Section III. On the Order of Charity Among Neighbors

If I cannot succor all whom of themselves I would be bound to succor, this order must be observed:

I. With respect to the act of complacency, after God the holier persons are to be preferred to others, because they participate more in the divine goodness (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 26, a. 6; St. Alphonsus, II, 27).

II. With respect to internal affection, likewise a certain order must be observed. "The reason is that, since the principle of love is God and the one loving himself, it is necessary that according to greater nearness to either of those principles there be a greater affection of love" (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 26, a. 6).

III. With respect to effects, or with respect to beneficence, these things hold:

1. Necessity is commonly to be preferred to connection; greater necessity to lesser necessity. The reason is that the obligation of succoring is sought primarily from necessity.

2. Once equal necessity is posited, likewise a certain order must be observed according to these words of St. Thomas already cited above: "Since the principle of love is God and the one loving himself, it is necessary that according to greater nearness to either of those principles there be a greater affection of love" (II-II, q. 26, a. 6), and - in conformity with the whole article, I would add - a greater effect (St. Alphonsus, II, 27). Therefore:

a) Those connected with us are to be preferred to strangers.¹

b) Those connected with us in a different species of connection are to be helped thus:

a) Outside necessity: 1. with respect to common services, there come those connected: a) spiritually, b) carnally, c) civilly; 2. with respect to goods proper to some species of connection, those connected in that species are to be preferred to others; and men also seem to act thus, for they call relatives to weddings (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 26, a. 8).

b) In extreme or grave necessity, whether temporal or spiritual, those connected carnally are to be preferred to those connected otherwise. The reason is that carnal connection is prior to the others, firmer, and more founded upon benefits. Yet if the carnal connection is remote, the obligation of preferring it is only light, or even - namely if another connection is intimate - none (St. Alphonsus, III, 946).

c) Among those connected in the same species but in a different degree of connection, those more closely connected are commonly to be preferred to those less closely connected. Hence, for example, those connected carnally in different degree are to be helped in this order:

a) Outside necessity there come: 1. spouse, 2. children, 3. father, 4. mother, 5. brothers and sisters, 6. the remaining relatives. In this necessity the spouse and children are to be preferred to parents, because of themselves parents ought to provide for children, not conversely.

b) In extreme or grave necessity there come: 1. father, 2. mother, 3. spouse, 4. children, 5. brothers and sisters, 6. the remaining relatives (St. Alphonsus, II, 27; VI, 939, dub. 2; Homo Apostolicus, tr. 4, n. 15). - In extreme or grave necessity parents are to be preferred to spouse and children, because life is owed to the former.

Note. To the title of charity or piety, which we had before our eyes in the foregoing, other titles can be added, for example of gratitude, which can bring it about that the order can or must be inverted. Other extraordinary circumstances can bring about the same thing; thus, for example, a stranger who is necessary to the common good must, in extreme necessity, be preferred to a relative.

Inversion of the order is then only a grave sin when there is question both of extreme or grave necessity, and the inversion is notable with respect to neglect of the order, for example if, of two persons placed in extreme or grave necessity, a stranger is preferred to one connected with us, or one more remotely connected is preferred to one closely connected, for example a cousin to parents or children.

¹ Connection is distinguished as threefold: carnal, which arises from the bond of blood, and to it belong the goods of life and family; spiritual, which arises from the bond of religion, and to it belong spiritual goods; civil, which arises from a civil bond, and to it belong civil goods. Civil connection consists in multiple species, for example among citizens, soldiers, etc.