The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 294: Homicide (2024)

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

Continuing our examination of the fifth commandment, we look at various ways in which one may sin against this commandment as it relates to homicide. The Catechism addresses three categories of homicide: direct and intentional killing, indirectly killing, and unintentionally killing. Fr. Mike explores this grave topic with resonating examples and explains the varying degrees of moral culpability. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2268-2269. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 294. We are reading two paragraphs, paragraph 2268 and paragraph 2269. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith

approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. As I said, it's a two 94. We are reading paragraphs two to six eight and two to six nine. This is a subsection on intentional homicide. Yesterday we talked about legitimate self-defense.

When is self-defense allowed? When is it permissible? When is it a duty to defend either oneself or one's family, one's community, etc.? We also looked at capital punishment and the Church's teaching with regard to that. Today we have two paragraphs, intentional homicide. Under the category of homicide, there are a number of different degrees. It's all serious, obviously. Intentional homicide is always serious, as it says in paragraph 2268,

the fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. And so we're talking about that. But there's also things like infanticide, which is killing of infants. There's fratricide, killing one's own sibling. There's parasite, killing one's own parent and the murder of a spouse.

Those are especially grave crimes by reason of their natural bonds. So we'll look at that a little bit more closely too, as well as paragraph 2269, which forbids indirectly doing something that indirectly brings about a person's death, but that still has some kind of intention behind it and unintentional killing, which is not morally imputable unless there is some degree of culpability or some degree of responsibility that I carry. So we're looking at all three of those things. Direct and intentional killing,

the indirectly bringing about a person's death, and then lastly, unintentionally killing someone. Today, these two paragraphs, we'll see if it takes a little time or a long time to get through these two paragraphs, because yeah, it's incredible. I mean, every one of the commandments is very serious. And everything we could say about the commandments is incredibly serious. And everything we could say about the commandments

is incredibly serious. These are God's commands to human beings. And obviously, intentional killing and unintentional killing are really big deals. And so we approach the Lord, we approach his commands with the utmost seriousness as we enter into, I'm saying this to myself because I'm kind of chuckling about the fact that it's two paragraphs,

but not chuckling about the fact that it's two paragraphs, but not chuckling about the fact of the content of these two paragraphs, which is grave and dire indeed. So as we enter into this time, we call upon the Lord to guide our thoughts, to guide our mind, to guide our actions as we pray. Father in heaven, we love you. You are our father.

You are our dad because of your son, Jesus Christ, who lived, died and rose from the dead for us, who sent his Holy Spirit into our lives, into our hearts, and we may call out, Abba, Father, you are a good Dad. You call us to care for each other in the way that you care for us, to care for each other in the way that your Son Jesus Christ cares for us. You are the God of life and any intentional, direct killing of an innocent human being, Lord God, you is reprehensible to you. Lord God, for those of us who are listening to this podcast today, and this is part of our story, we ask for a spirit of contrition. We ask for a spirit of repentance to come into our

hearts now and always, that we can turn to you in our weakness and our brokenness and our sinfulness and receive your mercy. Lord God, anyone, anyone who's part of this community and has this as part of their story, I ask that you please meet them right now with your mercy. In Jesus name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It is day 294, we are reading paragraphs 2268 and 2269. Intentional Homicide The Fifth Commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance. Infanticide, fratricide, parasite, and the murder of a spouse are especially grave crimes by reason of the

natural bonds which they break. Concern for eugenics or public health cannot justify any murder, even if commanded by public authority. The Fifth Commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger. The acceptance by human society of murderous famines without efforts to remedy them is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense.

Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them. Unintentional killing is not morally imputable. But one is not exonerated from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone's death, even without the intention to do so. Right, there we have it, those two paragraphs, 2268 and 2269. So this is almost, I don't wanna say a no-brainer, but it is directly applicable,

the most immediate application of the commandment, that thou shall not take innocent human life, right? Thou shall not kill. So we look at this, and how the fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing is gravely sinful. So the murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commits a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, which of course is a quote

from Genesis chapter four. So those who directly commit murder and those who cooperate with them, they're part of that, right? Imputable. Now Gozondas talk about, I mentioned infanticide, fratricide, parasite, murder of a spouse. They're especially grave because of those natural bonds which they break.

