THEOLOGY OF

MORAL VIRTUES
2nd Year – 2nd Semester
Lecture by Fr. Rodel Aligan, OP

Transcribed by Fray Rafael Martin G. Musa, OSA

ORDER OF SAINT AUGUSTINE
 Theology of Moral Virtues

INTRODUCTION TO THE MORAL

AND CARDINAL VIRTUES
What is a Virtue?

Values and Virtues

Virtues are placed in the broader context of values. Each Individual has a core of underlying
values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and opinions.

What is a Value?
It becomes a value when
• Chosen
• Prized
• Constantly Acted Upon

Integrity in the application of a value ensures its continuity and separates a value form a
belief.

Four categories of Values

1. Innate (reproductive survival)
2. Doctrinal (Political, Ideological, religious, Social Beliefs)
3. Aesthetics (beautiful, ugly, etc.)
4. Ethics (virtues-vice, good-bad)

GREEK VALUES

Ethike Arete
It means habitual excellence. It signifies manliness or courage. It also refers to the moral
excellence of a person.

Four Classic Western Values

The enumeration is traced to Greek Philosophy
1. Temperance
2. Pridence
3. Fortitutde
4. Justice

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JEWISH VALUES

Compassion: God is compassionate and invoked as the Father or Compassion. Sorrow and pity
for one in distress, creating a desire to relieve, is a feeling ascribed to both man and God. The
Rabbis spoke of thirteen attributes of compassion

The Golden Rule: The summary of Jewish religion in its most concise term: “That which is
hateful to you, do not do tou your fellow. This is the whole Torah. The rest is explanation: Go
and learn. (Rabbu Hillel the Elder).

ISLAMIC VALUES

Qur’an: The Qur’an is the repository of all the virtues in the earthly form, and the Prophet,
particularly via his hadiths or reported sayings, the exemplar of virtue in human form.

Submission: The very name Islam means “acceptance” proclaims the virtue of submission to
the will of God, the acceptance of the way things are.

Compassion: The Arabic for compassion is Rahmah. As a cultural influence, its root abounds
in the Qur’an.

A good Muslim is to commence each day, each prayer and each significant action by invoking
God the merciful and compassionate. The Muslim scripture urge compassion toward captives,
widows and orphans. Bust such is typical of all Middle East cultures.

HINDU VALUES

Dharma: Pivotal virtues that everyone keeping their dharma is asked to follow. For they are
distinct qualities of manusya (mankind) that allow one to be in the mode of goodness.

There are three modes of material nature (guna): Sattva (goodness, creation, etc.) Rajah (passion
maintenance, etc.), Tamas (ignorance, restraints, etc.)

Modes of Sattva
1. Altruism
2. Restraint and Moderation
3. Honesty
4. Cleanliness
5. Protection and reverence of Earth
6. Univerality
7. Non-violence

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BUDDHIST VALUES

Eight-fold Path
1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

Four Brahmavihara (Divine States)

1. Metta/Maitri (Loving kindness toward all)
2. Karuna (Compassion)
3. Mudita (altruistic joy in the accomplishments of a person)
4. Upekkha (equanimity)

CHINESE VALUES

Confucian Values: Moral manifestation include the ren (humanity), xiao (filial piety) and
Zhong (loyalty). In Confucianism ren means humanity and goodness. (Confucian Book of
Poems)

Daoist Virtues: The Daoist concept of de pertains to the virtue or ability that an individual
realizes by following the Dao (The Way). Ones social status results from the amount of virtue
that one demonstrates rather than from ones birth.

Martial Virtues: Morality of deed (humility, loyalty, respect, righteousness, trust); Morality of
Mind (courage, endurance, patience, perseverance)

THE VIRTUES IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

Nature of Virtues

Etymology: Denotes manliness and courage. “Appelata est enim viro virtus: viri autem propia
maxime est fortitude.” “The term virtue is from the word that signifies man; a man’s chief
quality is fortitude” (Cicero, TUSCU, I, XI, 18)

General: Excellence of perfection of a thing, just as vice, denotes a defect or absence of a thing.

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Strict Sense: A habit superadded to the faculty of the soul, disposing it to elicit readiness acts
conformable to our rational nature.

ST. AUGUSTINE: A good habit consonant with our nature. A good quality of the mind by
which one lives rightly, which no one can use badly, and which God accomplishes in us, without
us. (St. Augustine, Against Julian, 4, Chap 3, Epistle 105, On Free Will, Book 2, Chap 19)

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: A good operative habit. Such is taken from Aristotle which is stated
thus: “A virtue is that which makes the possessor good, and what he does good as well.”
(Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, BK II, Chap 6)

SUBJECT OF VIRTUES

The Subject to where virtue inheres must be limited to the operative powers capable of
modification and determination:
1. Intellect
2. Will
3. Concupiscible Appetite
4. Irascible Appetite

Intellect: Subject of intellectual virtues, good operative habits which determine the intellect to
work well. The intellectual virtues are not virtues in the full perfect sense, virtues in a special
and restricted sense.

Will: The subject of an absolute virtue. If a man does anything good at all, as conducive to his
true ultimate goal it is because his will itself is good. The virtues which make man good and do
not merely give the aptitude of doing good must either be in the will or some power moved by
the will.

Sensitive Appetites: The function of the will in controlling the passions of the sensitive
appetites is considerable abetted by the help of habit. Through these determinations and under
the movement of the will they are brought to a certain habitual conformity with reason and thus
ordered to good objects and the good of the whole man.

DIVISION OF VIRTUES

Virtue can be divided into two general classes:

1. Human virtues
2. Infused Virtues
(CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1804, CATECHISM FOR FILIPINO
CATHOLICS, 978- 986.)

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HUMAN VIRTUES: Firm attitudes, stale dispositions, habitual perfections of Intellect and will
that govern our actions, order our passions; and guide our conduct according to reason and faith.
They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life (CCC 1804).

They are acquired by education, by deliberate acts and perseverance ever-renewed in repeated
efforts. With God’s help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good.

INFUSED VIRTUES: These are virtues infused by God in the soul during the moment of
justification. They are infused together with sanctifying grace (Council of Trent, DECREE on
JUSTIFICATION, Session 3).

WHETHER HUMAN OR INFUSED VIRTUES

1. Intellectual Virtues
2. Moral Virtues (includes the Cardinal virtues)

INFUSED
1. Theological Virtues

INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES: Habit perfecting the Intellect to elicit with readiness acts that
are good in reference to their proper object, namely, truth. The intellect is called speculative or
practical according as it confines itself to the sole contemplation of truth in reference to action.

THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES: Foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give
it special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God
into the souls of the faithful capable of acting as his children.

MORAL VIRTUES

ETYMOLOGY: Moral virtue is so called from the word mos, which signifies a certain natural
or quasi- natural inclination to do a thing.

DEFINITION: They are virtues absolutely perfecting the appetitive powers. The moral virtues
are habits by which man' s appetites are well-disposed to be brought into conformity with
reason, which is the norm determining the good, midway between excess and defect.

NECESSTY: Necessary for man's proper moral activity because the rational and sensitive
appetites are not entirely subject to reason. They can rise up against the control of reason. Hence,
the various appetites of man must be disposed to obey reason by the discipline of the moral
virtues.

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CARDINAL VIRTUES

NATURE OF CARDINAL VIRTUES

Etymology: Comes from the Latin word hinge, that which the door hangs. The term cardo
means hinge, that on which a thing turns, its principal point; and from this St. Thomas derives
the various significations of the virtues as cardinal.

ORIGIN: Origin of the fourfold system Is traceable to Greek philosophy; other sources are
earlier, but the Socratic source is most definite.

Plato: Plato in his Republic" puts together the four virtues: "Wisdom is the chief and leader;
next follows temperance; and from the union of these two with courage comes Justice. LAWS,
Bk1,631
Cicero: Cicero, repeated Aristotle and Plato: “Each man should conduct himself that fortitude
in labors and dangers; temperance in foregoing pleasures; prudence in the choice of good and
evil; justice in giving every man his own (DE FIN., V, XXIII, 67).

St. Thomas Aquinas Derives the cardinal virtues both from their formal objects or the
perceived kinds of rational good which generally seek, and from subjects, or faculties, in which
they reside and perfect. (ST, 1-ll, 0 LXI, aa. 2 and 4).

CHURCH TRADITION: Adopted and extended this view. These virtues are praised under
other names in many passages of Scriptures. (Wis., Vll,5-7, IV; Mach., 22, 23).

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE CARDINAL VIRTUES

AS MORAL VIRTUES They are virtues in the most proper sense of the word, and virtue in the
absolute or perfect sense is a moral virtue, that is, good habits conferring both the aptitude for
good work and the guarantee of its good use.
The Number of the Cardinal Virtues
BY REASON OF FORMAL OBJECT The formal principle of a moral virtue is the good defined
by reason, a good which can be considered in two ways.

• First, inasmuch as it consist in the very act of reason, we have one principal virtue called
prudence.
• Secondly, in so far as reason establishes order in something else: either in operations,
and then we have justice, or in the passions, and then we need two virtues.
For it is necessary to put the order of reason into the passions in view of their rebelliousness to
reason. This rebelliousness occurs in two ways: in one way by the passions inciting to something
against reason; hence it is necessary that the passions be curbed; so we have temperance.

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Second way, by the passions withdrawing from which reason dictates, through fear of danger;
so we have fortitude.

BY REASON OF SUBJECT There are four faculties of the soul in which the moral virtues
reside, and in each of them one of the cardinal virtues: prudence in the intellect, justice in the
will, temperance in the concupiscible appetite and fortitude in the irascible appetite.

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THE CARDINAL VIRTUE OF

PRUDENCE

IN GENERAL
Nature of Prudence
The order of right reason applied to doing things. It is in contrast to art which is the order of
right reason applied to making things. Prudence is the virtue that aids the mind in the production
of human acts. Art assists the mind in the production or manufacture of things.
NECESSITY OF PRUDENCE: As the moral virtues are concerned with ordering man to a
certain end or goal, answering the question: what is to be done, prudence strives to see that the
means to achieve these various goals are properly ordered, thus answering the question: how is
this to be done here and now?
SUBJECT OF PRUDENCE: The subject of prudence is the practical intellect since it is
concerned exclusively with the application of universal truths to particular affairs.
OBJECT OF PRUDENCE: The object of prudence is the singular, concrete moral action of
man. This moral action may be concerned with any one, or several of the theological or moral
virtues. Regardless of the virtue concerned, the moral action of that virtue is the object of
prudence.

What Prudence is Not?

Many think that prudence simply applies to application of moral principles. They speak for
example that to go to war as a “prudential judgment” suggesting that reasonable people can
disagree on the application of moral principles. Therefore, just judgments can be questioned but
never absolutely declared wrong. This a fundamental misunderstanding of prudence (Fr. John
Hardon, MODERN CATHOLIC DICTIONARY)
Prudence is correct knowledge about things to be done or, more broadly, the knowledge of
things that ought to be done and of things that ought to be avoided. Prudence is “right reason
applied to practice”. We cannot make a decision and then describe as prudential judgment.
Prudence requires us to distinguish what is right and wrong. It is the intellectual virtue whereby
a human being recognizes in any matter at hand what is good and evil. If we mistake the evil
for good, we are not exercising prudence or showing the lack of it.

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Acts of Prudence***
1. COUNSEL: An act of inquiry by which the mind seeks the knowledge that will form
the basis of a judgment.
2. JUDGMENT: As a normative function, it establishes as a proposition, that means which
deliberation has discovered are good and should be adhered to, or evil and to be avoided.
3. COMMAND: Concerned with the action to be performed. If there is no act of command,
there is no act of prudence. But command without the preceding acts does not constitute
an act of prudence. If it flows from caprice instead of counsel, prejudice instead of
judgment is not prudence.
PRUDENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE:
1. Take counsel carefully with oneself and from others
2. To judge correctly on the basis of evidence at hand
3. To direct the rest of one’s activity according to the norms determined after prudent
judgment has been made. Disregarding the advice or warning of others whose judgment
does not coincide with ours is imprudence.

THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE

DEFINITION: A divinely infused virtue by which, given due counsel and judgment, practical
reason commands in the concrete a true manner of acting as means to man’s supernatural end.
Objects of the Virtue of Prudence
1. MATERIAL OBJECT: Moral actions that are contingent, particular and singular.
2. FORMAL OBJECT: Particular truth in moral matters.
Causes of the Virtue of Prudence
1. ACQUIRED PRUDENCE: Caused by repeated acts conscientiously produced, with
difficulty, over an extended period of time
2. SUPERNATURAL PRUDENCE: Produced in the soul exclusively through the power
of God as a normal complement of sanctifying grace.
Conclusions About the Virtue

• Natural prudence is not a virtue that will be characteristic of young people. They need
experience.
• Supernatural prudence will be found in young and old when they are in the state of grace.
• ADULT IN STATE OF GRACE: An adult in the state of grace who has acquired an
adequate degree of natural prudence will possess supernatural prudence both as habit
and as an act.
• The reason why one not in the state of grace has no supernatural prudence is that he is
no longer directed toward a supernatural goal.*****

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Parts of the Virtue of Prudence

Integral Parts:
1. COUNSEL: For knowledge needed in the act of prudence one must remember his past
experiences, for only through memory of the past can he find necessary aid to discern
moral implications of the problem he is facing now. He must have understanding or
intellectual grasp of the principles of morality and of the peculiar situations to which he
must now apply them.

Since human life involves an infinite variety, it would be impossible for any one man to
gain all this knowledge on his own. He needs docility. To estimate rightly how the means
available to him can be used to solve his moral problems he needs shrewdness. Finally,
that his counsel be complete he must use deductive reasoning process so that from this
acquired information new conclusions and judgment may enlighten his mind.

2. JUDGMENT: The prudent man must be provident, that is, he must look ahead to his
ultimate end, in order to see how the action he contemplates is ordained towards it. He
must be circumspect, viewing all circumstances that may morally affect the action
which he intends to command. Finally, the prudent man must be cautious, that is,
prepared to deal with those unforeseen difficulties which might spoil the action that his
practical reason will command.
Subjective Parts:
They are the various species contained within the genus of the virtue. In general, we can
distinguish the following species:
1. Personal Prudence, regulating the ordering of human acts to the ultimate end of the
individual
2. Domestic Prudence, dealing with the direction of family activity to the accomplishment
of the purpose of family life
3. Political Prudence, handling the coordinated activity of the citizens to achieve the
proper end of the state.
DOMESTIC PRUDENCE: It is not only concerned with the family, commercial activities and
profession of business but also the economic system of capitalism. The virtue of prudence and
all the moral virtues require for their exercise in human community life, the protection of the
rights to life, liberty and property. It is only in the fully free society that the moral ethical nature
of the human being is fully honored. Prudence means caring about one’s wellbeing.
PRUDENCE IN PUBLIC LIFE: A good sovereign needs prudence first and foremost.
Political prudence requires attention to reality in this case knowledge of body politic. Good
governance is not measured by principle alone. Laws and policies are good only in so far as
they befit a particular people. Thus, a prudent leader has a keen sense of his nation’s strengths.

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He is aware of the sources of civic vitality. He is also alive to his nation’s weakness, its tendency
toward factionalism and the characteristic vices of its people.
Above all he must know its most immediate and threatening diseases. This knowledge
can be gained, in part, from regular reading of history. The present is a child of the past. A
prudent leader recognizes the power of civic memorials and myths. He knows the architecture
of his nation’s imagination. Knowledge of civic reality also comes from direct acquaintance
with wide range of one’s fellow citizens.
The prudent leader need not be “man of the people” but good leaders need contact with
those whom they lead. This is a discipline of imagination. Over the last generation, elite
education has emphasized technocratic management and sidelined political history. Literature
and the humanities have become marginal.
As a consequence, our ruling class echoes-social scientific truisms while it lacks
nuanced knowledge of national character. Technocrats see theories and models than a nation. A
prudent leader might be wise to consult the technocrats, but he must make his own judgments
about how to tailor their expertise to reality, which is now reducible to theory, nor fully captured
by models.
There is no formula for delivering political leaders from hard decisions. The problem
has many levels and solutions are not obvious. Without prudence those in authority cannot well
serve body politic.
Potential Parts:
Distinct yet annexed virtues which produce acts secondary and preparatory to the principal act
of the cardinal virtue.
1. EUBULIA: Talent for good counsel. The virtue whereby one judges well about the
means to attain an intended end.
2. SYNESIS: The virtue of common sense in practical matters. The virtue by which man
makes good judgments about events, according to the common rules of life, that is,
according to natural and positive laws.
3. GNOME: The ability to judge rightly about the extraordinary things in life, that is,
higher law.

SINS AGANST THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE

DEFECT EXCESS
◼ Precipitation ◼ Carnal Prudence
◼ Inconsideration ◼ Craftiness
◼ Inconstancy ◼ Excessive Solitude
◼ Negligence

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Sins by Defect:
1. PRECIPITATION: A sin of in-deliberation. Opposed to the act of counsel, amounts to
an unwise and excessive haste in acting.
2. INCONSIDERATION: Thoughtlessness. Opposed to the act of judgment. It entails
rashness with regards to judgment.
3. INCONSTANCY: A reflection of the prudent judgment that has been made. It is
opposed to the act of command inasmuch as the act of command is impeded by
inconstancy.
4. NEGLIGENCE: Failure to actualize the command in an external action.
5. IMPRUDENCE: Drawing upon St.Thomas Josef Pieper identifies two causes of
imprudence:
a. Thoughtlessness: It may arise from indifference or impatience but it can also
follow from cocksure mentality that presumes to know in advance.
b. Irresoluteness: We often face situations that require us to act quickly.
Irresoluteness can take the guise of moral rectitude. The prudent man knows he
cannot enjoy the luxury of certainty. It draws on powers of judgment, not on
proofs,
Sins By Excess:
1. CARNAL PRUDENCE: Concerns itself with an evil to be attained. It is termed a kind
of prudence because it wisely selects the means necessary to attain this evil goal.
2. CRAFTINESS: The use of evil means for the attainment of an end which may be
good in itself.
3. EXCESSIVE SOLITUDE: Worldly care, worry and anxiety. Where negligence takes
insufficient care to execute the commands of prudence, excessive solitude goes beyond
the limits set by right reason. It is inordinate concern for materialities.

Practices to Foster the Growth of the Virtue of Prudence

A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do good. Our task is to ask for and
cooperated with God’s grace in developing the virtue of prudence, and allowing Him to perfect
it in us. When facing a decision, we take time to pray and determine God’s will in the matter.
We always take time to think things through to choose the “right” thing to do.

Principles of Thomas Aquinas on The Relations of Faith And Reason

Reason alone is not sufficient to guide people. Revelation is all that God has revealed to
us in Scripture and Tradition. Reason and Revelation are not opposed to each other. Faith
preserves reason from error. Reason provides service in the cause of faith by explaining and
 Theology of Moral Virtues

helping to develop understanding of the truths of faith and by defending the truths revealed by
God.
PRUDENCE IN ACTION
Prudence is how we navigate the journey of our lives and if our actions are directed
towards Heaven as the ultimate end, we will always seek to do good. Practicing prudence will
improve our confidence in ourselves to make the right decision, even when life is hard, even
when choices are not so clear, even when the stakes are high. We never practice prudence in
isolation. Everything God creates has a relationship to other things. We are made for
relationship. Thus, the exercise of prudence in relationships. We develop prudence by exercising
moral perception. Real life presents endless opportunities for this kind of workout. The Catholic
tradition insists that some acts are intrinsically evil. They must never be done.

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THE CARDINAL VIRTUE OF

TEMPERANCE

DEFINITION: A moral virtue which moderates one’s appetite for the greatest pleasures of
the sense of touch according to the needs of his station in life as judged by right reason and the
divine law. The virtue which moderates us in the inordinate desire for sensible pleasures,
keeping it within the limits assigned by reason and faith.
Before the Fall, all of the physical senses were in complete harmony and controlled by
reason. The first man never became compulsively obsessed with eating or sex or getting drunk.
He never got addicted to anything, he never experienced unhealthy cravings. But after sin
entered the picture, all the physical senses, by nature good or healthy, were unleashed or never
controlled by reason. Our self-mastery were lost and we began to drift naturally to unhealthy
excess in the pursuit of physical pleasure. The virtue of temperance takes our wildly free senses
and pulls them back into control, harnessing them with the reigns of reason.
• AS MORAL VIRTUE: Temperance may either be acquired, supernatural and infused
depending on its origin.
• APPETITE: Refers to the concupiscible appetite which is the proper subject of
temperance.
• MODERATION: The proper act of temperance, which must curb this appetite lest it
carry man away.
• DESIRE FOR THE GREATEST PLEASURE OF THE SENSE OF TOUCH: It is
the material object of temperance.
• MEAN OF TEMPERANCE: The rule is not exclusively determined by the generic
needs of the human nature, but also by the individual needs of each man as he exists
in the concrete circumstances of his life. The same rule of reason is also called the happy
mean.

Parts of Temperance
2. INTEGRAL PARTS: Includes sense of shame and sense of honor
3. SUBJECTIVE PARTS: Includes abstinence, sobriety and chastity (Our Focus!)
4. POTENTIAL PARTS: Includes the following:
a. Continence
b. Meekness
c. Mercy

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Integral Parts
1. SENSE OF SHAME: Shame is a fear of something base. The sense of shame as an
integral part of temperance refers to the shamefulness of the sin itself and constitutes
one of the motivating factors for refraining from sin and moderating one’s appetite for
sense pleasure.
2. SENSE OF HONOR: Refers to a certain honorableness and integrity whereby a person
has a positive appreciation and reverence for the virtue of temperance.
A human act is honorable when it possesses a certain degree of perfection and splendor
which arouses respect and praise.
Subjective Parts
Food and Drinks
1. ABSTINENCE: Abstinence regulates the appetite for food and drink. The virtue has
for its rule the needs of life. Hence, abstinence is not so much a question of depriving
oneself of food and drink as of taking the nutrition that is required for the well-being of
the body.
2. FASTING: As abstinence regulates the nourishment of an individual according to the
rule of reason in view of his well-being and the duties of his state in life, fasting is a
special act of the virtue of abstinence by which a person abstains, either totally or
partially from food.
Vices against Abstinence
GLUTTONY: It is inordinate desire for eating and drinking. It becomes morally evil whenever
a person is inordinate in his desire for, or his enjoyment of food and drink manifested in
excessive use of exotic and delicate foods which deprive the body of proper nourishment and
balanced diet.
SOBRIETY: The cardinal principle in regard to the use of these drinks is to know both one’s
needs and capacity, and then to observe the measure. The individual must always be aware
of his condition at any given time so that he will be able to apply the rule of reason and
moderation.
Vices Against Sobriety
DRUNKENNES: It is any deliberate excess in the use of intoxicating drinks which lead
to the loss of reason. For it to be sinful, it must be deliberate. Hence, a person becomes
intoxicated either because he did not realize the strength of the drink, or he did not know
his limits from experience.

