CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION
Paragraphs 1701–1800
- 1701 "Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light…
- 1702 The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons…
- 1703 Endowed with "a spiritual and immortal" soul, the human person is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake." From…
- 1704 The human person participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of…
- 1705 By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an "outstanding manifestation of the…
- 1706 By his reason, man recognizes the voice of God which urges him "to do what is good and avoid what is evil." Everyone is obliged to follow…
- 1707 "Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very beginning of history." He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He…
- 1708 By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin…
- 1709 He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of…
- 1710 "Christ . . . makes man fully manifest to man himself and brings to light his exalted vocation" ( GS 22 § 1).
- 1711 Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception ordered to God and destined…
- 1712 In man, true freedom is an "outstanding manifestation of the divine image" ( GS 17).
- 1713 Man is obliged to follow the moral law, which urges him "to do what is good and avoid what is evil" (cf. GS 16). This law makes itself…
- 1714 Man, having been wounded in his nature by original sin, is subject to error and inclined to evil in exercising his freedom.
- 1715 He who believes in Christ has new life in the Holy Spirit. The moral life, increased and brought to maturity in grace, is to reach its…
- 1716 The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes…
- 1717 The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with…
- 1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order…
- 1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is…
- 1720 The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: - the coming of the Kingdom of God; - the…
- 1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature"…
- 1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural,…
- 1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the…
- 1724 The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven.…
- 1725 The Beatitudes take up and fulfill God's promises from Abraham on by ordering them to the Kingdom of heaven. They respond to the desire for…
- 1726 The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal…
- 1727 The beatitude of eternal life is a gratuitous gift of God. It is supernatural, as is the grace that leads us there.
- 1728 The Beatitudes confront us with decisive choices concerning earthly goods; they purify our hearts in order to teach us to love God above…
- 1729 The beatitude of heaven sets the standards for discernment in the use of earthly goods in keeping with the law of God.
- 1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that…
- 1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's…
- 1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good…
- 1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice…
- 1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis…
- 1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit,…
- 1736 Every act directly willed is imputable to its author: Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have…
- 1737 An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect…
- 1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be…
- 1739 Freedom and sin . Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived…
- 1740 Threats to freedom . The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject…
- 1741 Liberation and salvation . By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in…
- 1742 Freedom and grace . The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the…
- 1743 "God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel (cf. Sir 15:14), so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and…
- 1744 Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when…
- 1745 Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate…
- 1746 The imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear, and other psychological or…
- 1747 The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man. But…
- 1748 "For freedom Christ has set us free" ( Gal 5:1).
- 1749 Freedom makes man a moral subject. When he acts deliberately, man is, so to speak, the father of his acts. Human acts, that is, acts that…
- 1750 The morality of human acts depends on: - the object chosen; - the end in view or the intention; - the circumstances of the action. The…
- 1751 The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen morally…
- 1752 In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines…
- 1753 A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and…
- 1754 The circumstances , including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the…
- 1755 A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action,…
- 1756 It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances…
- 1757 The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three "sources" of the morality of human acts.
- 1758 The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil.
- 1759 "An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention" (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec . 6). The end does not justify…
- 1760 A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together.
- 1761 There are concrete acts that it is always wrong to choose, because their choice entails a disorder of the will, i.e., a moral evil. One may…
- 1762 The human person is ordered to beatitude by his deliberate acts: the passions or feelings he experiences can dispose him to it and…
- 1763 The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that…
- 1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses…
- 1765 There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent…
- 1766 "To love is to will the good of another." All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good.…
- 1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and…
- 1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and…
- 1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and…
- 1770 Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of…
- 1771 The term "passions" refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.
- 1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.
- 1773 In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will,…
- 1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.
- 1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in man's being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his "heart."
- 1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to…
- 1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges…
- 1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is…
- 1779 It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This…
- 1780 The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience . Conscience includes the perception of the principles…
- 1781 Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain…
- 1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to…
- 1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments…
- 1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the…
- 1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into…
- 1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an…
- 1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek…
- 1788 To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the…
- 1789 Some rules apply in every case: - One may never do evil so that good may result from it; - the Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men…
- 1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself.…
- 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true…
- 1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy…
- 1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed…
- 1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and…
- 1795 "Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths" ( GS 16).
- 1796 Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act.
- 1797 For the man who has committed evil, the verdict of his conscience remains a pledge of conversion and of hope.
- 1798 A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed…
- 1799 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an…
- 1800 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.