhanced by the spirit of community and solidarity.
C. CONSUMER ETHICS
The consumer determines production.
Ethical consequence: no luxury demands but demands about one’s needs (material & cultural).
A critical development in welfare state:
Economic growth must be inserted in the more comprehensive order of human being’s destiny and call.
To create a life-style in which the request of truth, beauty, goodness, and communion with others for the
sake of the common growth as the factors which determines consumer’s choices, savings and investments.
To take up the challenge of the ecological issues.
24. In morality an orientation of a person influences one's decision/action. Confronted with

environmental problems that endanger humanity and the world fundamental orientation must be
embraced: Love of nature, reverence for nature and, moderation and self-limitation. This orientation
must be lived and concretized through some concrete requirements of an ecological ethics.
Outline
A. Fundamental orientation for an ethics of the environment
a. Love of nature
b. Reverence of nature
c. Moderation and sef-limitation
B. Concrete requirements for an ecological ethics

a. Obstacles to ecological responsibility
b. Responsible use of natural resources
c. Subordination of technology to the good of creation
d. Personal concern and ethical conduct in consumption
e. Care for the animal world
e. The law as instrument for environmental protection
A. FUNDAMENTAL ORIENTATIONS FOR AN ETHICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

a. LOVE OF NATURE
· The virtue of love extends also to creation.
· Sense of wonder: appreciation for the goodness and beauty of nature and respect for the purpose willed by
God.
b. REVERENCE OF NATURE
To rediscover the intrinsic goodness of nature vs. a mere materialistic approach to it.
c. MODERATION AND SELF-LIMITATION
Concern for a self-limitation and self-control. Humankind has not an absolute freedom in dealing with
nature.
B. CONCRETE REQUIREMENTS FOR AN ECOLOGICAL ETHICS
a. OBSTACLES TO ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY
1) Temptation to abuse power of control and dominion over creation (from a mere scientific view).
2) Vested interest of the economy.
52
3) Wrong political choices.
4) Dangers arising from the growth of population.
5) Dangers arising from: faulty agricultural method, imprudent deforestation, reckless hunting.
b. RESPONSIBLE USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Principle: we should keep our needs rational, avoid waste, and preserve the environment as best as we can.
1) Not renewable resources. To be used as economically as possible; to find alternative solutions.
2) Renewable resources. Responsible use is needed; Not use for greed, prestige, luxury, etc.
c. SUBORDINATION OF TECHNOLOGY TO THE GOOD OF CREATION
1) A fair evaluation of technology is needed.
· It is not a loss in quality of life.
· Betterment in work conditions, life conditions (avoiding distort use).
2) Some ecological problem caused by technology
· Soil, air and water Pollution.
· Saturation of the environment.
3) The true purpose of technology
· To secure human life, common good and God’s creative plan.
d. PERSONAL CONCERN AND ETHICAL CONDUCT IN CONSUMPTION
Moderation, solidarity with the poor, gratitude. Personal care for the environment and limit consumption.
e. CARE FOR THE ANIMAL WORLD
Two issues:
· Protection of the endangered species
* Not to poorer the world.
* Avoid ecological damages to both flora and fauna.
* Not to injure God’s work of creation.
· Cruel treatment of animals
* The sufferings of animals is a cruelty.
* Cruel treatment of animals is a human brutality.
f. THE LAW AS INSTRUMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
1) Measures for the environment cause more costs.
2) Need of legislation from the state for prevention and protection.
3) Challenges of an ecological legislation:
· Faithful compliance with the laws already existing.
· Support of the necessary political measures for environment protection.
· Sense of personal responsibility for the preservation of the environment.
Sources:
Karl H. Peschke, Chrsitian Ethics Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II vol. 2 p615-
SEXUAL ETHICS AND REPRODUCTIVE ETHICS
25. These have different meanings: Sex, Sexuality, Sexual Orientation, Sexual Identity, and Gender:
Outline:
I. Context
II. Content
Sex’s common designation
Meaning of sexuality
Sexual orientation
Sexual identity
Gender
Gender identity
I. CONTEXT:
The thesis statement is about __________________________.
II. CONTENT:
53
1. Sex has two common designations:
A. The biological aspect of one’s personhood, the individual’s biological make-up based on the
appearance of genitals.
B. Genital behaviors, i.e., what we feel, think, and do sexually.
2. Sexuality:
• It encompasses both sex, i.e., who we are and what we think, feel and do sexually, as well as the
meanings given to sex.
• “What our body means to us, how we understand our self as a woman or as a man, the way we
feel comfortable in expressing affection- these are part of our sexuality… in the broadest sense,
sexuality is how we make sex significant (whitehead and whitehead, 1989: 45).
• It does not necessarily include genital intercourse or related sexual practices. Husband and wife
express their sexuality in their sexual practices.
3. Sexual Orientation/ Preference
• Sexual orientation refers to the emotional and erotic preference for the category of people hetero-
sexual, homosexual or bisexual- an individual prefers to relate to sexually or intimately.
4. Sexual Identity:
• Sexual identity refers to the individual’s self-identification as heterosexual, gay lesbian, or
bisexual. “Self- identification” is the operative word which is indicative or whether the
individual considers him/herself as male or female.
• Sexual identity is related to but different from gender identity.
5. Gender:
• A socially constructed designation.
Gender Identity:
• Gender identity refers to the individual’s subjective sense of being a man or woman. It is the
individual’s inner sense of self as a man or woman.
• “Sex without love can be or might be morally objectionable, but love without sex is possible.”
Chastity or celibacy is not against sexuality.
Source:
Lecture of Fr. Danilo Tiong
26. There are limitations of sexual love. There is the reality of human sexuality. The human person
has to recognize the and accept there in order to be moral in the sexual life.
a. Context:
This thesis statement focuses on the sexual love. Sexual love is first exalted as a human value,
because love itself is not only a value but a virtue and we cannot disregard its value. Second, it is willed by
the Creator, shares Himself with us, in His image and likeness, and He is the origin of love.
b. Content:
1. Limitation of sexual love:

i. An easy, unoccupied enjoyment of sexual love and its spontaneous regulation by
the instinct of human nature.
ii. The fallen state of man cannot be ignored. (Concupiscence- fruit of the original
sin).
2. Reality of human sexuality

its creative powers of enriching love
its their way to express their intimacy in unity
not only physical in their marital right but also spiritual
express an attitude through their intimacy and in behaviour through their
responsibility
54
Intimacy- not just in the matter of closeness but it is when they become aware or
conscious of their love with each other, also in decision as couple.
Unity-equality
Responsibility-for themselves, to their children, society and God.
Its eroding forces of dehumanizing abuse
c. Gen. 1:27 “God created man… created them”. The human being is God’s image differentiated in two
sexes.
the human person is created good.
sexuality, as a gift of God is wholly acceptable
Person’s nature must primarily be understood from the nature of God, and not from
the nature of animal.
* Being the image and likeness of God, the human being, comprised of his/her sexuality, is wholly
life-giving and love-giving.
Taken from the notes of Fr. Danny Tiong.
27. The meaning of human sexuality can be found in, and is therefore the moral basis of both the Old an
New Testaments.
I. CONTENT:
1. Biblical View: Old Testament
“God created man… created them.” Genesis 1:27
- The human being is God’s image in differentiated in two sexes.
A. Human being:
a. The entire person is created good.
b. Sexuality as a gift of God, is wholly acceptable.
c. Person’s nature must primarily be understood from the nature of God, and not from the
nature of the animal.
d. Being the image and likeness of God, the human being, comprised of his/ her sexuality, is
wholly life-giving and love-giving.
B. The purpose of sexuality:
a. Procreation (Genesis 1:28)
b. Mutual companionship (Genesis 2:18)
c. To complete (completion) each other (the sexes) (Genesis 2:21ff)
- The completion of each other is both biological and spiritual. This completion and mutual
companionship culminate in the mutual self-giving by which they form so intimate a union that they
can be called “oneself “. (Genesis 2:24)
C. Because of sin:
a. Safe of integrity is lost
b. The entire order of creation is disturbed
c. The relationship of the sexes is disturbed
d. The carefree naturalness of the sexes in their mutual relationship is lost.
• Sexuality is experienced as a vulnerable possession which man must protect against abuse by
others and also by himself.
2. Biblical View: New Testament
o Jesus Christ treated women equally with men
o The early church was concerned with self-control and discipline in sexual life
o Formation and adultery are listed as vices and are condemned (1 Thes 4:48; 1 Cor 6:9 ff)
o Christians must sanctify their bodies and sexuality because they are the Temple of the Holy Spirit (!
Cor 6:13-20).
o Married people are to maintain mutual love for each other (1Pet 3:1-7), and there is parallelism
between the bond that unless Christ with the church and the bond of marriage. (Eph 5:21-33)
55
o There is no recommendation of virginity.
Resources:
- New American Bible (NAB)

- Taken from the notes of Fr. Danny Tiong.
#28 Sexual love has its own nature, purpose and social aspect.
1. Nature of Sexual Love