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SEX:
CHASTITY: The moral virtue which moderates the desire for venereal pleasures according to
the necessities of life judged by right reason and the divine law. Proximately, it deals with the
desires for venereal pleasures. Remotely, it deals with the acts such as sexual intercourse,
touches, embraces and kisses which give rise to these pleasures.
Chastity in Eastern Religions
1. Hinduism: View on sex is rooted in its concept of the stages of life. The first of these
stages Brahmacharya is translated into chastity.
2. Jainism: The general Jain code of ethics requires that one do no harm to any living
being in thought, word or action. Adultery, fornication is seen as a violation of the state
of chastity.
3. Buddhism: The teachings of Buddhism teaches right action. Under the Five Precepts
ethical code the followers should abstain from sexual misconduct while monks should
practice strict chastity.
4. Daoism: The Five Precepts of the Daoist religion include no sexual misconduct, which
is interpreted as prohibiting extra-marital sex lay practitioners.
Reflections on the Virtue of Chastity
1. The virtue of chastity calls us, as sexual beings, to revere ourselves as creatures made in
the image of God and made to honor God through our actions – through how we do have
sex or not.
2. It calls us to revere other persons for the sake of the other person’s good and ultimate
happiness which is what we deeply desire
3. Temperance in regard to sexuality is not simple because there is a natural sexual
attraction between man and woman.
4. It is natural, but often dangerous, because as well as being powerful it is disordered.
Whoever denies that there is a disordered element in the sexual instinct which therefore
calls for control – is either insincere or ignorant.
5. That our sexual instinct is human as well as animal simply means that the sexual union
between man and woman has much deeper meaning than the simple satisfaction of a
physical appetite.
6. Human sexual intercourse the sharing of the female and male elements of reproduction,
is of itself, unless frustrated, designed to give rise to a new human being.
7. That is why the only human setting for intercourse is marriage, for it is only in this that
a man and woman should engage in an act that of its nature tends to start or increase a
family.
Reasons for Forgetting the Virtue (Chastity):
1. We are unfamiliar with the language of the virtue. Chastity is an ideal trait, settled and
comfortable peace with our well-ordered desires and pleasures – regarding sex.

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2. We experience some resentment toward morality and toward specific ideals like
chastity. In the face of sexuality being misused, selfish and abusive, lacking strength in
ourselves and having little community support to obtain the ideal we desire, we end up
resenting it.
3. We mistakenly think chastity revolves around not having sex. Chastity is a sort of
reverence: a chaste person reveres and respects the other person by making sure that
before they have sex, both are united in a common aim.
4. We mistakenly think chastity revolves around repressing sexual desire and not
thinking about sex. It has no interest in stopping our thinking about sex but would like
us to think carefully and well about sex.
Importance of Chastity in Christian Life:
Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity
of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality in which man’s belonging to the bodily and
material world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the
relationship of one person to another.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the
gift. The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This
integrity ensures the unity of the person: it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It
tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.
Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is training in human freedom. He
freely chooses what is good and by diligence and skill effectively secures for himself the means
suited to his end.
Whoever wants to be faithful will want to adopt the means of doing it:
1. Self-knowledge
2. Practice of an “ascesis” adapted to situations that confront him
3. Obedience to God’s commandments
4. Exercise of the moral virtues
5. Fidelity to prayer and reception of the sacraments worthily
Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. It presupposes a renewed effort at all stages of life.
The effort can be more intense such as when personality is being formed. It represents a personal
task: it involves a cultural effort. It presupposes respect for the rights of persons, in particular
the right to receive information and education that respects morality in society.
Subjective Parts of Chastity:***
1. Purity: The moderation of the external acts which of their nature lead to sexual union,
according to the needs of one’s state of life as judged by reason and faith.
a. Purity of the Married: Although married people have the right to employ
whatever expressions of affection, they have to be guided by the rule of reason
and faith lest it lead to unchastity or it becomes a mask for self-indulgence.

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 Theology of Moral Virtues

i. Those who are engaged to be married are called to live chastity in

continence.
ii. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect,
apprenticeship in fidelity and the hope of receiving one another from
God.
iii. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong
to married life. They will help each other grow in chastity.
b. Purity and the Single: Having no right to sexual relations, by virtue of their
situation, they have no right to those things which of their nature lead to the
desire for venereal pleasure or to sexual relations. Purity is governed by the needs
of their state measured by faith and reason.

2. Virginity: A virtue whereby one completely free of all deliberate venereal experience
of mind and body resolves to abstain perpetually from every voluntary venereal pleasure
in order to follow the divine will more freely and completely.
VICES OF LUST: Lust is an inordinate desire for venereal pleasure. There are various
species of lust, namely:
1. INTERNAL ACTS: This includes lingering delectation, lustful desire and
delight in the remembrance of past acts of lust.
2. EXTERNAL INCOMPLETE ACTS: Sexual action is not carried through
its termination. They are also called impure actions. Thus, kissing, embracing
and looking at another’s body will be sinful if they are accompanied by
venereal pleasure.
3. NATURAL COMPLETED ACTS: They comprise all unlawful sexual
intercourse between a man and a woman. It is a completed act because the
action is carried to its termination; natural because the sexual act is
performed in such a way that procreation could follow. They include such
acts as fornication, adultery, incest, carnal sacrilege.
4. UNNATURAL COMPLETED ACTS: Sin against the order of reason
which is natural to man. They include masturbation, onanism, homosexuality
and bestiality.
Potential Parts of Chastity:
1. CONTINENCE: The disposition of the will inclining it to resist the vehemence of
passions. It has something to do with resistance of sexual pleasure. It resists passions
when it arises. Hence, a continent man maybe subject to violent attacks of passion but
he resists them.
2. MEEKNESS AND CLEMENCY: Meekness is the moral virtue which moderates
anger and restrains the desire for vengeance. Clemency is a moral virtue by which one
diminishes punishment of faults so far as right reason permits.

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 Theology of Moral Virtues

Vices Against Meekness:

a) Anger is the inordinate desire for revenge. It can lead to indignation which is a
feeling of hurt pride at suffering injury from another. It could lead to vices of
speech.
b) Cruelty is to inflict punishment beyond the demands of reason and the law.

The Virtue of Modesty

GENERAL: The virtue which prompts us to be decorous, proper, and reserved, in the way we
dress, stand, walk and sit – in the way we behave exteriorly.
ST. THOMAS: It is the virtue by which we rightly regulate our conduct in respect to those things
that can lead to impure thoughts, desires and actions, in ourselves and in others.
While chastity deals with the regulation of difficult things, powerful passions and strong desire
for pleasure, modesty deals with the regulation of easy things. It also deals with the remote and
proximate occasions and condition that can lead to unholy desires. Modesty is a virtue allied to
the virtue of temperance.
They are virtues which concern with acts presenting difficulties but brought under the control
of reason. They are divided into:
1. Humility
2. Studiousness
3. Modesty of Action and Dress

• Humility as a moral virtue which restrains the inordinate desire for one’s own
excellence
• Studiousness is the moderation of the desire for knowledge within the bounds of reason.
• Modesty of External Behavior: It is a virtue which regulates one’s action according to
reason to observe decorum.
o Modesty of External Behavior: It is a virtue which regulates one’s action
according to reason to observe decorum.
o The reason we see less and less modesty today – or more and more immodesty-
on commercials and advertising is that more and more people today are simply
intemperate.
o He who possesses the treasure of Christian modesty abominates every sin of
impurity and instantly flees whenever he is tempted by its seductions.
Twenty Ways for Young Men to Become Real Men
1. Tell cool funny jokes, not the kind that would make a pure woman blush or offended
2. Read the Bible – be open to God’s Word
3. Find saints that you relate to and ask them to pray for you as you imitate those virtues
4. Keep your standards high

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5. Be a man of integrity
6. Be strong and gentle
7. Respect women even those who don’t respect themselves
8. Say a prayer when you see a woman dressed immodestly (for the sake of the woman)
9. Say a prayer when you see a woman dressed immodestly (for your purity’s sake)
10. Honor your mother and your sisters
11. Find creative ways to express your feelings
12. Find good male role models to emulate
13. Be open to the priesthood
14. Show gentlemanly respect to all women
15. Trust in God’s mercy
16. Don’t settle for counterfeits such as pornography or impure actions
17. Guard your senses from temptation and be always ready to choose God’s way.
18. Recognize Mary as your Mother and say a prayer to consecrate to her
19. Be faithful in all little things
20. Make Jesus your best friend and model
Practical Ways to Start on the Path of Temperance
1. TAKE LESS THAN YOU WANT. Take less than you want, though savor it. Do this
repeatedly and you will begin to wonder why you ever needed more.
2. TELL YOURSELF NO ALTOGETHER. The world will tell you to deserve to indulge
yourself that you are entitled to the maximum amount of pleasure. That simply is not
true. Next time you want to indulge yourself, just say no.
3. GET UNCOMFORTABLE. Many saints have said that one of the biggest enemies of
our spiritual lives is the love of comfort. While they may seem harmless, these little self-
indulgences add up and increase our desire to choose the path of less resistance.
4. We begin to value pleasure and ease more than we value doing what is right and good.
And we become intemperate, controlled by our desires instead of reason.

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 Theology of Moral Virtues

THE CARDINAL VIRTUE

OF JUSTICE
Nature of Justice: It is the constant and perpetual will to render to everyone what is his due.
This definition implies the ff:

• It is a habit. This means that it is firmly established quality in the will, possessing certain
stability.
• Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human
relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regards to persons and the common
good.
• The just man often mentioned in Scriptures is distinguished by habitual right thinking
and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor.
• Justice first and foremost a positive thing. In our relationship with God, we render him
his due in the form of love, service and gratitude as our Creator. Living justly toward
God is to render him these things perfectly.
• Justice is not a vague and sentimental desire to help everyone. This is often under guise
of social justice. While social justice is a valid concept when strictly and carefully
defined, more often than not, it simply becomes an excuse for political violations of
private property, etc.
SUBJECT OF JUSTICE: It is in the will. The subject of prudence is the intellect. Only
justice affect the will directly. It always involves the other person. It looks to another. It is a
social virtue.
MEAN OF JUSTICE: The medium of justice is determined not by reason but by objective
reality – by the objective rights which are due to others. The medium of justice is mathematical.

KINDS OF JUSTICE: There are three basic kinds of justice:

1. General
2. Distributive
3. Commutative
I. GENERAL JUSTICE
Also known as legal justice it is a virtue which directs human acts owed to the common good
to that end. It is a virtue which inclines men to give to the community as such that which is
owed to it. Its purpose is the common temporal happiness of the entire society.
Legal justice entails obligation on the part of the following:
1. Rulers
2. Citizens

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OBLIGATIONS OF RULERS: It will be a firm and constant will for rulers to secure by
practical measures, the common good which this virtue inspires them to love. Some of their
duties are:
1. Distribute the duties and burdens which are necessary for public administration. This
has to be done equitably, not arithmetically but proportionally, taking due account
of each individual’s social conditions, professional and legal status, and the
advantages he derives from society.
2. To safeguard the inviolable rights of the individual and of development.
3. Promote international relations in peace and not in war, in collaboration and not in
isolation, for the advancement of common interest, through mutual aid and fair
distribution of the world’s goods.

OBLIGATION OF CITIZENS: Legal justice enables the citizens to fulfill the laws of the
community virtuously and to collaborate with his fellows for the common good and for the
development of the social order, as well as to discern which laws are unjust.

Three that need to be looked closely:

1. Voting
2. Military Service
3. Payment of Taxes

II. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

It is that virtue by which society distributes goods and burdens among its members
according to the merit, dignity and need of each.

Goods of the Community:

1. Social conditions of the community: security of order, guarantee of individual rights,
establishment of decent economic conditions.
2. Secondary goods: rewards, assistance, subsidies.

THEORIES OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

1. What goods are to be distributed? Is it to be wealth, power, respect, some combination
of these things?
2. Between what entities are they to be distributed? Humans (dead, living, future), sentient
beings, the members of a single society, nations?
3. What is the proper distribution? Equal, meritocratic, according to social status, according
to need, based on property rights and non-aggression?

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III. COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE

The virtue whereby man renders to each one, by a constant and perpetual will, what is his
exact due in the exchanges that can take place between two persons. This virtue resides in the
private individual and regards the relations of private person to private person, part to part.
It has an arithmetical medium. What the individual owns is his. Everyone must be willing that
he have it, and that it be taken from him, it be restored. Thus, the principle of restitution.

Other Variations of Justice:

1. Retributive
2. Restorative
3. Distributive

RETRIBUTIVE: Regulates proportionate response to crime proven by lawful evidence, so that

the punishment is justly imposed and considered as morally correct and fully deserved.

RESTORATIVE: It is not concerned so much with retribution and punishment as with making
the victim whole and reintegrating the victim to society.

