Formal and Material Cooperation in Evil: Difference between revisions
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: "'''Proximate material cooperation''' would be giving or selling nuclear weapons or biological toxins to terrorist groups. You are directly giving material cooperation without which the evil could not be done. ... '''Remote material cooperation''' ... often can indicate no culpability, or at least a reduced level. ... The more remote the material cooperation, the less the culpability."<ref>John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti, ''The Catholicism Answer Book'', p. 178-179.</ref> | : "'''Proximate material cooperation''' would be giving or selling nuclear weapons or biological toxins to terrorist groups. You are directly giving material cooperation without which the evil could not be done. ... '''Remote material cooperation''' ... often can indicate no culpability, or at least a reduced level. ... The more remote the material cooperation, the less the culpability."<ref>John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti, ''The Catholicism Answer Book'', p. 178-179.</ref> | ||
: "Proximate" means "close." "Proximate cooperation" means that the support provided is very ''close'' to the evil action, so that it makes the action possible. The more the evil depends on the material provided to the evildoer, the more the person providing the material is responsible for the evil that was done. Examples of proximate cooperation: | |||
::* Equipping an assassin with a murder weapon. | ::* Equipping an assassin with a murder weapon. | ||
::* Paying for an abortion or providing other support that makes the abortion possible. | ::* Paying for an abortion or providing other support that makes the abortion possible. | ||
::* Knowingly helping a criminal to escape capture or prosecution. | |||
== Examples of cooperation in abortion == | == Examples of cooperation in abortion == | ||
Revision as of 15:41, 7 June 2013
Formal cooperation: intending the evil action that another is doing. "This is when you deliberately, consciously, and willingly intend the evil to happen. Civil law calls it being an accessory to a crime. ... There is knowledge of the evil beforehand or while it is happening, and consent to it being done. This is always sinful and immoral."[1]
- Sending an assassin to murder an opponent.
- Agreeing that a child should be aborted.
- Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"[2] "by the very commission of the offense,"[3] and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.[4] The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
Material cooperation: providing the means to do evil.
- "Proximate material cooperation would be giving or selling nuclear weapons or biological toxins to terrorist groups. You are directly giving material cooperation without which the evil could not be done. ... Remote material cooperation ... often can indicate no culpability, or at least a reduced level. ... The more remote the material cooperation, the less the culpability."[5]
- "Proximate" means "close." "Proximate cooperation" means that the support provided is very close to the evil action, so that it makes the action possible. The more the evil depends on the material provided to the evildoer, the more the person providing the material is responsible for the evil that was done. Examples of proximate cooperation:
- Equipping an assassin with a murder weapon.
- Paying for an abortion or providing other support that makes the abortion possible.
- Knowingly helping a criminal to escape capture or prosecution.
Examples of cooperation in abortion
The more essential the person's cooperation is in the evil action, the more responsibility the person bears for wrongdoing.
The doctor commits the sin directly.
The mother permits the sin directly.
Those who pay for the abortion make it possible.
A person who works at an abortion clinic is cooperating in the murder of innocent children.
If they approve of the murder, they cooperate both formally and materially.
If they do not approve of the murder, they cooperate materially by the work they do for the clinic.
A person whose employer cooperates in murdering children but whose work has nothing to do with the abortion industry only has an accidental, not an essential relationship to the evil done by their employer. If they cannot find adequate employment elsewhere, they may continue to work for their employer because their own work is morally neutral. All of the burden of evildoing rests on the shoulders of the evildoer, not theirs.