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Lay Responsibilities and the Order of Charity, by Michael Pakaluk – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

Lay Responsibilities and the Order of Charity, by Michael Pakaluk

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The Good Samaritan by Jacob Jordaens, 1615–1616 [Louvre Abu Dhabi (photo via Wikipedia)]

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, January 30, 2025

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. …

I take it that charity has to be freely given by the person who shows charity.  If I steal someone’s credit card and purchase all kinds of goods with it for a homeless person, I am not showing charity, because that other person never gave his consent.

If we are being strict about it – and why not be strict? – the $100 million that the U.S. bishops received in Federal money last year to resettle refugees was not theirs and does not even exist.  At least, you’d need a good argument for why that sum shouldn’t be assigned to the Federal government’s roughly $2 trillion dollar deficit last year.  So, not only does the money not exist, many of the people who will be obliged to pay it, your grandchildren and mine, may still not exist.  They certainly did not give their consent.

Charity should be ordered.  There is something called an “order of charity.”  Giving that is disordered is not charity. ….