The attraction and love of the sexes finds its expression in the act of sexual love. Sexual love aims at
a partner at the sex. Every other form of sexual actuation is:
- in complete, or
- immature, or (if taken out of control)
- perverse
- (masturbation is intrinsically evil because it does not aim for a partner)
- Complete-directed to the beloved.
- Mature- to be able to have sexual desire or fulfillment with other sex and to be able to
love the opposite sex with one’s whole being.
- Perverse-outside of what is natural.
Pleasure is not the purpose/aim of sexual function. Pleasure is the divine instituted allurement
of human being to use their sexual powers and thereby to maintain and to propagate life in purpose
or aim.
J. Grundel: “Sexuality cannot and may not become purely the means to private satisfaction of
instinct or a sort of available drug. It gives a man a goal beyond himself.”
- that is the love to be given away.
2. Purpose of Sexual Love:

a. Propagation of mankind through procreation of children.
- this is the innate, ultimate purpose of man’s sexual faculties
- this is the nature-ordained end of sexuality.
- this includes education of children.
b. A means to express mutual love
-express mutual love and esteem
- deepen the intimate unity of husband and wife
- truly a human action that signifies and promote the mutual self-giving
- if the person accept this act in its whole significance and value as suited and intended for the
procreation of children, he/she will be ready for such an intimate love with a partner whom
he/she would like to be the father/mother of his/her possible child.
c. Creates a community (Family Society).
d. Mutual love is enhanced and more perfectly achieved when man and women are bound
together by a permanent union of common life.
3. Social Aspect of Sexual Love

a. Since sexuality orders a man toward other human beings and since its complete actualization
involves a partner. It is necessarily affects the social life of a community.
b. Nobody can arbitrarily use another for the satisfaction of one’s own sexual desire. He/she has
to respect the right of the partner.
- to his/her body
- to the free disposition of himself/herself
- to a treatment worthy to a person
- to responsible care.
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c. Sexual relation give life to children who are the future of the community, a sound family life
is a essential condition for the guarantee of a healthy youth.
d. Human sexuality possesses specific qualities which demand a control of it’s energies for
social living.
+ Christian attitude toward sex is RESPECT and REVERENCE..
#29. The human person’s sexuality created by God. As a part of the human being’s physical
existence, the Christian attitude towards sex and sexuality is exercised through values and
virtues.
Thesis Statement: Human sexuality as a gift of God. It has to be expressed in line with Christian values
and virtues.
Outline:
1. Two important concepts in the thesis statement
a. Sexuality of the human person
i. Sexuality means how one understands her/his self as a woman or as a man. It is the way
one feels comfortable in expressing affection, it is how one makes sex significant.13
b. Christian attitude towards it

i. Christians from the name itself, bear the name of Christ to whom they are following and
being united with. As imitators of Christ, they should imitate their thoughts, words and
actions to the mind of Christ Jesus and follow his examples.14
2. Human sexuality is a God-given gift to every human being. Therefore one’s attitude towards this gift
must be in view to the Sacred Scriptures:
a. OT – Genesis 1:7
i. The entire person is created good.
ii. Sexuality is a gift of God, is wholly acceptable.
iii. Being in the image and likeness of God, the human being, comprised of his/her sexuality,
is wholly life-giving and love-giving.
b. NT – 1 Cor 6:13-20
i. Christians must sanctify their bodies and sexuality because they are temples of the Holy
Spirit.
Essay:
Therefore, since human sexuality is a gift from God, Christian attitude towards sex and sexuality
must be rendered with respect, reverence and modesty.
Why? Because of the very nature, purpose and social aspect of sexually power. Sexual power as
such is a creation of God and not of man.
So, it demands respect, reverence and modesty.
30. There are general ethical considerations that have to be made regarding sterility/ infertility,
parenthood, children, and procreation itself. With these considerations, there are moral problems
connected with assisted reproductive technology including infertility work-up.
I. CONTEXT
The thesis statement is about the ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY (ART). Sterility,
infertility, and impotency are disvalues. Disvalues does not mean no value at all. What we mean here is
sterility, infertility, and impotence cannot produce pregnancy. They have their worth.
II. CONTENT
13
Whitehead & Whitehead, 1989: p.45
14
CCC 1965.
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Sterility. Infertility (of either one) is incapacity to engender. Impotency (of the male) is the
incapacity to copulate; it can make marriage invalid according to Canon Law.
a. Woman:
i.) Anatomical defects (e.g., uterus could not sustain/ maintain any kind of pregnancy)
ii.) Physiological defects (e.g., eggs are not healthy or unfertilized)
b. Man:
i.) Anatomical defects (e.g., penis is somewhat curved).
ii.) Physiological defects (e.g., low sperm cells)
A. PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY
DISTINCTION:
1. Artificial Insemination [AI] (in vitro fertilization). The semen is injected.
(fertilization) inside the womb of the wife.
2. In Vitro Fertilization [IVF]. Sperm and egg meet externally, “in vitro” (i.e., outside
any maternal body/womb).
CONSIDERATIONS:
1. Separation of the transmission of life from the conjugal act.
2. Separation of the transmission of life from the framework of marriage.
3. Treatment of zygotes (especially zygote wastage when they are not anymore
needed)
4. The manner of obtaining the semen (through masturbation or coitus interruptus)
5. The gestation of human life outside the maternal body ( in case of in vitro
fertilization).
6. The risk of genetic inbreeding (i.e., in artificial insemination by a donor [AID],
artificial insemination of a husband [AIH] or in vitro).
7. The risk of transmission of genetic defects, diseases, and other disorders that may
affect the offspring.
B. ETHICAL PROBLEMS IN FERTILITY WORK-UPS
Fertility Work-ups involve masturbation and/ or coitus interruptus to obtain semen for
analysis. Masturbation and coitus interruptus are traditionally considered immoral by Church teaching
because they are intrinsically evil. The Church recommends the following in order to obtain semen for
analysis:
1. Use of perforated condom. Medical problem: condom has chemicals (consequently
the semen is no longer “pure”)
2. Aspiration from the testicles (by epididymis). Problem: it is painful.
3. Massage of the seminal vesicles.
4. Use of a vaginal cap.
5. Use of a cervical spoon.
III. INTEGRATION
A. MAIN PRINCIPLES (Church Teaching in General Terms)
a. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person (dignity and defense of human life)
from the moment of conception. The Church believes that human life starts from the moment of conception.
b. Transmission of human life should be within the framework of indissoluble marriage. (i.e.,
legitimate marriage).
c. The two meanings of conjugal act (unitive as mutual love-giving, and procreation as life-giving)
are inseparably connected and they can’t be separated (this is the main reason why morally speaking ART is
questionable).
d. The right of spouses is not to have a child (parenting) per se, but to the natural/ physical acts
ordained to procreation.
(John Paul II)
1. Because if it is the right of the spouses, the children become properties of parents that anytime can be
disposed.
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2. Implication: if the spouse cant’ have children, they are not allowed to go to reproductive technology
because they don’t have the right to have children. Further, children will be reduced to objects of possession.
e. The child has the right to be conceived and brought into the world within marriage and from
marriage (illegitimacy is a social stigma).
f. Masturbation and coitus interruptus (withdrawal) are morally unquestionable and unacceptable.
B. EVALUATION IN GENERAL
a. The methods recommended by the Church are relatively ineffective from the technical viewpoint.
b. The methods are invasive (they go inside the body). Medicine rejects those.
c. Offensive from aesthetic criteria.
d. Physicians (majority of them) reject these methods for reasons of technical efficacy and avoidance
of invasiveness. How can semen be obtained morally without being invasive and retaining the fullness of
life of the spermatozoa and obtaining full efficacy?
C. THE NEED
There is a need to consider the alternatives of infertility/ sterility other than other artificial
procreation/ fertilization (ART).
Parenthood is within the context of marriage (the child has the right to be legitimate).
Children/offspring are values in themselves and not merely useful good; they are not just “products” of
technology. Procreation is a gift; a grace of participation in God’s work of creation (that’s why parents are
called as “co-creators”).
31. The common procedures of assisted reproductive technology are artificial insemination and in-
vitro fertilization. Both procedures have their own respective medical indications.
I. Context
The thesis statement is about________________________
II. Content
1. Methods
a. In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or Embryo Transfer (ET): meeting “in vitro” of the gametes.
(It is not morally acceptable because it is outside the meaning of the sexual act)
b. Artificial Insemination (AI)
1. The sperm previously collected is transferred into the genital tracts of the woman
1.1 Heterologous (AID): the gametes come from at least one donor other than the
spouses who are joined in marriage. (It is not morally acceptable because it is
outside marriage)
1.2 Homologous (AIH): the gametes from the two spouses joined in marriage.
(surrogate motherhood)
2. Principle
Human procreation take place within the context of marriage (whether civil or religious)
because:
a. The procreation of a new person must be the fruit and the sign of the mutual
self-giving of the spouses (their mutual love and fidelity).
b. The child has the right to be conceived, carried in the womb brought into the
world and brought up within marriage.
c. The child is a confirmation and completion of parent’s mutual self-giving
d. The good of the children and parents contributes to the good of civil society.
(i.e. family as foundation of society)
3. Reasons for Artificial Insemination (AI)

a. May be used outside the framework of marriage.
i. Infertile unwed “stable couples” (called also “de facto unions)
ii. Asked by radical feminists for single women
iii. Asked by lesbians (e.g. a couple living together)
b. May be semen freshly obtained and then frozen for future use.
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c. “posthumously” (dead husband; but marriage ends precisely with the death of a partner!)
d. AID is done under anonymity of the donor; sometimes a mixture of spermatozoa from
several donors is done to increase anonymity.
4. MEDICAL INDICATIONS FOR AI

a. Normal sexual intercourse is hindered.
i. Incapacity of copulation. Cause e.g.:
- The anomalies of the penis (congenital or traumatic): more pain than
pleasure
- Premature ejaculation (dysfunction) – is almost simultaneous with
erection the size and shape of the penis.
- Psychogenic impotence
- Homosexuality
ii. The quantity/quality of the sperm (=number and mobility of the spermatozoa)
produced by the husband is inadequate. When the husband can’t produce much
live sperm.
iii. The husbands suffer from intractable azoospermia (total absence of live sperm)
iv. Rh-incompatibility (it is about the blood of husband and wife)
v. The husband may be a carrier of a chromosomal anomaly or a genetically
transmitted disease (e.g. AIDS)
b. Common hindrances to women

i. Psychological: when a woman experienced in the past some related
issues regarding sexual intercourse.
ii. Vaginismus, painful spasm of the vagina (it does not relax after
contraction)
iii. Anatomical defects in the vagina or in the cervix or in the body of the
uterus (e.g. lack of production of lubricant liquid)
iv. Insufficient mucus in the cervix uteri.
5. AI ACCEPTED BY THE CHURCH
Does the Church accept AI? Yes, but under certain conditions.
a) Those cases in which the technical means is not suitable for the conjugal act but serves to
facilitate and to help so that the act attains its natural purpose.
b) The meanings (unitive and reproductive) of the conjugal act can’t be separated from each
other. The unity and procreative meaning must always go together.
c) The act itself has really a purpose which is procreation.
6. ETHICAL EVALUATION/CONSIDERATION OF AIH

