Article Fourth. When Restitution Must Be Made

513. On the time of restitution. 1. Restitution, and indeed integral restitution, of itself must be made as soon as possible: for detention of another's thing is the continuation of an injury; but just as it is illicit to inflict an injury, so also to continue it.

a. He acts unjustly and is held for damages who, although he can at once restore the whole, wishes to restore only by degrees, or to leave to his heirs the obligation of restoring.

b. He who cannot restore the whole is bound at least to the part which he can return: for the owner has a right to each single part of the whole thing. Hence penitents must be urged to restitution of a part at once, especially if the part is notable and the whole can be restored only after a long time.

c. He who cannot restore at once is bound meanwhile to take care that he can satisfy his obligation as soon as possible: for he who is bound to the end is also bound to the means necessary for obtaining the end.

2. Delay of restitution, provided a serious will of restoring is retained, is then only a grave sin if a new grave damage arises for the owner from it, or if restitution is rendered impossible.

alpha. He who has and retains the will of not restoring, although he adverts rather often to the obligation of restoring, commits numerically one sin, which becomes graver the longer restitution is delayed. But he who conceived the intention of restoring and retracts it, sins gravely as often as he withdraws from the intention of restoring.¹

beta. He who notably delays restitution from a just cause is not bound to repair the damages which befell the owner from the delay, whether he is a debtor from contract or from offense: for he who has the will of restoring licitly delays restitution, and is not the unjust nor theologically culpable cause of the damages which befall the owner from this, since they arise from a just delay of payment.²

gamma. In order that restitution can be delayed longer, it is required that the damage which the debtor incurs from restitution to be made at once be much greater than the damage which befalls the owner from delayed restitution.

Note 1. Those who delay restitution until death and leave the care of restoring to heirs sin not only because of the delay of restitution, but also because of the danger to which the owner is exposed of never receiving his own thing: for it can happen that the heirs either do not wish or are not able to restore. Yet because debtors who entrust restitution to heirs are usually in good faith, especially if restitution is to be made to the poor or pious causes, care must be taken lest they be deprived of this good faith without hope of fruit.³

Note 2. The faithful sometimes are of this opinion, that souls are detained in purgatory for so long until the restitution owed by them has been made. Indeed a theological reason for this persuasion cannot be adduced, but it rests wholly on apparitions of souls which are narrated to have indicated neglected restitution as the cause of prolonged penalty and to have demanded restitution. Although it may be conceded that by exception this can sometimes happen, yet that this is ordinarily or more often established by God seems to have to be denied; wherefore this erroneous persuasion must be removed from the faithful.⁴

¹ Cf. De principiis^9, n. 306.

² Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 680; Ballerini-Palmieri III, n. 508; Burghaber, Casuum conscientiae centuriae tres, cent. 1, cas. 10.

³ Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri III, n. 509.

⁴ Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri V, n. 761.