Catechism index

1871 IN BRIEF Sin is an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law (St. Augustine, Faust 22: PL 42, 418). It is an offense against God. It rises up against God …
1872 IN BRIEF Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man's nature and injures human solidarity.
1873 IN BRIEF The root of all sins lies in man's heart. the kinds and the gravity of sins are determined principally by their objects.
1874 IN BRIEF To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal …
1875 IN BRIEF Venial sin constitutes a moral disorder that is reparable by charity, which it allows to subsist in us.
1876 IN BRIEF The repetition of sins - even venial ones - engenders vices, among which are the capital sins. Previous - Next Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
1877 THE HUMAN COMMUNION The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father's only Son. This vocation takes a personal form since each …
1878 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation All men are called to the same end: God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men are to establish among themselves …
1879 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange with others, mutual service and dialogue with …
1880 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, …
1881 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but "the human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of …
1882 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly to the nature of man; they are necessary to him. To promote the participation of the greatest number in the …
1883 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. the teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which "a community of …
1884 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. …
1885 I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits for state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between individuals and societies. It tends toward the establishment …
1886 II. Conversion and Society Society is essential to the fulfillment of the human vocation. To attain this aim, respect must be accorded to the just hierarchy of values, which "subordinates physical and instinctual dimensions to interior …
1887 II. Conversion and Society The inversion of means and ends, 10 which results in giving the value of ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing persons as mere means …
1888 II. Conversion and Society It is necessary, then, to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner conversion, so as to obtain social changes that …
1889 II. Conversion and Society Without the help of grace, men would not know how "to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil, and the violence which under the illusion of …
1890 IN BRIEF There is a certain resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men ought to establish among themselves.