In this last entry in this series (at least for now), Pope John Paul II declares that no man or institution of men has authority to violate the fundamental rights of men. In this way, moral norms, and primarily the…

Simply intending good doesn’t cause what I do to be good. The old saw about the road to hell’s pave-stones is true. In VS §72 the Pope describes what exactly constitutes my actions as good: The morality of acts is…

My deeds aren’t things without any relation to who and what I am; they define me (for better or for worse). So says JPII in VS §71: Human acts are moral acts because they express and determine the goodness or…

There is a school of thought amongst moral theologians according to which it is practically impossible for a man to commit mortal sin, because to do requires the equivalent of apostasy. Pope John Paul II makes It clear that this…

When we’re thinking about morality we sometimes get a little too focused upon the individual man. JPII points out that Christian morality isn’t something from which the society may demur: In the Book of Genesis we read: “The Lord God…

A major source of philosophical and moral error in our age arises from a perverse distortion of human freedom. Having denied that there are any absolutes, man is left to himself to choose what he will believe and how he…

Just as there has been development with regard to the understanding of the Faith proclaimed by the Church, JPII says that there has been an analogous development in the Church’s moral teaching. In her reflection on morality, the Church has…

In VS §28 Pope John Paul II proposes four “essential elements” of the Christian moral order: [T]he subordination of man and his activity to God, the One who “alone is good”; the relationship clearly indicated in the divine commandments, between…