You
shall not steal.185
2401
The seventh commandment forbids unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one's
neighbor and wronging him in any way with respect to his goods. It commands
justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor.
For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the universal
destination of goods and respect for the right to private property. Christian
life strives to order this world's goods to God and to fraternal charity.
I.
The Universal Destination and the Private Ownership of Goods
2402
In the beginning, God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common
stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy
their fruits.186 ( ) The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race.
However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their
lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. the appropriation of
property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and
for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his
charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.
2403
The right to private property, acquired by work or received from others by
inheritance or gift, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to
the whole of mankind. the universal destination of goods remains primordial,
even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to
private property and its exercise.
2404
"In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately
owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense
that they can benefit others as well as himself."187 The ownership of any
property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it
fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.
2405
Goods of production - material or immaterial - such as land, factories,
practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways
that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and
consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for
guests, for the sick and the poor.
2406
Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise
of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.188
II.
Respect for Persons and Their Goods
2407
In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the
virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the
practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor's rights and render
him what is his due; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the
golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he
was rich, yet for your sake . . . became poor so that by his poverty, you might
become rich."189
Respect
for the goods of others
2408
The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property
against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be
presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of
goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to
provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to
put at one's disposal and use the property of others.190
2409
Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of
unjustly taking and keeping the property of others is against the seventh
commandment: thus, deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost;
business fraud; paying unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of
the ignorance or hardship of another.191
The
following are also morally illicit: speculation in which one contrives to
manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the
detriment of others; corruption in which one influences the judgment of those
who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private
purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion;
forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expenses and waste. Willfully
damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires
reparation.
2410
Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the
commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and
social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral
persons - commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts.
All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith.
2411
Contracts are subject to commutative justice which regulates exchanges between
persons in accordance with a strict respect for their rights. Commutative
justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, paying
debts, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without commutative
justice, no other form of justice is possible.
One
distinguishes commutative justice from legal justice which concerns what the
citizen owes in fairness to the community, and from distributive justice which
regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their
contributions and needs.
2412
In virtue of commutative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires
the restitution of stolen goods to their owner:
Jesus
blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: "If I have defrauded anyone of anything,
I restore it fourfold."192 Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken
possession of the goods of another, are obliged to make restitution of them, or
to return the equivalent in kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as
well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained
from them. Likewise, all who in some manner have taken part in a theft or who
have knowingly benefited from it - for example, those who ordered it, assisted
in it, or received the stolen goods - are obliged to make restitution in
proportion to their responsibility and to their share of what was stolen.
2413
Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to
justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is
necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. the passion for
gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games
constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one
who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant.
2414
The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason -
selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian - lead to the enslavement
of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in
disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of
persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their
productive value or to a source of profit. St. Paul directed a Christian master
to treat his Christian slave "no longer as a slave but more than a slave,
as a beloved brother, . . . both in the flesh and in the Lord."193
Respect
for the integrity of creation
2415
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals,
like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of
past, present, and future humanity.194 Use of the mineral, vegetable, and
animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral
imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by
the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life
of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect
for the integrity of creation.195
2416
Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By
their mere existence they bless him and give him glory.196 Thus men owe them
kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of
Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.
2417
God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own
image.197 Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may
be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific
experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice, if it remains
within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives.
2418
It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.
It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to
the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them
the affection due only to persons.
III.
The Social Doctrine of the Church
2419
"Christian revelation . . . promotes a deeper understanding of the laws of
social living."198 The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation
of the truth about man. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the
Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his
vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice
and peace in conformity with divine wisdom.
2420
The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when
the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls require
it."199 In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of
political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the
common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end.
She strives to inspire the right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in
socio-economic relationships.
2421
The social doctrine of the Church developed in the nineteenth century when the
Gospel encountered modern industrial society with its new structures for the
production of consumer goods, its new concept of society, the state and
authority, and its new forms of labor and ownership. the development of the
doctrine of the Church on economic and social matters attests the permanent
value of the Church's teaching at the same time as it attests the true meaning
of her Tradition, always living and active.200
2422
The Church's social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated
as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance
of the Holy Spirit, in the light of the whole of what has been revealed by
Jesus Christ.201 This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of goodwill,
the more the faithful let themselves be guided by it.
