Sunday, November 10, 2024

Does Bp. Seitz Cooperate with Evil?

In the least surprising announcement of the day.....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says a Catholic Charities-run shelter in El Paso is accused of “planning and facilitating” illegal migrants crossing over the border from Mexico into the US. ...

Bp. Seitz reigns in El Paso.  He will do the 'Sgt. Schulz denial', of course.  Think he's truthful?

Let's talk about moral theology.

...in certain practical situations there will be persons who take advantage of the good works of others for their own evil activity. Hence it is not infrequent than an honorable person has to examine his own activity to be sure that he is acting well when he cooperates in some fashion in the sins of others, that is to say, to ascertain if the circumstances are such that they may allow his own good actions to be used by another for an evil purpose....

What is this "cooperation"?

 ... Cooperation in the sin of another precisely inasmuch as it is a sin is called formal cooperation, i.e., when the cooperator wishes the person to commit the sin or consents to its commission, whether or not he expresses this externally...

IOW, when +Seitz's "Catholic Charities" tacitly consents to illegal border-crossing.  That's the minimum moral crime here.  But there's more to that moral theo.

 ...Of practical interest is the distinction between immediate or direct cooperation or mediate or indirect cooperation. Cooperation is immediate or direct if it concurs in the sinner's action itself, e.g., a person who helps a thief load the stolen goods. Cooperation is mediate or indirect if it provides some means that are used by another to sin, even though there is no necessary relationship between the means and the sin, e.g., selling a weapon to a person who then uses it to commit murder....

Paxton's case will help us determine whether "Catholic" Charities' cooperation is immediate or merely mediate.  Either way, +Seitz has a problem.

Let's sum it up.

 ...As has already been stated, any cooperation which directly influences the other person's will to sin is scandal and is always illicit. There is a twofold malice in this case: against charity toward one's neighbor (the person induced to sin) and against the virtue violated by the other person's sin.

Formal cooperation in evil is also always illicit; the desire or consent to the other's sin is itself a sin with a twofold malice (like scandal). As St. Paul says: "... those who practice such things are deserving of death. And not only do they do these things, but they applaud others doing them."(6)

Simple material cooperation in general is also illicit since charity obliges us not to help another sin and even hinder the person from sinning to the extent that it is possible....

Although "Catholic" Charities of El Paso is the only one named by the Texas A.G., it is very likely that other Texas Catholic Charities operations are doing the same thing.  This is--at minimum--scandal, and you may remember what Christ said about the appropriate reward for giving scandal....millstone + water.....

There is a river nearby......

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