Freedom and

Responsibility
Objectives:
Doctrine – To examine the essence of freedom and
the inevitability of responsibility of the agent.
Morals – To exercise authentic freedom for the
benefit of the self, and in conjunction with others.
Worship – To perform righteous acts out of free
will and obedience to the will of God.
Freedom and
Responsibility
That which is chosen not only changes
the world around the chooser, but
changes the person who is making the
choice.
  
You are what you choose.
 MORALS are for man, not for the brute;
they are concerned with his thoughts,
desires, words and deeds; they suppose a
moral agent.
 Moral Agent
The one who, in the conduct of his life, is
capable of good and evil, and who, in
consequence of this faculty of choosing
between right and wrong is responsible to God
for the good and evil he does.
Freedom and Morality
Freedom is so central to the moral
life that without it we cannot properly
speak of being moral persons at all.
Morality pertains to those areas of
our lives where freedom is possible
and enables us to actualize our
potential as the image of God.
 Catechism of the
Catholic Church
Freedom is the power, rooted
in reason and will, to act or not
to act, to do this or that, and so
to perform deliberate actions
on one's own responsibility.
(CCC#1731)
The more one does what is good,
the freer one becomes. There is
no true freedom except in the
service of what is good and just.
The choice to disobey and do evil
is an abuse of freedom and leads
to "the slavery of sin". (Cf. Rom
6:17) (CCC#1733)
 It is when actions are did
“independently,” “out of
one’s initiative.”
This is the feeling of
consciousness of freedom.

We cannot be sure what is

in our power to do until we
attempt.
 2 Approaches

1. Responsibility as Duty
- The person holds certain duties
or obligations towards others

2. Responsibility as Agency
- The person is the cause of
something
- He is the one that brings about
something
Responsibility involves having authority
over one’s actions. Accountability
means you are liable or answerable for
one’s actions. In order to be
responsible, you must be accountable
and vice versa.
The Significance of Human
Action
Human Actions
Acts that are only proper to human persons which are
performed deliberately.
Human Actions
Actions at stake are not something that “happen”
to a person.
Human Actions
They are the outward expressions of a person’s
choices, the disclosure or revelation of person’s
moral identity, his or her being as a moral being.
At the core of an action is a FREE, SELF-
DETERMINING CHOICE, which is something
spiritual and abides within the person determining
the very being of the person.
 (cf. Mt 15:10-20; Mk 7:14-23)

“It is not what enters the person that

defiles him or her; rather, it is what
flows from the person, from his or her
heart, from the core of his or her being,
from his or her choice.”
For Pope John Paul II…
“It is precisely through his
acts that man attains
perfection as man. Human
acts are moral acts because
they express and determine
the goodness or evil of the
individual who performs…
For Pope John Paul II…
They are deliberate choices,
they give moral definition to
the very person who
performs them, determining
his profound spiritual traits.”
(Veritatis Splendor #71)
Impairment of the Human
Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Ignorance
2. Error
3. Inattention
2. Full consent to a particular moral act
1. Antecedent Passion
2. Fear
3. Force
4. Ingrained Habit
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Ignorance

Invincible Ignorance
- an ignorance of which
the subject is not aware,
and which he is unable to
overcome by himself
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Ignorance
Vincible Ignorance
- an ignorance which is
the fault of the agent, such
that if he had conscientiously
availed himself of
opportunities offered, he
could have corrected it
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
2. Error

Error about moral truths

- The agent is not making any efforts of
knowing the truth
e.g. fake news
 From Vatican Radio itself, here is what Pope Francis
actually said, in context:

“But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing

another; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life:
‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this
association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I don’t
pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my
business, I launder money…’ A double life. And so many
Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others.
 “How many times have we heard – all of us, around
the neighborhood and elsewhere – ‘but to be a
Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.’ It is
that, scandal. You destroy. You beat down. And this
happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV,
or to read the papers. In the papers there are so many
scandals, and there is also the great publicity of the
scandals. And with the scandals there is destruction.”
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
3. Inattention

-may be the result of

drunkenness, of
violent emotion,
sleepiness or absent-
mindedness.
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Ignorance
2. Error
3. Inattention
2. Full consent to a particular moral act
1. Antecedent Passion
2. Fear
3. Force
4. Ingrained Habit
Impairment of the Human Acts
2. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Antecedent Passion

- Vehement passion may reduce the

voluntariness of an act, because it
weakens or swamps the working of
reason.
Impairment of the Human Acts
2. Knowledge of a moral situation
2. Fear

- Fear is the shrinking back of the

person from an impending evil. It is
reckoned to be grave when there is a
threat of death, torture, unemployment
and destitution.
Impairment of the Human Acts
2. Knowledge of a moral situation
2. Fear

- Fear is the shrinking back of the

person from an impending evil. It is
reckoned to be grave when there is a
threat of death, torture, unemployment
and destitution.
Social pressure is an very pervasive form of fear, operating
through the instinct for acceptance, esteem, safety,
competitiveness.
Impairment of the Human Acts
2. Knowledge of a moral situation
3. Force

- Force is where violence is employed to

constrain a person to act in a certain
way.
 E.g. When a prisoner betrays his fellow soldiers
under torture.
2 kinds of Force
1. Absolute force removes voluntariness and
culpability, if the person dissents totally and resists as
best he can.

2. Relative force only lessens the voluntariness of an

action, it does not remove it totally.

E.g. A teller who gives up all the cash in the vault

during a robbery.
Impairment of the Human Acts
2. Knowledge of a moral situation
4. Habits
- Inherited or acquired, dispositions and habits have
an impact upon man's free will and inclinations.
- Depth psychology and study of the unconscious mind
have taught us that many tendencies have deep,
hidden roots. e.g. a person's aggressiveness,
rebellion against authority, fear of social contacts, or
avoidance of confrontation at all costs.
Here we see why education in good habits is so
important. The child who learns to resist sin
from an early age will have a much greater
degree of freedom as an adult, and be able to
channel her energies far more constructively.
 A person who allows a bad habit to develop is
responsible for all the consequences it may
eventually bring.
e.g. heavy drinking, acts of impurity, dishonesty at
work, rudeness to others, swearing in social media.
2009 - 2019
 The person who
struggles against bad
habits and tries to
overcome them, but
occasionally lapses
back into sin, is less
culpable.
Impairment of the Human Acts
1. Knowledge of a moral situation
1. Ignorance
2. Error
3. Inattention
2. Full consent to a particular moral act
1. Antecedent Passion
2. Fear
3. Force
4. Ingrained Habit