RESTITUTION
An act by which a return of property is made to him who has been deprived of it, or by which
an unjust damage is made. The obligation of restitution requires that what was unjustly taken
be restored.
It signifies an act of commutative justice by which exact reparation as far as possible is made
for an injury that has been done to another. An injury may be done to another by detaining what
is known to belong to him in strict justice and by willfully doing him damage in his property or
reputation.
Sources of Restitution:
1. UNJUST POSSESSION: Anyone who is in position of goods owned by another is
obligated to return them eventuality to the legitimate owner.
2. UNJUST DAMAGE: A voluntary injurious act by which one man causes his neighbor
to suffer some loss. Either of property or of good name. The moral law demands that
restitution for damage be made only when it results from sinful will to cause them.
Restitution signifies not any sort of reparation made for injury inflicted but exact reparation as
far as possible. Commutative justice requires that each one should have what belongs to him,
not something else; so that which was taken away must be restored as far as possible.
In general, if the property of another has been destroyed or damaged, the value of the damage
done must be restored.

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Restitution therefore signifies reparation for an injury, and that reparation is made by restoring
to the person injured what he has lost and thus putting him in his former position.
Circumstance and Ways for Restitution
Restitution is to be made as soon as it is morally possible to the person who has been deprived
of his rights. It does not help the balance of justice to restore property to a third party, unless the
rightful owner is impossible to find.
Ways of Restitution
1. Item or money be sent through mail or e-mail without further explanation
2. A gift can be bestowed
3. Free labor can be given
4. Could be made according to the statutes of law if the law so provided.

EXCUSES FROM RESTITUTION: It may be deferred permanently when the owner

voluntarily condones a debt by excusing the wrongdoer from restitution or when compensation
is made.

What About an Injury which Cannot Be Repaired in an Ordinary Way?

• A man who commits adultery with another’s wife cannot make restitution to him in the
strict sense. He has done his neighbor an injury which in a certain sense irreparable. He
should make what reparation he can.
• It is a disputed point among theologians whether the adulterer is obliged to offer a money
compensation for the injury.
• If he is convicted and sentenced to pay damages by lawful authority, he will certainly be
bound to do so in conscience. But apart from such a sentence he cannot be obliged to
compensate the injured husband in money.

NATURE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

SOCIAL JUSTICE: The concept in which justice is achieved in every aspect of society, rather
than the administration of law. A socially just society is based on the principles of equality
and solidarity, understands and values human rights, and recognizes the dignity of every
human being.
It involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income
distribution, income redistribution, or even property redistribution (equality of opportunity).
ORIGIN OF THE WORD “SOCIAL JUSTICE”
It was coined by the Jesuit Luigi Taparelli (1840) and is described in much of John Rawl’s
writing. It is a part of Catholic social teaching based on the concept of human rights and equality.

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The term was adopted by Taparelli based on the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. He wrote
extensively in his journal Civilta Cattolica engaging both capitalist and socialist theories from
natural law viewpoint.
Social Justice in the History of the Catholic Church
1. POPE LEO XIII: He published the encyclical Rerum Novarum (The Condition of the
Working Class, 1891) rejecting socialism and capitalism while defending labor unions
and private property.
a. Society should be based on cooperation and not class conflict or competition.
The role of the State was to promote social justice through the protection of rights
while the Church must speak out on social issues.
2. POPE PIUS XI: The encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (On Reconstruction of the Social
Order, 1931) encourages a living wage, subsidiarity, and advocates that social justice is
a personal virtue and an attribute of the social order.
3. POPE JOHN PAUL II: The encyclicals Laborem Exercens, Solicitudo Rei Socialis and
Centisimus Annus deal with issues such as economics, geo-politics, ownership of the
means of production.
a. Technology can present, should it be misused with a lot of problems. Progress in
the world cannot be true progress at all if it should degenerate the value of the
human person.
4. POPE BENEDIC T XVI: The encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love, 2006) claims
that justice is the defining concern of the state and the central concern of politics, and not
of the church, which has charity as its central concern.
a. The laity has the specific responsibility of pursuing social justice in civil society
and that the Church’s active role in social justice should be to inform the debate,
using of reason and natural law and providing moral and spiritual formation for
those in politics.
Social Justice According to the Social Teaching of the Church
There are two pertinent teaching related to social justice:
1. Life and Dignity of the Human Person
2. Preferential Option for the Poor
Life and Dignity of the Human Person: The foundational principle of all Catholic Social
Teaching is the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity of every human person.

• Every human being is a person

• His nature endowed with intelligence and free will
• He has rights and duties of his own, flowing directly and simultaneously from his very
nature, which are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable.
• In the light of Faith men are redeemed by the blood of Christ, they are by grace the
children and friends of God and heirs of eternal glory. John XXIII, PACEM IN TERRIS,
9-10.

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Preferential Option for the Poor and the Marginalized: The Catholic Church believes that
through words, prayers and deeds one must show solidarity with, and compassion for the poor.

• The moral test of any society is “how it treats its most vulnerable members”. The poor
have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation.
• Thus, at the center of the Church’s social teaching are the transcendence of God and the
dignity of the human person. The human person is the clearest reflection of God’s
presence in the world. US Bishops, THE CHALLENGE OF PEACE, 15.
Social Justice and the Common Welfare of Society
COMMON WELFARE OF SOCIETY: It means the entirety of those conditions of social life
under which men enjoy the possibility of achieving their own perfection in a certain fullness of
measure and with relative ease. Vatican II, DECLARATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 6.

• The welfare consists chiefly in the protection of the rights, and in the performance of
duties, of the human person. Vatican II, DECLARATION, 6.
• Individual men are necessarily the foundation, cause, and end of all social institutions.
John XXIII, ON SOCIAL PROGRESS, 218-219.
• The norm of activity in society in accord with the divine plan should harmonize with the
genuine good of the human race, and allow men as individuals and as members of
society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it. Vatican II, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 35.
• The social order and its development must constantly yield to the good of the person,
since the order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons. Vatican II,
GAUDIUM ET SPES, 26.
• Exercise of Rights: Individual men and social groups are bound by the moral law to
have respect for both rights of others and for their own duties towards others and for the
common welfare of all. Vatican II, DECLARATION, 7.
• Order in Social Institutions: Justice demands that social institutions be ordered in a way
that guarantees all persons the ability to participate actively in the economic, political,
and cultural life of society.
• A well ordered society requires that men recognize and observe their mutual rights and
duties. It also demands that each contribute generously to the establishment of a civic
order where rights are acknowledged and fulfilled.

JESUS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

JESUS AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR: They extend beyond individual relationships to
infuse and transform all human relationships from the family to the entire human race (Lk 4:18,
Mt. 25).

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THE DICTATES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: It is two-fold:

1. Embrace every chance to help and liberate
2. To heal the wounded world as Jesus taught us.

CONCERN FOR INJUSTICE WE HAVE NOT CAUSED: The absence of a personal fault
for an evil does not absolve one of all responsibility. We must seek to resist and undo injustices
we have not caused, lest we become bystanders endorsing evil
COMMON VICTIMS OF SOCIAL INJUSTICE: Most often it is the weak and unfortunate,
the poor, the aged, the young, minorities and women who are forced to bear justice.
To be actively treated or passively abandoned as if they are non-members of the human race.
To treat people this way is effectively to say that they do not count and becomes the ultimate
injustice.
ATTITUDE TO THOSE WHO COMMIT INJUSTICE: To distinguish between the error
and the person in error, who never loses his dignity as a person
IMPORTANCE OF CHURCH ACTION IN BEHALF OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: It is a
constitutive dimension of preaching the Gospel or the Church’s mission for the redemption of
the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.
BUILDING SOCIAL STRUCTURES: The Church considers it undoubtedly important to
build up structures which are more human, more just more respectful of the rights of the person.
CHRIST’S ROLE IN THE CHRISTIAN SEARCH FOR JUSTICE: It is in Christ that the
Church finds the central cause for its commitment to justice, and to the struggle for human rights
and the dignity of the person.
BASIS FOR CHURCH INFLUENCE ON HUMAN COMMUNITY: Though the Church
has no proper mission in the political, economic or social order but a religious one, out of this
mission itself come to the light and function which can serve to structure and consolidate the
human community.

FUNCTIONS THE CHURCH ASSUME IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE

A double function of:
1. Enlighten minds in order to assist them to discover the truth
2. To take part in action and spread with a real care for service and effectiveness, the
energies of the Gospel.

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JUSTICE AND WAR

Nature of War

Factors Leading To War

THEORIES OF WAR:
1. Historical
2. Psychological
3. Anthropological
4. Sociological
5. Demographic
6. Evolutionary-Psychological
7. Rationalist
8. Economic
9. Marxist
10. Political Science

1. Psychological
Human being are inherently violent. While this violence is repressed in society, it needs
occasional outlet by war (E. Durban and J. Bowly). It can be an extension of animal
behavior, such as territoriality and competition (K. Lorenz).

2. Historical
There are some conditions and situations that make them more likely, but there can be
no system of predicting where and when each one will occur. This is so because war is
collective of human intentions (A.J.P. Taylor).

3. Anthropological
War is fundamentally cultural, learned by nurture rather than nature. If human societies
can be reformed, war would disappear. War is a purposeful attempt of two societies to
weaken or destroy the other to gain greater access to resources (A. Montagu).

4. Sociological
It is a product of domestic conditions, with only the target of aggression being
determined by international realities (Primacy of Domestic Policies) or the decision of
statesmen and geopolitical situation (Primacy of Foreign Politics)

5. Demographic
Expanding population and scarce resources are sources of violent conflicts. Populations
always increase until they are limited by war, famine and disease (Malthusian Theory).
On the other hand, when 30%-40% males of a nation belong to the “fighting age” and
society cannot absorb them, they tend towards violence (Youth Bulge Theory).

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6. Evolutionary Psychology
Studies of endemic violence and tribal warfare demonstrate that it is highest in those
parts of a country where population densities are the greatest and pressure on land and
other resources is thereby maximized (D. Livingstone).

7. Rationalist
Both sides to a potential war are rational, which is to say that each side wants to get the
best possible outcome for itself for the least possible loss of life and property to each
side. They resort to war because of issue indivisibility, information asymmetry with the
intention to deceive, and the inability to make commitments (Blainey).

8. Economic
War is an outgrowth of economic competition in a chaotic and competitive international
system (W. Wilson).

9. Marxist
All wars grow out of class wars. It sees wars as imperial ventures to enhance the power
of the ruling class and divide the proletariat of the world by pitting them against each
other (Lenin,Stalin, Mao).

10. Political Science

The motivation of states is the quest for security, to ensure survival (Realism). But, there
is much empirical evidence to support the claim that states that are democracies do not
go to war with each other (Democratic Peace Theory). Still others explain that major
wars are a part of a cycle of hegemons being destabilized by great powers (Power
Transition Theory).

WAR FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

JUSTICE

War And Justice

Wars can be waged justly given satisfactory conditions. This is the Just War Theory. It deals
with the justification of how and why wars are fought. The justification can either be theoretical
or historical.

Aspects of Justification
• Theoretical: Ethically justifying war and forms of warfare.
• Historical: Deals with the historical body or rules or agreements applied, or at least
existing in various wars across the ages.

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HISTORY OF THE THEORY OF JUST WAR

• St. Augustine of Hippo
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• Grotius
• Hague Conventions
• Geneva Convention

1. ST. AUGUSTINE:
a. Reconciled traditional Christian views about the immorality of violence with the
necessity of defending the Roman Empire from barbarian invasions. Thus, the
Theory of Self-Defense was formulated.
b. “We usually describe a just war as one that avenges wrongs, that is, as when a nation
or a state has to be punished either for refusing to make amends for outrages done
by its subjects, or to restore what it has seized injuriously”.
2. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS:
a. Further developed the theory and were incorporated in the practice of medieval
chivalry.
b. Embodied in knighthood and in fair combat against an opponent.
c. When is there a Just war?
i. When legitimate authority calls for it
ii. When there exists a just reason
iii. When there is right intention (St. Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA
THEOLOGICA, Vol 35, On Consequences of Charity (11-11, qq. 34-36).
d. VITTORIA, SOTO, BANEZ (Following Thomas Aquinas)
i. Following St. Thomas Aquinas Theologians of the 16 th and 17th centuries
contributed much to the ethical and theological construction of the Just War
Theory.
ii. It was studied under the principles of justice.
iii. 17th Century Theory: “War is an instrument of justice including legal
justice. War is illegal or immoral when the laws of war are violated; it is
deemed illegal if the war is carried out against conventional law; it is
immoral if it violates the natural right”.
3. GROTIUS:
a. A Dutch jurist named Hugh de Groot. In his book De Jure ac Belli Pacem he
prescribes rules of conduct for nations as well as individuals in international law. He
got his sources of international law from the Scriptures and Classical History.
b. Grotius’ Theory: For Grotius, the conditions of war must be humane. He did not
condemn war as an instrument of national policy. However, it is criminal to wage
war if not for a just cause.
4. HAGUE CONVENTIONS
a. From 1856-1975 the Hague Conventions made adaptations concerning the principles
of warfare, use of weapons, laws and conduct of war on land, rights and duties of
neutral nations and the rights of prisoners.