2423
The Church's social teaching proposes principles for reflection; it provides
criteria for judgment; it gives guidelines for action:
Any
system in which social relationships are determined entirely by economic
factors is contrary to the nature of the human person and his acts.202
2424
A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic
activity is morally unacceptable. the disordered desire for money cannot but
produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which
disturb the social order.203
A
system that "subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to
the collective organization of production" is contrary to human
dignity.204 Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of
profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of
atheism. "You cannot serve God and mammon."205
2425
The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in
modem times with "communism" or "socialism." She has
likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism,"
individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human
labor.206 Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the
basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails
social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied
by the market."207 Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic
initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the
common good, is to be commended.
IV.
Economic Activity and Social Justice
2426
The development of economic activity and growth in production are meant to
provide for the needs of human beings. Economic life is not meant solely to
multiply goods produced and increase profit or power; it is ordered first of
all to the service of persons, of the whole man, and of the entire human
community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is
to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social
justice so as to correspond to God's plan for man.208
2427
Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and
called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for
one another.209 Hence work is a duty: "If anyone will not work, let him
not eat."210 Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from
him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work211 in union
with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man
collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work.
He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in
the work he is called to accomplish.212 Work can be a means of sanctification
and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.
2428
In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in
his nature. the primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author
and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work.213
Everyone
should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that
of his family, and of serving the human community.
2429
Everyone has the right of economic initiative; everyone should make legitimate
use of his talents to contribute to the abundance that will benefit all and to
harvest the just fruits of his labor. He should seek to observe regulations
issued by legitimate authority for the sake of the common good.214
2430
Economic life brings into play different interests, often opposed to one
another. This explains why the conflicts that characterize it arise.215 Efforts
should be made to reduce these conflicts by negotiation that respects the
rights and duties of each social partner: those responsible for business
enterprises, representatives of wage - earners (for example, trade unions), and
public authorities when appropriate.
2431
The responsibility of the state. "Economic activity, especially the
activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional,
juridical, or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees
of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and
efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to
guarantee this security so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits
of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly....
Another task of the state is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of
human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this
area belongs not to the state but to individuals and to the various groups and
associations which make up society."216
2432
Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the
economic and ecological effects of their operations.217 They have an obligation
to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits
are necessary, however. They make possible investments that ensure the
future of a business and they guarantee employment.
2433
Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust
discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants.218
For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find
work and employment.219
2434
A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a
grave injustice.220 In determining fair pay both the needs and the
contributions of each person must be taken into account. "Remuneration for
work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for
himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level,
taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the
business, and the common good."221 Agreement between the parties is not
sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
2435
Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate when it cannot be avoided, or at
least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes
morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence, or when objectives are
included that are not directly linked to working conditions or are contrary to
the common good.
2436
Unemployment almost always wounds its victim's dignity and threatens the
equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to him personally, it entails
many risks for his family.222
V.
Justice and Solidarity Among Nations
2437
On the international level, inequality of resources and economic capability is
such that it creates a real "gap" between nations.223 On the one side
there are those nations possessing and developing the means of growth and, on
the other, those accumulating debts.
2438
Various causes of a religious, political, economic, and financial nature today
give "the social question a worldwide dimension."224 There must be
solidarity among nations that are already politically interdependent. It is
even more essential when it is a question of dismantling the "perverse
mechanisms" that impede the development of the less advanced countries.225
In place of abusive if not usurious financial systems, iniquitous commercial
relations among nations, and the arms race, there must be substituted a common
effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural, and economic
development, "redefining the priorities and hierarchies of
values."226
2439
Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those who are unable to
ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from
doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity;
it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has
come from resources that have not been paid fairly.
2440
Direct aid is an appropriate response to immediate, extraordinary needs caused
by natural catastrophes, epidemics, and the like. But it does not suffice to
repair the grave damage resulting from destitution or to provide a lasting
solution to a country's needs. It is also necessary to reform international
economic and financial institutions so that they will better promote equitable
relationships with less advanced countries.227 The efforts of poor countries
working for growth and liberation must be supported.228 This doctrine must be
applied especially in the area of agricultural labor. Peasants, especially in
the Third World, form the overwhelming majority of the poor.
2441
An increased sense of God and increased self-awareness are fundamental to any
full development of human society. This development multiplies material goods
and puts them at the service of the person and his freedom. It reduces dire
poverty and economic exploitation. It makes for growth in respect for cultural
identities and openness to the transcendent.229
2442
It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the
political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the
vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow
citizens. Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always
have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the
Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity "to
animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that
they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice."230
VI.