The next sentence here is going to be incredibly important for us because there are, in some places in the world, there's a return to this desire for some form of eugenics, right? So it says, concern for eugenics or public health cannot justify any murder even if commanded by public authority. And so we recognize that if there is a culture, if there's a movement, if there is a government that mandates or even approves of killing because of sickness,ing someone's, an innocent human being's life because they don't reach that status of health

or the status of intellect or the status of race that a person or a society desires, that is always wrong. Even if commanded by public authority, that is gravely sinful. So any form of eugenics is gravely sinful where you are eliminating part of the human race because of sickness, because of old age, because of some some aspect of that human being that the society deems

unwanted or undesirable. That is incredibly grave obviously. 2269 highlights this. The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. So exposing someone to mortal danger without a grave reason could indirectly bring about a person's death. Now the example here in 2269 is, for example, the acceptance by human society of murderous famines without efforts to remedy them is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense.

I've heard, and maybe this is incorrect information, but I've heard that this is accurate, that there is enough food in the world right now to feed everyone. The reason that there are people who are still starving is less on the fault of not there being enough food. Like in terms of famine, but on the terms of corrupt governments who are not accepting the assistance that other more prosperous governments are offering them. Now, you might say, we're going to fact check you on that one, but that's what the catechism

is talking about here. So if there are famines without efforts to remedy them, it's a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. So you have country X that's trying to support country Y and they're giving whatever resources are needed for country Y, but country Y, their government is corrupt and is not allowing the people of country Y to receive the assistance from country X.

That is, I think, it seems to me, that is a relatively common occurrence. And the catechism is saying here, that is scandalous. That is grave offense. It's a scandalous That is a grave offense. It's a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. It goes on to say those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them. Again, remember

homicide is essentially murder, right? This is the taking of an innocent human life. So those who, because of their usurious or avaricious dealings, I'm here to make more money, I'm here to just use people up, they are guilty of this as a grave, grave sin. Lastly, unintentional killing is not morally imputable. So for example, I believe we might call this something like manslaughter, where here is,

just it's an accident, right? There is an accident where I could not have foreseen what would happen, that my responsibility is, again, just let's call it what it is, an accident. So if I accidentally and have this unintentional killing in an accident, that's not morally imputable, right? I'm not morally culpable for that. At the same time, it says, but one is not exonerated

from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone's death even without the intention to do so. So for example, I could be driving in such a way that accidentally, truly accidentally, and without any fault of my own, it ended up in manslaughter or unintentional killing. Or it could be I was reckless in my driving.

And in that case, if it would involve an unintentional killing, I could be more morally imputable. Or drinking and driving. I'd be more morally culpable of that action because there were decisions that I had made when it came to drinking too much. There were decisions I had made when it came to getting in my car, getting behind the wheel,

that I would be morally responsible for. So unintentional killing is not morally imputable, but I'm not exonerated if there were decisions that I made that places the responsibility on me, even if I didn't intend to kill someone, didn't intend to take another person's life. Does that make sense? I hope it does. So it's really brief today. At the same time, again, grave, very important and

critical that we understand always, even just bring to our hearts that what are the areas in not only in the world today, where in direct and intentional killing is tolerated, where are parts of the world today where there is indirectly bringing about a person's death because of policy or because of how maybe even I'm choosing to live is that is that a reality where I live right now Also the reality of unintentional killing and what that is where I'm not morally culpable and where I might be morally culpable So that's as I said, that's we have today tomorrow We're gonna talk about a big issue and the big issue we're talking about tomorrow is abortion And so as we prepare our hearts for that prepare your hearts not only for conviction of the truth about the evils of abortion,

but also for the mercy that God has, the mercy that God desires to be able to offer anyone who has fallen into these areas. So again, like today, we said in the prayer, if you are someone who, yes, you had, you had killed someone, whether intentionally or unintentionally, whether directly or indirectly, the Lord wants to offer you His mercy. And so we'll be able to receive that tomorrow as we talk about the truth and sometimes the very painful truth of abortion. We're also gonna talk about the great and almost unimaginable promise of God's mercy.

That's today and that's tomorrow. So let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.