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5. GENEVA CONVENTIONS
a. Refinement of the Hague Conventions on Aug. 12, 1949 concerning humanitarian
treatment of POWs and exclusion of nurses, doctors, chaplains, medical personnel
as combatants and visits of Red Cross and Red Crescent.
6. UN CHARTER
a. The theory has become part of the national and international law including U.S.
Army Rules for Land Warfare and the U.N. Charter.
b. Some of the principles also appeal to human reason.

JUST WAR THEORY IN THE CONTEXT OF PEACE

Contemporary Principles
1. JUS AD BELLUM (Justness In Going To War)
2. JUS IN BELLO (Justness In War)
3. JUS POST BELLUM (Justness after the War)

JUS AD BELLUM
Principles that have to be satisfied for a nation to be justified in using military force or in
initiating a war:
• Just Cause: Serious reasons to justify the use of force, namely to respond to aggression
and to restore rights unjustly denied.
• Proportionality: The probable good to be produced by the intervention must outweigh
the evil that the war or the use of force will cause. Before engaging in such actions, the
probable costs and benefits be considered.
o Elements of Proportionality: To assess the likely costs and benefits through
historical and empirical information and weighing the relative values which
requires ethical evaluation.
• Legitimate Authority: Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force
or declare war.
• Probability of Success: Arms may not be used in a futile cause or in case where
disproportionate measures are required.
• Comparative Justice: The injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh
that suffered by another.
• Last Resort: Other means might be considered first. This is a matter of prudential
judgment and is always uncertain.
o The principle requires that some other means be attempted, means that are
judged to have a chance of achieving the goal that the just cause specifies like
negotiations, boycotts and threats.
• Right Intention: Requires that interventions be always directed to the goal set by the
cause and to the eventual goal of peace. Thus, wars are not fought to satisfy hatreds or
to punish others.

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o The principle requires that what is done during the conduct of war is necessary
and that it not unnecessarily make peace harder to attain.
o There should be no gratuitous cruelty, for example.

JUS IN BELLO
Principles governing the conduct of the military action or the war itself waged. Robert Tucker,
The Just War, Baltimore:J. Hopkins Press, 1960, 1; James Childress, “Just War Theories”,
Theological Studies, 1978, 427-455.

• PROPORTIONALITY: In the conduct of conflict the principle requires that for the
various limited objectives, no more force than necessary be used, and that the force or
means used to be proportionate to the importance of the particular objective for the cause
as a whole.
• DISCRIMINATION OR DISTINCTION: It should be governed by the Principle of
Distinction. Prohibits direct intentional attacks on non-combatants and non-military
targets.
• DISCRIMINATION
o Military Targets
▪ Those that contribute directly and in significant efforts are considered as
military targets.
▪ Roads and bridges may be considered as military targets but hospitals are
not legitimate targets.
o Combatants and Non-Combatants
▪ Those people engaged in doing what they do specifically for the war
efforts are called combatants.
▪ People who are engaged in doing what they do for persons as persons are
non-combatants.
o Innocent Civilians
▪ It is rather hard to define innocent civilians inasmuch as a combatant who
does not like war is innocent.
▪ On the other hand a non-combatant or civilian who takes sides whether
verbally or in writing cannot be considered innocent.
JUS POST BELLUM
1. Principle: Concerns itself with justice after war, including peace treaties, reconstruction,
war crimes trial, and war reparations. M. Brough, J. Lango, H. Van Linden, RETHINKING
THE JUST WAR TRADITION, Albany: SUNY Press, 2007.
2. Just cause for termination: A state may terminate a war if there has been a reasonable
vindication of the rights that were violated in the first place, and if the aggressor is willing
to negotiate the terms of surrender. These terms include a formal apology, compensations,
war crime trials and perhaps rehabilitation.
3. Right Intention: A state must only terminate war under the conditions agreed upon in the
above criteria. Revenge is not permitted. The victor state must also be willing to apply the

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same level of objectivity and investigation into any war crimes its army may have
committed.
4. Public declaration and authority: The terms of peace must be made by legitimate authority,
and the terms must be accepted by a legitimate authority.
5. Discrimination: The victor state is to differentiate between political and military leaders,
combatants and civilians. Punitive measures are to be limited to those directly responsible
for the conflict.

GLOBAL TERRORISM

ETYMOLOGY: It comes from the French word “terrorisme” and originally referred to as state
terrorism practiced by the French government during the reign of terror.

The same French word was derived from the Latin “terreo” meaning “to frighten”. The “terror
cimbricus” was a panic and state of emergency in response to the approach of warriors of the
Cimbri tribe (ca 105 BC).

DEFINITIONS:
• Any act intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants
with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an
international organization to do or abstain from doing any act. United Nations General
Assembly, 2004.
• They are criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general
public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any
circumstance unjustifiable whatever the conditions invoked to justify them.
• A political violence in an asymmetrical conflict that is designed to induce terror and
psychic fear (sometimes indiscriminate) through the violent victimization and
destruction of non-combatant targets (sometimes iconic symbols).
• The purpose of which is to exploit the media in order to achieve maximum attainable
publicity as amplifying force multiplier in order to influence the targeted audience in
order to reach short, midterm and long term political goals.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TERRORISM
1. Political in aims and motives
2. Violent
3. Designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim
or target.
4. Conducted by an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspirational
cell structure (members wear no uniform or insignia)
5. Usually perpetrated by sub-national group or non-state entity.

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Reasons for Terrorism:

1. For Terrorists: Just means in attaining good ends: The supporters of such killings
and bombings may argue that these actions are justified as means necessary to achieve
a good end. Other means may not work and that the end is sufficiently good to justify
the use of extreme means.
2. In General: Ethnic and Religious struggles: Despite the end of the Cold War and the
faltering beginnings of the peace process in the Middle East, terrorism still remains a
serious threat in many countries, not surprisingly given that the underlying causes of the
bitter ethnic and religious struggles which span terrorism remain unsolved.
3. Politics as a Tool: Terrorist acts frequently have political purpose. It is a political tactic
used when they believe no other means will effect the kind of change they desire. The
change is desired so badly that failure is seen as worst outcome than the death of
civilians.

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TERRORISM BY REGIONS

1. WESTERN EUROPE: It is the historic separatism of Irish Republicanism in Northern

Ireland and Basque nationalism in Spain that have spawned the most lethal and
protracted terrorism.
2. EASTERN EUROPE: In the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe the removal of
Communist dictatorship has taken the lid off many simmering ethnic rivalries, like in
Bosnia and Chechen Republic.
3. AFRICA: As in Rwanda, ethnic wars are waged by armed militia and are marked by
extreme savagery towards the civilian population, including the policy of ethnic
cleansing to terrorize the population.
4. MIDDLE EAST: It is the most dangerous source of terrorist challenge to the wider
international community, accounting for 21% of all international terrorist incidents
worldwide in 1992 and over 23% in 1993 and much more even now.
o Palestinian Problem: There is bitter opposition by rejectionist Palestinian
groups to the agreement of the late Yasser Arafat and the Israel. They see Arafat
as a traitor. Such opposition come from the Islamic fundamentalist movements
– Hamas and Islamic Jihad – driven by religious fanaticism and hatred for Israel.
o Extreme Islamist Fundamentalists Influence: In almost every Moslem
country there are groups of extreme Islamic fundamentalists inspired and
actively encouraged by the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran ready to wage
jihad against pro-Western regimes with the aim of setting Islamic republics.
o As demonstrated by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and the Armed
Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria and Egypt, these groups are not confined to
Shi’a populations. The primary targets of these group’s campaigns are the
incumbent regimes and their military, police and intellectuals identified with the
regime.
o Anti-Western Attitudes: They have widened their targets to include westerners
in their country. These groups are free lancers who have been inspired and
encouraged by their spiritual fundamentalist mentors.
o Region of State Sponsors: The Middle East is the major region of state sponsors
and supporters of terrorism like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya providing
them with weapons, funds, training and intelligence.
5. LEFT-WING IDEOLOGY: Extreme left ideological motivation has undergone an
almost complete end in Europe. Germany have broken the back of the Red Army faction;
Italy totally defeated the Red Brigades. France and Belgium suppressed Direct Action
(AD) and the Combatant Communist Cells (CCC). The only countries with domestic
challenge from extreme terrorism are Greece from 17th of November and ELA and
Turkey with DEVSOL.
a. IN ASIA, such countries as the Philippines and Indonesia are experiencing
terroristic threats both from Maoist communists (NPA) and extreme Islamic
fundamentalists in the southern regions of the country (MILF, Abu Sayyaf, etc.).

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b. IN SOUTH AMERICA, the Shining Path movement in Peru undoubtedly sees

itself as the true heir to Maoism and aspires to being the vanguard of communist
evolution in Latin America posing a threat to life and economic and social being
in many parts of the country.
6. EXTREME RIGHT IDEOLOGY: The widespread disillusion with mainstream
political parties, economic strains, high levels of unemployment and arrival of hundreds
and thousands of immigrants have created a climate in which violent right wing
extremism thrives.
a. These threats have been present in many countries. Neo-fascists and neo-Nazis
have been active in the United States and Germany. In South Africa, extremist
groups such as Afrikaner Weerstansbeweging (AWB) constitutes a threat by
political assassinations aimed at destabilization.
7. ISSUE-SPECIFIC: Issue-group extremists are sources of terror violence. Recent
escalations of attacks against medical staff, clinics and hospitals are caused by anti-
abortion campaigners in the United States. Issue extremists aim at changing specific
policies or practices rather than the socio-political system.

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GENUINE RELIGIOUS BELIEF: A genuine religious belief is the chief antidote to violence
and conflict. Religions could make an important contribution to the culture of peace by talking
against war and bravely facing the consequent risks. In particular all are asked by their faith in
One God to bear common witness to the truth that terrorism is evil.

JUST WAR AND THE CHURCH

ROOTS OF JUST WAR DOCTRINE:

1. Old Testament
a. Peace is the goal, but when it cannot be achieved without force, force must be
used (Ps. 133:1).
2. New Testament
a. The New Testament sets forth the goal of peace but acknowledges the legitimate
use of force (Luke 3:14).

JUST WAR DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH TODAY:

1. The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous
consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of
moral legitimacy (CCC 2309).
2. CONDITIONS:
a. The Damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations
must be lasting, grave and certain
b. There must be serious prospect of success
c. War should be the last resort in solving the crisis.
d. The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be
eliminated.
e. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating
this condition

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WHO DECIDES?
The evaluation of the condition for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those
who have the responsibility for the common good.

JUSTICE IN WAR
1. Once the decision to go to war has been reached, a new set of issues is focused on how
war is conducted.
2. The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during
armed conflict.
3. The mere fact that war has been regrettably broken out does not mean that everything
becomes licit between the warring parties (CCC 2312).

MORALLY ILLEGITIMATE ACTIONS

1. Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated
humanely.
2. Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are
crimes, as are the orders to command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to
excuse those who carry them out.
3. Thus the extermination of a people, nation or ethnic minority must be condemned as a
mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist such orders that command genocide (CCC
2313).
4. Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas
with their inhabitants is a crime against God, which merits firm and unequivocal
condemnation (CCC 2314).
5. The direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral
(John Paul II, "Evangelium Vitae" 57).