Is AIH morally acceptable? It depends…
a) Reasonable, to overcome defects which impede a married couple from pro-creation
b) Reasonable, to avoid the transmission of diseases (less risk)
c) Approved, for therapeutic use.
d) Acceptable, after previous preservation of the husband’s semen, to bring about the
pregnancy after medical treatment which renders he husband sterile or a transmitter of
diseases. If they have child, the acceptability is less. No child, acceptability is more.
e) Obstention of semen. Masturbation and coitus interrupts have ethically analogous
character; the ethical quality of these actions is fundamentally linked with procreation
from love within the framework of marriage.
f) AIH makes real procreative dimension of marriage and the reason should be unitive.
Unquestionable if it’s for bring about pregnancy.
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g) The relationship of husband and wife must be considered. Children are the binding force
between intimacy and love of husband and wife.
.32. Artificial Insemination by the husband is morally acceptable in some cases. In-vitro fertilization is
all together morally objectionable.
I. Context
The thesis statement is about__________________
Outline:
i. Reproductive technology: Artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization
ii. The artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization
a. Two kinds of artificial insemination
1. Artificial insemination by donor (AID)
2. Artificial insemination from the husband (AIH)
b. In-vitro fertilization (IVF)
1. What is in-vitro fertilization?
2. The third party (donor)
3. Moral status of the embro
iii. Conclusion
II. Content
i. Reproductive technology: artificial and in-vitro fertilization

In the modern time infertility and wanting to have a child without the marital act are not impossible
any longer. Science has always solution for the sake of development and therapy as they say. In the
new reproductive technology a man can have a baby to a woman without intercourse through
artificial insemination. The most amazing part is that an embryo can be matured outside the uterus
of a woman and lead to a possible multiple babies through in-vitro fertilization. What exactly are
these artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization? Are they morally acceptable in their nature?
ii. The artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization
A. Artificial insemination or AI
Artificial insemination is impregnation not by means of natural intercourse, but by means of
mechanical, artificial aids. Artificial (AI) is the process by which sperm is placed into a female’s
uterus (intrauterine), or cervix (intracervical) using artificial means rather than by natural sex.
Modern techniques for artificial insemination were first developed for the dairy cattle industry to
allow many cows to be impregnated with the sperm of a bull with traits for improve milk
production. In humans artificial insemination is used as assisted reproductive technology
primarily to treat infertility but is increasingly used enabled women without a male partner to
become pregnant and to produce children by using sperm provided by a sperm donor. The aim is
to impregnate the woman by non-sexual insertion of sperm into the vagina or uterus. Meaning
they don’t want to have sexual intercourse. The common moral problem here lies on the method
of the transfer of the sperm to the cervix of the female genital and to whom the spermatozoa will
be taken., the husband or to someone else. Thus two clear kinds of AI immediately have to be
distinguished: the artificial insemination by donor and the artificial insemination from the
husband.
B. Two kinds of artificial insemination
1. Artificial Insemination by donor (AID)
This kinds of artificial insemination is also known as heterologous insemination where in the
sperm is obtained from a donor or third party other than the husband. This kind of insemination
raises lots of questions and possibility, one of which resulted to the in-vitro fertilization.
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a. In the case of unmarried woman: In the moral perspective such action would deprive the
child of the right to have a family and a father from the very start even with the consent
of the husband. Such condition is always a loss to the child and injustice to the young
human being. The right of the child to be brought in a healthy and normal family must
also decidedly enter into a healthy and normal family. Thus such procreation in these
circumstance is a serious infringement upon the natural rights of the infants.
b. In the case of married: It requires the consent of the husband that will guarantee the
basic acceptance of the child ; but the danger that the initial consent of the husband
might later yield to ambivalent feelings toward the child; the wife might feel no joy for
the child connected to the feeling of the husband; instead of being a bond of unity, the
child might become a source of division, insecurity and anxiety; about the donor of the
sperm, will he also be responsible for the child for procreation?
2. Artificial Insemination from the husband (AIH)

It is also known as homologous insemination. The sperm from the husband is transferred to
the cervical os of the wife to make pregnancy possible. In this case, the moral question is
essentially different though sometimes rejected. The main reason for this kind of
insemination is to help the couple to have a child when high potentiality is present with the
assistant of some method. The sperm of the husband is simply facilitated to reach its end or
to say to enable the natural act effected in a normal way to attain its end (Peschke vol. 283)
a. Means used for AIH: cervical spoon (used to aid sperm migration to cervical os), a
syringe ( the semen is collected after a normal coitus and then placed further into the
wife’s genital tract.)
b. When it is acceptable: when the sperm comes from the husband, the child is conceived
as the fruit of a legitimate marriage in a legitimate child; procreative meaning of sexual
act is by no means frustrated but on the contrary; in as much as husband and wife desire
a child because their love of each other, the sexual act retain its meaning as an
expression of love.
c. When it is not acceptable: Pope Pius VI rejects any homologous insemination where the
semen is poured by acts that are contrary to nature e.g. clinical or like of the laboratory
experimentation. Moreover, “any artificial insemination even that of the husband and
wife is not able to safeguard the inseparable connection willed by God, between the two
meanings of conjugal act” (Congregation of the Doctrine; K. Peschke .p285)
C. In-vitro fertilization:
1. In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a technique in which egg cells are fertilized by sperm
outside the woman’s womb, in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in fertility when other
methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process involves
hormonally controlling the ovulatory process, removing ova (eggs0 from the
woman’s ovaries and letting sperm fertilize them in a fluid medium. The fertilized
egg (zygote) is then transferred to the patient’s uterus with the intent to establish a
successful pregnancy.
The term in vitro, from the Latin root meaning in glass, is used because early biological
experiments involving cultivation of tissues outside the living organism from which they came, were carried
out in the glass containers such as beakers, test tubes, or petri dishes. Today, the term in vitro is used to refer
to any biological procedure that is performed outside the organism if would normally be occurring in, to
distinguish it from an in vivo procedure, where the tissue remain inside the living organism within which it
is normally found. A colloquial term for babies conceived as the result of IVF, test tube babies, refers to the
tube-shaped containers in chemistry labs and biology labs. However in vitro fertilization is usually
performed in the shallower containers called petri dishes. (Petri dishes may also be made of plastic resins.)
However, the IVF method of Autologous Endometrical Coculture is actually performed on organic material,
but is yet called in vitro.
2. The third party
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The IVF process requires sperm, eggs, a uterus and a bed. To achieve a pregnancy any of these
requirements can be provided by a third person: third party reproduction. This has created additional
ethical and legal concerns. The use of IVF provides also greater range of options for single people
and same-sex couples wishing to have children. Although both groups already raise children, IVF
facilitates this process. Some people object that this could give psychological problems to the child if
they grow up without a mother/father. Thus it eliminates the traditional/natural mother-father role to
the child.
3. The moral status of the embryo

Maturation of several eggs is brought about in the woman’s ovaries by means of
drugs. The eggs afterwards are then surgically removed, fertilized with the male sperm in a glass
container. In this process of rearing the embryo, form fertilization to maturation, there are many of
them dies. The potential human beings are simply wasted for such an expensive practice.
4. Ethical issues:
Certain ethical issues have been raised from the beginning when IVF was
introduced. These concerns include:
- Bypassing the natural method of conception
- The creation of life in the laboratory
- Fertilization of more embryos than needed
- Discarding of excess embryos
- Use of untested technology
- Unnatural environment for embryos
- Not affordable for many
- Misallocation of medical resources
- Creation of embryos to unnatural substances
- Destruction of embryos in research
- Potential to create embryos for medical purposes
- Potential to select embryos
- Potential to modify embryos
- Facilitation of the idea that embryos are commodities
- Financial rewards for IVF doctors dissuade them from recommending other
methods to couples
- Infertility is treated as a disease and not as a symptom of underlying medical
problems
- The long term effect on frozen embryos is unknown
H.P Dunn in his book, “Ethics for doctors, nurses, and patients,” put the reproductive technology and nature
properly by saying “the only morally unexceptionable variety of IVF is where the ovum of the wife is
transferred to an accessible position within the uterus and the transfer of the semen is achieved by normal
loving intercourse”(p.112)
III. Integration:
Pope John II in the international meetings of scientists in Rome (1982) expressed his
position regarding the new reproductive technology, specifically on IVF. He said “ I condemn, in the most
explicit and formal way, experimental manipulation of human embryo, since the human being, from
conception to death, cannot be exploited for any purpose whatsoever.” (Shannon p.112). The basic problem
of the new reproductive technology plays on the basic emotion and human rhetoric of “playing god”,
“tempting with nature,” “immoral means to good end.”
In the book of Thomas Shannon, “Bio-Ethics” he enumerated some problems tampered by
adhering to this new reproductive technology. He said as follows: “NRT touch on some very basic human
values, marriage and the family, parenting, genealogy, self-identity of the child, human sexual intimacy and
even the sanctity of life itself.” Tampering of basic human values would always shake our very dignity as
human. There are certain boundaries of nature that science must be respected, not because of near
sightedness but because of its sacredness. Things that are sacred and dignified in itself must not be wasted.
However then, the Church and the society must widen their horizon to develop and mature.
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The conjugal role of being a husband and wife is decisively not transferrable and the right of
the child for normal and dignified family is irrevocable!
33. There is a difference in meaning of responsible parenthood, birth regulation, family planning and
they are connected with one another.
Outline:
1. responsible parenthood and birth regulations
2. the principles and methods
a. responsible parenthood
i. rights and obligations of the parents
ii. justification for a limitation of the number of children
b. natural family planning
i. rhythm method
ii. billings method
c. other means of birth control
i. onanism
ii. local mechanical and chemical means
iii. hormonal means
iv. operative sterilization
3. conclusion
Content:
1. responsible parenthood and birth control
Children are gift from God. The baby is a fulfilment of human matrimony and pride of their
parents. But the growing population raises the question of the justification or even need of birth control.
This requires a clear understanding of responsible parenthood and limitation of birth control.
2. the principles and methods

