http://www.passionistjpic.org/2010/01/intrinsically-evil-acts-a-consistent-if-perhaps-challenging-catholic-social-morality/ Offering the world a passion for life Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:29:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.passionistjpic.org/2010/01/intrinsically-evil-acts-a-consistent-if-perhaps-challenging-catholic-social-morality/comment-page-1/#comment-182 Sebastian Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:57:38 +0000 http://www.passionistjpic.org/?p=948#comment-182 Abortion is intrinsically evil. So are other actions, as the citation above, from Splendor Veritatis and Vatican II, indicates. However, there are degrees of intrinsic evil, not only as mortally or venially so, but even as mortally so: mutilating a person is grievously evil, but not as much as killing a person. The church has not prioritized the variety of intrinsically evil acts. At times, among certain U.S. Catholics, abortion is considered the worst of such evil acts. This is probably debatable. What supports this contention, however, is not the intensity of its evilness, but its extensiveness as a practice in the U.S.--about 50,000,000 abortions since 1973. Here the gravity of the evil more likely appears in its frequency than in its intrinsic quality, and so may more graphically call into play the principle of the consistent ethic of life. Abortion is intrinsically evil. So are other actions, as the citation above, from Splendor Veritatis and Vatican II, indicates. However, there are degrees of intrinsic evil, not only as mortally or venially so, but even as mortally so: mutilating a person is grievously evil, but not as much as killing a person. The church has not prioritized the variety of intrinsically evil acts. At times, among certain U.S. Catholics, abortion is considered the worst of such evil acts. This is probably debatable. What supports this contention, however, is not the intensity of its evilness, but its extensiveness as a practice in the U.S.–about 50,000,000 abortions since 1973. Here the gravity of the evil more likely appears in its frequency than in its intrinsic quality, and so may more graphically call into play the principle of the consistent ethic of life.

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