WAR AND THE VIRTUE OF CHARITY

From the position of the cardinal virtue of justice there can be justifications for a just war. That
is the reason for St. Augustine’s just war theory. But from the point of view of the virtue charity
which would be higher than justice there would be no justifications for armed conflict.

WARFARE: It is an armed conflict between nations. From the point of view of justice, it can
be waged defensively to repel aggression or offensively to secure redress for injuries.

Protestant Position (In terms of war): The followers of John Wycliffe maintained that war
was always evil. Luther taught that it was evil to resist the scourge of God by warring against
the Turks.

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THE CHURCH ON WAR:

Traditional Teaching of The Church:
1. The traditional teaching on war was maintained without any notable change until Pius
XI.
2. Pius XII introduced some significant changes that were continued by Vatican II more
recently by Benedict XVI. It is a shift in looking at war from the point of view of justice
to love and peace.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS ON WAR:

1. Gaudium Et Spes:
a. Peace is the fruit of love which goes beyond what justice can provide.
2. Benignitas Et Humanitas:
a. The theory of war as an appropriate and proportionate means to solve
international conflicts is already passe.
b. There is no proportion between the good and the evil effects of war. War,
therefore, ought to be forbidden (Pius XII).
3. Populorum Progressio:
a. The encyclical deplored deterrence not only because it does not remove but
aggravates the risks of war. It leaves the poor poorer.
b. Every exhausting armaments race is an intolerable scandal. (Paul VI).
4. Pacem In Terris:
a. Today which boast of an atomic power, it no longer makes sense, to maintain
that war is a fit instrument with which to repair the violation of justice.
b. What is needed is progressive disarmament and not deterrence. (John Paul II)
5. Centissimus Annus:
a. It speaks more on peace than on war, on love of neighbor as the path to true peace
– of a non-violent love of neighbor. In the illusion of fighting evil violence only
makes it worse.
b. We have to search ways to resolve international conflicts other than war. (John
Paul II)
6. Catechism of The Catholic Church:
a. Fifth Commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because
of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges
everyone to prayer and action (2310).
b. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the cause of war, it
risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of
weapons impedes effort to aid needy population. It thwarts their development.
c. The production and sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the
international community. The short term pursuit of private or collective interest
cannot legitimize undertakings that promote violence and conflicts.

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d. Injustices, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust and pride

raging among men ad nations constantly threaten peace. Everything done to
overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war.
7. Plenary Council of the Philippines:
a. The road to total liberation is not the way of violence, class struggle or hate; it is
the way of love, brotherhood and peaceful solidarity (310).
b. The Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus is not a kingdom to be imposed by
the force of arms. It is a kingdom to be built by love, the love of the Suffering
Servant. Love bears peace by way of peace (307).

HUMAN RIGHTS

NATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

DEFINED: Basic rights and freedoms to which all mankind are entitled. All human beings are
born free and equal in dignity and rights. UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON HUMAN
RIGHTS, Art. 1.

Center of Human Rights: It is centered in the full realization of the intrinsic dignity,
inalienable freedom and equality in principles, and the necessary solidarity and interdependence
of all human beings with each other.

CENTRAL PRINCIPLES
1. HUMAN BEING: He must be treated humanely because he is a human being.
Shutterstock
2. INALIENABLE AND UNTOUCHABLE DIGNITY:
a. Every human being without distinction of age, race, color, physical or mental
ability, language, religion, political view, national or social origin possesses this.
b. However, to consider what is humane, human dignity, equality in principles and
what is freedom would be a subject of interpretation by different cultures and
even beliefs.

IRREVOCABLE COMMITMENTS
1. Culture of non- violence and respect for life
2. Culture of solidarity and a just economic order
3. Culture of tolerance and a life of truth
4. Equal rights and partnership between man and woman

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1. NON-VIOLENCE: No people, no state, no race, no religion has the right to hate, to

discriminate against, to cleanse, to exile who is different in behavior or holds distant
beliefs.
2. RESPECT FOR LIFE: It implies respect for all forms of life including the lives of
plants and animals. It is to cultivate living in harmony with the environment and the
cosmos.
3. SOLIDARITY: Means concern for others especially the poor and the marginalized. No
one has the right to use his/ger possessions without concern for the needs of society and
the earth.
4. JUST ECONOMIC ORDER: All property has a social dimension. A new economic
order demands the practice of justice and solidarity whether it be in the economic,
political and social aspect of globalization.
5. TOLERANCE: Understanding of our global situation with respectful appreciation of
our diversity and otherness.
a. All nations despite their traditions and beliefs should give priority to the common
truth about the human being.
6. TRUTHFULNESS: One should always seek the truth about man constantly and serve
it, and to be truthful in actions. It is a recognition that all are inhabitants of one world
and act accordingly to this global reality.
7. EQUALITY OF RIGHTS: Such equality should be based on respect and love one
another. Such would also involve respect for women, children, the handicapped, the poor
and the marginalized sectors of the global community.
8. EQUAL PARTNERSHIP: Consists of the development of economic and social
relationships which will enable marriage and family life worthy of human beings,
especially for older people.

THE TASK OF PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS:

1. Transformation of Consciousness
a. Need for conversion in the depth of the heart
b. No social change unless there is a personal change in our families and
communities
c. The need to re-awaken our spiritual powers through reflection, meditation,
prayer or positive thinking
2. Holistic Approach to Reality. Seen in the practice of:
a. Tolerance and compassion
b. Search of consensus
c. Attempts at persuasion rather than imposition
d. Strategy of non- violence
e. Pursuit of harmony and peace
f. Ethics and cultures are not different and could be integrated.
g. They can be rooted in the equal dignity of all persons and peoples-a dignity that
means possession of universal human rights.

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h. SOURCES OF HUMAN RIGHTS

i. Humanitarian Law
ii. Universal declaration of Human Rights
iii. Law (Treaties, Enforcement and Universal Jurisdiction)
3. Integration of Diversity into Unity.

Universal rights: Drafted by the UN they call for civil rights such as:
1. Freedom of speech and of the Press
2. Social right (work, Education)
3. Economic, Socio-Cultural rights
4. Political Rights

Rights are not only privileges but shared obligation to:

1. Contribute to the common good
2. Consider the impact of their actions
3. Promote equality including gender equality
4. Promote humanity’s cultural and intellectual heritage
5. Safeguard the interest of future generations by pursuing sustainable development and
protecting global concerns.
6. Active participants in governance.

The Millenium Declaration of 2005 reaffirmed certain values to international relations in

the 21st century:
1. Freedom
2. Equality
3. Solidarity
4. Tolerance
5. Respect
6. Shared Responsibility

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SOCIAL VIRTUES
DEFINITION: Virtues related to justice whose purpose is to help man cope with the many
debts or obligation that fall to him as a members of society Certain relationships give rise to
truly strict debts: to God, parents and country, to superiors and men excelling in virtue:
1. Religion
2. Piety
3. Observance
4. Reverence
5. Gratitude
6. Truthfulness
7. Affability
8. Liberality

1. PIETY: The virtue inclining men to render to parents and country the reverence ad
service that are due to them as secondary principles of his life, education and
governance. Filial piety is due parents and patriotic piety is due one’s country.
a. Filial Piety – Primary debt owed to one’s parents. In a secondary way it includes
brothers, sisters, grandparents and even one’s distant relatives.
i. Principle: All those who share in the blood of one’s father share in his
right to honor and reverence
ii. Obligation of Children Toward Parents. The Children have the
following obligations:
1. Service of Love
2. Reverence and Honor
3. Obedience
4. Spiritual and Material Assistance
iii. Obligation of Parents Toward Their Children. Piety requires that
parents provide for their children:
1. Special Love
2. Physical and Spiritual Education
3. Certain Parental Guidance
iv. Obligation of Spouses. In addition to the duty of observing conjugal
fidelity, there are three duties arising from piety
1. Mutual Love
2. Mutual Help and Comfort
3. Cohabitation
2. OBSERVANCE: The Virtue that inclines men to render the debt of reverence and
submission due to the person constituted in authority. The man thus established in
authority shares in the principality and excellence of the state itself. In practice this
means reverence and subjection is owed to superiors.
a. Reverence because of their official position and dignity as superiors;

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b. Subjection because of their office of government or direction. This is given to

those in government and in Church.
c. Obligation of Citizens:
i. Honor, because of their official position.
ii. Fear, because of their coercive power.
iii. Obedience, because of their directive function
iv. Support, because of the labor and losses sustained in the service of the
common good
3. GRATITUDE: Virtue inclining man to acknowledge and to make recompense for
particular and private favors received. Although the beneficiary does not owe anything,
by returning favor he rises to the level of perfection gained by his benefactor.
a. Duties. It imposes the following Duties:
i. To be mindful and acknowledge to oneself the receipt of a gift
ii. To express this attitude y word of thanks
iii. As far as possible, to make concrete return for the gift received.
b. Sins Against Gratitude. Opposed are two vices.
i. Excessive gratitude, repays a favor too abruptly or give thanks when it
is not due.
ii. Ingratitude, the failure to render the debt of thankfulness and some
element of contempt either to the benefactor or the giver.
4. TRUTHFULNESS: The virtue inclining man to manifest himself, in his life and in his
speech, according to the conviction of his mind. Truthfulness both manifest things just
as they appear to one and reveals the truth opportunely.
a. Sins Against Truthfulness: Two classes of sins oppose truthfulness:
i. All indiscreet manifestation of the truth, like the violation of secrets
ii. Falsehood which includes lying (words), and hypocrisy (action).
b. Secrets, Knowledge of some hidden facts with the obligation not to reveal it.
i. Natural secrets arise from the nature of certain things which cannot be
revealed without causing injury or displeasure to someone who is
unwilling they be disclosed.
ii. Promised Secrets arise from an agreement not to reveal something. This
is governed by the principle of professional communication. The seal of
confessional is a kind of committed secret.
c. Causes Justifying Revelations
i. The consent of the one whose secret it is.
ii. The disclosure of the secret from another
iii. The need to avert serious harm which cannot be avoided by any other
means.
d. Necessities of Grave Harm
i. When grave harm threatens Church or State
ii. When grave harm threatens him whose secret it is and one who keeps the
secret
iii. When grave harm threatens an innocent party.

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e. Concealing the Truth. One is permitted to hide the truth in a negative or positive
way
i. Negative by silence or simple evasion
ii. Positive by employing obscure language in his reply accomplished
through equivocation or mental reservation.
1. Equivocation: Use of words or entire phrases having two-fold
meaning, the less obvious of which is meant by the speaker
2. Mental reservation: An act of the mind by which a man, in
speaking, restricts the meaning of the words he uses to a sense
other the use.
5. AFFABILITY: The virtue inclining man to conduct himself agreeable and properly in
his ordinary social dealing with the other members of the society. Though sometimes
called the virtue of friendliness, the friendship which it instills is not to be confused with
friendship that is born out of charity. It concerns itself with the externals of social order
- signs of courtesy and politeness. The possessor of the virtue will show consideration.
a. Counter Virtues:
i. Flattery – The vice which inclined man to please another, wither by word
or deed, in an excessive or inordinate manner, for the sake of gaining
some favor.
ii. Surliness – inclines man to be difficult in the company of others, seldom
agreeing, frequently opposing the words of other, motivated by the desire
to be unpleasant. He is always ready to contradict, to speak gruffly, to
criticize and complain.
6. LIBERALITY: The value which regulated man’s love for money and inclined him to
use it well. Liberality moderated one’s affection for wealth, curbing any love for it that
us unfitting or improper. Secondarily and mediately, it governs the use of riches.
a. Counter Virtues:
i. Avarice – immoderate love of, and desire for money. It affects one’s
external behavior in the acquisition, holding and spending of money. It
becomes a capital sin for treachery, fraud, perjury, and violence.
ii. Wastefulness – The unreasonable and unnecessary extravagance which
results in wasteful expenditures of money. The prodigal exceeds what is
reasonable by giving too much, or to the wrong person, or at the wrong
time, and retains not what he ought.

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SOCIAL VIRTUES OF THE CHURCH

They are habits of action which respect the dignity of the human person, the nature of society,
and the purpose of the economic society.