a. responsible parenthood
i. rights and obligations of the parents:
* parents are obliged procreate
* they are obliged to raise, educate, give their children a decent life and dignity
* the question of how many to be born is left to their discretion
ii. taking into account the health of the parents, the spiritual and the material welfare of the
family, and interests of society, the following important consideration would justify the
limitation of the number of children:
* danger to the mother’s health and life
* eugenic considerations in cases of hereditary defects or inability of the mother to deliver a
live child
* economic difficulties
* pedagogical difficulties, such as caused by higher educational demands of the industrial
societies (see Peschke, vol 2, p.500)
b. natural family planning
responsible parenthood includes the policy of prudent spacing of the children without
discrimination to natural law and to the conjugal act
i. natural family planning
it is also called the calendar method or the rhythm method, discovered by Ogino from Japan
and Knaus from Australia. The method is mean to help the couple to find out when the wife
is fertile and not. The reason for this is that only once during the menstrual cycle does an
ovum mature, namely 12 to 16 days before the beginning of the next menstrual period. A
couple who wants to avoid pregnancies, temporarily or for good, is advised to have
intercourse only during the infertile days when no mature ovum is to be expected (see
Peschke, vol 2, p. 502)
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ii. billing method or mucus method
basis of the method is the circumstance that the body of the woman discharges cervical
mucus as fertility approaches. The method consists in the observation of this mucus. When
the wetness caused by the mucus stops, 3 days are to be counted; the safe days once again
begin in the evening of the third day. (Peschke, vol 2. p.503). It is easy to remember than the
calendar method. The simplest clue is that when wet, the woman is fertile and it dry she is
infertile.
c. other means of birth control

1. onanism or withdrawal is the oldest birth control and requires no technical or chemical
aids. Its failure rate is high.
2. local-mechanical and chemical means
*local-mechanical means: condom (failure rate 3%), intra-uterine device (IUD) and
vaginal diaphragm
*local-chemical: antiseptic which kills spermatozoa, spermicidal jellies and suppositories
3. hormonal means or sterilizing drugs (pill): it blocks conception for 5 years and 1% of
failure rate
4. operative sterilization: ligation for women and vasectomy for men
d. church teaching on birth control

the moral evaluation of the means of the birth control was the assertion of human Humanae
Vitae that marriage must be open to procreation (HV 11). This teaching is seen as based on
the inseparable connection, established by God, between double meanings of the marital act
(HV12). From there the encyclical derives the moral inadmissibility of any action which
either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent
procreation – whether as an end or as a means (HV 14). Only the method of the natural
family planning by the rhythm and billings method are allowed.
Integration
The contribution which the church can bring to the solution of the population problem is evident.
She has to proclaim the values of human dignity and freedom, the need for every human being to
live in modest comfort adm the need for fraternal solidarity and cooperation on the local, national,
and international planes. The church can do much to bring about the conditions in which free
responsible decision is possible on the part of the individual couples by the process of proper
education, formal and informal. The judgment of the church on certain methods of birth control
should not appear as a negative stance but as spotlighting the value of openness to life which is
necessary to uphold the inestimable value of human life.
34. Sterilization is either direct or indirect. Catholic Moral Theology does not allow direct
sterilization but allows indirect sterilization.
I. CONTEXT:
The thesis statement deals with one of the many issues in the reproductive ethics, namely
sterilization; and the official Catholic teaching on that issue will mentioned clearly that the Catholic
Church allows indirect sterilization.
II. CONTENT:
First of all, before getting deeply the teachings of the Catholic Church, we have to understand the
following questions;
a. What is sterilization?
b. What is Direct Sterilization?
c. What is Indirect Sterilization?
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STERILIZATION – is understood as a kind of surgical procedure in order to prevent pregnancy as
ligation for women and vasectomy for men. Then the purpose of procedure of direct sterilization is
to render the patient infertile; whereas one of the results as a side-effect medical treatment of the
indirect sterilization is aimed at the specific pathology affecting a person.
Secondly, the Catholic Church only teaches the following;

1. Sterilization may NOT be used as a means of contraception.
2. Every action, which either before the conjugal act, or during it, or after it, proposes to
render procreation impossible, is NOT permissible.
3. Procedures that induce sterility (i.e. Indirect Sterilization under medical indication,
namely, the medical procedure must be done respecting the principle of “free informed
consent” of the patient, i.e., informing him/her about the procedure and its consequences,
and respecting any decision taken) are permitted only when;
a. They are immediately directed to cure, diminution or prevention of a serious
pathological condition and are not directly contraceptive, that is, contraception is
NOT the purpose (i.e application of the Principle of Double Effect)
b. A simpler treatment is NOT reasonably available.
Thirdly, in such a spirit, we look into some cases of Indirect Sterilization morally permissible by the
Catholic Church.
1. Primary gonadal pathology; oophorectomy (excision/removal of ovary).
2. Hysterectomy is permitted when it is judged to be a necessary means of removing some
serious uterine pathological condition (e.g., cancer of the uterus). In these cases, the
pathological condition of each patient must be considered individually. Care must be
taken that a hysterectomy is NOT performed merely as a contraceptive measure (case to
case consideration).
a. Hysterectomy in the presence of pregnancy and even before fetal viability, is
permitted when directed to the removal of the dangerous pathological condition of
the uterus of such serious nature that the operation cannot be safely postponed
until the fetus is viable (Principle of Double Effect).
b. Hysterectomy for prolapsed (in case of hernia) of the uterus (cutting, incision,
displacement of the uterus downward, sometime outside the vulva). However,
before making this final decision, the following considerations will have to be
made;
i. A possible conservative repair so that pregnancy can still be possible
even if it is difficult.
ii. The patient’s choice, in order to come up with this decision, the patient
must be completely and honestly informed.
iii. The trauma and expense of conservative surgery, with the likelihood of
a less that a fully satisfactory result.
iv. Each case is an individual case, and so it cannot be generalized or held
to be true in all cases. Each case depends on the details of each case;
prudent judgment of the gynecologist; the reasonable wishes of the
informed patient.
c. Elective hysterectomy following a bilateral “oophorectomy.” The following are
the reasons why it may be morally justified;
i. If the ovaries are removed, pregnancy in possible. So the uterus is also
removed in order to leave a “clean pelvis” as preservation from the
future possible cancer at the uterus.
ii. With oophorectomy, the uterus is rendered functionless.
iii. This is morally justified by the Principle of Totality.
iv. Usually this is done in order to avoid any Pathological condition of the
uterus in the future.
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v. It is understood that this procedure involves no real additional surgical
risk.
vi. It does not additionally impair the functional integrity of the patient.
III. INTEGRATION:
Certain of surgical procedure to prevent pregnancy, particularly ligation for women and vasectomy
for men, is called sterilization. By using the Principles of Double Effect and of Totality, the
Catholic Church solely allows indirect sterilization without denying the dignity of a human person
that is the focus of the Fundamental Moral Theology.
35. Ligation is a case of contention between two sides one of which is the side of the Church. The other
side thinks that ligation can be morally acceptable in certain cases.
1. What is Ligation?
Ligation is also known as Operative Sterilization. It is a sterilization of women effected by tube ligation,
tube section or electro coagulation. For man it is called vasectomy. Medically it has the advantage that after
sterilization conception is impossible. It is to be noted that permanent sterilization can be experienced and
judged as impotence, especially on the part of men.
a. The Church contention:

