Catholic Word of the Day: POSITIVE IMPERFECTION, 02-05-11

CatholicReference.net ^ | 02-05-11 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

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POSITIVE IMPERFECTION

A lack of greater perfection in a human act that is clearly adverted to and deliberately chosen. Positive imperfection occurs if one excludes an action that is better than another, from the standpoint of content and meaning, or more clearly suitable to the person who performs the act. This may be on the basis of a direct analysis of the action itself or a clear inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It implies the choice between doing and omitting something, or between acceptance of what is good and refusal of what is better. This refusal cannot be due to a reasonable motive. It can only be one of the many forms of egoism, and therefore makes such positive imperfections venially sinful. Some theologians argue that, in theory, even positive imperfections may not be morally wrong. In practice, however, the more common doctrine holds that there is at least some selfish, and to that extent sinful, motivation whenever a lesser good is deliberately chosen in preference to a greater one that could, then and there, be performed.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

[Salvation]

Choosing the lesser good.......hmmm......we do that a lot, don't we?

Venially sinful or morally wrong??

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper.

 

Denial of Faith	Charisms of Service	Infanticide
Episcopal Conference	Eparchy	Righteous Anger
Ecclesiastes	Immodest Looks	Creation
Sigilum (Seal of Confession)	Aggiornamento	Actus Dei
Gradual	Presbyterians	Cartago
Diversity of Grace	Dieis Irae	Anti-Semitism
Parental Instruction	Moral Act	Parallelism
Ittai/Ithai	Ferial	Positive Imperfection

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[Excellence]

“The lie of omission is the worst kind of lie.” Orwell