Classification of the Social Virtues of the Church:

1. Justice
2. Social Charity
3. Subsidiary Virtues

1. Justice: Ministers directly to human dignity since it is concerned with rights and
duties of persons. In Justice we distinguish three elements:
a. Equality
b. Otherness, and
c. Something due
2. Social Charity: A generous concern for the good of the community, it is a unifying
principle over and above the force of social justice. The task of rebuilding the social
order cannot be accomplished by justice alone. It is benevolence to one’s fellow man
in society. It is quite distinct from the form of the virtue mist frequently associated
with the word, namely, aid the poor and distressed.
3. Subsidiary Virtues: Virtues that are more significant in its effect upon the social
order, rather than in terms of individual perfection.
a. Subsidiary Virtues:
i. Almsgiving
ii. Liberality
iii. Munificence

JUSTICE AND THE VIRTUE OF RELIGION

Virtue of Religion: A potential part of the virtue of Justice since it accounts for a part of the
activity of the virtue of Justice. It represents one specific area of the activity in which justice is
capable

Observations:
1. Both virtues are concerned with debts to be paid
2. Religion lacks power which justice has, because in religion one cannot pay its debt in
perfect equality.

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3. A moral virtue which inclines man to manifest to God the worship that is his right as the
First Cause of all things
Sanctity or Holiness
In Religion, it is that which commands and unify all the activities of the moral virtues implying
two things:
1. Purity: Freedom from contact with baser things. It is necessary so that the mind may be
applied to God, since the human mind is soiled by contact with lower things.
2. Firmness: Stability of union with the superior. Dedication to God indicted an
unrepentant commitment, an immobility where deviation is a catastrophe (Rom. 8:39-
39).

Interior Acts of Religion: In his worship of God, man offers:

1. Himself
a. Soul
b. Intellect (Prayer)
c. Will (Devotion)
d. Body (Adoration)
2. External Goods
a. His Own
i. In Fact (Sacrifice, offering, first fruits, tithes)
ii. In Promise (Vows)
b. God’s
i. Things commanded by God to sanctify man (Sacraments)
ii. Divine Name (oath, etc.)

HIMSELF (SOUL)

Devotion (will): It is the principal act of religion. It is the promptness of the will in those things
that concern the worship of God, “the will to give on self readily to things concerning the
worship of God.” (ST II-II, q. 83, art 1.)

Cause of Devotion: The intrinsic cause is God inasmuch as it is the gift of God and far above
man’s power. But within man it is the meditation and contemplation.
1. Contemplation: It considers two things:
a. The goodness and loving kindness of God
b. Man’s shortcomings and dependence upon God.
2. Effects of Devotion: The direct and principal effect of devotion is joy. It is a spiritual
joy of the mind. Man is filled with joy as his surrender to God becomes more and more
perfect.

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PRAYER (INTELECT)
• Lifting of the mind to God. It would include any such movement of the intellect and will
to God, arising not only from the virtue of religion, but from the theological virtues, and
from penance and humility.
• Strictly, it is the pious petition of suitable gifts from God. It is an explicit manifestation
of our desires to another, in order to obtain something from him by way of favor; it is a
request for fitting gifts.
• A request for fitting gifts, things that we may properly ask from God and he may in all
propriety give us; and it is made to God alone, who alone can of himself fulfill these
desires.

Acts of Practical Reason

• It is concerned with getting things done properly and in a reasonable manner. Man is the
cause of two things:
o Commanding those things that are inferior to him
o Requesting something of those not subject to him

Requirements for Prayer

Two things are required for those who pray:
1. Intelligence (since prayer is a way of arranging to get things done in a fitting and proper
order
2. Need (Since prayer is a petition)

Condition of Prayer
The following points need to be considered:
1. What man should pray for
2. Whom man should pray
3. When he should pray

1. The Things to Pray For: It is reasonable to pray for anything that is reasonable to
desire. He may petition God for definite things which he feels he need. The most perfect
prayer is that composed by Christ.
2. The Persons to Pray For: He should pray for others, not just the just but the sinners.
He is bound to pray for his enemies but is not obligated to a particular enemy unless the
enemy is in extreme need.
3. Time of Prayer: Prayer should be continual. The Christian lives a life of continual
prayer interrupted by other activities and not that his activities are occasionally
interrupted by prayer.

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EXTERIOR ACTS OF RELIGION

In Themselves:
1. Adoration (Offering of the Body)
2. Offering of External things
3. Offering of Divine Things
As public Worship:
1. Liturgy of the Church

ADORATON: It may be defined as an external manifestation of reverence for, and submission

to God made by a suitable act or gesture. If reverence is due to men, it is obvious that adoration
pre-eminently is owed to God for his excellence and superiority are uncreated and supreme
• Grades of adoration:
o Latria: adoration given to God
o Dulia: veneration given to saints
o Hyperdulia: veneration given because of some unique supernatural but created
excellence
• Adoration has for its purpose either the arousing of devotion, since man is naturally led
from the material to the spiritual, or the expression of the total dedication of the will to
God which is essential to religion.
• The physical acts and gestures of religion are external signs of an interior reverence.
Thay are performed not as if they add anything to God, but to aid man in arousing the
internal spirit of submission and worship which is the essence of religion.
• To attempt to do away with such physical signs is to deny the reality of the physical side
of human nature, and to increase the difficulty of discharging the debts of religion.
• Some acts of religion are performed privately, as when a man kneels to say his prayers,
but many special acts of adoration are confined to churches which are specially
designated for religious ceremonies as an aid in the spirit of devotion.

SACRIFICE: It is an offering which a priest makes to God by changing or destroying some

object in order to manifest God’s dominion and our subjection.
• Elements of Definition
o It is an offering, a giving up or surrender of self. This interior sacrifice is
symbolized when man offers God one of the inferior creature places at his
disposal.
o For man is God’s steward, and hence given dominion over the things of this
world; to give up such a sensible object to God appropriately represents his self-
giving.
o As is his spiritual sacrifice is entire and complete, the symbolic action must
express this perfect submission. Hence, the sensible object which is offered must
so remove from the ordinary human use by his action and to be placed entirely
at God’s disposal.

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o The external sacrifice thus always involve a kind of obstruction of the thing
offered, and in this way, it truly signifies the interior total surrender of the self to
God in recognition of his dominion over all things, especially over man himself.
Thus, of all man’s external acts it best expresses the readiness and completeness
of the dedication that is essential to the chief interior acts of religion, devotion.
o The primary purpose of sacrifice is to give this visible sign od our recognition of
God’s superiority and our submission to him.
o But it is also an act of thanksgiving, out of gratitude for the gifts God has given
us, and of impetration, powerfully beseeching the gifts we have not yet received.
o It is also an act which reconciled sinful man to God – an act of expiation for past
sins which is pleasing to God because of the totality of man’s surrender to him.
o In consequence, sacrifice is properly the work of the religious head of the
community, the priest; he will work as the official mediator between themselves
and God, and make a sacrificial offering for all.
• Extended Meaning of Sacrifice:
o Anything offered to God may be called a sacrifice. St. Thomas distinguishes
three classes of goods possessed by which man may offer:
▪ The goods of his soul – and these he offers by prayer, devotion and other
interior acts.
▪ The goods of his body – and these he offers to God perfectly by the act
of martyrdom and by the acts of many other virtues such as abstinence
and continence.
▪ External goods – which he may offer to God either immediately, or
mediately when he shared them for the love of God with his neighbor.

OFFERINGS: Offered to God not for sacrifice but rather their use for some purpose connected
with divine worship. They do represent a sacrifice on the part of the giver but are not sacrifices
in the strict sense.
• Some gifts may be used in divine worship, as would the gift of a chalice or some Church
furnishings; others for the support of the church’s ministers, like the gifts to seminaries,
etc.
• Still others may be used to aid God’s poor. All such gifts, if they pertain to the virtue of
religion, must be given freely for God’s honor in recognition of God’s generosity for us.
• TITHES: in OT they were special gifts of money which represented a tenth part of man’s
revenues. They were in support of the temple. Nowadays, since it is the obligation of the
faithful to support their Church, exactly how and hen how it is to be done is left to the
prudence of the faithful.

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VICES CONTRARY TO RELIGION

Vices of the Virtue:

1. Defect (Irreverence)
2. Excess (Superstition)

SUPERSTITION: A vice inclining man to render divine worship either to a creature who does
not deserve it or in a way contrary to its nature (St. Thomas Aquinas).

Specific Forms of Superstition:

1. Worshipping God in an improper manner (false and pernicious honor by superfluous
honor)
2. False Worship (Desiring to worship God according to other rituals)

Superfluous worship – like demanding a certain number, arrangement or color of candles in

order to pray
Worshiping False god – like worshipping the devil like idolatry, divination or vain observance.
i. Idolatry – it is the worship of idols which can be. This worship is offered not to the
idol or statue itself but to the person or thing represented by the statue.
ii. Divination – it is the prediction of future events through the use of disproportionate
means, that is to say, means not instituted by God himself.
a. It is also fitting to define divination as a form of superstition in which the devil
is invoked explicitly or implicitly to aid man to discover the occult (dream-
omens, necromancy, geomancy).
b. The use of the divining rod usually cut from hazel or willow tree is permitted
for the discovery of underground water or metal but not for investigation of the
occult.
iii. Vain Observance – a form of superstition which in order to obtain some favor uses
means not suited for that purpose either by nature or prescription of God or His
Church.
iv. Magic and Sorcery –
a. Magic is the art of producing surprising result through the use of occult means.
b. White magic makes use of natural means,
c. Black magic resorts to the aid of the devil.
d. Magic used in order to harm person is termed sorcery and according t the
ancients use as made of either of a philter (love potion) in order to arouse
feelings of intense love or hatred or inflict bodily harm.
v. Magnetism, Hypnotism, and Spiritism,
a. Magnetism is either terrestrial or animal. The latter is a force very similar to
electricity. It is a force probably residing in the nerves of man capable of curing
sickness and producing other physical effects by use of external attractions
only.

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b. Hypnotism
• makes use of means such as fixedly looking at a bright object or the art
of suggestion.
• Usually, it produces artificial sleep in which the patient is subject to the
will of the hypnotist.
• Waking suggestion is to be considered one form of hypnotism in which
the patient carries our necessarily the commands of the agent without
the use of true hypnosis.
• Although some phenomena of hypnotism are difficult to explain there
is no need to attribute them to the intervention of the devil. In itself
hypnotism is not forbidden but unlawful through abuse.
c. Spiritualism is unlawful communication with the spirits of another world. On
rare occasions this communication is attempted by means of hypnotism
• In its strict sense it is claimed that communication is established with
the spirits of another world – that is to say with the spirits of the know
dead.
• These spirits sometimes produce what is called materialization, when
there appear in a sensible and visible form so they can even be
photographed. Mediums are usually employed.
• Spiritualism strictly called, that is, unnatural and useless
communication with the spirits of another world is forbidden

IRREVERENCE: It could consist of Tempting God, Blasphemy, Sacrilege and Simony. There
are sins against the virtue of religion by defect.

1. Tempting God – it consists in any word or deed whereby a person tries to discover
whether God possesses or exercised certain perfection such as knowledge and power.
a. It is formal when there is an explicit intention to put one of God’s perfection to
the test; it is virtual when the intention is implicit in some action or omission.
b. Explicit tempting of God implies two sins. One against the faith and the other
against religion, for it implies at least some doubt regarding one of the divine
attributes.
2. Blasphemy – it is contumely against God. It is a sin against the tongue since its proper
and strict sense is committed by words alone, but generally speaking other forms of
contumely.
a. Heretical Blasphemy – contains formal heresy. Non heretical Blasphemy –
contains material heresy. Heretical blasphemy colors the Calvinistic assertion
that God is the cause of sin.
3. Sacrilege – it is a violation of sacred things. Sacred things include also sacred places
and persons – anything set aside publicly and by the Church’s authority for the worship
of God.
a. Personal Sacrilege is the violation of a sacred person which can be done by
i. Laying violent hand on clerics or religious at the instigation of the devil.

