§ 2. On the Excellence and Necessity of Moral Theology

4. Excellence. "Of practical sciences," writes St. Thomas (P. I, q. 1, a. 5), "that one is worthier which is ordered to a further end. But the end of this doctrine, insofar as it is practical, is eternal beatitude, to which, as to the ultimate end, all the other ends of practical sciences are ordered." And hence it is manifest that, just as dogmatic theology excels all speculative sciences in dignity, so moral theology surpasses all practical sciences in dignity.

Necessity. Nor this only; but it surpasses them all also in necessity. And indeed, what science is equally necessary as that which teaches how the supreme evil can be averted and the supreme good acquired? But this, as has been seen, moral theology provides.

Since these things are so, it is clear that this sacred science, before all other sciences, and even before dogmatic theology itself, is to be learned by clerics. "Certainly there is need," said St. Alphonsus, "of dogmatic theology, but there is more need of moral theology. For if this science is lacking, there will be neither good confessors nor capable pastors."² Nor indeed is it enough to have learned this science once. For just as it is the most necessary of all sciences, so it is the most difficult of all. Aptly to the matter the Holy Doctor (Prax. conf., n. 17): "St. Francis de Sales used to say," he says, "that the office of hearing confessions is the greatest and most difficult of all. In reality it is so. It is the greatest of all: because it is the end of all sciences, which ought to be nothing other than eternal salvation. And it is the most difficult of all: first, because the office of confessor requires knowledge of all sciences, of all offices and arts; second, because the science of moral theology embraces so many matters diverse among themselves; third, because in great part it consists of so many positive laws and sacred canons, whose understanding must be taken according to their true signification. Moreover, each of these laws is rendered difficult, since, by reason of the circumstances which make cases dissimilar, resolutions must be varied. Some... say that, for confessions to be received rightly, it suffices to know the general principles of morals: by these, they say, all particular cases can be resolved. Who can deny that all particular cases are to be resolved by these principles? But the whole work and the whole labor is in adapting principles of this kind to particular cases, entangled in so many different circumstances, and in discerning which of the principles agrees with the occurring circumstances; nor can this be done without a great discussion of the reasons which stand for either side. And this is what the moralists have accomplished, while they labored in explaining from which principles many particular cases should be resolved. Moreover, in this our age, as has been said, there are so many positive laws, so many Bulls, so many decrees, which cannot be known unless casuists are read, who have gathered them together, and according as the variety of matters demands, there they are found opportunely; and therefore, the more recent these moralists are, the more useful they are than the ancients."

From this the Holy Doctor infers that the study of moral theology must never be abandoned by the confessor.