Some actions are just wrong.

Moral theology offers many principles to guide us in making conscientious moral choices. One of the most fundamental and sacrosanct principles of Catholic moral tradition is that we may never do what is evil, even to bring about good. This principle reminds us that the end does not justify the means and that some actions are objectively evil regardless of the consequences they produce or the intention of the one who performs them. These are morally nonnegotiable for good human persons.

A secular worldview tends to judge actions as good or evil based solely on the consequences they produce. An act that produces good effects is considered good, and one that produces evil consequences is considered evil. We see this attitude at work in comments such as, “Why is it wrong if it doesn’t hurt anybody?” And we see it in political debates about the legitimacy of practices designed to defend personal rights or protect national security.

Moral theology does not discern morality in this simplistic way. We examine three major components of a choice when evaluating its moral quality. These three “sources of morality” are the intention of the chooser, the object or act chosen, and the circumstances surrounding the choice (the effects of an action are among many different circumstances that are examined). All three of these sources must be good for a choice to be good. If even one is evil, the whole choice is considered evil.

The Church also teaches that the moral quality of the object or act chosen has primary importance. There are some acts whose natural purpose can never be a choice for good. In these acts the very nature of what is done betrays the truest values and damages, destroys, or imperils the good that we as persons made in God’s image are called to protect, defend, and live. These acts are evil in themselves apart from the intention of the one who chooses them or any circumstances. Catholic tradition calls these acts “intrinsically evil.”
Our tradition identifies intrinsically evil acts with those forbidden by the Ten Commandments. The Second Vatican Council added to that list in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes, 27), addressing other issues and problems people face in living a moral life today. The current Church teaching divides intrinsically evil actions into three categories: 1) actions that are hostile to life itself—murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and willful self-destructive behavior; 2) actions that violate the integrity of human persons—mutilation, torments inflicted on the body or mind (physical or mental torture), and attempts to coerce the will itself; and 3) actions that insult the dignity of the human person—subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution and other trafficking in adults and children, and degrading work conditions that treat workers as mere instruments of profit.

These behaviors and others like them are the non-negotiables of the moral life. Those who choose them, or approve of others doing so, run a grave risk of damaging their own moral goodness and contribute to the moral poisoning of human society. Though prudent wisdom is still necessary to discern whether a specific action falls under the definition of murder, arbitrary imprisonment, euthanasia, and so forth, the teaching on intrinsically evil acts reminds us that there is an objective and universal component to morality that is rooted in our shared human nature and our identity as children of God. Some actions are just wrong, and no good intention or outcome can ever make them good.

Moral reasoning is a complicated process. To do it well we need to follow a specific set of steps. If we take shortcuts—skipping over some of the essential steps or failing to follow their proper order—we may arrive at strange or erroneous conclusions. Experts describe the process of moral decision-making according to what I like to call the “what” and the “how” questions.

During Lent, we Catholics should ask ourselves what we really believe about the moral quality of human nature. Are people basically good, or are we evil? The answer to this question has a profound effect not only on how we see and treat others, but on the type of morality with which we feel most comfortable.