Seventh Commandment

Basic Principles:

  • The universal destination of goods (that is, the original gift of the who earth to the whole of mankind) is primordial. It is morally prior to the right to private property which is, however, is real and legitimate – as it guarantees the freedom and dignity of persons and helps persons to meet basic needs.

  • The right to private property exists and is necessary for the common good, but it is not absolute. Right founded on human nature itself. It is a natural right, an extension of human freedom

  • Man must be able to plan future; he needs security offered by things –

  • Freedom requires private property, otherwise individuals excessively controlled by outside factors

  • Private property is required for the family.

  • Work in justice must be compensated and what what a person gets/earns must be considered his own.

  • Only man is made in the image of God and called to an interpersonal relationship of love with the Blessed Trinity that will last forever. There is an essential difference between human beings and the other creatures that God has made: only man is made in God’s image and likeness and given an immortal soul.

  • The world and all its holds has been entrusted to man who is God’s steward. Dominion over creation is not absolute. Man is to protect and develop.... ongoing participation in the creative activity of God through labor.

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    The definition of theft, or stealing, used in Christian moral reasoning acknowledges the universal destination of goods.  

     

    Definition:  Theft is the usurping of another’s property against the reasonable will of the owner. See CCC # 2408.  In case of moral necessity a starving man may take food if there is no one present to give it to him. Other than in the case of moral necessity, it is not morally licit to take something against the reasonable will of the owner.  See ST II-II, Q. 6, art.7 at end.

     

  • Sincere repentance and Forgiveness of sins of theft require restitution.

  • Definition: to make restitution is to return what has been stolen or its value. 

    When is required? (see text)

    What if restitution to the victim of the theft is not possible?  (See text)

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  • Respect for Private Property forbids any unjust taking and keeping of the property of others, including:

  • Deliberate keeping of what is lost or borrowed.

  • Business practices such as: paying an unjust way, fraud, forcing prices up by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another, artificially inflating prices. cheating by selling less like more (hand on scale)

  • Bribery

  • Doing one’s work poorly

  • Tax evasion (also offends against the fourth commandment)

  • Not honoring promises and contracts

  • Unfairness in games of chance. Comment here: games of chance are morally licit IF one is not spending money that is needed for other things (like feeding one’s family) and the games are fairly done.

  • Enslavement of human beings.

  • Plagiarism. Discuss this....

  • Vandalism – spray painting, bats and mailboxes, removing street signs, turkeys through windshields, etc.

  • Not paying what is owed....

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  • The seventh commandment obliges us to respect the integrity of creation. (See 2415-2418).  This is one of the demands of the universal destination of goods.  It includes: 

  • a care for and use of natural resources must that is guided by concern for the quality of life of our neighbors – which includes future generations.

  • a recognition that animals are God’s creatures are to be treated well, but that it is legitimate to use them for food and clothing. Medical and scientific experimentation is morally acceptable if it remains within reasonable bounds and contributes to the care or saving of human life.

  • a recognition that it is morally wrong to inflict needless suffering or death on animals. It is also morally wrong to direct the sort of affection to pets that should be reserved for persons, or to spend money on them that, as a priority, should be spent on relieving human misery.

    • Study CCC paragraphs 2409-2414)

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    Church teaching on Economic and Social Matters.

  • The resources of human labor must be recognized and protected as more valuable than capital or material resources.

  • Church speaks out of economic and social matters when the fundament rights of persons or the salvation of souls requires it. (See 2420-2422)

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  • Specifics:

  • For both human person and the family are prior to the state (with the latter existing to serve the former),

  • The following are offensive to human dignity, contrary to the nature of the human person, and morally unacceptable:

  • Any system in which relations between persons are determined by economic factors alone.

  • Any theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity.

  • Any system that subordinate the basic rights of individuals or groups to the collective.

  • Totalitarian and atheistic ideolologies associated with communism and socialism.

  • Tendencies in capitalism to exalt individualism and make absolute the law of the market place over that of human labor.

  • Economic systems must serve the needs of all men – cf. material on the Common Good

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  • The value and dignity of human work.

  • Gen 1-2. Made in the image of God, and set in the garden to till it. Work did not follow from sin, only its unpleasantness.

  • See CCC para 2427-2429: responsibilities and rights of human beings with respect to work

  • Responsibilities of the state and of businesses 2431-2433

  • Just wage

  • Right to form association – including unions. Right to strike – 2435

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  • Justice and Solidarity among nations – see text 2437-2442:  Society and state have obligation in justice and charity to aid the poorest and weakest

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    Extra Credit: memorize for the exam)

    Spiritual Works of Mercy

  • To instruct the ignorant.

  • To counsel the doubtful.

  • To admonish sinners.

  • To bear wrongs patiently.

  • To forgive offenses willingly.

  • To comfort the afflicted.

  • To pray for the living and the dead.

    • Corporal Works of Mercy

  • To feed the hungry

  • To give drink to the thirsty

  • To clothe the naked

  • To shelter the homeless

  • To visit the sick and imprisoned

  • To ransom the captive

  • To bury the dead.

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    Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, Q. 66, art. 7: Whether it is lawful to steal through stress of need?

    Objection 1. It would seem unlawful to steal through stress of need. For penance is not imposed except on one who has sinned. Now it is stated (Extra, De furtis, Cap. Si quis): "If anyone, through stress of hunger or nakedness, steal food, clothing or beast, he shall do penance for three weeks." Therefore it is not lawful to steal through stress of need.

    Objection 2. Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. ii, 6) that "there are some actions whose very name implies wickedness," and among these he reckons theft. Now that which is wicked in itself may not be done for a good end. Therefore a man cannot lawfully steal in order to remedy a need.

     

    Objection 3. Further, a man should love his neighbor as himself. Now, according to Augustine (Contra Mendac. vii), it is unlawful to steal in order to succor one's neighbor by giving him an alms. Therefore neither is it lawful to steal in order to remedy one's own needs.

     

    On the contrary, In cases of need all things are common property, so that there would seem to be no sin in taking another's property, for need has made it common.

     

    I answer that, Things which are of human right cannot derogate from natural right or Divine right. Now according to the natural order established by Divine Providence, inferior things are ordained for the purpose of succoring man's needs by their means. Wherefore the division and appropriation of things which are based on human law, do not preclude the fact that man's needs have to be remedied by means of these very things. Hence whatever certain people have in superabundance is due, by natural law, to the purpose of succoring the poor. For this reason Ambrose [Loc. cit., 2, Objection 3 says, and his words are embodied in the Decretals (Dist. xlvii, can. Sicut ii): "It is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the naked man's cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom."

    Since, however, there are many who are in need, while it is impossible for all to be succored by means of the same thing, each one is entrusted with the stewardship of his own things, so that out of them he may come to the aid of those who are in need. Nevertheless, if the need be so manifest and urgent, that it is evident that the present need must be remedied by whatever means be at hand (for instance when a person is in some imminent danger, and there is no other possible remedy), then it is lawful for a man to succor his own need by means of another's property, by taking it either openly or secretly: nor is this properly speaking theft or robbery.

     

    Reply to Objection 1. This decretal considers cases where there is no urgent need.

     

    Reply to Objection 2. It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and us another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need.

     

    Reply to Objection 3. In a case of a like need a man may also take secretly another's property in order to succor his neighbor in need.