Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities

A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities BY JOHN A. MCHUGH, O.P. AND CHARLES J. CALLAN, O.P. REVISED AND ENLARGED BY EDWARD P. FARRELL, O.P. NEW YORK CITY JOSEPH F. WAGNER, INC. LONDON: B. HERDER Nihil Obstat ELWOOD FERRER SMITH, O.P., S.T.M. BENJAMIN URBAN FAY, O.P., S.T.LR. Imprimi Potest VERY REV. WILLIAM D. MARRIN, O.P., P.G., S.T.M. Provincial Nihil Obstat JOHN A. GOODWINE, J.C.D. Censor Librorum Imprimatur + FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN Archbishop of New York New York, May 24, 1958 The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed. [Transcriber’s note: References to the Code of Canon Law in this work are to the 1917 version of the Code, later superseded by the 1983 version.] All Rights Reserved by Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., New York PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PREFACE The purpose of the present work is to give a complete and comprehensive treatise on Catholic Moral Theology, that is, on that branch of sacred learning which treats of the regulation of human conduct in the light of reason and revealed truth. This new work strives to deal with the subject as a systematic and orderly whole, and is based throughout on the principles, teaching and method of St. Thomas Aquinas, while supplementing that great Doctor of the Church from the best modern authorities. Needless to say, there are many questions and problems connected with modern life that did not exist when the great classic works on Moral Theology were written, and to these naturally special attention has been given in the treatment that follows. Nowadays, since the appearance of the New Code and of many special works on Canon Law, it would be a mistake to encumber the pages of a work like the present one with canonical questions of interest only to the specialist, and which are ably and abundantly treated in fine commentaries on the Code that are already available. Likewise, it would be an error to treat here matter pertinent only to Dogmatic Theology or History. All digressions, therefore, into alien fields have been avoided in this work, with the result that a greater number of useful