The medical aspects of the means of birth control are certainly of importance for its practical realization,
but by themselves alone they do not offer a moral justification for any of the methods. Nor does the use of
method, as Vatican II affirms, "depend solely on sincere intentions or on an evaluation of motives. It must
be determined by objective standard. The Council did not pronounce itself on the lawfulness of the concrete
methods. The question of the lawfulness of the means of birth control had been taken up for a first time
already by Pius XI in the encyclical Casti Connubii, 1930. It approves of the rhythm method discovered by
Ogino-Knaus, since it respects the laws inherent in nature, and rejects on the other, as not conforming to the
demands of the laws of nature, the then existing artificial means of birth control. The moral evaluation of the
means of birth control was asserted in Humanae Vitae , that any use whatsoever of marriage must be open to
procreation (HV 11). The teaching is based on the inseparable connection, established by God- the double
meaning of the marital act, its unitive and procreative significance. Any marital act deliberately
contraceptive is declared as "intrinsically wrong". De facto then, if permanent continence is left out of
account, only the method of natural family planning by the rhythm method is allowed. The church says no
to ligation at all, if there is not pathological case. Yet, humanizing ethics challenges in these following cases:
b. Ligation can be morally acceptable in certain cases:
Ligation is morally permissible when the uterus is damaged due to multiple caesarean section
deliveries. It can happen due to several caesarean section deliveries the uterus weakens or its walls thin out.
So the premises for the moral acceptability of tubal ligation are the following, when the uterus is badly
damaged and when the uterus cannot be repaired to support another pregnancy safely. Another case of
situation wherein tubal ligation may be morally acceptable is in gravidcardiac patients. If and when it is
already determined that the subsequent pregnancy of this kind of patient can be fatal to her, ligation may be
done to ensure that pregnancy will not occur.
c. Ethical/Moral dilemma:
Ligation or hysterectomy? To isolate the uterus or remove it? It is simpler to isolate it, but what is
important is to make the uterus no longer capable to support pregnancy. For the Doctor’s side, ligation is
morally acceptable option if the clinical condition of the patient contra indicates the added trauma of total
hysterectomy. It is simpler in procedure, less risky to the heart of the patient and less expensive.
Hysterectomy is a major surgical operation and would require general total anesthesia for its performance.
It is rather risky for heart patient to undergo general total anesthesia. Ligation is the more humane
procedure. Let it be clear though that ligation and/or hysterectomy are never morally allowed for direct
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contraceptive sterilization. On the other hand, the Church favors Hysterectomy as morally acceptable option
because of the damaged and dangerous tissue within the uterus itself.
d. The moral bases are the following:

There is no moral difference between uterine isolation and uterine removal. By the Principle of
Totality, it is morally permissible to remove a damaged organ detrimental for the whole body, yet the
damaged uterus is not at all detrimental for the whole body. By the principle of Double Effect, it is morally
permissible to isolate the uterus through tubal ligation or hysterectomy because the sterilization is not
intended but is a moral by-product. Pregnancy is the occasion of the serious danger, the cause of which is
the damaged uterus.
Bibliography:
Peschke, Karl, Christian Ethics Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, Logos Publications, Inc.,
Manila 2001; Pp506-510.
36. Bioethics is a specific ethical science but related to the ethical sciences. It goes beyond ethical
issues in medicine so that it has its own scope or issue area.
Outline:
Bio-ethics
• Basics of bio-ethics
• Scope of bio-ethics
• Examples
• Issue areas of bio-ethics
Bio-ethics is basically the systematic study of human conduct in the areas of life sciences and of health care
insofar as that conduct is examined from the view point of moral values and principles. It studies the human
body or life itself and makes use of the moral values and principles.
The scope of Bio-ethics goes beyond ethical issues in medicine to include issues in public health, population
concerns, genetics, environmental health, reproduction practice and technologies, animal health and welfare
and the like.
Example:
- Medical issues: respirators – euthanasia
- Public health: Vaccination – affectivity and safety when brought to far flung baranggays.
- Genetics: Altering of characteristics ( eg, height, skin, colour)
- Reproduction: Artificial incrimination, in-vitro fertilization
- Animal health: Animal rights
- Environmental: Waste management
Issue Areas of Bio-ethics:

1. The rights and duties of patients and health professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses, physical therapists,
dentists, midwives, nursing aids etc.)
2. The rights and duties of research subjects and researchers (e.g. on safety, efficacy and dosages of
drugs/medicines and equipments)
3. The formulation of public policy, guidelines for clinical care and biomedical research
Question 37: The subject of Bio-ethics is basically the human person. The human person is to be
understood in its generic meaning and at the same time in the context of health care and Bio-ethics. The
guiding vision in looking at the human person and considering all his/her aspects as a human being is
an authentically humanizing ethics.
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Outline:
Bio-ethics
• Context of bio-ethics
• Content of bio-ethics
• Authentically humanizing ethics
• Integration
Context: The subject of Bio-ethics is basically the human person and the object of Bio-ethics is the human
Personal Action as related in the health sciences and health care. It is to be noted that authentically
humanizing ethics means an ethics that effectively helps concrete human beings achieve the full
development and expression of his humanity in each historical situation that he finds himself in.
Content:
I. Historical View on the Human Person
1. Ancient Times: The Human thought was primarily concerned with nature of which human kind was
seen to be a part.
Scholastic = Man is a rational animal
- focuses on very philosophical aspects of it, not on the social
- fails to see the implications of slavery and prostitution
- do not consider the essence of the human person (esp. Greeks). They considered the human person
philosophically but failed to see the human dignity.
2. Medieval Times: The Human person thought emphasized the plan of God in which humankind had a
major role to fulfil.
- From philosophical to theological

- Had background of what is natural to the human person
- Part of the human nature is the spiritual aspect of the human person
3. Contemporary Times: The human being asks who is and what meaning his life may have and he sees
the world in terms of its consequences for the human person.
- Man asks: Who am I? What am I doing here? What is life leading to? What is it for?
- Human person seen as part of human society
On Authentically Humanizing Ethics:

- It stresses the responsibility of each human being towards his/her fellow human beings and towards the
whole reality, including God.
- Authentically Humanizing Ethics is a humanism of responsibility by which we affirm and accept that
all human beings have moral responsibility to promote and defend his own dignity and that of his fellow
human beings.
- Responsibility is the response of a person to the call of God in the here and now.
Integration: The dignity of the human person is the structural nucleus of ethics. There is an ethical demand
towards human dignity and this response has its scope of reference. This same response is also given to the
concrete authentically humanizing ethics.
Source: The source of questions 36 and 37 are from our class notes in bio-ethics from Fr. Tiong
38) The Dignity of the Human Person is the structural nucleus of ethics. There is an ethical demand
towards human dignity and this response has its scope of reference. This same response is also given
to the concrete dimensions of human personhood.
A. Human Dignity and its Response
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B. Basis of the Dignity of Human Person
C. Scope of Human Dignity that Needs corresponding Respect
A. This is in the sense that moral life is basically the actualization of what it means to be a person in
relation to other persons and sentient beings (living creatures including God). Thus, sin is
degradation of one’s dignity and always. Respect for the dignity of all persons and each person is
the necessary condition for all morally good attitudes and acts. Respect is the moral response to
human dignity: both the sacred and profane aspects of the human person must be fully respected.
B. Every human person is created by God in his image and likeness(Gen. 1:27); every human
person is endowed with intelligence to know and free will to decide and to choose; the creation
of the human soul is a direct action of God; every human person is called into existence in
relation to God since conception; each human person is unique and irreplaceable; each human
person is called to maturity and eternal life.
C. Scope of human dignity that needs corresponding respect: a) Concrete: in the sense that it refers
not to abstract human nature, but to concrete and actual human beings immersed in complex and
conflictive historical reality; b) Universal: it applies to all peoples of all nations, races, castes or
other social groupings beyond geographical, political, racial, cultural boundaries; no distinction
among people at all; c) Egalitarian: it affirms the equality of all human persons in dignity,
rejecting all discriminations and any arbitrary criteria, whether this is based on race, religion,
sex, ideology, generation, social class and so on; d) Absolute: because it inheres in human
persons precisely as persons, and not for what they possess, not for what they can give, not for
their physical, intellectual and social capabilities, but for what they are as persons. The human
person is valuable most of all because he is a person; he is an end in himself and should never be
used or manipulated as a mere means for another end; e) Partisan: in favor for those who suffer
dehumanizing situation. It is a preferential option in practice in favor of the liberation of those
human beings whose humanity has been disfigured by dehumanizing situation e.g. the oppressed,
the destitute and the other marginalized persons.
Source:
Notes of Moral synthesis paper

Notes given by Fr. Danny Tiong (3 years ago)
39. The most efficacious way and the best way of showing respect to a human person and if he/she is a
patient, is through the principles of autonomy and free and informed consent.
OUTLINE
I. Human Dignity: Respect for a Patient as a Human Person

II. The Principle of Autonomy
III. Free and Informed Consent
A. The Threshold Element
B. The Information Element
C. The Consent
IV. Exception from Informed Consent
A. Three Conditions to Justify the Therapeutic Privilege
B. Emergency: Three Conditions to Justify Treatment Without Informed Consent
CONTENT
I. Human Dignity: Respect for a Patient as a Human Person
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The patient, being a human person deserves respect because of his or her dignity. This respect is a
necessary condition for all morally good attitudes and acts. This dignity is based upon the conviction that
every man/woman is created by God in his image and likeness, endowed with intelligence to know and a
free will to decide and choose; his or her soul is a direction action of God and is called into existence in
relation to God; unique and irreplaceable, called to maturity and to eternal life. This respect should be:
1. Concrete: not abstract human nature but actual,human beings in context.
2. Universal: beyond geo-political boundaries
3. Egalitarian: affirms the equality of human persons in dignity regardless of any arbitrary
criterion.
4. Absolute: the human person is valuable because he/she is a person, an end in him/herself
and not just a mere means for another end.
And is grounded on:
1. Corporeity: Humans exist corporeally. The body is the base for human consciousness an
personhood, and so participate in the dignity of the human person.
2. Social Nature: Humans by nature are social; live together and interact in society, where
rights and responsibilities are recognized; participating actively in the social and cultural
life in a relation of equality with other persons.
3. Reason and Liberty: Reason and liberty enable the human person to responsible realize
him/herself. They have a right to access to information that affects them.
4. Sacred and Profane Aspects
The human person is not purely “sacred” nor purely “profane”. Human Dignity
integrates the sacred and the profane.
a. Sacred: God has deigned to become one of us and make us His adopted children
and sharers in His divine life.
b. Profane: The human person is not an object and is an absolute value, even in a
profane or secular situation.
According to Benedict Ashley and Kevin O’ Rourke, the human person is a being with a radical
capacity for embodied intelligent freedom whether that capacity is still undeveloped or has been
frustrated by accident, disease or neglect and thus, has inalienable rights that should be ethically
respected, including those rights which relate to healthcare.
The Principles of Autonomy and Free and Informed Consent are the principles to advance a most
efficacious way of showing respect to a patient. We define Autonomy as:
II. The Principle of Autonomy
Autonomy means that one has the moral right to choose and follow one’s own plan of life. However,
there are implications to consider:
1. it does not mean absolute freedom to do anything to one’s self as one wishes.
2. the person must still follow the guidelines of moral law and conscience.
3. the person has the obligation to live according to the Creator’s plan.
4. the person’s ultimate end is God.
On the other hand:
1. the person has the right to determine what will be done to him/her.
2. the person has a duty not to constrain another’s autonomous choices and actions
3. human beings should be treated with dignity
4. human beings should be accepted as responsible for their own actions and destinies
5. they should be allowed to make decisions for themselves
6. they have the right to determine what will be done to them
7.
Autonomy enhances the person’s worth and self-image; it protects him/her from being used and
abused by others; it develops a mature therapeutic alliance between physician and patient.
Autonomy affirms the fact that the human person is a normal chooser who acts with intentionality,
understanding and without controlling influences that determine the act/action.
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Therefore, Autonomy is the power to design and then to implement a personal life plan by exercising
freedom responsibly in directing and regulating his/her life and actions and in particular to make use
of his own body.
III. Free and Informed Consent

