Article I: The Procuring of Spiritual Goods

— 1. He sins against charity toward himself who neglects his own spiritual salvation: for the most part, however, that sin is sufficiently contained in the accusation of other sins.

2. There is no good to be obtained, or to be procured for anyone, for the sake of which it is lawful to sin, even venially: for that act, since it is repugnant to the divine good pleasure, is not eligible. Evils are not to be done so that goods may come. Cf. St. Augustine, De mendacio, c. 9, n. 15 (M. 40, 499).

Wherefore, he who would be impeded from religious life by the office of filial piety, for example, of helping parents gravely in need, cannot enter religion.

3. No one must remain in a proximate occasion of grave sin, on account of any utility or necessity of an individual neighbor or of a community, if he experiences too great a difficulty in converting that occasion into a remote one. The reason is that, as to spiritual goods, each one can or must prefer himself. Wherefore we are not compelled either to serve as soldiers or to relieve the poverty of parents with so great a spiritual loss. Yet if there should be an extreme spiritual necessity of neighbor, a very probable danger, according to the opinion of St. Alphonsus, will have to be approached or tolerated: then by right and deservedly man can trust in greater grace.

4. He does not sin who delays entrance into religion or even omits it in order to take care of a parish where he performs most useful work which another can scarcely perform; in order to relieve a less grave want of parents; in order to console their sad loneliness; in order to care for the education of brothers or blood-relatives. For a religious vocation is for the most part not preceptive; and the reasons adduced are among those which must be called honorable and acceptable to God Himself.

But what, in these and similar circumstances, is to be counseled cannot be defined by one general rule. These things chiefly come to be considered: with what innocence, with what zeal of piety and virtue will life outside religion be led? - What goods will a man obtain for himself and others in religious life itself? The apostolic life, especially among unbelievers, will be esteemed far more than the common life of many religious in our regions. What good works will he desert for religious life? What manner of acting will be of greater edification? Cf. the things which we have written on this matter in t. I, On Religious Institutes and Persons.

— To a neighbor who is placed in extreme spiritual necessity, each one must succor even with certain danger of life: provided that there is an equally certain hope of helping him, and that no graver evil threatens from it. In these circumstances the saying from St. John, epistle 1, c. 3, v. 16, is valid: "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Hence, if another is not present who will probably do it, we must, with danger of life, baptize or absolve a dying person who morally cannot help himself. A graver evil threatening from it can be the spiritual detriment of a flock which would be deprived of the one sacred minister by whom it is helped. Wherefore it sometimes happens that an Apostolic Vicar forbids a missionary, with too great danger to health, to go to a dying person too far distant. A graver evil can also be the hatred which it would draw upon the Church, if, for example, in a violent way someone should wish in our regions to baptize a dying infant, with the parents resisting. (As is clear, secret administration, as far as there is opportunity, will have to be procured.)

— Grave common necessity is equated with extreme necessity, whether because man, for the common good, as a part, must neglect his own life, or because in grave common necessity several will be in extreme need. Cf. St. Alphonsus, l. 2, n. 27. Hence if in time of plague a pastor is lacking, another priest present in the place will per se not be able to desert the sick. He will be bound to remain even more with every inconvenience, if a heretical minister has begun to spread errors, so that there is danger lest the community lose the faith. The pastor himself is forbidden to desert the flock, unless he has substituted for himself someone equally suitable.

— In the grave spiritual necessity of a particular neighbor, only he who from office must care for another's salvation is bound to suffer grave inconvenience. The reason is that it chiefly falls to the neighbor himself to overcome the difficulty.

But if someone can easily succor a neighbor who is pressed by grave spiritual necessity, he has a grave obligation of bringing that help.

Example. — So many are the spiritual harms of boys and adolescents who frequent non-Catholic schools, so many are the ruins of faith and morals which are avoided by the Catholic education of youth, that a grave obligation presses the faithful of striving so that a supply of this kind of education be everywhere available. Wherefore, according to their powers, sufficient alms for this purpose are to be contributed under grave obligation; and, if necessary, even with grave inconvenience. Hence if in some place someone, by taking from goods necessary to his state, would certainly procure Catholic education for several who otherwise would frequent non-Catholic schools, and another means is lacking for averting that evil, he seems to be bound to make this largess.

— You ask why we are not bound to seek far-distant regions in order to succor unbelievers, where so many are in extreme spiritual necessity?

The reason is that the proximate opportunity of succoring is lacking to many who are ignorant of the language, customs, etc.; because the efficacy of the action is uncertain; because it pertains to the common good of the Church, and therefore of those very barbarians, that religion flourish in cultivated regions and suitable workers be able to be prepared. Hence concerning individual persons it cannot be said that they will be more useful there than here.