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ii. Unlawful citation of clerics and religious before civil courts.

iii. It can also be done by privilege of personal immunity, that is, demanding
from clerics or religious taxes or military service.
iv. Violating the public vow of chastity by the commission on an act of
impurity.
b. Local Sacrilege which is a violation of a sacred place – a place permanently
consecrated or blessed by authority of the church for the worship of God. It is
committed in three ways:
i. Defilement of a sacred place, such as by serious and unjust shedding of
human blood.
ii. Grave theft in a sacred place.
iii. Violating the immunity of the place, a privilege granted to religious as
well as sacred places providing the right of sanctuary and preventing
many forms of profane actions.
c. Real Sacrilege is the use of something sacred for an unworthy purpose. Such
sacred things fall into three categories:
i. Sacraments and sacramentals
ii. Sacred vessels and church decorations
iii. Ecclesiastical properties.
4. Simony – it is the express will of buying or selling (for some temporal price) that which
is spiritual or annexed to something spiritual.
a. Simony against divine law is committed by selling or buying temporal things
intrinsically annexed to something spiritual either consequently or
concomitantly.

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CARDINAL VIRTUE OF FORTITUDE

NATURE OF FORTITUDE

DEFINITION
A cardinal virtue which strengthens the irascible appetite enabling it to continue to pursue
difficult good even in the face of death or grave danger from battle.

SUBECT OF FORTITUDE
The subject is the irascible appetite. It is concerned with the faculty that seeks the good that is
difficult of attainment. It is concerned with the strong or emergency emotions, such as fear,
anger and daring, which tend to lead man away from the virtuous and true good if not checked.

OBJECT OF FORTITUDE
1. Material Object
a. the proximate object are those particular passions or emotions most likely to
draw the will away from the true good when they are aroused. These emotions
are fear and daring.
b. The remote material object are all things that cause the movements of fear and
daring.
2. Formal Object
a. Can be expressed through the word restraint. When fear impels us to withdraw
from the thing that is causing our fear, reason examines the situation and decides
whether such a withdrawal would be virtuous. The same with daring.

ACTS OF FORTITUDE:

AGGRESSION AND ENDURANCE

1. Endurance is the principal act of fortitude, that is, to stand immovable in the midst of
danger rather than attack it.
2. Aggression is an act of fortitude which impels one to attack evil.

MARTYRDOM
• It is the perfect act of fortitude. It is defined as the endurance of death in witness to the
truth of Christianity.
• Effects of Martyrdom: The Martyr goes straight to heaven when he dies. All his sins,
and all the punishment due him are forgiven.
• Condition for Martyrdom:
a) The one who suffers for the faith must actually die as a result of his wounds
b) The death must be inflicted by an enemy because of hatred for Christianity.

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c) Death must be accepted voluntarily.

PARTS OF FORTITUDE
1. Integral - they are necessary for the complete and perfect act of the virtue which
includes magnanimity, magnificence, patience, and perseverance.
2. Potential – they are the same virtues considered in another aspect as annexed virtues to
fortitude.

INTEGRAL PARTS:
1. Magnanimity – The assurance of the mind in honorable and great undertakings.
2. Magnificence – Accomplishment of great and lofty undertakings with greatness of
purpose. Voluntary and prolonged endurance of arduous and difficult things.
3. Patience – these qualities must be present when danger of death occurs if man is to
perform the acts of fortitude and meet death in a courageous manner.
4. Perseverance – the fixed and continued persistence in a well-considered purpose.

POTENTIAL PARTS
1. Magnanimity – a moral virtue which inclines man to perform excellent works of virtue
which are worthy of great honor. The moral virtue which moderates the love of money
so that man is ready to incur heavy expenses in order to execute great projects.
2. Patience – A moral virtue which inclines man to suffer and endure present evils so that
he may not be unreasonable sorrowful.
3. Perseverance – A moral virtue which inclines man to continue in the practice of virtue
notwithstanding the tedium which results from this action.

VICES OPPOSED TO MAGNANIMITY:

1. Presumption - a vice which leads a man to undertake great works of virtue that he does
not have the ability to perform.
2. Ambition – the vice of inordinate desire for honor.
3. Vainglory – the vice of inordinate desire for renown and the respect of other people.

VICES OOPOSED TO MAGNIFICENCE:

1. Stinginess – When love of money leads anyone to spend too little on the project he has
undertaken.
2. Prodigality – Wish for praise or disregard of money leading a person to spend more
than necessary.

VICES OPPOSED TO PATIENCE:

1. Insensibility – lack of feeling which leaves a man unmoved by his own suffering or the
suffering of another.
2. Impatience – the neglect, because of sorrow, some good work that we should perform.

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VICES OPPOSED TO PERSEVERANCE:

1. Inconstancy – when one does not endure as long as reason says he should thus a virtuous
action is never begun.
2. Pertinacity – an individual who will never give up a course of action no matter what
happens.

VICES AGAINST FORTITUDE

1. Cowardice – excessive fear which sins against fear by defect.
2. Fearlessness – opposed to fortitude by excess.
3. Foolhardiness – an excess of daring

VITUE ETHICS
AND CARDINAL VIRTUES

VIRTUE ETHICS

A Philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks. It is the quest to understand and
live a life of moral character. This character, based approach to morality assumes that we acquire
virtue through practice. By practicing being honest and brave, just and generous a person
develops an honorable moral character.

According to Aristotle by honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice when
faced with ethical challenges. To illustrate the difference among three moral philosophies,
Ethicists Mark White and Robert Arp refer to the film THE DARK KNIGHT where Batman has
the opportunity to kill the Joker.

Utilitarians would endorse the killing of the Joker. BY taking this one life, Batman could save
multitudes. Deontologists on the other hand would reject killing the Joker simply because it is
wrong to kill. But Virtue Ethicists would highlight the character of the person who kills the
Joker. Does Batman want the kind of person who takes his enemies’ lives? In fact, he does not.

In general, virtue ethics help us understand what it means to be a virtuous human being. It gives
us a guide for living life without giving specific rules for resolving ethical dilemmas.

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DEFINING VIRTUE ETHICS

They are normative ethical theories which emphasize virtues of the mind, character and sense
of honesty. Virtue ethics discuss the nature and definitions of virtues and other related problems
that focus on the consequences of actions. This includes how virtues are acquired, how they are
applied in various life context, whether they are rooted in a universal human nature or plurality
of cultures.

CRITICISM ABOUT VIRUE ETHICS

• Virtue ethics as culturally relative. Since different people, cultures, society and societies
have different opinions on what constitute a virtue, perhaps there is no objectively right
list.
• Aristotle proposed nine virtues (wisdom, prudence, courage, liberality, magnificence,
magnanimity, and temperance). Modern-era philosophers propose four:
ambition/humility, love., courage, and honesty.
• Virtues once supposedly applicable to women (quiet, servile and industrious) no longer
holds true in modern society. What is needed I universal applicability.
• Any account of the virtues must indeed be generated out of the community in which
those virtues are to be practiced. Virtues are necessarily must be grounded in particular
time and place.
• The school does not focus on what sorts of actions are morally permitted and which ones
are not, but rather n what sort of qualities someone ought to foster in order to become a
good person.

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NECESSITY OF VIRTUE ETHICS IN POST - PANDEMIC TIMES

We live in a society permeated by two major ethical convictions: UTILITARIANISM and the
understanding of FREEDOM AS ABSENCE OF CONSTRAINTS. The former holds that
actions are morally evaluated on the basis of their consequences and that pleasure is the sole
intrinsic good; the latter sees freedom as mere lack of external restrictions to one’s action.

UTILITARIANISM:
• a special case of consequentialism and regards as right only those actions that maximize
the total net amount of pleasure for all sentient beings.
• This view is associated with Bentham and Mill and deeply inserted into our society:
Most actions follow such principle. Utilitarianism has dominated the recent debate on
government response to the outbreak.
• Many have claimed that overall, the anticipated death toll is not too high, that allegedly
only the weak and old people will require hospitalization and that the adverse impact
that lockdown will have is the economy.

FREEDOM:
• Generally taken to be the absence of external restrictions. Isaiah Berlin calls it negative
liberty. Unwelcome restrictions may prevent us from reaching well-desired pleasure.
• Any form of control or external imposition is regarded as a threat to the possibility of
maximizing pleasure, hence as a threat to morality.
• This explains the general public’s resistance to respecting containment measures. The
media calls it draconian and isolation is difficult.
• Again, the number of people expected to suffer from the disease is relatively low
compared to the total population such that extended containment measures seem not to
be worth the cost.

In summary, utilitarianism is the current mist common moral theory that explains both the
reaction and resistance of people renouncing their freedom in order to protect someone else.
The limit of utilitarianism is evident only concerning individuals. The ongoing debate whether
the cost of imposed lockdown is greater than their benefits is a pertinent and necessary question
at the policy level.

Too often however it has been answered in too quick a fashion and in a reductive manner by
appeals to utilitarian calculus. Merely counting lives and weighing them against each other doe
not take fullness of the human condition with its individual characters into account.

Numerical trade-offs are far from obvious, especially given the difficulty in finding a metric to
quantify quality of life and the considerable uncertainty around COVID-19. Besides we simply
cannot engage in consequentialist calculus because we lack the relevant data. Thus the current
or past formulae that help us determine how to behave.

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VIRTUE ETHICS AS AN ALTERATIVE

• An alternative is offered by an ethics of virtue together with a more elaborated notion of

freedom.
• Virtue ethics inspired by Aristotle, re-proposed by Anscombe, Foot and Macintyre
regard as fundamental the importance of one’s moral character in order to reach
happiness, understood as the full realization of every human life.
• This notion of happiness is independent of age or relative weakness. A second important
aspect of this theory is the focus on virtue.
• Such adequacy of virtues to the circumstances has tow main benefits in our present
context of COVID-19 pandemic. First, independent of the existence of any lockdown,
the choice of any action should always be evaluated holistically in order to take all the
relevant aspects into account.
• To correct exercise a virtue means to have the moral disposition that makes the person
behave adequately to the circumstances which she finds herself independent of the type
of lockdown considered.
• Each type of lockdown can call us to different moral actions. If the lockdown measures
imply systematic discrimination of a weak category, such as disabled or mentally ill
people, then one is called to courage and to dissent with such behavior.
• This would suggest also that according to the role one currently possesses in one’s
community, some virtues become more pertinent than others.
• Medical professionals require perseverance, policy makers prudence but all of us should
exercise generosity in our daily dealing with others.
• Hence virtue ethic provides us with a systematic account of how to behave in certain
actual circumstances that currently differ vastly across the world and in communities.
• The virtues relevant for the current situation are prudence, generosity, and courage as
well as patient, perseverance and obedience to reasonable government action.
o Generosity: Concerns giving and sharing one’s possession for the good of
others. Assisting others will leave less for oneself indicating some sacrificial
dimension of this virtue.
o Prudence: the ability to correctly deliberate about what is beneficial for oneself
and one’s community. The prudent agent is able to rationally grasp which actions
are good or bad for human beings.
o Courage: Concerns our appropriate feeling regarding frightening things such s
contracting COVID and ending up in a hospital, infecting others, losing one’s
job or having to endure boredom. This virtue illustrates that our emotions play
an important role in our actions especially given the current pandemic. Such
emotional considerations are not accounted for by other ethical theories
• Virtue ethics claims that in our decisions, even in difficult context. We should evaluate
all aspects of human beings and their circumstances in order to reach a fulfilling
happiness.

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What is moral position we should hold as individuals affected by the COVID-19

pandemic?
• The Individual and public response to the outbreak should be guided by considerations
of virtue. We should move towards a fuller picture of human actions and morality.
• Once we embrace the virtues of generosity, courage, and prudence, and want that our
will is directed towards acting in a way that is virtuous, then even imposed restrictions
do not look as immoral actions anymore.
• They will be looked upon as virtuous actions we should pursue. Our freedom is no more
threatened by limitations but augmented and dignifies in the moment.
• The relevant virtues have become part of who we are and we merely need to give them
the right space. Our generosity, courage, and prudence prevent us from forgetting the
most vulnerable, the old and the weak, because a virtuous person regards everyone.

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