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Robert Barron | – Bishop Barron on Not Doing Evil That Good May Come
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Friends, even as we legitimately fight the great social evils of our time, we must remember Paul’s simple but trenchant principle: never do evil that good might come of it. Please watch and share my latest video commentary.
———LINKS———
Why We Can’t Do Evil Even If Good May Come by Bishop Barron: [support us]
How Did Modernity Affect the Culture? by Bishop Barron: [support us]
Ends That Justify the Means by Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph: [support us]
John the Baptist, First Victim of the Cancel Culture by Elizabeth Scalia: [support us]
Do Not Be Overcome by Evil, but Overcome Evil with Good by Dr. Tom Neal: [support us]
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The case of the unjust conviction of Pell is a good example illustrating Father Barron's point. Evil means is not justified by a good end.
Bishop, I wonder why you do not bring up an obvious cooperation with evil by our Church, and that is the alliance between our Church and the military? Why do we turn a blind eye to our Catholic children joining the military? The University of Notre Dame, Our Lady's University, has the largest ROTC on any Catholic campus, I think. Our young people are being led to join an organization that does not (really cannot) permit its members to employ selective conscientious objectivion to commands. So they give up some level of free will by participating in the armed forces, and thereby put themselves in a position of having to obey even immoral directives from superiors. In the first few hundred years of the Church, Christians were not permitted to be in the military in most cases. Then when Constantine gave us goodies such as official recognition and rights of property, etc., we locked arms with evil by permitting our members to become members of the military. Now we seem to promote patriotism and military service as downright religious virtues. Rather, we are participating in evil. And we are misleading our youth. You are in a tremendous position to effect the change in our church on this point… I know it is extremely controversial but if we are going to BE CHRIST, we Catholics have to live as Christ. We cannot give up our moral duties by giving up our right to not participate in immoral acts committed by our military. I really want to hear from you on this topic.
I will pray for you 47 Storm Shadow. What is your first name?
…When are you going to comment on Trump, Bishop?
The French Revolution is the precursor to Marxism
I have no problem with the principal; it is echoed in the phrase 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. The church's secular opposite numbers these days is big into virtue signalling; Tara's tale raises smoke, and the air was non too clear to begin with. I think the party can find a torch bearer who can cast some real light in the days ahead, though it appears they don't want to. Time will tell..
DON'T WE DO GOOD TO CONQUER EVIL?
CONQUERING EVIL IS THE END AND DOING GOOD IS THE MEANS AND AT THE SAME TIME AN END BY ITSELF…CHARITY ( LOVE AND MERCY)
AMDG SAG JMJ Semper Deo Gratias et Marie
Evil is the absence of Goodness.
Jesus came according to the Epistle of St John to destroy the works of the devil by doing Good. The work of the devil is denying the Goodness of God and HIS Creation.
SEMPER DEO GRATIAS ET MARIE
In the Philippines during Duterte administration
Killing all drug user to have peace is accepted by almost all. Evil to have good result. Thank you Bishop
As I listen to this I can’t help but to think about those who would tamper with elections to enforce their version of social justice.
So does the end not justify the means?
This lesson in Catholic moral philosophy so perfectly captures the issues arising from the argument to “reopen the economy” amidst the COVID pandemic. Those who claim that we have to open the economy for the greater good even as we know it will cause many people to become infected, and some to die, is a classic example of “the ends justify the means” thinking. It’s permitting an evil to be done (relaxing public health measures that we know saves lives) so that some good may come (economic activity). Making that choice is applying the same secular moral calculus as people do to justify abortion: for the financial or social convenience of some, an innocent life can be taken. It’s a dangerous and repulsive choice. We have better moral options. We can wait until the pandemic is passed or a vaccine developed before we open the economy, or we can open the economy very slowly and in clear phases of 14 to 21 uninterrupted days of declining infection, and quickly close it again the moment infection rates (and their eventual death rates) start to increase, however slightly. How I pray the states, the country, and the world would apply Bishop Barron’s moral instruction to this situation.
Sometimes I feel like it's more about revenge than trying to do something good.
Hi! Do atheists believe if a person has a soul? Thanks and God bless!!
Doing nothing allows evil to happen…..It’s not enough… one must do good and defend good and fight on behalf of good.
You, sir, are telling only 1/2 of the story….
Praying now that you will be protected supernaturally by our loving Father in heaven and you would be filled with the Holy Spirit to give you strength and wisdom against all evil. Amen amen amen
Disregarding this point created Soviet , Mao, and the National Socialists movements. A very important point. Thank you Bishop Barron for highlighting it.