The principle required to all procedures such as drugtaking etc…that a patient must be given
information about any therapy/treatment to be administered, to enable the patient to give his/her consent to a
therapy or procedure freely. This consent must be respected. No physical or psychological therapy may be
administered without the free and informed consent of the patient
There are three elements of consent:
The Threshold Element

1. Competence: the capacity and ability to understand, to reflect, to deliberate and to make
decisions on the part of the patient. The patient can understand the diagnosis, the therapy
or procedure; can deliberate regarding major risks and benefits, and can eventually make
a decision based upon the deliberation.
2. Incompetence; the incapacity and inability to understand to understand, to reflect, to
deliberate and to make decisions on the part of the patient. The patient may be in a
comatose state, very sick but not comatose, a minor, neonate, a fetus etc. Generally,
patients who are unable to make a free and informed consent.
The Information Element

3. Disclosure: The Patient is given concerning the diagnosis; the nature and purpose of the
proposed treatment; known risks and consequences of the treatment; the expected
benefits from the proposed treatment; alternative treatments or procedures with their
corresponding risks and benefits; prognosis of the treatment or non-treatment and all
costs: amount and duration of pain; impact on the lifestyle and ability to work and move
around; and the financial cost of the treatment and aftercare.
4. Understanding: to actually communicate and not just blabber or present facts to the
patient; to use a language that is understood by the patient and not to use medical terms,
but commonly used and understood terms by the non-doctors.
Consent:
The patient can decide in voluntariness and free from coercion, undue manipulation, persuasion,
natural reactions to illness; normal circumstances of health care and influence of drugs or
alcohol.
IV. Exception from Informed Consent
There is an exception, a therapeutic privilege, from IC when an information is withheld because

the physician believes that the disclosure will have an adverse effect on the patient’s condition
for health.
A. Three Conditions to Justify Therapeutic Privilege

1. The actual use of the privilege must not be based on generalities but on the actual
circumstances of a particular patient.
2. The physician must have founded belief based on intimate knowledge of the person that;
that the full disclosure will have significantly adverse effects on the patient.
3. reasonable discretion must be used in the manner and extent of disclosure.
B. Emergency: Three Conditions to Justify Treatment without Informed Consent
1. When the patient is incapable of giving consent, and no lawful surrogate is available to
give the consent (proxy) and the wishes of the patient are unknown.
2. There is a danger to life or danger of a serious impairment of health.
3. Immediate treatment is necessary to avert those dangers.
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The principles of autonomy and free and informed consent affirm the dignity of the human person. It
means that the human person is an absolute vale and an end, not a means to an end, therefore the
patient has the right to decide for himself or herself as far as the considerations/ details of treatment
and other medical procedures are concerned. A doctor cannot just decide or conduct a procedure
without asking or considering the patient’s decision. It is ethical to provide the necessary
communication of information to the patient so that he or she can render the best decision based on
her/his persona deliberation. At times when the patient is unable to deliberate because of some
defects or incompetence, the higher value is sought for that is, a choice by proxy. Treatment can
only be given via doctor’s initiative only when there is extreme urgency. In short, the patient has the
right to decide as much as possible. This is great respect accorded to a being with a mind of his/her
own and human dignity, that no one can simply brush aside.
(FROM THE NOTES OF FR.TIONG)
40. There are difficulties with the type of moral argumentation used traditionally by the Church
regarding the value of human life. A proposal on how to look at the value of human life in
contemporary setting presents to see in the principle of inviolability of life, namely, the ethical aspect,
explicitation of the ethical aspect, normative formulation of the principle of the ethical value of
human life and the contribution of the Christian view.
OUTLINE:
I. Background
A. General Affirmation of the Ethical Values of Human Life
B. Exceptions to the General Principle (cf. reviewer)
II. The Difficulties with the Types of Moral Arguments Used Traditionally By the Church Regarding the
Value of Human Life
1. The Sacralization of moral argumentation has led to misuse/ manipulation of the ethical value of
human life (as evidenced in the following):
2. The Complexity and the Nuances of the Human Condition are not much taken into consideration:
3. There is an excessive confidence in public authority
4. There seems to be incoherence:
III. A Principle of Inviolability of Life/ Sanctity of Life
1.Ethical Aspect
2.Explicitation of the Ethical Aspect of the Value of Human Life
. 3.Normative Formulation of the Principle
4.Contribution of the Christian View
CONTENT:
I. Background
A. General Affirmation of the Ethical Values of Human Life
1. Christian Catholic Moral Theology has emphasized the value of human life.
2. It condemns in strong affirmations and defense of the value of human life by several
reasons:
a. Human life is a Personal Good: Taking one’s life or that of another is against
charity.
b. Human Life is a Good of the Community: Taking one’s life or that of another is
against justice
c. Human Life is a Gift from God and belongs to God: Taking one’s life or that of
another is usurping a right which belongs to God alone; “Thou shall not kill” is an expression
of God’s dominion over human life; God is the “owner” of life and the human person is just
the “steward” is a basic truth for casuistic morals.
B. Exceptions to the General Principle (cf. reviewer)
1. Indirect abortion
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2. Indirect suicide
3. Personal Self-defense
4. Death Penalty
5. Just War
6. Death of Tyrant
A. Argument for Justification (cf.reviewer)

1. Direct/Indirect Action
2. Divine Inspiration/ Human Decision
3. Innocent/ Evil doer
4. Public/ Private Authority
II. The Difficulties with the Types of Moral Arguments Used Traditionally By the Church Regarding the
Value of Human Life
2. The Sacralization of moral argumentation has led to misuse/ manipulation of the ethical value of
human life (as evidenced in the following):
a. The commandment “thou shall not kill: became the perspective for moral discourse.
b. The argumentation regarding the value of human life became conditioned by biblical
data.
c. The ethical dimension of human life is expressed in terms of ‘sanctity’
d. The category of divine inspiration seems to justify human actions contrary to the value of
human life.
e. The right of public authority to take the life of evildoers is a concession by God to human
authority.
These imply that the value of human life resulted in some amount of manipulation of the
ethical value. The ethical dimension lost much of the autonomy of the value of human life
and the religious considerations gained ground. Finally, the critico-rational credibility is lost.
3. The Complexity and the Nuances of the Human Condition are not much taken into consideration:
a. To say that human life is a good entrusted by God to human beings for their use and for
them to benefit from reduce the moral importance of life.
b. To argue or justify on the basis on the distinction between the innocent and the evildoer is
not exact.
Who is actually responsible for some people becoming evildoers?
According to what interest are some declared “innocent” and other “evildoers?”
Who is the human being who can really set him/herself up as the supreme judge of
good and evil?
c. To base the value of human life on personal good, communitarian good and God’s
dominion over life is too simplistic. The reality of suicide, homicide, abortion,
euthanasia, capital punishment and similar problems is so complex. It is very difficult to
measure the value of human life.
4. There is an excessive confidence in public authority
5. There seems to be incoherence:
a. Principle of Double Effect – Conflict of Values
b. Contrasting Attitudes: Life of the Unborn (rejection of abortion) and life after birth (easy
justification of death penalty, war)
III. Principle of Inviolability of Life/ Sanctity of Life
1.Ethical Aspect
1.1 Human life is the fundamental vehicle of ethical values.
1.2 Human life is the object of the free realization of human beings.
1.3 Human life can be involved in a conflict with other values.
1.4 Moral integrity is the absolute ethical value, and human life is the
fundamental ethical value.
2.Explicitation of the Ethical Aspect of the Value of Human Life
2.1 Justification of the ethical value
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2.1.1 Human Life is the pre-condition for the pursuit and attainment of other
values and is also the precondition for acting morally.
2.1.2 The preference for human life is deepened in the status of the human
being: A graced creature of God/ Redeemed by Christ/ Called to share in God’s
life/ Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in him/her.
2.2Content of the Ethical Value of Human Life:
2.2.1 The content is beyond the mere biological life.
2.2.2 The content is from its first beginning to the fullness of life.
2.2.3 The humanization of life must be to the maximum: In terms of human
life, the ethical value of human life is equal in all human beings/ the
concentration is not on the “limits” of human life but on the unfolding of all the
potentiality of human life.
2.3 The Rank of Human Life among ethical values
-Human life ranks first, next to moral integrity.
3. Normative Formulation of the Principle
There should be a normative formulation of the principle which is positive rather than
negative; existential rather than formalistic (that the concern is in the concrete consequences
rather than in the manner that it is going to reach about) and absolute but recognizes the
conflicts of values
4. Contribution of the Christian View
a. The special status of the human being
b. Human life is a fundamental value but is subordinated to moral integrity.
c. Death is a relative evil; Suffering is a relative evil – because they have redemptive value
(FROM THE NOTES OF FR.TIONG)
INTEGRATION
In the process of seeking moral grounds and solutions for various moral and ethical problems, the Church
usually utilizes traditional principles as arguments that most of the time, are out of touch with what is actual
and real, and sometimes simplifying matters by adhering to “unchanging” principles rather than considering
the details and nuances of real and complex issues. In the issue of the value of human life, reality gives the
complex and difficult and varying views about life and its value. The judeo-christian perspective is rigid in
its evaluations of moral issues like suicide and abortion, but also mentions exceptions to the rules – which at
times, contradict each other and produce confusion instead. As a proposal to clarify and affirm the essential,
the principle of the inviolability and sanctity of life is being proposed to finally establish the essential and
authentic value of human life.
41. Abortion is a generic terminology to mean the end of life of the unborn. It has to be qualified if a
moral judgment has to be made or concluded. And there are points of issue or controversy
surrounding termination of pregnancy including the term “viability” as to what it means.
I.CONTEXT
The thesis statement speak of three things:1. The meaning of abortion,2. The types or kinds of
abortion to be considered in coming up with an ethically sound moral decision and, 3. controversies/issues
that may arise in abortion including the term ‘viability.’
II. CONTENT
1.The above generic meaning of abortion may be more technically defined as:
the expulsion of a live embryo or a live but inviable fetus from the body of a pregnant woman, with
the resulting death of the embryo or fetus.
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2. Not all abortion are morally wrong, hence the need to qualify in order to make a morally correct
judgment. It is therefore important to look into the different types of Abortion. The types of abortion
are:
Obstetrics terminology
a. Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)- the expulsion of the non-viable fetus through natural or
accidental causes.
b. Induced (procured) – expulsion of the non-viable fetus through deliberate human intervention. This
is commonly used in obstetrics.
Church terminology
c. Direct – a deliberate action in which the only intended effect is the expulsion of a live but enviable
fetus. ( ex. Induced to an unwanted child)
d. Indirect- merely permitted, undesired or not intended but unavoidable expulsion of a live but
inviable fetus. (ex. Concomitant effect of removal of cancerous uterus of a pregnant woman)
3.Issues and controversies to be considered

