Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

32 JOSEPH A. SELLINGposes of both performing a moral assessment and facilitatingthe administration of the sacrament of confession. These distinctionslie at the heart of a theoretical construct called the“sources of morality”. 16 Aquinas used the distinction (withoutthe label) in his own assessment of the morality of humanactivity, considering in turn the object (obiectum) , circumstances(circumstantias) and end (finem) of a voluntary humanactivity (I-II, q. 18, aa 2-4). However, Aquinas never regardedthe distinctions as constituting different moral “sources”. Theywere merely aspects or elements of a single, unified and integralvoluntary act.So long as moral theology was carried on in the Latin language,it was relatively easy to distinguish between anobiectum, the “what is done”, and a complete moral act, anactus humanus (actus voluntarius), a willed human activityencompassing all three elements. When moral theologiansbegan to use the vernacular in order to address practical questions,some of these distinctions began to be blurred. This wasparticularly the case with the translation and commentary onthe famous principle of double effect (PDE), which introducedthe rather strange concept of “the act in itself”. 17The PDE was developed for the purpose of dealing with theoccurrence of foreseen and very probable or inevitable evilflowing as an effect of one’s voluntary activity. Engaging in suchactivity was said to be permitted so long as four conditionswere met: the first of which stated that “what was done” had tobe good or indifferent (sometimes added: “in itself”).The “what was done” was identified with the obiectum inthe “three sources” theory and was dealt with apart from anyconsideration of circumstances or attention to the goal to beachieved (intention). Presumably, if “what was done” containedany evil, the further application of the principle’s other condi-16See, Joseph Selling, “Veritatis Splendor and the Sources of Morality”,11-14.17Peter Knauer, “The Hermeneutic Function of the Principle of DoubleEffect,” 1-6.