I hope I never justified evil; yet, when we sin we rationalize it. That is different. Both are failures of living in truth though.
You otherwise define it pretty reasonably, but intrinsic evil is a circular, absurd concept, basically saying that something is "wrong in itself" is like saying something is wrong… because its wrong, which of course is insufficient.
Your reference to child abuse is a good example of the more acceptable definition of the so called "intrinsic evil" where there is simply no conceivable context in where there is a good outcome from abusing children.
By contrast, it's stupid and absurd to say things like masturbation and contraception are intrinsically evil when there are contexts where they are definitely not destructive.
Granted, all the examples you used were reasonable. That isnt because "The ends justify the means" is an absurd concept altogether, but simply that… the ends don't actually justify the means in those cases, since means had more negative outcomes than the supposedly good outcome of the end sought after.
If instead "evil is done so that a greater good will come of it" and a greater good does come of it, then by definition, that act wasn't actually evil.
Did not Paul tolerate slavery as an institution that good may come of it? Provided that masters treat their slaves humanely and slaves obey their masters?
This is communism and socialism. Love from minority Indian Christian
Excellent explanation. Thank you.
Being someone in formation, when I hear this dear bishop speaking I am just inspired and pray I could be as eloquent and speak with so much passion and conviction. God bless you dear bishop.
You're an Archangel
You're an Archangel
nice, bishop barron said "what do you do then, man?"
In another example that came out of my mind from hearing this, the book "My Brother Sam Is Dead," Sam is killed by hanging on the general's orders as an example to the American revolutionary troops to behave themselves in the war against the British. The means of using Sam (who was logically unlikely to have commited the crime) was justified by the need of commanding obedience in an increasingly desperate army.
I can think of a number of cases of evil being "justified" in the name of good. Such would be probably the vast majority of coronavirus mandates. Lying (e.g. "the noble lie") is another. Firing an innocent employee "for business reasons" even though the business is doing well (i.e. increasing profits), or because somehow a client was upset.
I would like to point out that intrinsically evil means that the action itself is always wrong – no matter what the circumstances. One example would be abortion. An act that is NOT intrinsically evil (although most would be initially inclined to think that it is) is violence. One can legitimately use violence in instances of self-defense, defense of another, punishing, and just war.
This is a principal so abstract as to be entirely useless.
Surely the best example was Christ being sacrificed to 'save the nation'.
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing,
50 nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
Barron is the best. Always enjoy listening to him. I'm not even Catholic!
Excellent video.
Your YouTube name “47stormshadow” has negative connotations making one think you have a lot of negativity in your life. Bring yourself out of the stormshadow into the light of Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. He is seeking you right now, let the Way the Truth and the LIGHT IN. God Bless You.
Prophetic
What about not doing good_that_evil_may_come? or is that all you believe in?
"The ends never justify the means, unless its Christ, of course!"
In the wake of the recent happenings in Minneapolis, this is astoundingly relevant. Has a great injustice been committed? Absolutely. But is the rampant rampage justified? NO! Rather, we should, in accordance to Christ's teachings LOVE our oppressors (enemies) and PRAY for them. May the Peace of Christ reign in Minneapolis. Amen.
Wow, what a timely video.
“Don’t do evil that good may come of it.” I’m sorry but the RCC catechism supports not only self-defense, up to the point of taking a life to stop more life from being taken, but also supports the heinous Just War Theory, which is the former just multiplied by infinity. The RCC catechism is ok implementing violence to stop a greater violence. All violence is evil. Violence is iconoclastic for it destroys what God had made. There’s not such thing as redemptive violence. Violence destroys. Violence begets violence. Justify it all you want but the catechism is okay using violence when necessary thus it is okay “doing evil that good may come of it.”
I think this video is relevant towards the aftermath of the George Floyd incident.
Ends justifies the means is never right! Ty, Bishop Barron! God bless you!
It’s been nearly 2 years since I became a Catholic at age 33. I was raised in an eastern religion, not really practising. Oh how His Mercy spoke to me. Bishop Barron – if you read this somehow, your videos were a big step for me towards my relationship with Jesus and my baptism. God bless you.
THANK YOI JESUS CHRIST!
Thanks Bishop.
Bishop Barron is the best.
This can also be applied to voting. Catholics from both sides claim "you can't vote for this side because x." All while ignoring the evil of their political side. Better known as voting for the lesser of two evils. You're still voting for evil.
Why was slavery never condemn Ed in scripture?
If everyone happened to Wants to prey for me.I could really use it.
I would go further, to say that the only way to achieve a good thing is to commit some terrible act is to deny God's plan. It wouldn't be required of you.