a. Human life begins at the time of conception or fertilization, i.e., the meeting of the egg and
the sperm. The question is: when can the product of human fertilization be regarded as a
potential human person? The right of a human person is equal to the rights of a potential
person for two reasons: it would not be human person if it was already human and; science
demonstrates from generics that it is already programmed to be what it should be. Thus, the
right to life must be accorded to the zygote, much more to the fetus.
b. “viability” – in general term is the ability of the fetus to live outside the womb. In OB , it is
when the fetus is already attached to the uterine wall. In Ethics, it is when the fetus can live
outside the womb. From the preceding statement, the life
42. In medicine, morally acceptable judgments are to be made when cases of imminent abortion
and/or inevitable abortion occur. There are also morally acceptable guidelines in cases of
maternal-fetal conflicts as in ectopic pregnancy, chorioamnionitis, hydatidiform mole,
gravidocardia, eclampsia, abruption of placenta, placenta praevia.
I. Outline
I. Definition of Abortion
II. Types of Abortion
III. Church Stand
IV. Important Principles
V. Conclusion
II. Content
Abortion is the expulsion of a live embryo, or a live but non-viable fetus from the body of a pregnant
woman, with the resulting death of the embryo or fetus. If the embryo or fetus does not die, the act would
not be categorized as abortion.
There are four general types of abortion, namely:
1. SPONTANEOUS [MISCARRIAGES]: expulsion of the non-viable fetus through natural or accidental causes.
2. INDUCED [PROCURED]: expulsion of the non-viable fetus through deliberate human intervention.
3. DIRECT: a deliberate action the only intended effect of which is the expulsion of a live but non-viable
fetus.
4. INDIRECT: merely permitted, undesired or not intended but unavoidable expulsion of a live but non-viable
fetus.
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Christian Catholic Moral Theology has emphasized the value of Human Life. It condemns in strong terms
the offences against this value, such as suicide and homicide. It justifies its strong affirmations and defense
of the value of human life by several reasons:
a. Human Life is a Personal Good. Taking one’s life or that of another is against charity.
b. Human Life is a Good of the Community. Taking one’s life or that of another is against justice.
c. Human Life is a Gift from God and belongs to God. Taking one’s life or that of another is
usurping a right which belongs to God alone.
“Thou shall not kill” is the expression of God’s dominion over human life.
That God is the “owner” of life and the human person is just the “steward” is a basic truth for
casuistic morals.
The crucial question to ask then regarding the issue of abortion is: When does human life begin? The
church holds that at the moment of fertilization that is when the sperm fecundates the egg human life
already starts, that the fertilized egg is already as human as you and me, with equal rights and dignity.
Hence, in general the Church teaches that abortion is not morally permissible, for to do so is a direct attack
on life and a violation of a human being’s fundamental right to live.
However, the church recognizes that there could be exemptions to the general rule depending on the medical
situations of the parties concerned, specifically the mother and the fetus. Like in the case of spontaneous
abortion, obviously no one could be imputed with any immoral act since it results from an accidental and/or
a natural cause. Another is indirect abortion which is merely permitted; it is the unintended but unavoidable
expulsion of a live but non-viable fetus. Examples of these would be the following:
A. Inevitable Abortion. It is a combination of untoward factors that has affected the fetal attachment and
environment. The expulsion of the non-viable fetus has progressed to such a point that the abortion cannot
be prevented/avoided. Once there is a total separation of the placenta from the uterine wall with concomitant
fetal death, the fetus may be removed. In which case there is really no moral problem since the fetus is dead
already. A moral dilemma occurs when the placenta might be in the process of progressive separation from
the uterine wall. Inevitable and advancing separation has so irrevocably progressed that to empty the uterus
would not be actually destructive of a non-viable fetus. In this case let nature take its course. However if
there is the incapacity of judging that the separation is far advanced and inevitable, emptying the uterus is
not justified
B. Maternal-fetal Conflict occurs in cases such as ectopic pregnancy, eclampsia, abruption placentae,
etc… it is a situation wherein the life of both the mother and the fetus are in danger and a choice must be
made on whose life is to be saved. Here abortion (indirect) maybe allowed provided the following
principles are followed:
1. The life of the mother and the fetus are to be treated equally.
2. As to the question: whose life is to be preferred? There is no direct answer. The nature of the
disorder determines whose life is to be saved. (The principle is save the one who has the greater
chance of survival)
3. Principle of Inviolability of Life: there can be no direct attack either on the life of the mother or of
the unborn child)
77
Both in inevitable abortion and maternal-fetal conflicts two very important principles are used as gauge to
their permissibility namely:
Principle of double effect. This spells out the conditions under which an indirectly willed evil effect is not
imputed to the agent and therefore can be permitted. It is the principle that helps to determine whether an
action that contains some degree of pre-moral good & evil is morally right or wrong.
1. The action in itself is good or indifferent.
2. The good effect is not produced by means of the evil effect.
3. The evil effect is not directly intended.
4. A proportionate reason supports causing or tolerating the evil effect.
Principle of Proportionate Reason. It is the relationship between the specific value at stake and the pre-
moral evil (limitations, harms and inconveniences) that will inevitably come about in trying to achieve that
value.
1. The means used will not cause more harm then necessary to achieve the value.
(A value at least equal to that sacrificed is at stake).
2. No less harmful way exists at the present to protect the value.
3. The means used to achieve the value will not undermine it.
The following cases illustrate the application of these two principles:
A. Ectopic Pregnancy. A pregnancy that takes place outside the womb. Abortion is acceptable if there is a
proportionate reason. For example in the case of Tubal pregnancy wherein the tube is so damaged as to
constitute a serious threat to the maternal life, the tube may be removed as Traumatized Pathological Tissue
[TPT]. Principle of Double Effect [PDF] is applied.The reason why PDF is applicable is because of the
presence of TPT. The intention is to cure the traumatized tissue not to remove the fetus. In the rare case
wherein the pregnancy has advanced to a stage approaching viability, the element of proportion in the PDE
has to be given very special consideration and attention. Proportion is between the risk of expectant
treatment for the mother and chances of the delivery of a viable fetus.
b. Eclampsia. When an expectant mother is said to be eclamptic it means she is experiencing high blood
pressure due to the presence of the fetus. Definitely, the fetus cannot be removed and invoke the principle
of double-effect for it is clearly a direct attack on the life of the fetus. What can be done is to put the mother
under medication. Now if the medicine would have a fatal effect on the fetus, the PDF may be invoked
since the drug is applied to lower the mother’s blood pressure and not to kill the fetus.
Abortion is evil. The church is very clear about that. However, the church recognizes that for some medical
reasons abortion may be morally permitted. Still the Church makes sure that life is given the dignity it
deserves through the imposition of strict guidelines and principles that must be considered whenever such
situations happen.
Source: notes on Bioethics by Fr. Tiong
43. Every human person has the right to die with dignity. This can be considered to be a consequence
of the integration of three main considerations of ethical value namely, the proportionate defense and
prolongation of life, the humanization of illness and death, and the liberty of the human person.
I. Outline
I. Explanation of the three considerations of ethical value
II. Specific Case
III. Conclusion
78
II. Content
Every person has the right to die with dignity. By dying with dignity we mean that a person has to be
accorded with the following considerations of ethical value:
1. The proportionate defense and prolongation of life. A dying person has the right to all the
proportionate means available to medical science for relieving his/her suffering and prolonging
his/her life. It includes the right to medical treatment necessary for relieving severe pain, even if
such treatment may shorten his/her life which is an undesired/unintended side effect.
2. Humanization of illness and death. This right includes the right to make death a personal action. It is
not suicide because of the principle of futility/disproportionate means.
3. Liberty of the human person. The right to refuse treatment that makes his/her condition even mere
burdensome or unnecessary futile. The right to access the practice of religious beliefs connected with
illness and death.
To illustrate the points raised above I would like to sight a case, for example a man who had a very serious
car accident.
Citing “proportionate defense and prolongation of life” he would have the right to be brought to a
hospital and to be given the necessary treatment. However this treatment must not be disproportionately
costly, burdensome and painful. Also it must offer substantial hope of benefits to the patient as a person.
These guidelines are important since if there is evidence to the contrary like, if the treatment would have the
effect of causing perpetual hardship on the patient which he could not be expected to bear, or if the
treatment would cause immeasurable hardship to the people responsible for him, and lastly if the treatment
does not hold out a reasonable hope of medical benefit to the patient the treatment could be refused, for the
application of extraordinary means of treatment is not morally required. What will always be morally
required are the nourishment and hydration given to the patient, medication when there is a need, and the
care that is due to any patient.
In the second consideration of humanization of illness, the important point is that the patient gets to
own his pain and suffering. This is the reason why extra-ordinary means of treatment is not required for
these treatments do have the tendency to dehumanize the illness and even the patient. The person is to be
valued for his personhood, his total self not only his defective legs, or eyes, or heart.
Lastly, the third consideration of the patient’s liberty. The man who had the accident can refuse
treatment if it will just be burdensome and futile, in other words if the treatment would qualify as extra-
ordinary. He can very well ask to be brought home and be given care by his family there. Also he may ask
to see a priest if the guy’s catholic and avail of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. To do so would
not be suicide, since it is not his intention to kill himself but rather to let nature take its course, and if indeed
he will die he would have died with dignity.
The death and resurrection of Jesus took the sting out of death. But still in a human and physical
sense death still has that menacing aura with it. The principles presented above however point to us a way
to stare death in the eye, to die with our total personhood intact and with our human dignity celebrated.
Source: notes on Bioethics by Fr. Tiong
44. There is a distinction between ordinary or proportionate means of treatment or procedures and
extraordinary or disproportionate means of treatment or procedures. Connected with the meaning of
these, their respective ethical guidelines on euthanasia, dysthanasia and adysthanasia.
I. CONTEXT:
The context is all about means of treatment; the ‘how’ in treating a patient.
II. CONTENT:
79
I. ORDINARY MEANS
1. Those which are not disproportionately
- costly
- burdensome
- painful
2. They must offer substantial hope of benefit to the patient as a person, not only to his liver,
lungs or heart. Man is to be valued for his personhood.
II. EXTRAORDINARY MEANS

