We cannot give our souls, or the souls of our neighbors, to the pagan Caesar. But the modern Christian can obey a tyrant, insofar as he is just. In fact, this is difference that Christianity brings to politics. Every particular decree of our leaders can be judged as either usurping God’s authority or rightfully, humbly [...]
The Catechism praises almsgiving as, “Money or goods given to the poor as an act of penance or fraternal charity.” It may sound like a humdrum practice, but almsgiving would have been unthinkable, strange, to the ancient, pagan world. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was no virtue to give to the poor. In [...]
By an act of almsgiving, we remedy an unjust distribution of the gift of the whole earth; we remedy, for our neighbor, what disobedience to God’s plan has wrought. Almsgiving is fitting for the forgiveness of sin because it uses money, the very tool enabling unjust distribution, for the sake of just distribution. Usually I [...]