Title Pages (Volume V)

THE CASUIST

A Collection of Cases in Moral and Pastoral Theology

Volume V

Prepared and Edited by Reverend J. A. McHugh, O.P. Lector of Sacred Theology and Professor of Dogmatic Theology in The Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary, Ossining, N. Y.

New York Joseph F. Wagner, Inc.

The previous volumes of the Casuist series have been so cordially welcomed by priests and students that it has been a pleasure to prepare and arrange this new volume for its readers. The analysis of moral problems is most useful for all engaged in the ministry. As teachers and directors of souls they are constantly called upon to give guidance and instruction concerning the way that leads to everlasting life. But moral principles, though luminous in themselves, are oftentimes obscured as to their application by complications of facts that hinder the practical judgment. To propose and discuss the difficult problems that thus arise in the pastoral life is one of the main purposes of Cases of Conscience.

Furthermore such concrete examples ought to be of great assistance in the elucidation of moral principles and the development of a ready and correct judgment in matters of conscience. Students of Moral Theology get a better grasp of the universal laws of their science when these are applied in particular instances. The practical illustration taken from the actual conditions that the student will later encounter gives added interest to the abstract study and assures it a firmer hold on the memory. But Cases of Conscience are especially valuable to the theological student as aids to the acquisition of that habit of mind which will enable him in forming and guiding consciences to apply surely and correctly the rules and laws whose mastery he has obtained.

Accurate and adequate solutions of moral cases, however, are not always easy; indeed, they often present a task that requires the greatest thought and diligence. Yet there is genuine satisfaction in the labor; the matter is so important that one can hope the efforts will yield some fruit. Of the cases in the present volume the greater number has already appeared in print, chiefly in the Homiletic Monthly: these have been carefully revised and many have been re-written in whole or in part; the other cases are new. It has been the writer’s aim to correct or complete the older cases whenever there was need on account of later legislation. He makes grateful acknowledgment to Very Rev. Stanislaus Woywod, O.F.M., the distinguished Canonist and Moralist, for much valuable assistance.

The writer further has had in view the practical usefulness of the book for the daily work of the priest, and he has consequently excluded from its contents everything purely speculative and abstruse. For the same reason it has seemed advisable to arrange the cases according to the order generally given to the different tracts of Moral Theology. In this way it is hoped the book will prove most serviceable, whether to the priest in his study, or to the professor and student in the class-room.

The religious zeal of the clergy has been manifested in the popularity of the Casuist series. With the wish that this new volume may likewise be of interest and profit, it is humbly dedicated to their service.

J. A. McHugh, O.P.

THE CASUIST

Volume V