1. If the treatment which sustains life has the effect of causing or perpetuating an excessive
hardship which the patient cannot reasonably be expected to sustain;
2. If the treatment of the patient causes unreasonably excessive hardship for those persons who
have the principal responsibility of caring for the patient;
3. If the treatment does not hold out a reasonable hope of medical benefit to the patient NOTE:
These guidelines are not absolute but relative to the situation of the patient.
III. MORAL OBLIGATIONS TO MEANS

1. It is a moral obligation to use the ordinary means of preserving life.
2. It is not a moral obligation to use the extraordinary means of preserving life if such means is
excessively burdensome and/ or if they will not prolong life in any appreciable way.
IV. MORAL OBLIGATIONS IF AND WHEN EXTRAODINARY MEANS ARE NOT USED
1. Nourishment and hydration should be given, unless the body already rejects them;
2. Medication for whenever this is needed must be given;
3. Care that is due to any patient must be accorded.
V. FUTILITY/FUTILE - used to describe any effort to achieve a result that is possible but that
reasoning or experience suggests is highly improbable and that cannot be systematically produced.
PRINCIPLE:
Clearly futile treatment is not morally required. If treatment is not medically
indicated, (i.e., useless), there is no moral obligation to treat.
CONDITIONS:
1. The patient is chronically and irreversibly comatose;
2. Treatment would merely prolong the dying process;
3. Treatment would not be effective in correcting all of the life threatening conditions;
4. Treatment would be futile in terms of physical survival;
5. Treatment would be virtually futile and inhumane;
6. The presence of an impairment that is incompatible with life and the impairment is
uncorrectable.
• Their respective ethical guidelines on euthanasia, dysthanasia and adysthanasia.:
VI. EUTHANASIA - An action or omission of an action which of itself or by intention causes death
in order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated.
Declaration on Euthanasia: Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith May 1980
OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE OF EUTHANASIA
1. Putting an end to extreme suffering (in terms of pain and burden)
2. Saving abnormal babies
3. Saving the mentally ill
4. Saving the incurably sick from the prolongation of a miserable life.
POSITIVE (ACTIVE) EUTHANASIA - Acts or omissions of acts which result in the taking
of a human being’s life, whether by direct intent or as a side-effect of some other intended
action, for reasons considered to out weigh the fundamental value of human life.
DIRECT POSITIVE EUTHANASIA - Actions or omissions of acts, the immediate effect of

which is to take the life of human beings.
80
INDIRECT POSITIVE EUTHANASIA - Those actions which have an immediately good
effect, but which have the undesired side effect of shortening the life of the patient.
NEGATIVE (PASSIVE) EUTHANASIA - Depriving a patient of disproportionate medical

measures which could unnecessarily prolong his/her life or the process of dying.
DYSTHANASIA - Holding off the death and prolonging the life of those who have no
humanly foreseeable prospects of recovery, and for this purpose, using means which are
disproportionate.
ADYSTHANASIA - Allowing a hopelessly ill individual to die; without using

disproportionate means to delay imminent death [= negative (passive) euthanasia]
NOTE:
ALLOWING A PATIENT TO DIE;
1. It is not euthanasia because euthanasia is direct killing.
2. It is giving to the dying the right to die which means:
a. The right to die peacefully with human dignity and Christian dignity;
b. It does not mean the right to procure death either by one’s hand or by means of
someone else, as one pleases (e.g. assisted suicide)
III. INTEGRATION:
MORAL STANCE:
- Means which are considered to be at the experimental stage, though considered risky,
may be used with patient’s consent.
- Dysthanasia is not morally required but not forbidden
- Indirect Positive Euthanasia is morally permissible under the principle of double
effect
Not using extraordinary means is justified because:
a. Even if the treatment is already in use, it is risky and burdensome.
b. It is an acceptance of the human condition.
c. It is a wish to avoid application of a medical procedure disproportionate to the results
that can be expected.
d. It is a desire not to impose excessive expense in the family or community.
81

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1.

3. Nature of Good (Cf. “The Rich Young Man” Mt 19:16ff.)

5. Division of Moral Theology

In Brief (James M. Gustafson):

1. Christian Moral Anthropology

To know (cognition) Reason Truth Human Person tow/

3. Authentic Responsible Freedom

6. IMPEDIMENTS TO FREEDOM/ OBSTACLE OF HUMAN ACTS:-

3) FUNDAMENTAL OPTION/ FUNDAMENTAL STANCE

4) HUMAN ACTS (ACTUS HUMANIS)

DIVISIONS OF THE VOLUNTARY ACTS AND EFFECTS

7. SOURCES OF HUMAN ACTS

• Man’s most secret care and sanctuary of man (GS 16).

• Three phases of functioning of conscience

a. Antecedent: takes place before the decision-commands, exhorts, permits, forbids.

b. Decision: moment when made up mind to do or not to do something.

• For Peschke, Two Divisions:

• For Gula, Three senses of Conscience

Unfree: hindered by some obstacles; forced, fears, passions, habit.

B. Objective Value; Correct (right): conformity with objective moral values.

• Erroneous: lack of conformity with objective/personal moral demands.

• Vincible: with some good will can be corrected. (Culpable).

• Invincible: unaware of the possibility of error. (Inculpable).

• Scrupulous Conscience: judges sin to be present even where there is not.

• Lax Conscience: judges lawful what is sinful/light what is grave.

• Strict Conscience: judges too harshly.

• Pharisaical Conscience: small (grave) things judged too (not) important.

• Compensatory Conscience: attempts to conceal.

PRINCIPLE USED TO RESOLVE DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE

2. INDIRECT SOLUTION- use reflex principles.

3. Principles used in Moral Discernment

3. THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

FACTORS AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE

• Empathy: level of affectivity-sensitivity

• Extra-familial: peer groups, society

C. Models of Sin ( Transgression, Spiral and sickness)

2. Sin of Commission and Omission

F. Reality (Object, intention and circumstances)

II. Original Sin

A. Sin of the World

B. Relationship between Original and Social Sin

III. Social Structural Sin

A. Elements of Social Sins

B. Some Characteristics of Social Sin

IV. Sources of Sin

V. Degrees of Sin: Mortal & Venial…Criteria for Mortal Sin

A. Grave matter (related to object of human act)

1. CRITERIA FOR MORAL JUDGMENT (cf. J. Gustafson)

3. FUNCTIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE

7. FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS

You shall not take the name of the lord in vain.

a. Reverence for God's Name. God's name in itself is an act of revelation.

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

SUMMARY OF THE FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS

SINS AGAINST THE FIRST THREE COMMANDMENTS

4. Honor your father and your mother.

I. UNDERSTANDING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

II. PREAMBLE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

FOURTH TO THE TENTH COMMANDMENTS

PART I: RESPECTING HUMAN LIFE

Honor your father and your mother.

1. Obstacles to the 4th Com.

2. The Family as Originating Context of Life