Love For the Poor
2443
God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn
away from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who
would borrow from you"; "you received without pay, give without
pay."231 It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will
recognize his chosen ones.232 When "the poor have the good news preached
to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.233
2444
"The Church's love for the poor . . . is a part of her constant
tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the
poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor.234 Love for the poor is even
one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give to
those in need."235 It extends not only to material poverty but also to the
many forms of cultural and religious poverty.236
2445
Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their
selfish use:
Come
now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your
riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have
rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh
like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of
the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and
the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You
have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your
hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous
man; he does not resist you.237
2446
St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to
share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. the goods we
possess are not ours, but theirs."238 "The demands of justice must be
satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be
offered as a gift of charity":239
When
we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours.
More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.240
2447
The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our
neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.241 Instructing, advising,
consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and
bearing wrongs patiently. the corporal works of mercy consist especially in
feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the
sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.242 Among all these, giving alms to
the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work
of justice pleasing to God:243
He
who has two coats, let him share with him who has none and he who has food must
do likewise.244 But give for alms those things which are within; and behold,
everything is clean for you.245 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack
of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and
filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it
profit? 246
2448
"In its various forms - material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical
and psychological illness and death - human misery is the obvious sign of the
inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds
himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion
of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself
with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are
the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her
origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to
work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of the charity which remains indispensable always and everywhere."247
2449
Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds of juridical measures (the jubilee
year of forgiveness of debts, the prohibition of loans at interest and the keeping
of collateral, the obligation to tithe, the daily payment of the day-laborer,
the right to glean vines and fields) answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy:
"For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you,
'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in
the land.'"248 Jesus makes these words his own: "The poor you always
have with you, but you do not always have me."249 In so doing he does not
soften the vehemence of former oracles against "buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals . . .," but invites us to recognize
his own presence in the poor who are his brethren:250
When
her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St.
Rose of Lima said to her: "When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve
Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve
Jesus.251
IN
BRIEF
2450
"You shall not steal" (⇒
Ex 20:15; ⇒
Deut 5:19). "Neither thieves, nor the greedy, nor robbers will inherit the
kingdom of God" (⇒
1 Cor 6:10).
2451
The seventh commandment enjoins the practice of justice and charity in the
administration of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor.
2452
The goods of creation are destined for the entire human race. the right to
private property does not abolish the universal destination of goods.
2453
The seventh commandment forbids theft. Theft is the usurpation of another's
goods against the reasonable will of the owner.
2454
Every manner of taking and using another's property unjustly is contrary to the
seventh commandment. the injustice committed requires reparation. Commutative
justice requires the restitution of stolen goods.
2455
The moral law forbids acts which, for commercial or totalitarian purposes, lead
to the enslavement of human beings, or to their being bought, sold or exchanged
like merchandise.
2456
The dominion granted by the Creator over the mineral, vegetable, and animal
resources of the universe cannot be separated from respect for moral
obligations, including those toward generations to come.
2457
Animals are entrusted to man's stewardship; he must show them kindness. They
may be used to serve the just satisfaction of man's needs.
2458
The Church makes a judgment about economic and social matters when the
fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls require *. She is
concerned with the temporal common good of men because they are ordered to the
sovereign Good, their ultimate end.
2459
Man is himself the author, center, and goal of all economic and social life.
the decisive point of the social question is that goods created by God for
everyone should, in fact, reach everyone in accordance with justice and with the
help of a charity.
2460
The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and
beneficiary. By means of his labor man participates in the work of creation.
Work united to Christ can be redemptive.
2461
True development concerns the whole man. It is concerned with increasing each
person's ability to respond to his vocation and hence to God's call (cf CA 29).
2462
Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal charity: it is also a work of
justice pleasing to God.
2463
How can we not recognize Lazarus, the hungry beggar in the parable (cf ⇒ Lk 17:19-31), in the
multitude of human beings without bread, a roof or a place to stay? How can we
fail to hear Jesus: "As you did it not to one of the least of these, you
did it not to me" (⇒
Mt 25:45)?
GO TO:
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER TWO YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
CHAPTER TWO YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
Thou shall honor your father and your mother
Thou shall not murder
Thou shall not commit adultery
Thou shall not steal
Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor
Thou shall not covet thy neighbors property
Thou shall not covet anything of thy neighbor
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
PART THREE LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
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